Textual construction of Knowledge

Question 1

CDA

Answer 1

“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.” (Van Djik)

Question 2

Fairclough and Wodak (1997) tenets of CDA:

Answer 2

1. CDA addresses social problems
2. Power relations are discursive
3. Discourse constitutes society and culture
4. Discourse does ideological work
5. Discourse is historical
6. The link between text and society is mediated
7. Discourse analysis is interpretative and explanatory
8. Discourse is a form of social action

Question 3

CDA bridges the gap between the two approaches via…

Answer 3

1. Members-groups:
2. Actions-process:
3. Context-social structure:
4. Personal and social cognition:

Question 4

Members-groups (micro-macro bridging)

Answer 4

Users engage in discourse as members of groups - groups may act ‘by’ their members

Question 5

Actions-process (micro-macro bridging)

Answer 5

Social acts of indiv. Actors → parts of group actions and social processes e.g. legislation

Question 6

Context-social structure (micro-macro bridging)

Answer 6

Discursive interaction situations part of social structure e.g. press conference.

Question 7

Personal and social cognition (micro-macro bridging)

Answer 7

Actors have both personal and social/cultural memories, knowledge and opinions

Question 8

Context (definition)

Answer 8

Mentally represented structure of social situation properties, relevant for the production/comprehension of discourse.

Question 9

Context (categories)

Answer 9

1. overall definition of the situation
2. Setting (time, place)
3. Ongoing actions (incl. discourse)
4. Participants in various roles, as well as their mental representations (goals, knowledge…)

Question 10

Control over structures of text and talk - Discursive conditions

Answer 10

Decisions on the possible discourse genres or speech acts e.g. requiring a direct answer and not a personal story. This includes meaning, form and style control, as well as that of topics and topic change.

Question 11

Topics

Answer 11

Semantic macrostructures

Question 12

The two fundamental ways to reproduce dominance and hegemony (Van Dijk)

Answer 12

1. Control over discourse
2. Control over people’s minds (complicated)

Question 13

3 Ideas behind power and dominance involvement in mind control

Answer 13

1. Recipients tend to accept Bel/Kn/Ops through discourse from what they see as credible sources (Nesler)
2. Sometimes participants obliged to be recips e.g. job instructions (Giroux)
3. Many times no PDs that provide info from which alternative Bels can be derived (Downing)
4. Recips. may not have Kn / Bels needed to challenge discourses exposed to .

Question 14

Naturalism

Answer 14

The idea that social practices, labels and programs represent reality

Question 15

rationality

Answer 15

the assumption that truth is a result of science and logic

Question 16

neutrality

Answer 16

the assumption that truth does not reflect any particular interests

Question 17

“critical” research interpretations

Answer 17

1. Aims for dialectic between individual agency and structural determinism.
2. Focus on relationship between the form and function of language - why are certain networks of F-F rtshp more valued?
3. CDA addresses social problems - aims to solve them through analysis and accompanying social/political action

Question 18

Determinism

Answer 18

the doctrine that all events are ultimately determined by causes regarded as external to the will.

Question 19

Gee (1996) qualities of Discourse

Answer 19

1. Discourses inherently ideological
2. They are resistant to internal criticism and self-scrutiny as uttering viewpoints that seriously undermine them defines one as being outside of them
3. Discourse-defined positions are defined both internally, and as standpoints in relation to other opposing Discourses.
4. Any Discourse puts forward certain objects, concepts, viewpoints and values at the expense of others
5. They are related to distribution of social power and hierarchical structure.

Question 20

CDA approach to Discourse

Answer 20

A ‘set of consumptive, productive, and reproductive processes that is in relation to the social world’.

Question 21

Fairclough (1992a, 1992b, 1995) 3- tiered model of CDA

Answer 21

1. Local - particular text
2. Institutional - social institutions that enable and constrain local domain
3. Societal - policies and meta-narratives shaping and shaped by other domains.
   (Note, later developed to include genre, discourse and style in all tiers)

Question 22

Gee (1999) analytic procedures CDA

Answer 22

Set of tasks:
1. semiotic building
2. world building
3. Activity building
4. Socioculturally situated identity building
5. Political building
6. Connection building

Question 23

language “mode”

Answer 23

lang encoded in certain genres e.g. poetry, sermon, informal talk

Question 24

Tenor

Answer 24

that every utterance enacts (acts out) certain social relationships

Question 25

Field of language

Answer 25

every utterance operates within a larger framework of what is possible given cultural constraints

Question 26

3 terms from SFL

Answer 26

mode, tenor and field