Discourse Analysis

Lectures 3-4

Applied Modern Languages, 1st year

Lect. dr. Diana Mădroane

Email: irina.madroane@e-uvt.ro

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 Media Discourse – Lectures 3-5

 Discourse – representation and positioning

 Representation – the ideational function of

language

 Ways of representing

 Analysis of media representations

 Discourse Analysis – Lecture 3

When we analyze discourse, there are two main

elements we pay attention to:

(1) the content of the message, i.e. the aspects of

the social world that the text producers refer to in
various ways, also called representation or
construction of social reality;
 Discourse Analysis – Lecture 3

(2) the modalities in which the text producers

position themselves in relation to this content
(they evaluate it as positive or negative, for
example) and position readers/viewers in relation
to it (they expect us to agree with them, believe
them, be persuaded by them, etc.), also called
positioning – Lecture 4.
 Discourse Analysis – Lecture 3

Alejandro Jodorowsky’s (Chilean film director) parable,

recounted by Paul Simpson (1993:1-2), as part of his
demonstration of what representation and
positioning are:
 Discourse Analysis – Lecture 3

“The parable is about one-eyed, one-legged, hunch-

backed king who commissions a portrait of himself
from his court artist. Faced with the obvious
dilemma, the artist, trying not to insult the king,
decides to paint out any of the deformities which
might cause offence.”
 Discourse Analysis – Lecture 3

“However, the king is appalled by the untruthfulness and

inaccuracy of the portrait and, in a course of action
consistent with the narrative genre, summarily
sentences the artist to death.”
 Discourse Analysis – Lecture 3

“A second artist is commissioned who, aware of the fate

of the first, decides that a straightforward, honest
and accurate representation is the best tactic.”
 Discourse Analysis – Lecture 3

“Yet the grotesque realism of this portrait makes the king

furious, and the predictable execution ensues.”
 Discourse Analysis – Lecture 3

“The third artist does not have an easy task […]. After a
great deal of thought, he decides to paint the king in
the role of a huntsman. By getting him to strike the
pose of drawing a bow and arrow, the artist is able to
paint the king with one leg resting on a log, with one
eye closed and with one shoulder raised above the
other.”
 Discourse Analysis – Lecture 3

“This representation of the king ingeniously disguises the

disfigurements which led to the demise of the second
artist, while avoiding the fabrications which resulted
in the demise of the first. The king is delighted…”
 Discourse Analysis – Lecture 3

This parable makes us consider the following elements:

 Text producer
 Addressee/ Audience
 Represented content
 Positioning
 Identity – text producer and audience
 Power relations
Consider the differences you notice in
the following media pictures:
Representation in discourse
“EXPERIENCE is the reality that we construe for
ourselves by means of language”
(Halliday & Matthiessen, 1999, p. 3)

LANGUAGE – “a social-semiotic system”

When we construe our experience of the world
in language, i.e. represent it,
we are also influenced by:

Beliefs
Values
Culture
Ideologies
Social, political and institutional context
Communicative situation
 What do we represent in discourse
(written and visual)?

Participants (people, abstract notions,

attributes, etc.) – who/what

Processes (actions – doing, phenomena –

sensing, states – being, etc.)

Circumstances
(time, place, manner, means, etc.)
 How is representation realized in
written discourse?

LET’S FIGURE IT OUT TOGETHER

The following example comes from a working article by Leon

Barkho, “The Arabic Aljazeera vs. Britain’s BBC and America’s
CNN: who does journalism right?”

• What are the differences in representation between

the two texts on the next slide/ your handouts?

• How do you think they are built linguistically?

 “US strikes insurgency safe houses in Falluja

A US strike targeted two safe houses used by followers of

reputed terror mastermind Abu Musab al-Zarqawi in Falluja, US
officials said. (CNN)”

“American raid kills 18 in Falluja

At least 18 people, among them three children, were killed in

an American air raid targeting two houses in the residential
district of al-Jubail in Falluja, west of Baghdad.
The American army alleged in a statement issued yesterday
that the raid targeted hideouts of the followers of the so-called
Abu Musab al-Zarqawi in what has been described as a
precision operation. (Al-Jazeera)”
 victims

agent

target
 How is representation realized in
written discourse?

 At a micro-level, we look at features of vocabulary:

“the old man” | “the senior citizen” | “grandfather”

and grammar:

“I broke the vase.”

“The vase was broken.”
“The vase broke.”
 How is representation realized in
written discourse?

 At a macro-level, we look at how these choices combine

to give us a worldview/discourse on the topic
represented.

In texts, representation is always coupled with positioning.

 VOCABULARY
What kinds of participants can we encounter?

THINGS (in a broad sense)

 conscious (person, man, woman, boy)
 non-conscious:
- animal (mare, ant, butterfly)
- object (house, rock, potato; book, document, film)
- substance (water, tea)
- abstraction (history, mathematics; notion, idea, principle)
- institution (government, school)
(based on Halliday & Matthiessen 1999: 61)
 VOCABULARY

QUALITIES

Rain is likely.
The air is humid.
High pressure indicates there is a chance to rain.

(based on Halliday & Matthiessen 1999: 62)

 VOCABULARY

Linguists have studied how social actors (groups and

individuals) are represented in discourse (media,
political, educational, etc.):

 Generic references (classes of individuals): migrants,

inhabitants, students; the average person, a child.

 Collective references (collectives, communities): we, the/

our nation, the community, the town.

 Numbers: two hundred workers, twelve orphans.

 VOCABULARY

 Classifications according to:

• job/function: workers, doctors, engineers, president.

• gender: women, men, teenage girls.
• ethnic/national origin or geographical location: Africans,
Brits, Poles, Eastern Europeans.
• sexual orientation: gay, lesbian, queer, heterosexual,
homosexual.
 VOCABULARY

• action: asylum seekers, criminals.

• “physical identification”: blonde, fatso/fatty.
• “relational identification” (family): mother, father, sister.
• political orientation: leftists, right-wing extremists.
• social class/income: the rich, the poor, proletarians
 VOCABULARY

 Generalizations: most people, many voters etc.

 Abstractions: process, transformation, issue etc.

 Specific references, individualizations, nominations –

individuals are represented as singular, specific entities, they
are named.

(the categories and examples on these slides are from Van

Leeuwen, 2008; McLoughlin, 2000; Reah, 2002)
 VOCABULARY

 Naming forms (formal, semi-formal, informal) in newspapers:

– first name only (Elizabeth, Robert);

– short form of first name only (Liz, Bob, Rob),
– first name + last name (Elizabeth Smart);
– title + last name (Mrs Smart);
– title only (Sir, Madam);
– last name only (Smart, Shaw);
– nickname (Di, Fergie);
 VOCABULARY

– profession or trade (Doctor, Constable);

– formal title + name (Lord Archer);
– formal title (Her Royal Highness);
– anonymous address (boy, girl);
– assumed name – given by others (Maggie [Thatcher], Băse
[Băsescu]), assumed name taken by the named individual
(Sting); groups (dearly beloved, comrades, boys, girls).

(classifications and examples from Reah 2002: 56)

Social actors are also endowed with characteristics or

attributes.
 Comment on the representation of social actors
in texts A and B:

(A)
A camp of Romanian migrants sleeping rough in
dumped motors is cleared yesterday after being
exposed by The Sun. [...] No arrests were made but
cops said 14 migrants had agreed to return to
Romania.

(The Sun, May 25, 2016)

Comment on the representation of social actors
in texts A and B:
(B)
Back in London, in my local coffee shop, I chat to the
only Romanian I know, Mike - actually Mihai - the
friendly barista. Is it true we have a negative view of
Romanians? “You do but it's understandable.”
Understandable? “People see these guys begging.
Who wants that? On the other hand, it's mostly
ignorance. People say, ‘They're taking our jobs!’
Dude, if you want the job, it's yours. Come and do it.”
(The Observer, May 31, 2016)
 GRAMMAR

Participants carry out actions or are involved in events or

experience states – processes – which are generally realized
by verbal forms:

– material processes (verbs of doing, happening): read, run,

jump, happen, occur, etc.
– mental processes (verbs of cognition, affection,
perception): think, believe, love, hate, want, hear, feel, etc.
– relational processes (identifying and classifying):
be, become, seem, appear, have, own, stand for, represent,
symbolise, refer to, consist of, appoint, name etc.
– verbal processes (verbs of saying): say, state, claim,
declare, etc.
 GRAMMAR

- behavioural processes (physiological or physical behaviour):

cough, smile, watch, stare, laugh, etc.;
- existential processes: exist, arise

Examples of material processes (Machin & Mayr, 2012: 106):

The police (Actor) arrested the burglar (Goal).

He (Actor) walked away.
 GRAMMAR

Examples with mental processes (Machin & Mayr, 2012: 107)

I understood the story.

Peter liked the film a lot.
We saw many interesting buildings.
Women worry too much about their physical appearance.

‘Reactions’:

The marker was bewildered by the student’s essay.

 GRAMMAR

Examples with verbal processes (Machin & Mayr, 2012: 110):

The teacher explained the theory.

They told me to leave at once.
The paper alleges there was a lot of violence.

Examples with relational processes (identification, attributes).

She was young and beautiful.

The colour red stands for anger in some cultures.
They have an expensive car.
 GRAMMAR

The use of active or passive voice positions actors in

different ways:

– Sniper shot boy from 10 inches

– Boy shot from 10 inches by sniper
– Shot from 10 inches
 GRAMMAR

The use of pronouns (Us vs. Them) in combination with

other words denoting what

We are/have/do vs. what They are/have/do –

“Positive Self-Presentation” – “Negative Other-

Presentation”:
 GRAMMAR

They have We have

A war machine Army, Navy and Air force
Censorship Reporting restrictions
Propaganda Press briefings
They We
Destroy Suppress
Kill Eliminate
Kill Neutralise
Their men are Our men are
Troops Boys
Hordes Lads
(example quoted in Richardson, 2007: 47, about the words used by British journalists
during the 1991 war against Iraq)
Visual representations of actors and action –
A few basic things
Visual representations of material processes (doing)
Visual representations of material processes (doing)
Visual representations of behavioural processes (smiling, staring
etc.)
Visual representations of verbal processes
Visual representation of relational processes (actors as carriers
of attributes)– example from Kress & Van Leeuwen (2006: 51)
Visual representation of relational processes (actors as carriers
of attributes)– example from Kress & Van Leeuwen (2006: 51)

“The outfit of an Antarctic explorer consists of a balaclava,

a windproof top, fur mittens…”
Visual representation of relational processes (actors as carriers
of attributes)– example from Kress & Van Leeuwen (2006: 88)
Visual representations of social actors - Individuals
Visual representations of social actors - Individuals
Visual representations of social actors - Groups
Visual representations of social actors - Groups
Visual representations of social actors - Individuals
Visual representations of social actors - Groups
 Discourse Analysis – Lecture 3

At a macro-level, discourses as worldviews build upon the

micro-level features, weaving them together so as to give
us a perspective on the aspects of the social world that are
represented.

“We can think of a discourse as (a) representing some

particular part of the world, and (b) representing it from a
particular perspective. Correspondingly, in textual analysis,
one can:
 Discourse Analysis – Lecture 3

(1)“Identify the main parts of the world (including areas of

social life) which are represented – the main ‘themes’.”

(2) “Identify the particular perspective or angle or point of

view from which they are represented.” (Fairclough 2003:
129)
 Discourse Analysis – Lecture 3

 semantic relations between words (synonyms,

antonyms, hyponyms); semantic fields;
 cohesion and coherence;
 the ways of representing social actors, processes and
circumstances that we have discussed.
 What elements of the social event (the production of Hamlet
cigars) are represented in the ad? What is given prominence?

“Finest grade cigar tobaccos from around

the world are selected for Hamlet.
Choice leaves, harvested by hand, are dried,
Fermented and carefully conditioned.
Then the artistry of our blenders creates this
Unique mild, cool, smooth smoking cigar.

HAMLET
Fine cigars” (example in Fairclough
2003: 136)
 References
Barkho, L. n.d. “The Arabic Aljazeera vs. Britain’s BBC and America’s CNN: who does
journalism right?”. Available online: Academia.edu
Fairclough, N. 2003. Analyzing Discourse: Textual Analysis for Social Research. London
and New York: Routledge.
Fowler, R. 1991. Language in the News: discourse and ideology in the press. London and
New York: Routledge.
Kress, G., Van Leeuwen, T. 2006. Reading Images: The Grammar of Visual Design.
London and New York: Routledge.
Machin, D., Mayr, A. 2012. How to Do Critical Discourse Analysis. London: Sage.
McLoughlin, L. 2000. The Language of Magazines. London and New York: Routledge.
Reah, D. 2002. The Language of Newspapers (2nd ed). London and New York: Routledge
Richardson, J.E. 2007. Analysing Newspapers – An Approach from Critical Discourse
Analysis. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.
Simpson, P. (1993). Language, Ideology and Point of View. London and New York:
Routledge.
Van Leeuwen, T. 2008. Discourse and Practice: New Tools for Critical Discourse Analysis.
Oxford: Oxford University Press.