Discourse Processing And Ideological Implications In Policy Review

This paper elucidates K-device in context, a relatively new model of Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA), in two ways. One is to explore how the K-device adapts the structure of discourse to the dynamically changing common ground of knowledge of interlocutors in context model. The contribution of psychology and cognitive science to discourse analysis is the recognition of the vital role of knowledge shared by the participants in discourse processing. In the traditional sense of knowledge in epistemology, it is often defined as true beliefs. However, in the study of discourse, knowledge is treated as a belief in a community if it is presupposed in public discourses of that community. Actually, the way knowledge in discourse production is taken as a function of context. Thus a cognitive interface between social situations and discourses has been advanced through context model, in which knowledge has a special status as a cognitive device, that is, Knowledge-device or K-device.As the theory of K-device in context model can be applied in the analysis of power abuse and manipulation that operates in public communication, the paper intends, moreover, to reveal the ideological implications behind the reasoned arguments by the analysis of the knowledge strategies, the selection of affective lexicon, and certain rhetorical figures in the data. The knowledge implicitly expressed in context is often taken for granted by common people, with an unconscious impact upon their social values, attitudes and ideologies. In other words, the ideological knowledge applied in discourse processing has formulated an ideological schema, or a context model in the mind of the speaker. In order to demonstrate this, the author has chosen 20 articles from the journal Policy Review (2002-2006), a publication of the Hoover Institution, Stanford University, as the data to explore how knowledge as a crucial element in cognitive models contributes to the ideological implications in the Policy Review. This journal plays an important role in forming the ideology of American government which may impact the Americans'social values and attitudes. Thus the author attempts to uncover the ideological implications behind the journal by applying knowledge strategies in context as proposed by CDA.In addition, the author also tries to illustrate that language, like other forms of social power, is a constraint, and shapes the ideologies of people who use it. On the other hand, language is a resource to shape the world and society. Pedagogically speaking, therefore, language teachers should help students raise their language awareness in understanding the teaching materials so as to be"critical"in regard to what they are supposed to learn.