A Critical Discourse Analysis Of Language And Power

This thesis attempts to study language and power in terms of critical discourse analysis. While the term "discourse" has two senses, one linguistic and one social, critical discourse analysis studies discourse - language use -as a form of social practice determined by social structures. Describing discourse as social practice implies a dialectical relationship between a particular discursive event and the situations, institutions and social structures, which frame it. A dialectical relationship is a two-way relationship: the discursive event is shaped by situations, institutions and social structures, but it also shapes them. Since discourse is so socially influential, it gives rise to important issues of power. Discursive practices may have major ideological effects: that is, they can help produce or change unequal power relations between social classes, women and men, and ethnic or cultural majorities and minorities, through the way in which they represent things and position people.Many contemporary linguists are concerned in one way or another with the fact that language is a social phenomenon, hi contrast to earlier generations of linguists, in this thesis, we do not study the structure of language in isolation from society. It is believed that sentences do not exist in the abstract and words are not usually spoken without a purpose. Discourse analysis is concerned with the study of the relationship between language andcontexts hi which it is used.The problem of power in language, as a social phenomenon, has long been a hot issue hi discussion. Some linguists even analyzed hi detail the ways in which power and domination in the areas of gender, race, media, politicsand other social domains are expressed, enacted and reproduced by text and talk. Yet, on the whole, there is still a gap between the more linguistically oriented studies of text and talk, on the one hand, and the various approaches in the social sciences, on the other. The first often ignored concepts and theories in sociology and political science on power abuse and inequality, whereas the second seldom engaged in detailed discourse analysis. Integration of various approaches is therefore very important to arrive at a satisfactory form of multidisciplinary critical discourse analysis.This thesis falls in five parts. Part I is an overall introduction to the issue under discussion, in which the basic concepts, previous researches, and unsolved problems, as well as direction of research in this thesis, are illustrated briefly. In Part II, the concept and theoretical framework of CDA is analyzed, the relationship between CDA and society clarified, and affiliation between discourse and the power control scrutinized. Part III inspects various powers and their corresponding reflection in language. Part IV focuses on power in discourse and power behind discourse. Part V is the conclusion drawn from the above analysis and interpretation.In the thesis, we point out that what is distinct about CDA is both that it intervenes on the side of dominated and oppressed groups and against dominating groups, and that it openly declares the emancipatory interests that motivate it. The principal aim of CDA is to uncover the close and interacted relationship between language & power.