Critical Discourse Analysis concepts methods applications Dr Franco

Critical Discourse Analysis: concepts, methods, applications Dr. Franco Zappettini Department of Communication & Media – University of Liverpool Franco. Zappettini@liverpool. ac. uk @frazapuk Intensive Week Methods Training for Postgraduate Students Open University, 13 th – 17 th July 2020 The transcript of this presentation is available here

What is CDA? Key tenets • Various analytical/theoretical approaches to the study of language and society. Some views generally shared by CDA scholars: • language and society as mutually constitutive (one shapes the other) • dialectical relation between language and social fields (economy, politics) • Discourse (language + other elements) as the semiosis of a social practice • Texts as the manifestation of a discourse

Some key tenets of CDA Problem oriented - it aims to explain, critique and change social conditions • Roots into Critical Theory of the Frankfurt School - critique as explanation of social phenomena to promote change and emancipation • Foci relations of power and domination • Research question-driven rather than methodology-driven Interdisciplinary Complex social problems need a range of theories • different disciplines (e. g. linguistics, politics, social psychology, communication and media studies) have to enter ‘in dialogue’ with each other given the complexity of what is being investigated • ‘hybrid’ frameworks and ‘mixed methods’

Some key tenets of CDA • linguistic analysis beyond sentence/grammar towards a study of interaction and communication • language as a lens that can give us insights into social phenomena, rather than language structures in isolation • No linear causality or linguistic determinism, but social constructivism and Critical realism (Bhaksar) • “we can attribute causal effects to linguistic forms, but only through a careful account of meaning and context” (Fairclough, 2004, p. 13). • Meanings interpreted at intra/inter/extra-textual levels of contextualization

Multi level approach to context in the production of discourses Theorisation Analysis MACRO LEVEL: HISTORICAL POLITICAL ECONOMIC CONDITIONS MESO LEVEL: DISCURSIVE PRACTICES (FIELD AND GENRE) MICRO LEVEL: ENTEXTUALISATION OF DISCOURSE

How to operationalize the analysis of discourses? Some general methodological steps Focus upon a social issue • What is the problem you are tackling? • What makes it so (on which normative grounds are you resting your critique) • Explain your theoretical assumptions based on interdisciplinary literature and identify an ‘entry point’ Focus upon the discursive manifestations of the problem • How does the phenomenon manifest itself in semiotic terms (e. g. language)? • Who are the actors involved? • What are the socio-historical conditions of production, circulation, reception of such discourses? • How does the specific discursive practice investigated relate to other (non-discursive) practices? Map and break down discourse structures and their relations with the phenomenon • linguistic and semiotic analysis • How are meanings created intra/inter/extra textually • Reconcile macro and micro levels of analysis

How to operationalize the analysis of discourses? Some specific approaches How are social actors and social actions/processes represented and (de)legitimized in the European political arena? Zappettini, 2019 a; 2019 b; 2020 How do companies communicate sustainability to their investors? (Zappettini and Unerman, 2016)

Linguistic analysis in DHA Thematic analysis • Identification of discourse topics, macro semantic propositions and interdiscursive/intertextual relations; In-depth analysis • Argumentative strategies • Topoi used to support strategy • Means of linguistic realization (e. g. metaphor, synecdoche, metonymy, deictics, trope, other lexical/syntactic and paraverbal elements) Adapted from Wodak et al. (2009) and Krzyzanowski (2010)

Main Strategies Delegitimising the EU Prioritizing economic resources • • Main Topoi/Fallacies topos of sovereignty loss over trade topos of burden for businesses topos/fallacy of (inter)national influence topos of pro bono nobis Rejecting or resisting political integration • topos of risk avoidance • topos of EU law supremacy Constructing moral panic around immigration • • topos of sovereignty loss (over border control) topos/fallacy of numbers fallacy of risk avoidance fallacy of public safety • • Key Representations Britain ‘constrained’ ‘tied down’ or ‘dominated’ by the EU Independent Free trade deals as the solution to globalization Britain as a ‘proud trading nation’ National vs. transnational solidarity • The UK ostracized by other EU countries and dragged into a closer Union • The ECJ meddling with British affairs • Britain at risk of invasion by millions of migrants • Conflation of EU freedom of movement and illegal migration • ‘Open border’ Europe and ‘border vulnerability’ – Conflation of immigrant and criminals/terrorists Main argumentative schemes of the Leave campaign (Zappettini, 2019 b)

Linguistic/semiotic realisations Some discursive realisations of the Leave campaign (Zappettini, 2019 b)

Identity as metaphorical positioning Deictic and metaphorical realisations (Zappettini, 2019 a)

Combining CL and CDA Collocates of ‘(the) people’ in a corpus of tabloids (N=5480) Discursive strategies of fear, resentment and empowerment Zappettini, 2020

Combining CL and CDA Defining sustain* and its semantic field Semantic shifts across genres and fields and recontextualisation practices: the ‘bending’ of sustainability (Zappettini & Unerman, 2016) Critique of colonisation of social and environmental discourse by financial logics

Limitations/criticisms of CDA and some responses • Too ideological biased? • ‘Cherry picking’? • Too much/little linguistic/social analysis? • Too interpretive? • Too ‘eclectic’?

Further readings Wodak, R. and Meyer, M (2009). Methods of critical discourse studies. SAGE. Wodak, R. and Meyer, M (2015). Methods of critical discourse studies. SAGE. Third edition 9781446282410 Wodak, R. and Krzyżanowski, M. (2008) Qualitative discourse analysis in the social sciences. Palgrave Macmillan