Complex texts: Analysing, understanding, explaining and interpreting meanings

2011 ◽  
Vol 13 (5) ◽  
pp. 623-633 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ruth Wodak
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
Critical Discourse ◽  
Critical Hermeneutics ◽  
Self Reflection ◽  
The Social ◽  
Objective Hermeneutics ◽  
Critical Discourse Studies ◽  
Interdisciplinary Framework ◽  
Discourse Studies ◽  
Discourse Historical Approach

This article discusses different theoretical and methodological approaches in the humanities and social sciences which strive to analyse and understand, interpret and explain texts and discourses in systematic, qualitative ways. After reviewing some of the salient theories in the social sciences (such as objective hermeneutics and critical hermeneutics), I argue that critical discourse studies require a ‘trichotomy’ consisting of explanation, interpretation and critique. Other approaches such as Ricoeur’s ‘hermeneutic arc’ seem to neglect important structural and material dimensions of context as well as critical self-reflection. Moreover, I argue that much intuitive and non-transparent speculation in Hermeneutics might be transcended if more historical, cultural, linguistic and philological knowledges would be systematically and explicitly integrated into the analysis of text and discourse, in a retroductable manner. The latter possibility is illustrated by applying an interdisciplinary framework to some brief examples (e.g. intercultural and historical translation studies; the discourse-historical approach in critical discourse studies).

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.

Study on utterances of administrative law enforcement in van Dijk’s critical discourse analysis

2020 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 217-236
Author(s):  
Jingjing Wu ◽  
Yuxiu Sun
Keyword(s):  
Law Enforcement ◽  
Critical Discourse Analysis ◽  
Administrative Law ◽  
Role Expectations ◽  
Critical Discourse ◽  
Social Variables ◽  
The Social ◽  
Critical Discourse Studies ◽  
Discourse Studies ◽  
Normative Factors

AbstractThis study explores the administrative law enforcement from three perspectives, namely, discourse, cognition and society, according to van Dijk’s theory of critical discourse studies. “Discourse” is the essential linguistic analysis of administrative law enforcement, which may lead to the tension between law-executors and law-breakers, as well as to ease the conflicts and achieve the balance, so that the discourse mode with considerable tolerance and explanation is of great significance for improving the current practice of administrative law enforcement. “Cognition” deals with psychological model based on cognitive and social psychology. In the interaction of administrative law enforcement, the social roles are institutionalized by the context, which is achieved through knowledge background, cognitive methods, communicative purpose, role expectations and information transmission. “Society” focuses on the investigation of institutions, powers and groups based on sociology. There are normative factors and non-normative variables in the administrative law enforcement: the former refers to superior will, judicial review, supervision and defense of law-breaker, while the latter involves administrative habits and experience, natural emotions, interest and mass media. In the institutional context, social variables affect the implementation of administrative law enforcement in different discourse modes.

Welfare restrictions and ‘benefit tourists’: Representations and evaluations of EU migrants in the UK

2018 ◽  
Vol 43 (3) ◽  
pp. 379-401 ◽  
Author(s):  
Deanna Demetriou
Keyword(s):  
The Other ◽  
Critical Discourse ◽  
The Internet ◽  
Online Newspapers ◽  
Discursive Strategies ◽  
Public Comment ◽  
Critical Discourse Studies ◽  
Discourse Studies ◽  
The Uk ◽  
Discourse Historical Approach

Abstract This article investigates online representations and evaluations of EU migrants, focusing on the notion of ‘benefit tourism’ and discursive strategies used in the (de)legitimization of new welfare restrictions in the UK. Through the examination of online newspapers and corresponding public comment threads, this article adopts theoretical and methodological premises from Critical Discourse Studies (CDS), drawing upon the Discourse-Historical Approach (DHA) to provide both a politically motivated as well as reflexive account. Although new participatory structures allow for resistance to emerge, the openness, scalability and anonymity of the internet also allows for the spread of discrimination through the construction of EU migrants (in particular Bulgarians and Romanians) as the ‘Other’.

scholarly journals The sociocognitive approach in critical discourse studies and the phenomenological sociology of knowledge: intersections

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daniel Gyollai
Keyword(s):  
Sociology Of Knowledge ◽  
Critical Discourse ◽  
Constitutive Relationship ◽  
Shared Knowledge ◽  
Discourse Production ◽  
Theoretical Support ◽  
Phenomenological Sociology ◽  
The Social ◽  
Critical Discourse Studies ◽  
Discourse Studies

Abstract This article argues that phenomenological sociology has great potential to provide a strong theoretical support to the Sociocognitive Approach (SCA) in Critical Discourse Studies. SCA is interested in the interconnections between knowledge, discourse and society while placing subjectivity in the centre of its framework. It looks into the correlative relationship between personal- and socially shared knowledge, and the significance of these correlations to discourse production and interpretation. Analogously, phenomenological sociology explores the interrelated structures of subjectivity, knowledge and the social world. It systematically analyses the conditions and forms of intersubjective understanding and the mutually constitutive relationship between subjective- and objective knowledge. Given the considerable overlap between the subject matter of phenomenological sociology and that of SCA, the purpose of the article is to draw the attention of critical discourse analysts to a neglected but extremely resourceful field. Following a brief introduction to SCA, the article will address some of SCA’s key concepts in conjunction with the phenomenological-sociological insight.

Language use difference and social group differentiation: Immigrants’ negotiation of an imposed category of lau in bilingual Guangzhou

2018 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 293-313
Author(s):  
Jing Huang
Keyword(s):  
Language Use ◽  
Critical Discourse ◽  
Social Actors ◽  
Oxford University ◽  
Language And Power ◽  
The Social ◽  
Boundary Making ◽  
Critical Discourse Studies ◽  
Discourse Studies ◽  
Identity Category

AbstractThis study is situated in a bilingual community of Guangzhou where the local speech Cantonese used to have comparable power to the Chinese common language Putonghua regarding the range of domains, but recently a local concern has emerged over the declining status of Cantonese in association with the large number of immigrants and the vigorous implementation of the state language policy of Putonghua Promotion. This concern has been demonstrated in Guangzhou locals’ boundary-making practices and the categorization of immigrants in relation to language practices. This study aims to investigate the ways in which immigrants take up stances (Du Bois 2007; Alexandra, Jaffe. (ed.). 2009.Stance: Sociolinguistic Perspectives. Oxford: Oxford University Press.) to negotiate their identities in response to an imposed category oflau. Immigrants’ narratives of and comments on language use in their interactions with natives are analysed, at both semantic and formal levels, from a perspective of Critical Discourse Studies (e.g. Martin, Reisigl & Ruth Wodak. 2015. In Ruth Wodak & Michael Meyer (eds.).Methods of critical discourse studies, 3rd edn. 23–61. London: Sage, Fairclough, Norman. 2015.Language and power3rd edn. London: Routledge.). As the analysis shows, immigrants negotiate the imposed identity category through coming to terms with the underlying language beliefs, negatively evaluating the social actors who categorize them, recontextualising the category, and combining Putonghua and Cantonese in one language unit to indicate the symbolic oppositions between social groups and languages.

scholarly journals Far-right discourse as legitimacy? Analysing political rhetoric on the “migration issue” in Greece

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-13
Author(s):  
Salomi Boukala
Keyword(s):  
Critical Discourse ◽  
Political Agenda ◽  
Law And Order ◽  
Far Right ◽  
Political Discourses ◽  
Depth Analysis ◽  
Critical Discourse Studies ◽  
Discourse Studies ◽  
New Democracy ◽  
Discourse Historical Approach

This article advances research on the normalisation of far-right rhetoric on the “migration issue” by analysing statements from the current Greek prime minister, Kyriakos Mitsotakis, and the ruling political party New Democracy political figures. Having presented the discourse-historical approach (DHA) from critical discourse studies (CDS) as a suitable theory and method of analysis of political discourses, I use an argumentative-based DHA approach and add the argumentative schemes of Aristotelian topoi and fallacies to explore how the leadership of the conservative New Democracy government adopted far-right rhetoric on the refugee issue to justify its tough political agenda on security, law, and order. In particular, I focus on the representation of migration as a threat to national security and public health, the politics of hate, and theories of securitisation via an in-depth analysis of the current and former prime ministers’ discourses, the former government spokesman’s statement on the refugee issue and a popular journalist and New Democracy’s MP television interview, and intend to illustrate how extreme right rhetoric could serve the conservative New Democracy’s political strategies.

scholarly journals The interplay of language ideologies and contextual cues in multilingual interactions: Language choice and code-switching in European Union institutions

2012 ◽  
Vol 41 (2) ◽  
pp. 157-186 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ruth Wodak ◽  
Michał Krzyżanowski ◽  
Bernhard Forchtner
Keyword(s):  
European Union ◽  
Language Choice ◽  
Code Switching ◽  
Critical Discourse ◽  
Contextual Cues ◽  
Historical Approach ◽  
Critical Discourse Studies ◽  
Field Notes ◽  
Discourse Studies ◽  
Discourse Historical Approach

AbstractThis article analyzes multilingual practices in interactions inside European Union (EU) institutions. On the basis of our fieldwork conducted in EU organizational spaces throughout 2009, we explore different types of communication in order to illustrate how Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) and officials at the European Commission practice and perform multilingualism in their everyday work. In our theoretical and methodological framework, we draw on existent sociolinguistic ethnographical research into organizations and interactions, and integrate a multilevel (macro) contextual and sequential (micro) analysis of manifold data (observations, field notes, recordings of official and semi-official meetings, interviews, etc.). In this way, a continuum of context-dependent multilingual practices becomes apparent, which are characterized by different patterns of language choice and which serve a range of both manifest and latent functions. By applying the Discourse-Historical Approach (DHA) of Critical Discourse Studies (CDS), the intricacies of the increasingly complex phenomenon of multilingualism in transnational-organizational spaces, which are frequently characterized by diverse power-related and other asymmetries of communication, can be adequately coped with. (Code-switching, multilingualism, power, institutional spaces, European Union, ethnography, discourse-historical approach, critical discourse studies)*

scholarly journals Análisis del discurso y hermenéutica como métodos en la interpretación de textos

2020 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 17-34
Author(s):  
Adriana Bolívar
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
Discourse Analysis ◽  
The Other ◽  
Critical Discourse ◽  
Text Interpretation ◽  
Critical Discourse Studies ◽  
Discourse Studies ◽  
Humanities And Social Sciences ◽  
Young Researchers

In this article we give attention to text interpretation from the perspectives of discourse analysis and hermeneutics because these disciplines provide theoretical and methodological bases for texts analysis in a wide variety of projects both in the humanities and social sciences. As in both cases we are faced with interdisciplinarity, we examine some tensions that arise when attempts are made by one discipline to dominate over the other. The objective is to offer some guidance to young researchers about what following either of these traditions means. The position of some critical discourse analysts related to the claim that hermeneutics today needs to look at linguistics and discourse analysis to renew itself is examined, to which we add the need to give more attention to dialogue analysis in critical discourse studies. Closer collaboration between researchers in both disciplines is suggested.

scholarly journals The role of education in the discourses of the EU and of alternative schooling institutions

2019 ◽  
Vol 43 (3) ◽  
pp. 13
Author(s):  
Mehdi Galiere
Keyword(s):  
European Union ◽  
Critical Discourse ◽  
The European Union ◽  
The Social ◽  
Critical Discourse Studies ◽  
Discourse Studies ◽  
The Difference ◽  
Union Education ◽  
The Eu

<p>The paper discusses two different approaches to education and the way they are embedded in different discourses on education. The market-oriented approach is compared to the democratic approach. In the paper, the discourse of the European Union is considered as an example of hegemonic neoliberal discourse while the discourse produced by the Summerhill School and the Self-Managed High School of Paris is addressed as a  counterhegemonic discourse. Drawing on Critical Discourse Studies scholars such as Norman Fairclough, and critical pedagogic approaches such as Basil Bernstein’s and Paulo Freire’s, it will be shown that the difference in the ways these institutions represent the social world around them have a strong influence on their discourses on what education is for and should be like. For the European Union, education is a utilitarian means facilitating the adaptation of society to the economic system through the acquisition of predefined skills, while for the democratic approach it is rather a practice developing common decision-making and empowerment through an understanding of the world as a whole.</p>

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