A Dialectical Model Of Critical Discourse Analysis: A Case Study-This Aggression Will Not Stand

Ideological control has long been a focus of interest in the field of Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA). Traditionally, linguistic features and ideological values are matched disparately using the Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL) or Systemic Functional Grammar (SFG) as the major analytical tool. Consequently, there are many defects in this way of research. It neglects the relational, comprehensive,dynamic and procedural nature of ideology. Moreover, since CDA is a trans-discipline of social analysis and linguistic research, progress in sociology and theoretical linguistics will determine the achievement that CDA can make.The thesis, firstly reviewing the basic tenets of CDA, comparing Halliday's three meta-functions of language with Fairclough's three text meanings and introducing the phases of text production and text reception from de Beaugrande and Dressler, tentatively puts forward a Dialectical Model of Critical Discourse Analysis. Such a model relates language users to linguistic uses, text properties to text production and text reception, and ideological control to the meaning-making process.Since the Dialectical Model of CDA is newly formulated, in order to test its practical application, identify its deficiencies and raise suggestions for further research, a case study is conducted from the perspective of text reception: Analysis of a Newspaper Article—This Aggression Will Not Stand. This case study proves that a Dialectical Model of CDA for ideological research is more relational, comprehensive, dynamic and procedural. However, there are still some limitations and suggested areas for further research. For instance, since the thesis is mainly a qualitative analysis, it's advisable that quantitative research could be carried out to study ideologies historically. In a word, the most fundamental goal of this thesis is to improve the use of the theoretical tool—SFL in CDA to study ideological control.