FAIRCLOUGH AND

CDA
• Murk Razzaque
 Norman Fairclough
■ Norman Fairclough is a Professor of Linguistics at the Department of Linguistics
and English Language at Lancaster University.

■ He is one of the founders of critical discourse analysis as applied to

sociolinguistics.

■ He is known as one of the prominent figures in the discussion of language,

discourse, and society.
 Discourse Analysis

■ Discourse Analysis is an approach to the analysis of written, vocal, or sign

language use or any significant semiotic event. It is a method of analyzing the
structure of texts or utterances longer than one sentence.

■ It is research method for studying written or spoken language in relation to its

social social context. It aims to understand how language is used in real life
situation.

■ Discourse analysis helps in studying the underlying meaning of a spoken or

written text as it considers the social and historical contexts.
 Critical Discourse Analysis

■ CDA is concerned with how power is exercised through language. It is a type of

Discourse analytical research that primarily studies the way social power abuse,
dominance, and inequality are enacted, reproduced and resisted by text and talk
in the social and political context

■ Critical discourse analysts take explicit position, and thus want to understand,
expose and ultimately resist social inequality.
 Tenets of CDA - Fairclough

■ CDA addresses social problems like gender inequality, racism, body shaming
etc.
■ Discourse constitutes society and culture.
■ Discourse does ideological work.
■ Discourse is historical.
■ Discourse analysis is interpretative and explanatory.
■ Discourse is a form of social action.
Three-Dimensional Model

■ Norman Fairclough has developed a

model for critical discourse analysis
the model consists of three categories.
Text
The text could be speech,
writing, images, or a
mixture of all three forms of
communication. It is an
analysis at the word level.

Example:
■ My neighbor is an old
witch
■ My neighbor is an old
woman
Discursive Practice

■ In discursive practice, the

analysis takes place at the
text level.
■ It deals with the relationship
between the discursive
process of production and
interpretation and the text.
■ At this step, we analyze
institutional practices. what
are the media domain and
political domain, why do
they use such kinds of aids,
and what is their basic
target.
Sociocultural Practice
■ It deals with the
relationship between
production,
interpretation, and social
conditioning.
■ In the last step, we
examine how our aid and
society are linked
together and which
things influence our
society.
 Language and Society
According to Fairclough “Language is a kind of Social Practice”.
 What constitutes as social practice?
3 PRINCIPLES that are considered as social practices.
 Discourse contributes to the formation and reflection of social
structures.
 Social practice builds social identities and social relationships.
 Social practice contributes to the system of knowledge and trust.
 Social discourse theory
 Social significance
 Social context
 How social problems are dealt with in language.
 Social power
 Social dominancy
Example:
 Nivea ‘Goodbye Cellulite’.
 The discourse of
beauty products
 Relational Dialectal Approach
 "Relational dialectics" is a concept within communication
theories which is introduced by professors "Leslie
Baxter" and "Barbera M.Montgomery" in 1988,
 It defines communication patterns between relationship
partners as the result of endemic dialectical tensions.
 The relational dialectic is an elaboration on Mikhail Bakhtin's
idea that life is an open monologue and humans experience
collisions between opposing desires and needs within
relational communications.
 Ying and Yang
 It is a Chinese philosophical concept
that describes how obviously
opposite or contrary forces may
actually be complementary,
interconnected, and interdependent
in the natural world.
 Many natural dualities (such as light
and dark, fire and water) are thought
of as physical manifestations of the
duality symbolized by yin and yang.
Four Main Assumptions of the
Theory
 Relationships are not one dimensional.
 Change is a key element in relational life.
 Permanency of contradictions between opposites forces.
 Essentiality of communication.
Four Core Concepts
 Contradiction: The extreme contrary has the
characteristics of its opposite.
 Totality: We need to look at all of the tensions in a
relationship, rather than just one in isolation.
 Process: Refers to the fact that relationships are things
that change.
 Praxis: The ways we behave in relationships to either
ease, ignore, or exacerbate the tensions that currently
exist.
 The most common dialectics in a
relationship
 Autonomy-Connection
This is a need to have a close connection with others as well as our need
to have our own space and identity.

 Predictability–Novelty
We desire predictability as well as spontaneity in our relationships. In
every relationship, we take comfort in a certain level of routine as a way
of knowing what we can count on the other person in the relationship.
Such predictability provides a sense of comfort and security
 Openness–Closedness
This dialectic refers to the desire to be open and honest with others while at
the same time not wanting to reveal everything about yourself to someone
else. One’s desire for privacy does not mean they are shutting out others.
 Certainity-Uncertainity
All relationships have some certainties (or ‘knowns’) and uncertainties (or
‘unknowns’).
 Ideal-Real
The perceptions of what is ideal may interfere with or inhibit perceptions of
what is real.
 Transparency-Privacy
n a relationship, it is important to keep some things between the two parties,
while other parts of the relationship are okay to allow the public to know
about.