A Critical Discourse Analysis Of "Message To The Grass Roots"

The thesis takes the critical discourse analysis (CDA) approach to interpret Malcolm's famous speech "Message to the Grass Roots". As for CDA, it is a branch of linguistics, which associates language phenomena with power and ideology. Specifically speaking, the thesis adopts Fairclough's "three-dimension" method and Halliday's Systemic Functional Grammar as the ways to explore the principles of the speech. Theoretically, various levels and structures in discourse may all have ideological significance, but there is no need to analyze each part of the text when CDA is concerned. The common practice for this method will be to focus on language structures and processes which might have significant social functions on the basis of paper understanding of "discourse context, function and related social relations". CDA will reveal the ideological significance of text through four language structures or processes, namely, classification, transitivity, transformation and modality.Discourse analysis can relate every language form and process with these functions. The structures employed and selected by the caller from the whole language system, thus they have important social and ideological significance.Through analysis, we will know how ideology and discourse interact with and influence each other, in the meanwhile, serving the society. By way of critical discourse analysis, readers can understand the surface, deep and implied meaning of the text. In this way, readers can use proper language in complex social occasions, meanwhile, they can also analyze texts through CDA, and by so doing, enhancing their critical understanding of society as a whole. Through this process, readers will appreciate the use of beautiful language and images on the one hand, and go a lot deeper into the critical sphere on the other hand.