A Glossary of Critical Discourse Analysis PDF

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A Glossary of Critical Discourse Analysis Compiled by Asst. Prof. Mohammed Nasser Wasit University, Iraq, [email protected] February, 2020 A Glossary of Critical Discourse Analysis Approach A theoretical technique used in CDA analysis. Behavioural process. See also Transitivity Behavioural...

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A Glossary of Critical Discourse Analysis Compiled by Asst. Prof. Mohammed Nasser Wasit University, Iraq, [email protected]

February, 2020

A Glossary of Critical Discourse Analysis

Approach A theoretical technique used in CDA analysis.

Behavioural process. See also Transitivity Behavioural process is the physiological or psychological behaviours and acts, such as watching, listening, etc. Here, the participant is the behaver who is responsible for the behaviour, and the object of this behaviour is the range.

Bias A subtheme in CDA that is concerned with opinion prejudice or simply taking a position in favour of or towards a certain cause, attitude, or situation. To be biased entails the use of certain language, utterances, words, or phrases in order to justify it.

Control A subtheme in CDA analysis that is concerned with how participants seek to impose power and how this process is reflected in language. Control manifests how enquality is legitimized in language use.

Critical A term used in CDA or any CDA-related approach to imply interdisciplinarity in analysis where a single linguistic approach can account for various or multiple areas, professions, or backgrounds, such as education, law, politics, social events, ..etc. Technically, the term was inspired by early linguistic works that have adopted criticism.

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A Glossary of Critical Discourse Analysis

Critical applied linguistics Is an interdisciplinary critical approach to English applied linguistics. One of the central concerns in this approach is exposing the political dimensions and power relations involved in mainstream applied linguistics, in areas like language teaching, language policy and planning, language testing, language rights, and so on. Critical discourse analysis, or CDA A perspective which studies the relationship between discourse events and sociopolitical and cultural factors, especially the way discourse is ideologically influenced by and can itself influence power relations in society. The analysis of texts in relation to social and political structures and power, especially in the light of Marxist theory. It is an interdisciplinary approach to the study of discourse, or put simply talk and text, that views language as a form of social practice. Critical linguistics The term critical linguistics was first used by a group, mainly of linguists (Fowler et al.,1979), at the University of East Anglia in the 1970s. Later on, the term “critical” was adopted by a few linguists working on sociolinguistics, pragmatics, discourse analysis whose critical concern was to establish a relationship between power, language, and society. Deontic modality. See also Modality Modality that is is concerned with obligation and permission, namely the grammatical construction of relevant forms. Discourse A connected series of utterances by one or more speakers, where certain types of grammatical, lexical and phonological elements are identifiable and they typically serve to relate one utterance to another in some fashion. 2

A Glossary of Critical Discourse Analysis

Discourse-Historical approach. See also Wodak’s model A CDA approach developed by R. Wodak in which discourse is perceived as a form of social practice. It focuses on the interdisciplinary and eclectic nature of CDA, since problems in our society are too complex to be studied from a single point of view. Thus, to understand and explain the object under investigation, one needs to integrate diverse theories and methods. For Wodak, studying CDA is multifarious, as it is derived from quite different theoretical backgrounds, oriented towards different data and methodologies.

Discourse practices. See also Discursive ways Use of practices, strategies, and techniques, regardless of mediation, in order to communicate, influence, support, suppress, or degrade a certain person, group, or cause. These include legitimation (issuing laws or legal ways to support other people or causes), marginalization (neutralizing other people or causes), dominance (dominating or controlling other people or causes), solidarity (supporting other people or causes), consent (approving with other people or causes), and manipulation (using texts, discourse, or practices to embed certain actions).

Discrimination. See also Racism A problem of social inequality in which consequent actions or practices are achieved in favour of marginalization or discrimination. Racism is produced by certain parties, individuals, or groups within a state or society level against other individuals, groups, or social entities due to social, political, personal, ethnic, religious, nationalist backgrounds. The party practicing racism tends to discriminate the affected party.

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A Glossary of Critical Discourse Analysis

Discursive ways. See also Discourse practices Use of practices, strategies, and techniques, regardless of mediation, in order to communicate, influence, support, suppress, or degrade a certain person, group, or cause. These include legitimation (issuing laws or legal ways to support other people or causes), marginalization (neutralizing other people or causes), dominance (dominating or controlling other people or causes), solidarity (supporting other people or causes), consent (approving with other people or causes), and manipulation (using texts, discourse, or practices to embed certain actions).

Epistemic modality. See also Modality Modality that is is related to believing, supposing, thinking, etc.

Existential process. See also Transitivity Existential process refers to the existence or occurrence of something. Fairclough’s model. See also Socio-cultural approach A CDA approach developed by N. Fairclough and it is based on three dimensions; a text (spoken or written including visual images), a discourse practice production, consumption and distribution of the text, and a socio cultural practice. Subsequently, this model provides a three-dimensional framework for the analysis of text and discourse: (a) the linguistic description of the formal properties of the text; (b) the interpretation of the relationship between the discursive processes/interaction and the text, and finally, (c) the explanation of the relationship between discourse and social and cultural reality.

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A Glossary of Critical Discourse Analysis

Framework A methodology by which CDA is put to practice for the investigation or analysis of any discourse or text.

Hegemony A CDA concept in personal and social relations in which certain people, party, authority, or group exercises full control on the others, their verbal, mental, and practical actions. Such hegemony is often inspired by political office, social or religious group, or legal entity or authority.

Ideology A CDA concept or tenet that emphasizes ideas, thoutghs, and ideology at the expense of other dominant powers when practicing… Ideology is defined as the system of one's beliefs or the manner of thinking. Ideologies are systems that are at the basis of the socio-political cognitions of groups Interdisciplinary A key principle in the framework analysis conditions of discourse analysis approaches. Researchers seize interdisciplinary opportunities to produce new knowledge; practitioners grab these opportunities as well and provide the necessary resources. From this perspective, specialization and interdisciplinarity complement each other; they are not opposites or new dichotomies, but rather they coexist.

Lexical choice An aspect in text analysis meaning the use of certain words, phrases, clauses, and sentences that boost the intended meaning or purpose in a text or discourse. 5

A Glossary of Critical Discourse Analysis

Manipulation A discourse strategies that depends on using text and talk to influence, support, suppress, degrade, or resist certain people, group, or cause.

Marginalization A discourse strategy or practice that emphasizes the neutralization of other people, groups, or causes for certain reasons, justifications, or backgrounds. The marginalizing often uses all the possible strategies and ways in order to neutralize the marginalized. Material process. See also Transitivity Material process is concerned with doing or acting, and it involves actor, material (process) and goal. Actor is the agent of doing; material is the process of doing, and goal is the recipient of the process done.

Media discourse A subtheme in CDA that focuses on media as the key element of analysis. In CDA studies, the term media has two senses; the first one is how media or mass media is used or manipulated in communication, and the second one is how discourse is mediated, .i.e., used to communicate or convey text and talk.

Mental process. See also Transitivity Mental process is the process of thinking, feeling, sensing, etc. It has two parts; the sensor which is the human participant that has the mental process or activity, and the phenomenon which is the part that is felt, sensed, thought of, seen, liked, or perceived.

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A Glossary of Critical Discourse Analysis

Method A theoretical framework used in CDA to analyze a discourse or text. Modality. See also Deontic modality An aspect in text analysis that is concerned with sentence mood.,.i.e., whether the sentence is declarative, interrogative, ..etc. Modality is a broad expression of a speaker’s attitude toward the situation or event described by a sentence or in regard to the proposition expressed by the sentence. It is an important linguistic tool for realizing the interpersonal function and expressing social roles between the speaker/writer and the hearer/reader. Modality can be classified into two main types; deontic, which is concerned obligation and permission, and epistemic, which is related to believing, supposing, thinking, etc. Other-negative presentation. See also Them A tenet in van Dijk’s model that holds actions are perceived in terms of how we (self) interpret, deal with, and act with the other people (other). We attribute all the negative and bad qualities to the others. This is best reflected in personal, social, economic, media, and political situations and encounters. Polarization A subtheme in CDA analysis holding that participants engaged in a given discourse construct certain biased conceptualizations for the sake of control, hegemony, or power. Polarization may be represented in our-their attitude and the relevant parties are designated particular characteristics, utterances, attitudes,..etc, Political discourse A subtheme of CDA which is concerned with the ideologies, processes, orders, thoughts, approaches, strategies, of politics and political system along with the language used as represented in speeches, utterances, and statements, uttered by politicians. Political discourse has been one of the most prominent areas of research and investigation in CDA studie. Recently, a few investigations have focused on political discourse analysis as an independent area of research. 7

A Glossary of Critical Discourse Analysis

Power A CDA concept that holds people act following power, stance, force, or authority (social, religious, ideological, political, tribal), and hence there are the powerful or elite ones (who practice power or authority) over the others. The others, in turn, often develop ways, strategies, and practices in order to react to the acts of the powerful. Presupposition An aspect in text analysis meaning that the text or discourse expresses or neutralizes certain assumptions, ideas, or facts. Pronominal choice An aspect in text analysis meaning the use of speficic grammatical elements, such as we, I , our, they, their, us, you, ..etc. in a text or discourse for emphatic reasons. Racism. See also Discrimination A problem of social inequality in which consequent actions or practices are achieved in favour of marginalization or discrimination. Racism is produced by certain parties, individuals, or groups within a state or society level against other individuals, groups, or social entities due to social, political, personal, ethnic, religious, nationalist backgrounds. The party practicing racism tends to discriminate the affected party. Relational process. See also Transitivity Relational process denotes processes of being. That is when a participant is becoming or is turning into a certain quality or attribute, or when a certain participant has a specific attribute. The participant is known as the carrier, while the description of that participant is known as the attribute.

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A Glossary of Critical Discourse Analysis

Self-positive presentation. See also Us A tenet in van Dijk’s model that holds actions are interpreted in terms of how we (self) we introduce ourselves to the others or the external world or surroundings. We often attribute all the good qualities to whatever we say, do, or act. Social change A CDA concept that emphasizes differences in any practice or action within a text or discourse. It holds acts are derived from power relations where the powerful, as well as the resisting, ones theorize, develop, and create social strategies in order to produce changes in power balance. Social practices A set of socially coordinated ways for achieving things such as playing a role or performing action, and often involve key elements including participants (those who do things), actions (the actions done or performed), modes (way things are done), eligibility conditions (qualifications a certain person must have), styles (techniques of doing things), time (time set for doing things), and location (the place where something is done). Socio-cognitive approach. See also van Dijk’s approach A CDA approach developed by T. van Dijk in which discourse is seen as a form of social practice and the focus here is on social cognition as the mediating part between text and society. It also there is much emphasis on analysis. The ttwo levels of (discourse) analysis: macro vs. micro. Language use, discourse, verbal interaction and communication determine the micro level of social order, while the macro level refers to power, dominance and inequality between social groups. Under this approach are further sub-themes that are considered when analyzing any text or phenomenon such as power, ideology, and social structure. The socio-cognitive level shows the different perspectives from which things can be seen or judged. It involves linguistic or lexical aspects according to which viewpoints are realized. Further, it signals the positive as well as the negative aspects, whereby the viewpoints of the participants in a discourse are communicated. 9

A Glossary of Critical Discourse Analysis

Socio-cultural approach. See also Fairclough’s model A CDA approach developed by N. Fairclough and it is based on three dimensions; a text (spoken or written including visual images), a discourse practice production, consumption and distribution of the text, and a socio cultural practice.Subsequently, this model provides a three-dimensional framework for the analysis of text and discourse: (a) the linguistic description of the formal properties of the text; (b) the interpretation of the relationship between the discursive processes/interaction and the text, and finally, (c) the explanation of the relationship between discourse and social and cultural reality.

Text In CDA, text is any verbal, written, mediated, or (in)visible material that involves social, personal, political, or media discourse or practice, and not only a written script. Text and Talk A practice or action taken by individuals, social groups, or political entities in order to suppress, resist, or support inequality as represented by hegemony, power, and racism. Them. See also Other-negative presentation A tenet in van Dijk’s model that holds actions are perceived in terms of how we (self) interpret, deal with, and act with the other people (other). We attribute all the negative and bad qualities to the others. This is best reflected in personal, social, economic, media, and political situations and encounters. Transitivity An aspect in text analysis meaning that the agent or cause in a text is marginalized or neutralized for certain effects, which is achieved by using passive form. 10

A Glossary of Critical Discourse Analysis

For example, in news discourse, the recepient, rather than the agent, is emphasized, and the passive, not the active, is used, as in Three people shot dead in nationwide protests rather than The government forces shot dead three people in nationwide protests. Transitivity includes material processes, mental processes, relational processes, verbal processes, relational processes, and existential process. Material processes are concerned with doing or acting, and they involve actor, material (process) and goal. Actor is the agent of doing; material is the process of doing, and goal is the recipient of the process done. Mental processes are processes of thinking, feeling, sensing, etc. These processes have two parts; the sensor which is the human participant that has the mental process or activity, and the phenomenon which is the part that is felt, sensed, thought of, seen, liked, or perceived. Relational processes denote processes of being. That is when a participant is becoming or is turning into a certain quality or attribute, or when a certain participant has a specific attribute. The participant is known as the carrier, while the description of that participant is known as the attribute. Behavioural processes are the physiological or psychological behaviours and acts, such as watching, listening, etc. Here, the participant is the behaver who is responsible for the behaviour, and the object of this behaviour is the range. Verbal processes are processes of saying. They include the sayer, who is the speaker, the receiver, the recipient who receives the message of the sayer, the verbiage, that which is said by the sayer, and the target which is the goal of the sayer. Existential processes refer to the existence or occurrence of something. Us. See also Self-positive presentation A tenet in van Dijk’s model that holds actions are interpreted in terms of how we (self) we introduce ourselves to the others or the external world or surroundings. We often attribute all the good qualities to whatever we say, do, or act. van Dijk’s approach. See also Socio-cognitive approach A CDA approach developed by T. van Dijk in which discourse is seen as a form of social practice and the focus here is on social cognition as the mediating part between text and society. It also there is much emphasis on analysis. 11

A Glossary of Critical Discourse Analysis

The two levels of (discourse) analysis: macro vs. micro. Language use, discourse, verbal interaction and communication determine the micro level of social order, while the macro level refers to power, dominance and inequality between social groups. Under this approach are further sub-themes that are considered when analyzing any text or phenomenon such as power, ideology, and social structure. The socio-cognitive level shows the different perspectives from which things can be seen or judged. It involves linguistic or lexical aspects according to which viewpoints are realized. Further, it signals the positive as well as the negative aspects, whereby the viewpoints of the participants in a discourse are communicated Verbal process. See also Transitivity Verbal process is the process of saying. It includes the sayer, who is the speaker, the receiver, the recipient who receives the message of the sayer, the verbiage, that which is said by the sayer, and the target which is the goal of the sayer.

Wodak’s model. See also Discourse-Historical approach A CDA approach developed by R. Wodak in which discourse is perceived as a form of social practice. It focuses on the interdisciplinary and eclectic nature of CDA, since problems in our society are too compl...