Analysis of the Critical Discourse and Adversaries

Discourse analysis is a branch of study that encompasses a variety of varied, primarily qualitative methods to the investigation of the interactions that exist between language in use and the social environment. Language is often viewed by researchers in the subject as a sort of social practice that has an impact on the social world and vice versa. Many contemporary kinds of discourse analysis have been overtly or indirectly informed by Michel Foucault's theories of power, knowledge, and discourse, which are discussed below. As a result of Foucault's work, there has been an increased interest in investigating the role that language plays in the formation and maintenance of certain knowledge and the maintenance of inequitable power relations. In order to undertake discourse analyses, human geographers often draw on one of three major schools of discourse analysis: Foucauldian discourse analysis (FDA), critical discourse analysis (CDA), or Gramscian techniques. There are several theoretical and methodological distinctions between these approaches. While different approaches have different strengths and weaknesses, they all provide researchers with an effective means of investigating and exposing semiotic features of power relations in specific sociospatial contexts. While there are no set procedures for these techniques, researchers have recognized certain essential investigative strategies that can be used to inform the performance of any type of discourse analysis project. These strategies are included below. A brief history of Critical Discourse Analysis is offered, along with a full examination of the numerous criticisms levied at CDA and its practitioners over the previous two decades, both by scholars working within the "critical" paradigm and by other critical critics. Reader response and integration of contextual aspects are discussed, as well as a range of objections directed at the underlying premises and analytical technique. Additionally, there is discussion of contentious issues, such as the negative focus of much CDA work and CDA's developing standing as a "intellectual orthodoxy" They highlight the major criticisms that have emerged from this overview and provide some ways to overcome these shortcomings.

A Socio Semiotic Approach to Multimodal Discourse of Selected Nollywood Film Advertisement Posters

Film posters are complex forms of visual communication basically employed to promote films so as to seek for patronage from prospective viewers. Nollywood film poster designers or marketers employ a complex system of modes of multimodal communication to achieve their intended objectives. This study therefore investigates how these semiotic resources reveal the intention of the film poster designers and how other contextual variables influence the ability of the viewers to comprehend the messages embedded in film posters. The objectives of the study are to uncover the visual and linguistic semiotic resources in the film advertisement posters and their interaction. The study adopts a qualitative approach to the analyses of six randomly selected Nollywood film advertisement posters of three genres, namely: drama, thriller and comedy. Yuen’s Generic Structure Potential and Royce’s Ideational Intersemiotic Complementarity serve as the basis for the analysis of the selected texts. The study reveals that visual modes are more salient and frequently employed in the advertisement posters than the linguistic modes. However, both the visual and the linguistic modes offer complementary relationship for effective meaning-making in the selected Nollywood advertisement posters. The meanings derived are often contextual which appeal to the audience reasoning and sustain their interests. The study concludes by emphasizing the importance of the synergy of both linguistic and visual multimodal resources or modes of signification in the successful meaning-making and meaning-comprehension in the study of visual communication.

Reasons Behind Mis/Understanding English Conversational Implicatures by University Learners in Yemen

English, as a communication tool, plays an extremely significant role in cross-cultural communication. While it is true that language users can mean exactly what they mean in their utterances, it is also true that they can have their utterances mean much more than what they say. Speakers of English speak indirectly, and using conversational implicatures is a way to be indirect. And as sentences often express messages above and beyond their literal meanings, it is not surprising that pragmatic errors are found in language learning process of EFL learners' communication. Therefore, this study aims at investigating the factors beyond misunderstanding or understanding of English conversational implicatures among Yemeni EFL university learners. It follows an empirical analytical-descriptive method consisting of a test and an interview. Randomly, 50% of the study population was selected as the study sample. They were 62 Yemeni EFL university learners. A multiple-choice discourse completion test ( MCDCT ) and a semi structure interview were used for collecting the study data. The test contained eleven types of conversational implicature The collected data was analyzed quantitatively and qualitatively. The results reveal that different factors caused misinterpretation of conversational implicatures among Yemeni EFL learners. However, the differences in socio-cultural knowledge and indirectness are instrumental in the misunderstanding of conversational contexts in the study. While the familiarity of some conversational implicatures and formulaic pattern of others pose no challenge for the study subjects to interpret some of the test conversational implicatures. The study test conversational implicatures that are formulaic or familiar to the subjects are easy to grasp. Therefore, this study provides some recommendations that are expected to enable EFL university learners to develop their pragmatic competence regarding English conversational implicature and suggests a reconsideration of the existing methodologies on teaching English as a foreign language. Hence, this would ease the concern of EFL students about English conversational implicature, build up their confidence and enhance language learning.

Strategies and mitigation devices in the speech act of disagreement in American English

The present study aimed at exploring the strategies of disagreement and hedging devices used by native speakers of English. The study elicited the informants’ reactions when disagreeing with higher, equal, and lower status. The responses were analyzed using Brown and Levinson’s (1987) politeness model and Hyland’s (1998) hedging taxonomy. Discourse completion test data was analyzed both quantitatively and qualitatively. The findings revealed that native speakers of American English used positive politeness strategies considerably with higher and equal status interlocutors (father, teacher, and friends). The respondents were concerned with saving their interlocutors’ positive face regardless of their social distance and power. The only significant difference, in terms of strategy selection, was identified in highly face-threatening contexts (accusation), where the informants opted for bald on record politeness strategies because of the seriousness of the interlocutor’s (supervisor) claims (plagiarism). The data showed also that native speakers relied on hedges considerably to mitigate their disagreements.

Social Media and Fake News in Nigeria: A Speech Act Analysis of WhatsApp Messages on Coronavirus

The evolution of social media has opened a new vista in digital communication across the world, Nigeria inclusive. Since the confirmation of the index case of Coronavirus in Nigeria, a lot of news on the subject which are largely considered by the World Health Organization to be false, had gone viral on the social media space. This study essentially examines some of those messages on WhatsApp that were circulated across Nigeria. Five WhatsApp messages collected between March – June, 2020 were analysed using the framework of Austin’s Speech Acts with insights from the Conversational Maxims of Grice’s Cooperative Principles. The main objective of this analysis is to unravel the communicative effects of language. Findings show that the writers of those WhatsApp messages carefully manipulate some linguistic features to make such messages perform some illocutionary acts as well as trigger some perlocutionary moves in the minds of the readers. This buttresses the fact that language is used to achieve both linguistic and non linguistic aims.

Re-contextualisation and the Transformation of Meanings: A Critical Discourse Analysis of the Islamic State Pedagogical Discourse in Iraq

This article is an attempt to investigate the recontextualisation and transformation process involved in the pedagogic discourse of Islamic State classroom textbooks during its takeover of some parts of Iraq. The article uses an eclectic analytical framework comprising Bernstein's pedagogical model of recontextualization, Linell's levels of recontextualization, Fairclough's concept of genre mixing, Wodak's discourse-historical approach (DHA), and Barthes' model of visual semiotics. These mixed approaches are applied to the analysis of a variety of visual images of Islamic State published textbooks and classroom pedagogic visual aids downloaded from different websites. It is found that the meaning of the pedagogic discourse is transformed via interdiscursive recontextualisation processed in two reversal directions: a militarization of pedagogic discourse and a pedagogization of decapitation practice. Recontextualisation is exceptionally significant with regard to Islamic State jihadist pedagogic discourse that is reframed historically and ideologically to suit an extreme sense of religious intolerance which Islamic State prioritizes as a foundation of regaining and refreshing their lost Islamic caliphate.

Drafting the Discourse Structures of the Graduate School Academic Colloquium

Using the data transcriptions from the communicative events obtained from four participating universities, 33 graduate students, and 26 panel of experts, this paper examines several colloquium events in the Philippines to identify any existing “global” structure of discourse categorized into semantic and schematic superstructures (van Dijk, 1980). Results show that the semantic macrostructure of a colloquium is reflective of its collective goal, and that the participants focus on the improvement of graduate students’ paper. In addition, the discourse of the colloquium has a stable schematic superstructure that is always followed in realizing the collaborative end of the colloquium. Each phase consists of both obligatory and optional features that define/reflect the institution’s identity and practice. Understanding these structures may help candidates of graduate school degrees surpass the challenging task of writing theses and dissertations with an advantage.

CAPTURING THE FRAMES OF NEWS STORY LEADS IN PHILIPPINE DAILIES: A DISCOURSE ANALYSIS

Using 31 news leads found in news articles published in Philippines newspapers – three broadsheets and one tabloid – the present study describes the news leads’ organizational structure and identifies the shared cultural context evoked by the news leads. The analysis of the news discourse employed Bhatia’s (1993) genre analysis focusing on communicative purpose, and Simpson’s (2000) physical structure analysis. The study revealed that the genre of journalism, specifically the 31 news leads, fulfilled its main communicative purpose - which is to convey information - through Direct, Summary, or Conventional lead. The leads are characterized by brevity and directness with adherence to the ideal length consisting of 35-word limit in both broadsheet newspaper and tabloid newspaper. The result implied that writing pattern or written discourse is influenced by the culture of specific genre. The result manifested that Filipinos are capable of adaptation to rules in a particular genre. The study served as an avenue in finding out the conclusion that digressiveness, which is a characteristic of writings of Oriental writers, is not always evident in the discourse of newspaper compositions of Filipino writers. This study maybe helpful to researchers who wish to analyze culture through discourse analysis using a specific genre.

A Stylistic Analysis of Some Linguistic Devices in Newspaper Headlines: Nigerian Newspapers as A Case Study

Media houses have played significant roles in national development. They, among other roles, serve as the intermediary between the government and the masses. The choice they make in their reportage begins from the headlines which may or may not outrightly show the direction of the news. The study examines the linguistic features of the news headlines on fuel subsidy removal and electricity tariff hike in Nigeria. Register analysis is the theory adopted to carry out the study. This is to enable us consider the functions of the chosen linguistic items within the social setting; find out the similarities and differences that exist among the headlines in terms of how they are structured and point out the implied meaning in them. This study, among other findings, reveals that most of the newspaper headlines on fuel subsidy removal and electricity tariff hike relied heavily on positive adjectives to palatably present government policies, actions and steps to the masses. This paper suggests that researchers could adopt Speech Act Theory to analyse the newspaper headlines on fuel subsidy removal and electricity tariff hike so as to find out what journalists are doing with words.

Polarised Facebook Discourse on Anglophone Nationalism in Cameroon

Technological advances have decentralised public communication through networked digital communication. The present paper seeks to critically analyze Facebook contradictory discourses and conversations on the future of the English-speaking regions of Cameroon. In November 2016, the Anglophone population engaged in civil disobedience against the Government of Cameroon over nonchalant attitude towards its predicament or refusal to address its grievances. Focus is on trolls and polarized conversations and discourses made by Anglophone activists on Facebook regarding the socio-political crisis troubling Cameroon since the end of the year 2016. Using Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) as a methodological and theoretical approach, this study shows that there are two opposing views on Facebook: the separatists’ and the pro-unionists’ positions. On the one hand, the separatist activists through their Facebook posts discourse repudiate the pan-Cameroonian identity which they associate with francophonisation and cultural assimilation, and promote a separate Anglophone nationalism. On the other hand, the pro-unity Anglophone activists defend national unity and reject the secessionist discourse, thereby reproducing and expressing their adherence to the Pan-Cameroonian identity. This study will try to go beyond linguistic elements analysis to include a systematic construction of the historical and political, sociological and/or psychological dimension in the analysis and interpretation of specific texts/discourse.