Critical discourse analysis frameworks

Critical discourse analysis frameworks

Critical discourse analysis (CDA) is an approach of applied linguistics to study discourse. It has its roots in linguistics, sociolinguistics and pragmatics as well. The main focus of CDA is how power relations are expressed in a particular context. This can be investigated in several different ways. The research provides three types of methodology, representing different frameworks that can be followed when CDA is applied.  

Fairclough, N. (1989). Language and power. New York: Longman.

Norman Fariclough carried out several studies in the field of critical discourse analysis. This book begins by CDA, by presenting its roots in other studies. Then, the elements of discourse are articulated, and it is examined how power can be expressed in discourse. Finally, he presents a framework, which can be followed during critical discourse analysis.

In this book, Fairclough distinguishes three stages of critical discourse analysis: description, interpretation, and explanation. Description deals with the formal properties of the text. These include the vocabulary, the grammar and the textual structures used in the text. Interpretation is the phase in which the relationship between text and interaction is examined. Here, it is important to focus on the context, and the discourse types that are used. The final stage is explanation, which considers the relationship between interaction and social context. To put in another way, it is considered with the relationship between the text and the social reality. During explanation, ideologies and social determinants (power relations that help shaping the discourse) have to be analyzed, as well as the effects of the discourse on existing power relations.

Fairclough, N. (2001). Critical discourse analysis as a method in social scientific research. In R. Wodak & M. Meyer (Eds.), Methods of critical discourse analysis (pp. 121-138). London: SAGE Publication Ltd.

In this chapter, Fairclough describes the theoretical position of critical discourse analysis. After that, he presents an analytical framework, a method that can be used in social scientific research. To illustrate the use of this method, he brings an example, in which he uses this framework in a study which deals with the representation of particular changes in the ’global economy’.

Concerning my topic, Fairclough sets up an analytical framework for critical discourse analysis. His model is made up of five points: focus upon a social problem which has a semiotic aspect, identify obstacles to it being tackled, consider whether the social order in a sense ’needs’ the problem, identify possible ways past he obstacles, and reflect critically on the analysis. The first stage shows that this is a problem-based approach. This is important, because, According to Fariclough, CDA is a form of critical social science that aims at helping people overcome problems that they are challenged with in social life. Stage 2 looks for the causes that make the problem be resistant to an easy resolution. Within this stage, the structuring of the orders of the discourse and the particular types of interaction are analysed. In stage 3, the main question is whether this problem has to be generated in order to sustain the social order (the relations of power and domination). In stage 4, unrealized possibilities for change are listed, which may be accompanied by mentioning contradictions and failures in the domination in the social order. Finally, stage 5 reflects on itself, focusing on the degree of efficiency of the analysis.

Leeuwen, T. (1996). The representation of social actors. In C. R. Caldas-Coulthard & M. Coulthard (Eds.), Texts and practices: Readings in critical discourse analysis (pp. 32-70). London: Routledge.

In this chapter, the main focus of Leeuwen is how social actors (participants) can be represented in English discourse, how they can be referred to. The two major sections that he creates in his descriptive framework are exclusion and inclusion, expanded with several subsections. During the explanation of the stages of this framework, he brings examples from ’Our Race Odyssey’, an article which focuses on immigration and different races in Australia.

First, Leeuwen makes a difference between excluded and included social actors, depending on whether they are involved in a practice or not. Exclusion can be divided into two subcategories: suppression and backgrounding. When talking about suppression, the social actor in question is not mentioned in the text anywhere. However, backgrounding is not that radical: the social actor might not be mentioned in relation to a certain situation, but there is reference to it elsewhere in the text, from which clear conclusions can be drawn (regarding the person of the social actor). However, if a social actor is included in the practice, far more subcategories have been created to characterize the person. The social actor can either take on an active or a passive role. They can be represented as classes (genericisation) or as separate individuals (specification). Similarly, if they are referred to as individuals, it is called individuals, and if they are referred to as groups, then we talk about assimilation. A further distinction in inclusion is between indetermination and differentiation. When a group or and individual remains unspecified, then it is indetermination. At the same time, differentiation clearly differentiates a social actor or a group from another. Furthermore, if social actors are represented with the help of their unique identities, then they are nominated. By contrast, categorisation shows the identities and functions that are shared with others. The last distinction is made between functionalisation and identification. In the case of functionalisation, the social actor is represented based on an activity it does, while in the case of identification, the social actor is represented in relation to what it really is (not what it does). Finally, a social actor can also be impersonalized. In that case, either abstraction or objectivation can occur.