Key Theories & Frameworks
Discourse is not just language but practices that systematically construct the objects they speak about. Power/knowledge — discourse produces reality. "Discourse is not simply that which translates struggles or systems of domination, but is the thing for which and by which there is struggle."
CDA examines how discourse reproduces and challenges power, dominance, and inequality. Three levels: text (micro), discourse practice (meso), social practice (macro). "Discourse is socially constitutive and socially conditioned."
Study of talk-in-interaction — how people organize conversation. Turn-taking, adjacency pairs, repair, preference organization. "The systematic analysis of the talk produced in everyday situations of human interaction."
Language is a social semiotic — a resource for making meaning. Three metafunctions: ideational, interpersonal, textual. Genre analysis — how texts achieve social purposes. Appraisal theory — attitude, engagement, graduation.
CDA with emphasis on historical context. Three dimensions: content, strategies, linguistic realization. Topics: racism, nationalism, antisemitism. "The discursive construction of national identity."
Discourse is not just verbal but multimodal — images, sound, gesture, layout, color. "Reading Images" — visual grammar. Multimodal interaction analysis — how people communicate through multiple modes.
Core Concepts
Case Studies & Examples
Foucault analyzed how sexuality is not a natural fact but a discursive construction. The "repressive hypothesis" — we say sexuality was repressed, but actually there was a proliferation of discourses about sex. Power operates through discourse, not just prohibition.
Teun van Dijk analyzed how elite discourse reproduces racism. Strategies: positive self-presentation, negative other-presentation, denial of racism, mitigation of discrimination. "The reproduction of racism through discourse."
Norman Fairclough analyzed how New Labour used discourse to construct a new political identity. "The third way" — combining neoliberal economics with social justice rhetoric. Discourse as political strategy — constructing consent through language.
Analyzed how images construct meaning. Three metafunctions: representational (narrative/conceptual), interactive (contact, social distance, attitude), compositional (information value, salience, framing). "Reading Images" — the grammar of visual design.
Practice Questions
A: Text: the actual words written or spoken — the linguistic product. Discourse: language in use — text plus context, practice, and social relations. Discourse is broader than text — it includes who is speaking, to whom, in what context, with what power relations.
A: Traditional view: power is repressive — it prohibits, censors, hides. Foucault: power is productive — it produces reality, knowledge, and subjects. Power/knowledge are inseparable — discourse produces both. Power is not just top-down but operates through discourse at all levels of society.
A: Fairclough's three levels: (1) Text (micro) — linguistic analysis of vocabulary, grammar, cohesion, structure. (2) Discourse practice (meso) — production, distribution, consumption of texts. (3) Social practice (macro) — ideological and hegemonic relations. CDA connects linguistic analysis to social analysis.
A: Intertextuality: texts refer to other texts — allusions, quotations, genres, styles. Interdiscursivity: discourses refer to other discourses — mixing of genres, styles, and registers. A political speech may draw on legal, religious, and media discourses. Interdiscursivity is broader — it's about the mixing of discourses, not just texts.
A: Traditional DA focuses on verbal language. Multimodal DA (Kress & van Leeuwen): discourse is multimodal — images, sound, gesture, layout, color. "Reading Images" — visual grammar. Multimodal interaction analysis — how people communicate through multiple modes. Expands DA beyond text to all forms of communication.