Critical Discourse Studies of Language and Sexuality

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Veronika Koller
Keyword(s):  
Conversation Analysis ◽  
Social Action ◽  
Critical Discourse ◽  
Discursive Construction ◽  
Linguistic Features ◽  
Relative Lack ◽  
Linguistic Resources ◽  
Critical Discourse Studies ◽  
Discourse Studies ◽  
Queer Discourse

This chapter looks at how sexuality, including sexual identity, has been addressed in critical discourse studies. It will first review previous work (e.g., Marko 2008; Morrish and Sauntson 2011) and point out the relative lack of relevant studies in this area, given that research into language and sexuality is mostly indebted to anthropology, sociolinguistics, and conversation analysis. Building on queer discourse studies (Motschenbacher and Stegu 2013), the chapter suggests a way of critically analyzing discourses on sexuality, where discourse is defined as textually mediated social action, with text producers utilizing linguistic resources and sociocognitive representations to establish, maintain, or challenge power relations. Critical discourse studies combine the description of linguistic features with their interpretation and explanation in context and ultimately make transparent the way in which language and discourse either construct and reinforce, or challenge and subvert, normativity. The chapter closes with an illustrative example of the discursive construction of lesbian identities.

Understanding the Hong Kong Umbrella Movement: A critical discourse historiographical approach

2017 ◽  
Vol 28 (5) ◽  
pp. 453-472 ◽  
Author(s):  
John Flowerdew
Keyword(s):  
Hong Kong ◽  
Social Action ◽  
Historical Analysis ◽  
Critical Discourse ◽  
Performance Theory ◽  
Movement Theory ◽  
Occupy Movement ◽  
Critical Discourse Studies ◽  
Discourse Studies ◽  
Occupy Movements

Within the context of a critical discourse historiographical (CDH) approach to critical discourse studies (CDS), this article applies a range of theories to the Hong Kong Umbrella Movement, or Hong Kong Occupy Movement, to understand it as a discursive event. The CDH approach argues that a diachronic, historiographical approach can contribute to historiography, the writing of history, in that it can create first readings and interpretations of important events. The approach focuses on critical moments in discourse, of which the Hong Kong Umbrella Movement is considered an important one in the context of Hong Kong’s ongoing socio-historical development. Four theories are applied, in addition to the historical analysis, to further interpret the Hong Kong Umbrella Movement phenomenon: social movement theory, performance theory, identity theory and social action as text theory. It is concluded that the CDH approach to CDS and findings of the study may be useful in the consideration of other social movements and Occupy movements globally.

scholarly journals ‘Riots engulfed the city’: An experimental study investigating the legitimating effects of fire metaphors in discourses of disorder

2017 ◽  
Vol 29 (3) ◽  
pp. 279-298 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christopher Hart
Keyword(s):  
Social Action ◽  
Framing Effects ◽  
Critical Discourse ◽  
Sense Making ◽  
Social Unrest ◽  
Simulation Based ◽  
Target Frame ◽  
Critical Discourse Studies ◽  
Discourse Studies ◽  
The City

In Cognitive Linguistic Critical Discourse Studies (CL-CDS), metaphor is identified as a key index of ideology and an important device in the legitimation of social action. From this perspective metaphor is a cognitive-semiotic operation, invoked by metaphorical expressions in discourse, in which a source frame is mobilised to provide a template for sense-making inside a target frame, leading to particular framing effects. However, the extent to which metaphors in discourse genuinely activate an alternative frame and thereby achieve framing effects has recently been subject to question. Amid calls for more empirical forms of analysis in CDS, the article reports two experiments testing the legitimating framing effects of fire metaphors in discourses of disorder. Results show that images of fire and fire metaphors in the absence of competing images facilitate support for police use of water cannon in response to social unrest. The study not only justifies attention to metaphor in CL-CDS, but similar effects observed across semiotic modalities are interpreted as evidence in support of simulation-based theories of metaphor.

scholarly journals The imaginaries of the Eurasian Union: discursive construction of post-Soviet transnationality in Russia and Kazakhstan

2017 ◽  
Vol 2017 (247) ◽  
Author(s):  
Lara Ryazanova-Clarke
Keyword(s):  
Meaning Construction ◽  
Critical Discourse ◽  
Discursive Construction ◽  
Critical Discourse Studies ◽  
Discourse Studies ◽  
Political Imaginary ◽  
Integration Project

AbstractCouched in the critical discourse studies perspective and developing the notion of political imaginary, this article explores the imaginaries of the transnational integration project of the Eurasian Union that are produced in elite discourses in its two key states, Russia and Kazakhstan. The corpus used comprises transcripts of the two states’ parliamentary discussions and speeches by presidents Putin and Nazarbaev. The article focuses on meaning construction through the discursive types, strategies, and topoi employed in the discourses of the new Union, and the linguistic forms called upon for their articulation. Two discursive strands narrating the Eurasian Union are singled out – the

The ideological construction of mother identity in the discourse of four women of the lower socio-economic group from Santiago, Chile

2017 ◽  
Vol 28 (2) ◽  
pp. 142-161 ◽  
Author(s):  
Consuelo Gajardo ◽  
Teresa Oteíza
Keyword(s):  
Qualitative Interviews ◽  
Critical Discourse ◽  
Access To Education ◽  
Linguistic Resources ◽  
Maternal Function ◽  
Critical Discourse Studies ◽  
Discourse Studies ◽  
Repeated Use ◽  
The Voice ◽  
Ideological Construction

This article examines the different ways in which a group of Chilean women of the lower socio-economic group dynamically construct their identity as mothers. The data collected through qualitative interviews were analyzed bringing together insights from the Appraisal Framework and Critical Discourse Studies. The findings show that these mothers instantiate three evaluative patterns to represent themselves: the mother-instructor, the attached mother and the striving mother. The linguistic resources deployed in the construction of these roles include the repeated use of modulation of obligations directed both at themselves and at their children in order for the latter to become socially valued through access to education. In addition, they construct their identities through the voice and affective behavior of their children, positioning themselves as the most important figure in their lives. The patterns of self-representation displayed suggest that these women’s only source of validation is their maternal function and their children’s love, in a context of poverty and invisibilization.

Discursive portrayal of Islam as “a part of America’s story” in Obama’s presidential speeches

2019 ◽  
Vol 18 (6) ◽  
pp. 915-937
Author(s):  
Seyyed-Abdolhamid Mirhosseini ◽  
Mahdieh Noori
Keyword(s):  
Qualitative Data ◽  
Critical Discourse ◽  
Discursive Construction ◽  
Data Coding ◽  
American President ◽  
Critical Discourse Studies ◽  
Discourse Studies ◽  
Muslim Communities ◽  
Fundamental Values ◽  
Over Time

Abstract This article investigates the image portrayed of Islam and Muslims in official speeches of the former US President, Barack Obama during his two terms in office. Applying qualitative data coding procedures and based on a Critical Discourse Studies (CDS) approach, we examine 377 speeches delivered in the period of 2009–2016 within the macro context of US involvements in contemporary international politics to uncover the discursive image of Islam and Islamic attributes projected and subtly reproduced over time by Obama during his presidency. The outcome comprises four major themes shaped around the notions of America’s fundamental values; Dialogue with Muslim communities; Defining good Islam; and Defining bad Muslims. Through a detailed discussion of the discursive construction of these themes and specifically referring to their lexical highlights, we illustrate aspects of Islam-related issues in the view of an American president.

Discursive double-legitimation of (avoiding) another war in Obama’s 2013 address on Syria

2017 ◽  
Vol 16 (5) ◽  
pp. 706-730 ◽  
Author(s):  
Seyyed-Abdolhamid Mirhosseini
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
The Other ◽  
Critical Discourse ◽  
Discursive Construction ◽  
Discursive Practices ◽  
American Military ◽  
Critical Discourse Studies ◽  
Discourse Studies ◽  
Military Engagement ◽  
The One

Abstract This article explores legitimacy-building in United States President’s 2013 Address to the Nation on Syria. Based on a slightly modified version of Theo van Leeuwen’s (2008) model of the discursive construction of legitimation and with a view of the war in Syria as the super-macro context of the Address, the investigation illustrates how the speech attempts to legitimate the prospect of a direct American military engagement in Syria on the one hand, and to justify avoiding another war that may prove too costly, on the other. Through the illustration of such double-legitimation discursive practices, the study portrays how critical discourse studies can provide the ground for awareness of a delicate aspect of the discourse of politics and the rhetoric of politicians in shaping public consent and projecting an always-legitimate image of even contradictory political positions, decisions, and actions.

The Legitimating Power of Discourse

2020 ◽  
Vol 13 (3) ◽  
pp. 256-275
Author(s):  
Mustafa Menshawy
Keyword(s):  
Discourse Analysis ◽  
Critical Discourse Analysis ◽  
The State ◽  
Critical Discourse ◽  
The Political ◽  
Discursive Construction ◽  
Linguistic Features ◽  
Media Texts ◽  
Insight Into ◽  
Culturally Embedded

Abstract In this article, I examine a corpus of texts that address the 1973 war; these texts cover the period from 1981 to 2011, marking the beginning and end of Hosni Mubarak’s rule. Utilizing Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA), I explore how Mubarak’s regime employed the war to legitimize its power and defend its policies by deploying longstanding culturally-embedded ‘macro themes’. These macro themes refer to the war as an overwhelming and undisputed ‘Egyptian victory’ and, more significantly, they portray Mubarak himself as ‘war personified/war personalized’. The analysis of linguistic and extra-linguistic features in al-Ahram newspaper (the mouthpiece of the state), among other media texts on the war, show how the discursive construction was made consistent, coherent and resonant in a managed context that characterized the political and media landscapes. Depending on unique access to those who produced, edited and even censored the texts under analysis, this method unravels a complex set of cultural messages and conventions about the war, and fills a lacuna in the literature by offering insight into the deliberate and well-coordinated process of shaping and reshaping a specific discourse for a specific purpose.

scholarly journals The Politics of Voice in the Stereotypical Representation of the Pashtuns: A Critical Study of Khaled Hosseini’s Novels

2018 ◽  
Vol III (II) ◽  
pp. 385-399 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rab Nawaz Khan ◽  
Abdul Waheed Qureshi
Keyword(s):  
Critical Discourse ◽  
Critical Study ◽  
The Social ◽  
Critical Discourse Studies ◽  
Discourse Studies

The current study is an attempt to critically analyze the role and politics of voice in Khaled Hosseini's The Kite Runner and A Thousand Splendid Suns in terms of categorical and stereotypical representation of the Pashtuns. It is a critical discourse study (Norman Fairclough, 1989, 2018) of the selected data. Moreover, the data is viewed from the perspective of critical discourse studies. The novels under study are polyphonic in nature, and the characters belong to various Afghan ethnic backgrounds, like the Pashtuns, the Tajiks and the Hazaras. The study concludes that the novelist's choice of the characters with their respective voices and the roles assigned to them are political, ideological and somewhat biased. The Pashtuns have been stereotypically represented by categorizing them as the social, well-educated and more or less liberal Pashtuns, the tribal and traditionalist Pashtuns, extremist and fundamentalist Pashtuns, like Taliban. Misrepresentation of the tribal and fundamentalist Pashtuns as racists, ethnic nationalists, ideologists, sexists, exclusionists, traditionalists and power-abusers is indicative of the novelist's biasedness and exaggeration.

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