WEEK 9: power and ideology

Question 1

What is ideology?

Answer 1

= a set of beliefs/attitudes shared by members of a particular social group

Question 2

What is ideological square?

Answer 2

Emphasize our good things / their bad things
De-emphasize out bad things / their good things

Question 3

What is the difference btw topic and theme?

Answer 3

Topic = complete proposition
Themes = expressef by single words, broad categories

Question 4

What is power imbalance in discourse?

Answer 4

Asymmetry in communication, social inequality, one has more power than others

Question 5

What are semantic structures of ideological square?

Answer 5

1) Negative topics
2) Level of description
3) Degree of completeness
4) Granularity (preciseness vs. vagueness)
5) Implications
6) Pressupositions
7) Denomination - strangers, immigrants
8) Predication - predicate of proposition attribute negative characteristics to Them
9) Modality - negative properties of Them may be attributed as inherent
10) Agency - emphasizing their agency of negative actions
11) Topic vs comment organization - known/new information in sentences (negative participants are known)
12) Focus - use of volume, size, colour to emphasize negatives of Them

Question 6

What are formal structures of ideological square?

Answer 6

1) Superstructures - formats, organization of semantic categories (They first in headlines - negative)
2) Visual structures - colour of letters, images
3) Sound structures - volume, pitch of phonemes, intonation of sentences
4) Syntactic structures - active sentences to emphasize negative agency
5) Definite expressions - express unknown/ false pressupositions about them
6) Pronouns - us vs them
7) Demonstratives - closeness or distance
8) Rhetorical moves - repetitions, enumerations etc