Apreliminary Study Of Influence Of Social Factors On Political Discourse From Cd Aperspective

Functional grammar considers language as one of the cultural semiotic systems in the general social semiotic system. Since language is a special semiotic system which manifests other socio-cultural systems of the society, the nature of language can be accounted for only in a socio-cultural environment. And as a social-oriented method of discourse analysis, critical discourse analysis stresses more about its critical nature: the decisive influence society has upon discourse and constructive effects discourse has upon society. From the perspective of critical analysis which is conducted with the involvement of social background, this thesis carries out a critical discourse analysis about the sections of anti-terrorists war in President Bush's union addresses from 2001 to 2008 to explore the relationship between social factors and political discourse, and the interaction between them. And additionally, the analytical process also intend to reveal how politicians express their political views, stress their political status while maintaining a intimate relationship with the audience and exert their political influence in political discourses.In this study, Fairclough's three-dimensional framework for critical discourse analysis was adopted for the detailed analysis to uncover the discourse features of these political discourses and reveal the interrelationships between discourse and social contextual factors. At the stage of description, the present study analyzed the linguistic characteristics as displayed in President Bush's union addresses from the perspective of three metafunctions in Halliday's Functional grammar, which may be contributive to the reflection of the influence of social contextual factors in these political discourses. On the basis of the analysis in the first stage, the second stage of interpretation analyzed the interaction process between the discourse and the audience from the perspective of discourse contents, discourse participants and their relationships, as well as the role of language in these discourses. At the final stage of explanation, the broader social context was included into the present analysis to discover the relationships between social factors and linguistic features, to show how social contextual factors influence discourse construction and perception. The result of the present analysis shows that social factors and political discourse have a close relationship and interaction with each other. Through the analysis of transitivity, transformation and modality, it shows that President Bush objectively describes the disturbed situation and progress in anti-terrorists war, clearly presents his political views, stress their political status while maintaining an intimate relationship with the audience and exert their political influence in political discourses. On the basis of this critical analysis, it is reasonable to conclude that political discourse is more of politics rather than discourse; and the inclusion of social factors in political discourse analysis is of vital importance for the comprehensive understanding about political discourses.In a word, critical discourse analysis, which is based on Functional grammar, presents a unique viewpoint in the field of discourse analysis; its application in political discourse analysis is also proved to be fruitful in terms of revealing the relationship between discourse and society, and critical understanding about political discourses.