scholarly journals A critical discourse approach to Benjamin Martin’s preface to An introduction to the English language and learning (1754)

2018 ◽  
Vol 16 ◽  
pp. 69
Author(s):  
Dolores Fernández Martínez

The purpose of the present paper is to contribute to the depiction of Martin’s role as a grammarian by analysing the preface to his grammar “An Introduction to the English Language and Learning” (1754). By using a Critical Discourse Analysis approach and a method based on systemic functional grammar, this study intends to describe the discourse structures used in the preface to fulfil its advertising function and persuade the addressee as a potential buyer or user of the grammar. Martin’s preface is characterised by a peculiarly exaggerated and aggressive tone and by a strong emphasis on the religious implications of education, all of which confer some distinction to Martin within the discourse community of eighteenth-century grammarians.

2012 ◽  
Vol 47 (4) ◽  
pp. 97-111 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dolores Fernández Martínez

Abstract The eighteenth century was a crucial period in the process of codification of the English language and in the history of English grammar writing (Tieken-Boon van Ostade 2008b). The need for grammars to provide linguistic guidance to the upper social classes, and to those who aspired to belong to them, led to an important increase in the output of English grammars. Since most of the grammar writers were clearly in competition with one another for a share of the market, they turned the prefaces to their grammars into highly persuasive instruments that tried to justify the need for that specific grammar. Priestley’s and Lowth’s grammars epitomized, respectively, the two main trends of grammatical tradition, namely descriptivism and prescriptivism. Taking a critical discourse analysis approach, this paper aims to examine how both writers claimed their authority through the presentation of the different individuals involved in the text, specifically, the author and any potential readers. We will examine how individuals are depicted both as a centre of structure and action through Martin’s (1992) identification systems and Halliday’s (2004 [1985]) transitivity structures. Such an approach fits in with Wicker’s (2006: 79) assessment of prefaces as textual networks of authority in which it is essential to interrogate how the readers who support and influence the texts are represented and addressed.


ExELL ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 25-39
Author(s):  
Amin Karimnia ◽  
Shidak Rahbarian

Abstract This study investigated Nowruz (Persian New Year) messages by Presidents Hassan Rouhani and Barack Obama in March 2016. The study critically analyzed the discourse of these two presidential messages and uncovered the hidden aspects of their ideologies, policies, and background worldviews. In doing so, an integrated version of Halliday’s systemic functional grammar (SFG) and critical discourse analysis (CDA) was used. The analysis of data included various linguistic dimensions (e.g. processes, modality, transitivity) of the messages and their statistics. Although results suggested that Obama intended to build a more intimate situation, both presidents tried to inspire a spirit of action, development and effort in their respective governments. The messages did not reveal considerable thematic differences, except some discoursal religious features expressed in Rouhani’s message.


2010 ◽  
Vol 7 ◽  
pp. 67-82
Author(s):  
Joana Ormundo

This paper examines the language of the blogs from the point of view of Critical Discourse Analysis as it is conceived by Norman Fairclough. The main aim is to analyse discourse practices in the on-line context. The interactive process and the constitution of discourse community in blogs will be examined according to the genre analysis approach developed by Bakhtin (1997) and the concept of discourse community developed by Swales(1990).


2019 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-9
Author(s):  
Ali Rahimi ◽  
Hamideh Nami Anarjan

The purpose of this study was to investigate the language of the main female character called Eliza in the play ‘Pygmalion’ by Bernard Shaw. This analysis is done by applying the transitivity system, which is part of English linguist Halliday’s (1985; 1994) systemic-functional grammar. According to the transitivity system, verbs can be classified into six processes: material, mental, relational, verbal, behavioural and existential. The most important ones, which are analysed in the play Pygmalion for the analysis of power status, are the material, mental and relational processes. When considering the pattern of participant representation in a text from the perspective of critical discourse analysis, it is useful to have some general sense of the types of participants, which tend to be construed grammatically as powerful and of those which are construed as less powerful or even powerless. The investigation is based on the ideas suggested by Goatly (2000) who made the interesting suggestion that we may construct a hierarchy of participant power relations in a text based on their roles in different types of clauses and processes. The results show that Eliza's change of power status has an effect on her role as a participant in clauses and processes in the play that is in accordance with Goatly's (2000) theory about participants' power hierarchy in process types. Keywords: CDA, systemic functional grammar, transitivity, power, participant role.


2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. 176
Author(s):  
Huimin Xu ◽  
Yunying Tan

This study examines the advertising campaign of a beauty product SK-II, “Change Destiny” through the lens of critical discourse analysis. By unpacking the verbal language and visuals in the three advertisements and a video advertisement, this article aims to investigate how the beauty advertiser SK-II constructs the ideal images of women through discursive strategies in ads and uncover the possible ideologies underlying the advertising discourse. Adopting Kress and Van Leeuwen’s (1990 ,1996) framework of ‘reading images’ and systemic functional grammar (Butt, 2012; Halliday, 1994) to analyze the texts and visuals in the ads, this study has found that the beauty brand SK-II has utilized various strategies to engage the audiences and market its products, such as problematizing the aging of women, providing personalized solutions to the problem of aging, constructing certain feminist discourses for women, and drawing itself close to the younger generation through women empowerment. The findings show that although the beauty brand claims to empower women through advocating change of destiny for women in its ads, gender ideology remains to be dominant and continues to perpetrate women. It is concluded that these new changes in the ads are simply playful discursive strategies that employed by advertisers to legitimate the new capitalism and commercialism and generate more sales.


2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (3) ◽  
pp. 307-325

The present paper investigates the grammatical choices made by Jamaica Kincaid in her work Lucy. It analyzes how the selected structure contributes to the realization of particular beliefs such as gender inequality, using the Systemic Functional Grammar (SFG) approach (Halliday 1973, 1985, 1994; Halliday and Hasan 1989; Halliday and Matthiessen 2004). In particular, the study examines the participants’ roles and the processes types assigned to them with reference to the transitivity system. The data of the present study are collected from the first three chapters of Lucy. The corpus belongs to seven males and eleven female characters who were directly involved in all the actions in the text. A total of 325 sentences were extracted. They were quantitatively and qualitatively analyzed. The results of the study revealed the writer’s subvert of traditional gender stereotypes through displaying women as effectual dynamic actors and assertive sayers. In addition, all female characters were shown as the main participants of the other minor processes, in the sense that they were the behavers and sensers in both behavioral and mental clauses. Keywords: critical discourse analysis, gender inequality, systemic functional grammar, transitivity system.


Author(s):  
Albert Mogambi Moinani ◽  
Margaret Nasambu Barasa

This paper explores political leaders’ utterances in regard to the Mau Forest complex in Kenya. The paper adopts an ecolinguistic approach to critical discourse analysis to shed light on how political leaders use language to encode their perceptions and feelings about environmental conservation in general and Mau Forest restoration in particular. Awareness on such language use is important because of the understanding that political leaders are part of the elite members of society who inform and direct public opinion on many critical issues in society. The political class also controls the agenda of public debate on many societal issues. Using Critical Discourse Analysis within Halliday’s (1994) Systemic Functional Grammar (SFG) approach, this paper brought to fore how the political class uses language to (de)emphasize or conceal meanings depending on whether such meanings or beliefs are for or against the political leaders’ interests. The findings revealed that the political leaders perceived the forest conservation programme as oppression, distortion and provocation to ethnic-based violence. In addition, the politicians’ lexical choices indicate that the politicians perceived the Mau Forest restoration programme as a falsehood propagated by the political rivals. <p> </p><p><strong> Article visualizations:</strong></p><p><img src="/-counters-/edu_01/0874/a.php" alt="Hit counter" /></p>


2018 ◽  
Vol 8 (8) ◽  
pp. 966
Author(s):  
Wen Chen

As an interdicipline that studies the relation of language, power and ideology, critical discourse analysis has attracted more and more linguists’ attention, which can be applied to analyze language features under certain social and cultural background. Critical discourse analysis is based on Halliday’s systemic functional grammar that is a practical method to analyze discourse. Political discourse as a kind of typical discourse which involves the speaker’s ideology and intention, can also be analyzed by critical discourse analysis. Therefore, this paper analyzes Donald Trump’s inaugural speech mainly from the perspectives of transitivity, modality, personal pronoun and coherence in order to reveal the speaker’s political intention, and help readers understand the meaning of discourse, cultivate their critical consciousness and analytical ability. The paper concludes that Trump uses different language forms to transmit, change and maintain audiences’ ideology subtly. At the same time, it has a positive effect on the development of the critical discourse analysis.


2020 ◽  
Vol 35 (6) ◽  
Author(s):  
Dang Thi Mai Nga

The paper is aimed at exploring ideological power relations of globalization discourse through the analysis of the speech ‘The Backlash against Globalization’ of WTO’ s Director-General Mike Moore based on one of the Discourse Analysis (DA) approaches - Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA). At first, the paper sets out the theoretical framework of CDA and the concepts of power and ideology and examines the importance of Systemic Functional Grammar (SFG) in CDA. Then the paper provides readers with the social context of globalization and analyzes the speech in the light of CD.  The findings and the conclusion of the paper prove the assumption that the speech is a tool for Director-General Mike Moore to express his power and ideology in the sense that he is in higher position and confirms that globalization is inevitable and the establishment of WTO is a product of this process helping countries, communities and people face the problems and challenges.


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