The Co-construction Of Discourse And Society

Language would be meaningless if it were separated from society.Society could not be sustained and developed without language. Therelationship between language and society has always been arousingheated discussion among linguists and sociologists, who have done manyresearches on the issues such as politics, power, sex and racism reflectedin language. But more researches could be done to explore therelationship between language and society.Discourses, the specific realizations of language, are actuallylanguage in use. Discourses refer to both spoken and written languageused in communication at any time and on any occasion, and they alsorefer to social practices or social processes. Discourses can not only beused to transfer information, exchange ideas, express feelings and reflectsocial phenomena, but also be used to construct society. Moreover, associal practices, discourses penetrate into various levels of society,embedded with power and ideology. Developing with the advancement ofsociety, discourses can promote transformation and regeneration ofsociety.Generally speaking, the study of discourses can be divided intonon-critical discourse analysis (non-CDA) and critical discourse analysis(CDA). After a careful study of the relevant literature and especially thetheories of CDA, we hold that CDA can serve as an effective tool ofexploring the relationship between language and society.Gettysburg Address (GA), delivered by Abraham Lincoln, the 16thPresident of the United States in the period of the American Civil War,has been regarded as one of the greatest speeches in history of Americaand the world. It impresses people deeply with its conciseness,touchingness and persuasiveness. As an immortal speech, GA has been analyzed by many scholars from different angles, such as its structure, itsrhetorical devices and its historical significance. However, few peoplehave analyzed it from the perspective of CDA and explored therelationship between this speech and the American society so far.Therefore, based on the theoretical foundation of CDA, this thesisanalyzes GA from a macro critical perspective and a micro criticalperspective respectively.After examining the social-historical background of GA, we candraw a conclusion that a discourse is a product of certain social andhistorical conditions; and in the process of discourse construction, societyis also built up to some degree. As a great speech, GA was produced incertain social-historical conditions—the American Civil War. It not onlymirrored American history, but also restated the principle and tenet of thenew nation and the new government. Moreover, as an ideology shared byAmericans, the ideal of pursuing equality and liberty was constructedthrough this speech and was embedded in people's hearts. While thecritical analysis of the formal properties of GA demonstrates thatdiscursive form is dependent on social factors such as values, beliefs andideologies of the discourse users, and a discourse plays a crucial role inexpressing, changing and particularly reproducing ideologies. Thus, thediscursive form of GA was the choice President Lincoln made at specifictime and on particular occasion. Through this speech, Lincoln shortenedthe distance between the audience and him, transferred to the audiencethat the significance of the war lay in pursuing the American ideal ofequality and liberty, and won more support. Hence, this speech greatlyencouraged the soldiers, sped up the triumph of the war and facilitated theunification of the nation.This thesis is composed of four chapters besides the introduction andthe conclusion. Chapter One is a literature review of CDA. Chapter Twointroduces the theoretical foundation of the present study. Chapter Three analyzes GA from a macro critical perspective, and the last chapter is amicro critical analysis of the speech.In conclusion, we hope that this case study can help us have a clearidea that discourse and society influence each other. CDA can be aneffective analytical tool in revealing the co-construction of discourse andsociety.