View source for Critical discourse analysis

{{Short description|Interdisciplinary approach to study discourse}}
{{Technical|date=July 2012}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=May 2020}}

'''Critical discourse analysis''' ('''CDA''') uncovers the hidden meanings embedded in texts and conversations. It analyses the way the language used reinforces power relationships, social hierarchies, and ideologies.<ref>https://researchmethod.net/discourse-analysis/ {{Bare URL inline|date=August 2024}}</ref>

CDA is an approach to the study of [[discourse]] that views language as a form of [[Social practice theory|social practice]]. CDA combines critique of discourse and explanation of how it figures within and contributes to the existing social reality, as a basis for action to change that existing reality in particular respects. [[Scholar]]s working in the tradition of CDA generally argue that (non-linguistic) social practice and linguistic practice constitute one another and focus on investigating how societal power relations are established and reinforced through language use.<ref name=Fairclough1>{{Cite book |title=Critical Discourse Analysis: The Critical Study of Language |last=Fairclough |first=Norman |author-link=Norman Fairclough |publisher=Longman |year=1995 |isbn=978-0582219847|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=3djbAAAAQBAJ}}</ref> In this sense, it differs from [[discourse analysis]] in that it highlights issues of power asymmetries, manipulation, exploitation, and structural inequities in domains such as education, media, and politics.<ref>{{Cite journal |title=Critical Discourse Analysis |journal=Annual Review of Anthropology |volume= 29|issue=1 |pages=447–466 |author1=Jan Blommaert |author2=Chris Bucean|date=2000|doi=10.1146/annurev.anthro.29.1.447 }}</ref>

==Background==
Critical discourse analysis emerged from 'critical linguistics' developed at the [[University of East Anglia]] by [[Roger Fowler]] and fellow scholars in the 1970s, and the terms are now often interchangeable.<ref>Some still insist on distinctions between the two terms, although they are relatively minor</ref><ref>{{Cite book |title=Language and Control |last=Fowler |first=Roger |author-link=Roger Fowler |author2=[[Bob Hodge (linguist)|Bob Hodge]], [[Gunther Kress]], [[Tony Trew]] |publisher=Routledge |year=1979 |isbn=978-0-7100-0288-4 |url-access=registration |url=https://archive.org/details/languagecontrol0000unse }}</ref> Research in the field of [[sociolinguistics]] was paying little attention to social hierarchy and power.<ref>Wodak, R. (2001) "What CDA is about" In: Wodak, Ruth & Meyer, Michael (eds.) (2001) ''Methods of Critical Discourse Analysis.'' London: Sage. p. 5</ref> CDA was first developed by the [[Lancaster University|Lancaster]] school of linguists of which [[Norman Fairclough]] was the most prominent figure. [[Ruth Wodak]] has also made a major contribution to this field of study.

In addition to [[Linguistics|linguistic]] theory, the approach draws from social theory, [[critical theory]] and contributions from [[Karl Marx]], [[Antonio Gramsci]], [[Louis Althusser]], [[Jürgen Habermas]], [[Michel Foucault]] and [[Pierre Bourdieu]]—in order to examine ideologies and power relations involved in discourse. Language connects with the social through being the primary domain of [[ideology]], and through being both a site of, and a stake in, struggles for power.<ref name=Fairclough1/> Ideology has been called the basis of the social representations of groups, and, in psychological versions of CDA developed by [[Teun A. van Dijk]] and Ruth Wodak, there is assumed to be a sociocognitive interface between [[social structure]]s and discourse structures.<ref>{{Cite book |title=Ideology: A Multidisciplinary Approach |last=van Dijk |first=Teun Adrianus |author-link=Teun A. van Dijk |publisher=Sage Publications |year=1998 |isbn=978-0-7619-5654-9}}</ref> The historical dimension in critical discourse studies also plays an important role.<ref>{{Cite book |title=Methods of Critical Discourse Analysis |last=Wodak |first=Ruth |author-link=Ruth Wodak |author2=Michael Meyer |publisher=Sage Publications |year=2001 |isbn=978-0-7619-6154-3}}</ref>

==Methodology==
CDA is an application of [[discourse analysis]]; it is generally agreed that methods from discourse studies, the humanities and social sciences may be used in CDA research. This is on the condition that it is able to adequately and relevantly produce insights into the way discourse reproduces (or resists) social and political inequality, power abuse or domination.<ref>Fairclough, Norman, Critical discourse analysis: the critical study of language. Harlow: Longman</ref><ref>Fairclough, Norman, Language and globalization. Oxon: Routledge</ref> Examples of power being used by mainstream media have been identified in the work of Stephen Teo in Australia where he found numerous examples of racism in crime reports of Vietnamese youth. He describes the use of headlines used to control the opinions of readers to see and read about crime using what David Altheide calls fear discourse. CDA does not limit its analysis to specific structures of text or talk, but systematically relates these to structures of the [[Political sociology|sociopolitical]] context. This was further examined by Pamela D Schulz in her book linking Media reporting of Courts in Australia and in western democracies. Her book "Courts and Judges on Trial: Analysing and Managing Discourses of Disapproval" showed a strong connection between political manipulation of media to encourage "tougher sentencing" while at the same time refraining from changing legislation to ensure that it happens.<ref>{{cite book |last1=SCHULZ |first1=PAMELA D |title=Courts and Judges on Trial: Analysing and Managing the Discourse of Disapproval |date=2010 |publisher=LIT VERLAG |location=BERLIN LONDON |isbn=978-3-643-10621-6 |pages=290 |edition=1ST}}</ref> CDA has been used to examine rhetoric in political speech acts, and any forms of speech that may be used to manipulate the impression given to the audience.<ref>{{cite journal|last=Roffee |first=JA |year=2016 |title=Rhetoric, Aboriginal Australians and the Northern Territory intervention: A socio-legal investigation into pre-legislative argumentation |journal=International Journal for Crime, Justice and Social Democracy |volume=5|issue=1|pages=131–147 |doi=10.5204/ijcjsd.v5i1.285|doi-access=free |hdl=1959.3/444565 |hdl-access=free }}</ref> However, there have been flaws noted with CDA. For example, it has been said that it is simultaneously too broad to distinctly identify manipulations within the rhetoric, yet is also not powerful enough to appropriately find all that researchers set out to establish.<ref>{{cite journal|last=Roffee |first=JA |year=2014 |title=Synthetic Necessary Truth Behind New Labour's Criminalisation of Incest|journal=Social and Legal Studies|volume=23 |issue=1|pages=113–130 |doi=10.1177/0964663913502068|s2cid=145292798 }}</ref>

Norman Fairclough discussed the term CDA in his book ''Language and Power.'' Fairclough introduced the concepts that are now viewed as vital in CDA such as "discourse, power, ideology, social practice and common sense."<ref name=":0">{{Cite journal|last1=Guo|first1=Fang|last2=Liu|first2=Ke|date=2016-05-17|title=A Review on Critical Discourse Analysis|journal=Theory and Practice in Language Studies|volume=6|issue=5|pages=1076–1084|doi=10.17507/tpls.0605.23|issn=1799-2591|doi-access=free}}</ref> He argues that language should be analyzed as a social practice through the lens of discourse in both speaking and writing.

Fairclough developed a three-dimensional framework for studying discourse, where the aim is to map three separate forms of analysis onto one another: analysis of (spoken or written) language texts, analysis of discourse practice (processes of text production, distribution and consumption) and analysis of discursive events as instances of socio-cultural practice.<ref name="Fairclough1" /><ref name=":1">{{Cite book |title=Language and Power |last=Fairclough |first=Norman |publisher=Longman |year=2001 |isbn=978-0-582-41483-9 |url-access=registration |url=https://archive.org/details/languagepower00fair }}</ref> Particularly, he combines micro, meso and macro-level interpretation. At the micro-level, the analyst considers various aspects of textual/linguistic analysis, for example syntactic analysis, use of metaphor and rhetorical devices.{{Clarify|date=February 2011}} The meso-level or "level of discursive practice" involves studying issues of production and consumption, for instance, which institution produced a text, who is the target audience, etc. At the macro-level, the analyst is concerned with [[Intertextuality|intertextual]] and interdiscursive elements and tries to take into account the broad, societal currents that are affecting the text being studied.<ref>{{Cite journal |title=Narrative and Discursive Organizational Studies To Text or Context? Endotextual, Exotextual, and Multi-textual Approaches to Narrative and Discursive Organizational Studies |journal=Organization Studies |volume= 27|issue=8 |page=1091 |author1=David Barry |author2=Brigid Carroll |author2-link=Brigid Carroll |author3=Hans Hansen |date=4 May 2006|doi=10.1177/0170840606064568|s2cid=144525452 }}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |title=Varieties of discourse: On the study of organizations through discourse analysis|last=[[Alvesson, Mats]], Dan Karreman |journal=Human Relations |volume=53|issue=9|pages= 1125–1149 |year=2000 |doi=10.1177/0018726700539002|s2cid=145782636 }}</ref>

[[Teun A. van Dijk]]'s approach to critical discourse analysis combines cognitive theories with linguistic and social theories. Van Dijk uses cognition as the middle layer of a three-layer approach consisting of discourse, cognitive and society. By integrating a cognitive approach, researchers are better able to understand how larger social phenomenon are reinforced through popular, everyday discourse. Critics of this practice point out that his approach focuses on the reproduction of ideologies rather than the transformation.<ref name=":12">{{Cite journal|last=Lin|first=Angel|date=March 2014|title=Critical Discourse Analysis in Applied Linguistics: A Methodological Review|journal=Annual Review of Applied Linguistics|volume=34|pages=213–232|doi=10.1017/S0267190514000087|s2cid=145590995 |issn=0267-1905}}</ref>

[[Ruth Wodak]] has developed a framework based on the systemic collection of sample texts on a topic to better understand the interrelationship of discourses that exist within the field. This framework allows for the discussion and analysis of ideologies involved in a set of discourses. The macro level of analysis is helpful in understanding how macro-structures of inequality persist through discursive processes across multiple sites and texts.<ref name=":12"/>

According to the multi-method qualitative text analysis framework developed by Alejandro and Zhao, CDA is often combined with other methods to strengthen the analysis of how [[language]] constructs social and political orders.<ref name="AlejandroZhao2023">{{cite journal |last1=Alejandro |first1=A. |last2=Zhao |first2=L. |year=2023 |orig-year=2024 |title=Multi-Method Qualitative Text and Discourse Analysis: A Methodological Framework |journal=Qualitative Inquiry |volume=30 |issue=6 |pages=461-473 |doi=10.1177/10778004231184421|doi-access=free }}</ref> This approach builds on the foundational view of discourse as a form of social practice that is co-constitutive of power relations.<ref>{{Citation |last=Alejandro |first=Audrey |title=Discourse analysis |date=2023-09-12 |pages=162–170 |url=http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/119770/ |access-date=2025-06-10 |publisher=University of Michigan. Press |isbn=978-0-472-07622-2 |last2=Laurence |first2=Marion |last3=Maertens |first3=Lucile}}</ref><ref name=":1" /> For instance, CDA may be paired with thematic analysis, where themes are first identified and then critically analyzed to see how they are discursively constructed to support certain [[Ideology|ideologies]].<ref name="AlejandroZhao2023" /> Given its conceptual heritage, CDA also combines well with [[Foucauldian discourse analysis]] (FDA) to investigate how specific textual examples connect to broader historical discourses, such as those concerning [[Intersectionality|intersectional]] [[marginalization]].<ref>{{Cite book |last=Yamaner |first=Onur |url=http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.2307/j.ctv1hm8gg9 |title=Syrian Female Refugees in Turkey: Intersectional Marginalization |date=2021-03-08 |publisher=Verlag Barbara Budrich |isbn=978-3-8474-1690-6 |edition=1 |doi=10.2307/j.ctv1hm8gg9}}</ref>

== Applications ==
CDA has been applied to media studies, advertisements texts <ref>{{Cite journal |last1=de-Andrés-del-Campo |first1=Susana |last2=de-Lima-Maestro |first2=Rosa |date=2014-01-01 |title=Critical analysis of government vs. Commercial advertising discourse on older persons in Spain |url=https://www.revistacomunicar.com/index.php?contenido=detalles&numero=42&articulo=42-2014-19 |journal=Comunicar |language=es |volume=21 |issue=42 |pages=189–197 |doi=10.3916/C42-2014-19 |issn=1134-3478|doi-access=free |hdl=10272/7781 |hdl-access=free }}</ref> English language teaching, [[heritage language]], power and ideology,<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Sutanto |first1=Haryo |last2=Purbaningrum |first2=Dwi |title=Representation of Power and Ideology on Jokowi's Speech |date=2022-12-29 |url=https://journal.moestopo.ac.id/index.php/wacana/article/view/2143 |journal=WACANA: Jurnal Ilmiah Ilmu Komunikasi |language=en |volume=21 |issue=2 |pages=238–251 |doi=10.32509/wacana.v21i2.2143 |s2cid=255654982 |issn=2598-7402|doi-access=free }}</ref> socialization and environmental sciences to name a few.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://www.degruyter.com/view/product/207931|title=Discourse, Ideology and Heritage Language Socialization, Micro and Macro Perspectives|last=Guardado|first=Martin|date=2018|publisher=De Gruyter Mouton|isbn=9781501500732|location=Berlin, Boston}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal|last=Smith|first=Paul M.|date=2006|title=The Application of Critical Discourse Analysis in Environmental Dispute Resolution|journal=Ethics, Place & Environment|language=en|volume=9|issue=1|pages=79–100|doi=10.1080/13668790500512548|s2cid=217512100 |issn=1366-879X}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal|last=Hazaea|first=Abduljalil|date=2017|title=Methodological Challenges in Critical Discourse Analysis: Empirical Research Design for Global Journalistic Texts|journal=Journal of Sciences and Humanities|volume=12|pages=1824–1884}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal|last=Rahimi|first=Elahe|date=May 2015|title=Critical Discourse Analysis and Its Implication in English Language Teaching: A Case Study of Political Text|journal=Theory and Practice in Language Studies|volume=5|issue=3|pages=504–511|via=Proquest Central|doi=10.17507/tpls.0503.08|doi-access=free}}</ref>

==Notable academics==
Notable writers include [[Norman Fairclough]], Michał Krzyżanowski, [[Paul Chilton]], [[Teun A. van Dijk]], [[Ruth Wodak]], {{ill|Martin Reisigl|de}}, John E. Richardson, Phil Graham, [[Theo Van Leeuwen]], {{ill|Siegfried Jäger|de}}, {{ill|Christina Schäffner|de}}, [[James Paul Gee]], [[Roger Fowler]], [[Gunther Kress]], [[Mary M. Talbot|Mary Talbot]], [[Lilie Chouliaraki]], [[Thomas Huckin]], Hilary Janks, [[Veronika Koller]], Christopher Hart, [[Bob Hodge (linguist)|Bob Hodge]], and William Feighery.

==See also==
{{Columns-list|colwidth=22em|
*[[Argumentation theory]]
*[[Conceptual history]]
*[[Informal logic]]
*[[Hermeneutics]]
*[[Linguistic anthropology]]
*[[Mediated Stylistics]]
*[[Pragma-dialectics]]
*[[Pragmatics]]
*[[Rhetoric]]
*[[Semiotics]]
*[[Systemic functional grammar]]
*[[Foucauldian discourse analysis]]
}}

==Bibliography==

===Notes===
{{Reflist|30em}}

===References===
*Caldas-Coulthard, Carmen Rosa, and Coulthard, Malcolm, (editors) (1996) ''Texts and Practices: Readings in Critical Discourse Analysis'', London: Routledge.
*Chouliaraki, Lilie & [[Norman Fairclough]] (1999). Discourse in Late Modernity: Rethinking Critical Discourse Analysis. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.
*[[Norman Fairclough]] (1995). Media Discourse. London: Edward Arnold.
*[[Norman Fairclough]] (2003). Analysing Discourse: Textual Analysis for Social Research. London: Routledge.
*Jaworski, Adam, & Coupland, Nikolas (Eds.) (2002). The Discourse Reader. New York: Routledge.
*Lazar, Michelle (Ed.) (2005). [https://books.google.com/books?id=cTkWDAAAQBAJ Feminist Critical Discourse Analysis: Gender, Power and Ideology In Discourse]. Basingstoke: Palgrave.
*Rogers, Rebecca (2003). [https://books.google.com/books?id=1LyQAgAAQBAJ A Critical Discourse Analysis of Family Literacy Practices: Power in and Out of Print]. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.
*Rogers, Rebecca (Ed.) (2003). An Introduction to Critical Discourse Analysis in Education. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.
*Talbot, Mary, Atkinson, Karen and Atkinson, David (2003). Language and Power in the Modern World. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.
*Toolan, Michael (Ed.) (2002). Critical Discourse Analysis: Critical Concepts in Linguistics (Vol I: Precursors and Inspirations). London: Routledge.
*Toolan, Michael (Ed.) (2002). Critical Discourse Analysis: Critical Concepts in Linguistics (Vol II: Leading Advocates). London: Routledge.
*Toolan, Michael (Ed.) (2002). Critical Discourse Analysis: Critical Concepts in Linguistics (Vol III: Concurrent Analyses and Critiques). London: Routledge.
*Toolan, Michael (Ed.) (2002). Critical Discourse Analysis: Critical Concepts in Linguistics (Vol IV: Current Debates and New Directions). London: Routledge.
*[[Teun A. Van Dijk]]. (1993). Elite discourse and racism. Newbury Park, CA: Sage.
*[[Teun A. Van Dijk]]. (2005). Racism and discourse in Spain and Latin America. Amsterdam: Benjamins.
*[[Teun A. Van Dijk]]. (2008). Discourse and Power. Houndsmills: Palgrave.
*Weiss, Gilbert & Wodak, Ruth (Eds.) (2003). Critical Discourse Analysis: Theory and Interdisciplinarity in Critical Discourse Analysis. London: Palgrave.
*Young, Lynne & Harrison, Claire (Eds.) (2004). Systemic Functional Linguistics and Critical Discourse Analysis: Studies in Social Change. London: Continuum.
*[[Anna Duszak]], [[Juliane House]], Łukasz Kumięga: Globalization, Discourse, Media: In a Critical Perspective / Globalisierung, Diskurse, Medien: eine kritische Perspektive. Warsaw University Press, 2010

===Further reading===
*Amoussou, F., & Allagbe, A. A. (2018). [http://45.113.122.54/pdfs/ijsell/v6-i1/2.pdf Principles, Theories and Approaches to Critical Discourse Analysis]. ''International Journal on Studies in English Language and Literature'', ''6''(1), 11–18.
*[[Henry Widdowson]] (1995). Review of Fairclough's Discourse and Social Change. Applied Linguistics 16(4): 510–516.
*Norman Fairclough (1996). A Reply to Henry Widdowson's 'Discourse Analysis: A Critical View. Language & Literature 5(1): 49–56.
*Henry Widdowson (1996). Reply to Fairclough: Discourse and Interpretation: Conjectures and Refutations. Language & Literature 5(1): 57–69.
* Henry Widdowson (1998). "The Theory and Practice of Critical Discourse Analysis." Applied Linguistics 19(1): 136–151.
* O'Halloran, Kieran A. (2003) Critical Discourse Analysis and Language Cognition. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.
* Beaugrande, Robert de (2001). "Interpreting the Discourse of H.G. Widdowson: A Corpus-Based Critical Discourse Analysis. Applied Linguistics 22(1): 104–121.
*Toolan, Michael (1997). What Is Critical Discourse Analysis and Why Are People Saying Such Terrible Things About It? Language & Literature 6(2): 83–103.
*Stubbs, Michael (1998). Whorf's Children: Critical Comments on Critical Discourse Analysis. In Ryan, A. & Wray, A. (Eds.), Evolving Models of Language: British Studies in Applied Linguistics 12, Clevedon: BAAL/Multilingual Matters.
*Blommaert, Jan & Bulcaen, Chris (2000). Critical Discourse Analysis. Annual Review of Anthropology 29: 447–466.
*Blommaert, Jan, Collins, James, Heller, Monica, [[Rampton, Ben]], Slembrouck, Stef & Jef Verschueren. Discourse and Critique. Special issue of Critique of Anthropology 21(1): 5–107 and 21(2): 117–183.
*Slembrouck, Stef (2001). Explanation, Interpretation and Critique in the Analysis of Discourse. Critique of Anthropology, 21: 33–57.
*Slembrouck, Stef (2005). Discourse, critique and ethnography: class-oriented coding in accounts of child protection. Language Sciences 27:619–650.
*Threadgold, Terry (2003). [https://web.archive.org/web/20051101222230/http://www.linguistik-online.de/14_03/index.html Cultural Studies, Critical Theory and Critical Discourse Analysis: Histories, Remembering and Futures]. Linguistik Online 14(2).
*Tyrwhitt-Drake, Hugh (1999). Resisting the Discourse of Critical Discourse Analysis: Reopening a Hong Kong Case Study. Journal of Pragmatics 31: 1081–1088.

==External links==
* [https://discourseanalysis.net/ Discourseanalysis.net] Research portal and mailing list
* [https://www.cadaad.info/ Critical Approaches to Discourse Analysis Across Disciplines] Research portal and conference
* [https://discourses.org/ Discourses.org] Website of Teun van Dijk

===Associated research groups===
* [http://www.ling.lancs.ac.uk/groups/lip/ Language, Ideology and Power research group at Lancaster University]
* [https://darg.lboro.ac.uk/Discourse and Rhetoric group at Loughborough University]

===Associated journals===
* [https://journals.sagepub.com/home/das Discourse & Society] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080307070424/http://www.discourses.org/journals/das/ |date=7 March 2008 }} (from 1990)
* [https://www.tandfonline.com/journals/csos20 Social Semiotics] (from 1990)
* [https://benjamins.com/catalog/jlp Journal of Language and Politics] (from 2002)
* [https://www.tandfonline.com/journals/rcds20 Critical Discourse Studies] (from 2004)
* [https://ugp.rug.nl/cadaad Critical Approaches to Discourse Analysis Across Disciplines] (peer-reviewed free online journal, from 2007)

{{Critical theory}}
{{Critical discourse analysis}}
{{Authority control}}

[[Category:Sociolinguistics]]
[[Category:Critical theory]]
[[Category:Discourse analysis]]
[[Category:Social science methodology]]