A Critical Approach To Discourse Analysis

With several decades of development, a new trend has been showingup in the circle of discourse analysis: more and more scholars are devotedto the practicality of langUage study. Meeting the requirement of the newtrend, critical discourse analysis or critica1 linguistics came into being. Inrecent years,. this young discipline has advanced rapidly despite itsdifficulties. Its direction of study has been acAnowledged by most discourseanalysts.Critical discourse analysis, Which is a branch of instrumentallinguistics, was first proposed by Roger Fowler in the book of Laj'7guageand COn cro1. This linguistic model mainly fOrmulates an analysis of publicdiscourse. Its pmpose is to uncover the ideology encoded implicitly behindthe overt propositions. They argue that ideology is pervasive in language,language fOrm is dependent on the values, beliefs or ideologies encoded inlanguage. They insist that all represelltation should be mediated, mouldedby the value-systems or ideologies that are ingrained in the medium usedfor representation. It challenges cotTunon sense by pointing out thatsomething could have been represented some other way, with a verydifferent significance. It is necessary to note here, however, fOr criticaldiscouxse analysis, 'ideology' does not mean the derogatory sense of theword, but means the system of values and categories in reference to which aperson comprehends the wor1d. When speaking of ideology in a paniculartext, it means the set of values or belief systems communicated by thelanguage of the text. In addition, fOr critical discourse analysis, 'critical'does not mean 'complain' or 'find fault', but means 'comment' or 'interpret',it is used in the special sense of aiming to show up the cotmections whichmay be hidden from people, such as the connections betWeen language,power and ideologyBased on the theory of critical discourse analysis, I work with theextract titled #SO Long HOng Kong- from critical perspective to pul thestheory into aPplication. What I am trying to do in my thesis is as thefollowing' Firstly, I am going to discuss the theory of critica1 discourseanalysis, and try to give out a clear illustration on the poinis of criticaldiscourse analysis. Secondly, I will test and verify thes model of discourseanalysis by aPplying its theory to the analysis of the news coverage adaPtedfrom Ainerican new magyine Tfme. The following is a brief outline ofwhat will be done in each of the successive chaPters.ChaPter one surveys the different research aspects of discouxse analysis,and sketches oul the characteristic of social studies of discouxse analysis.ChaPter tWo gives indoduction to the theory of critical discourseanalysis, including its philosophical and theoretical basis, pmpose, analytictools, as well as its difference with non-critical discourse analysis.ChaPter three gives a brief introduction to language in news coverageand discusses the significance of critical news analysis.ChaPter fOur aPplies the theory of critical discourse analysis to thetypica1 analysis of the extract "So Long, Hong Kong'.. In this chapter, firstand foremost, an illustration is given to the social cofltext or iniernationa1environment of the reunification of Hong Kong in order to make theanalysis we1l-understood. What is going on is tbe critical analysis throughflve aspects including lexica1ization, transitivity, modality ana1ysis,headline ambiguity, as well as the mpograPhical contrast.Finally, a short conclusion suxnmarizes the significance of criticaldiscou-rse analysis in both theoretical and practical respects, and points oIJtthe inadequacy of the model.Based on the above work, my analysis tests and verifies the theory ofcritical discourse analysis. It shows that texts can never be regarded asneutral, value-free chunks of language, rather they should be viewed asembodiment of a host of institutional and political practices. Even with soindepend...