Critical Discourse Analysis

According to Paltridge (2006), critical discourse analysis

(CDA) aims to help to reveal some of the hidden and ”out
of sight” values, positions and perspectives.
“ the norms and values which underlie texts are often ‘out of
sight’ “ (paltridge: 2006, 178)
And as what is cited by Rogers (2004, 6) in ( Paltridge:
2006, 178) about discourses “are always socially,
politically, racially and economically loaded”
So CDA explores the connection between the use of
language and, the social and political contexts in which it
occurs from different perspective or as it mentioned by
Paltridge “ cultural issues” such as : race, politics, gender,
and identity.
Since CDA is approach of the study of discourse that views
language as a form of social practice.
critical discourse analysis defined by
Paltridge (2006, 179) as
“explores the connections between the use of language and the
social and political contexts in which it occurs. It explores
issues such as gender, ethnicity, cultural differences, ideology
and identity and how these are both constructed and reflected
in texts. It also investigates ways in which language constructs
and is constructed by social relationships. A critical analysis
may include a detailed textual analysis and move from there to
an explanation and interpretation of the analysis. It might
proceed from there to deconstruct and challenge the text/s
being examined. This may include tracing underlying
ideologies from the linguistic features of a text, unpacking
particular biases and ideological presuppositions underlying
the text, and relating the text to other texts and to people’s
experiences and beliefs”
Critical discourse CDA commence with the assumption that
“language use is always social” and “discourse both reflects
and constructs the social world” ( Rogers: 2004, 5).

For Fairclough who was the most prominent figure in

developing CDA; “CDA is a branch of critical social
analysis , which contributes to the latter a focus on
discourse and on reflections between discourse and other
social elements- on how discourse figures in ideologies and
power relations-” (Fairclough: 2012,1)
Fairclough (2012, 1) also stated that CDA “is events and
practices, but it is also ‘ideas’ and theories conceptualization
and construals of these events and practices”.
 so far, there is no one specific view of what is CDA and who it
could be defined.
However, Fairclough and Wodak described CDA through a
number of principles that could help in painting the boarders
of the concept of CDA, these include: (Paltridge: 2006)
1. Social and political issues are constructed and Social and
political issues are constructed and reflected in discourse
reflected in discourse
2. Power relations are negotiated and Power relations are
negotiated and performed through discourse performed
through discourse
3. Discourse both reflects and reproduces social Discourse
both reflect and reproduces social relations
4. Ideologies are produced and reflected in the Ideologies are
produced and reflected in the use of discourse
The first principle is that critical discourse analysis which
addresses “social and political issues and examines ways in
which these are constructed and reflected in the use of
discourse” (Paltridge, 2006, p.180)

Example:
This country needs a better leadership
If you want the best, you have to vote for the best
The right person, at the right time, for the right reason
the second principle is that power relations are “ negotiated
and performed through discourse” and it could be looked at
through an analysis of “who controls conversational
interactions, who allows a person to speak, and how they
do this” (Paltridge, 2006, p.180)
For Examples:
Parents----Children
Leader----Followers
Another principle is that discourse reflects social relations
and reproduces it since discourse is a part of social relations
that are established and maintained through the use of
discourse.

The example that shows how discourse reflects social

relations is the study of representations in the media of
Cherie Blair, as a wife of the British Prime Minister Tony
and a lawyer, that held by Page (2003), that the use of
language reflects and reproduces certain social views of
social relations with other people and women’s appropriate
behavior that “reinforces social and gendered stereotypes
and inequalities” as cited by ( page, 2003) in (Paltridge,
2006, 182)
A further principle and the last one is that ideologies are produced
and reflected in the use of discourse, and some of the ways of
representing and constructing society are relations of power and
relations based on gender, class and ethnicity
Mallinson and Brewster ( 2005 ),as cited in (Paltridge, 2006, p.182),
study US restaurant workers’ views of their costumers, they found
that white workers viewed all black customers as the same , that
they use stereotypes (in negative terms) to form their expectations
of future interactions with black customers, which is clear in what
Wodak (1997) -as cited in (Paltridge, 2006, p.182) - discussed
about ‘Discourse Of Difference’ that they used as they spoke
about their black customers and distanced themselves from them.
The workers’ use of discourse privileged their own race and social
class, reflecting their ideological, stereotyped view of their
customers
As cited by (Kress, 1991) in (Paltridge, 2006, p.183) that

“Critical discourse studies aim to make connections between

social and cultural practices and the values and assumptions
that underlie the discourse. It aims to unpack what people say
and do in their use of discourse in relation to their views of the
world, themselves and relationships with each other. Critical
discourse analysis takes the view that the relationship between
language and meaning is never arbitrary in that choice of
particular genre or rhetorical strategy brings with it particular
presuppositions, meanings, ideologies and intentions”

A key focus of critical discourse studies is the uniting of

texts with the discourse and sociocultural practices that the
text reflects, reinforces, and produces ( Fairclough, 1995)
Doing critical discourse :
CDA includes description and interpretation of
discourse in context and offers an explanation of why
and how discourses work
It commences by deciding what discourse type or
genre, the text represents and to what extent and in
what way the text conforms to it, and to what extent
the procedure of the text has gone beyond the
boundaries for the genre to create a particular effect
 The analysis considers the Framing of the text which means how
the content of the text is presented and the sort of the angle or
perspective the writer or speaker is taking .

 there are two concepts are closely related to framing which are
foregrounding; that is what concepts and issues are emphasized
backgrounding; what concepts and issues are played down in the
text.

 And there are important things to take into consideration in

analysis, which are: the background knowledge, assumptions,
attitudes and points of view. (Huckin, 1997)- as cited in (Paltridge,
2006, p.185)
In Doing CDA at the sentence level, the analyst considers
what has been Topicalized; that what has been put at the
front of the sentence to indicate what it is about

And at the word and phrase level, there are plenty of things
that are considered in doing CDA which are; connotations
and particular phrases, degree of formality and informality,
degree of technicality, degree of certainty and attitude, what
that means for other participants, and whether the intended
audience of the text are going to share the views expressed
in the text or not.
In doing CDA there is a procedure that the analyst follows
which depends on :
- the research situation
- the research question
-the texts that are being studied .

So CDA takes us beyond the level of description to a deeper

understanding of texts ( what is beyond the text) and
provides a kind of explanation of why a text is as it and
what it is aiming to do .
Critical Discourse Analysis And Genre
It is important to consider the genres that have been
chosen for achieving a particular discourse goal.
That the genres even if they are very different, the
analyst should find the harmony that put them together
to get a fine result that is needed.
According to Paltridge (2006), Flowerdrew (2004) did
this in his study of the Hong Kong government’s
promotion campaign of Hong Kong as a “World-class
City”
Flowerdrew carries out an analysis of three different genres
which are:
A public consultation document, the Hong Kong annual
yearbook and a video that was produce to promote Hong
Kong as “Asia’s World City” .

He then “shows how the voices of three very different genres

come together to impose, rather than negotiate, a certain
point of view on the readers and viewers of the texts that
formed part of the campaign .
Critical discourse analysis and framing

Critical analysis can also be done by examining how the

context of the text is framed, meaning, how the text is
presented to the readers and how the writer/ speaker
presents their perspective. This also includes
foregrounding and backgrounding which is what the
author chooses to emphasis and de- emphasis or not even
include at all.
Critical discourse analysis and multimodality

The use of words is not the only way texts can be

constructed, modalities such as pictures, videos and sounds
can also be combined with these words giving the
readers/viewers a clearer understanding on what is being
presented. Showing videos from a certain event can help
the audience feel more involved. Putting them in the scene
of the video .
Critical discourse analysis and identity

Critical discourse analysis also includes how identity is

constructed in the use of discourse . For example,
Language can be user to show the identity of a group of
feminists . This is done when they express how people who
believe men have more rights than women are ‘ absolutely
disgusting’ .

Identities are constructed in every moment , through the

use of discourse and the process of interaction through
conversations.
Critical discourse analysis and the world wide web

Another way texts can be found , to be critically analyzed, is

through the world wide web . However, its sometimes nearly
impossible to identify the source of these texts .

Texts from on the web often rely on more than just words to
get their message across . They have a multimodal nature,
which needs to be taken into account when being analyzed.
Another thing that should be considered is that these texts are
more subject to change than many other pieces of writing.
However, the world wide web has been used to carry out
critical discourse studies to collect a lot if relevant data
 Criticisms of Critical discourse analysis

 One argument against critical discourse analysis is that its very

similar to earlier stylistic analysis. Widdowson (1998,2004) argues
that critical analysis should not just rely on the analysts view of
what a text might mean alone, but should include discussions with
the writers and readers of the texts.

 Critical discourse analysts have been called on to be more critical

and should demand their tools of analysis. They should also seek
stronger evidence for their claims. How critical discourse analysis
has been defended by others, arguing that it is important and has
social significance, but there are things that need to be carefully
worked on such as the important details and arguments .
Resources :
 Retrieved from : https://www.academia.edu/3791325/Critic
al_discourse_analysis_2012_
 Retrieved from : https://books.google.jo/books?
id=saRiCgAAQBAJ&pg=PT116&lpg=PT116&dq=Discou
rse+and+Power.+Houndmills:
+Palgrave.&source=bl&ots=TlbbUEw0hd&sig=iVw2HO4
7eq-
45ZU80fOgtbqF8Lo&hl=ar&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjg48eu
xpHYAhXPh7QKHVTaBgsQ6AEITjAE#v=onepage&q=D
iscourse%20and%20Power.%20Houndmills%3A
%20Palgrave.&f=false
 Paltridge, brian, (2006). London: continuum.