Debby Rizky
8226110002 | LTBI-A’22
Discourse Analysis
Discourse
1. According to Fairclough (1995)
Discourse refers to any spoken, written
or visual language, discourse can be
used to make a connection between
language and the wider society.
2. The question of discourse is the
question of how text figure (in relation
to other moments) in how people
represent the world, including
themselves and their productive
activities. Different discourses are
different ways of representing
associated with different positions
(Fairclough, 2000)
3. Critical discourse analysis (CDA) is a
rapidly developing area of language
study. It regards discourse as ‘a form as
social practice’ and takes consideration
of the context of language use to be
crucial to discourse. (Fairclough &
Wodak, 1997)
4. Discourse from the point of view of CDA,
then, is a form of social action. The
principle aim of CDA is to uncover
opaqueness and power relationships.
CDA is a socially committed scientific
paradigm. It attempts to bring about
change in communicative and socio-
political practices (Fairclough & Wodak,
1997)
Text
1. According to Fairclough (1992) there are
three dimensions in critical discourse
analysis; text, discursive practice, and
social practice.
2. In his book “Discourse and Social
Change” Fairclough (1992) argued;
“….If being an instance of social
(political, ideological, etc.) practice is
one dimension of a discursive event,
being a text is other.”
3. The central concern is to trace
explanatory connections between ways
(normative, innovative, etc.) in which
texts are put together and interpreted,
how texts are produced, distributed and
consumed in a wider sense, and the
nature of the social practice in terms of
its relation to social structures and
struggles. One can neither recon; struct
the production process nor account for
the interpretation process purely by
reference to texts: they are respectively
traces of and cues to these processes,
and can be neither produced nor
interpreted without members'
resources. (Fairclough, 1992)
4. Texts are made up of forms which past
discursive practice, condensed into
conventions, has endowed with
meaning potential. The meaning
potential of a form is generally
heterogeneous, a complex of diverse,
overlapping and sometimes
contradictory meanings, so that texts
are usually highly ambivalent and open
to multiple interpretations. (Fairclough,
1992)
5. Text analysis can be organized under
the four main headings: vocabulary,
grammar, cohesion, and text structure.
These can be thought as ascending in
scale of vocabulary deals mainly with
individual words, grammar deals with
words combined into clauses and
sentences, cohesion deals with how
Debby Rizky
8226110002 | LTBI-A’22
Discourse Analysis
Review: I can see that Fairclough’s theory
of discourse considers language to be a
type of social practice. This indicates that
language is more than simply vocabulary
and grammar. The theory believed that
language is an important component of
society lives and is typically performed by
the majority of society. Meanwhile,
discourse as an abstract noun, is not only
concerned with language in use, but also
the pervasive and often invisible sets of
values, beliefs and ideas in that social
circumstance.
The theory of Fairclough believes that
language is a form of social practice and
states that the term discourse can be used
to make a connection between language
and the wider society.
So, the theory is not only seen discourse as
the use of language in speech and writing
but also as a form of social practice. In this
case, the discourse analysis becomes a tool
that is capable of interacting explicitly and
implicitly with people's lives so that
communication can be built in the midst of
society and also used as a movement to
achieve certain goals. In addition to that,
the theory proposed critical discourse
analysis approach also has a purpose of
understanding the discourse as a form of
social practice. In social practice, a person
always has the purpose of writing a
discourse, including the purpose of
exercising power.
Thus, based on my understanding from
Fairclough’s theory, I found several
objectives; first, this theory consider
language in the context of a larger
community. Second, this theory examine
gender, ethnicity, race, and culture, and
consider how these social constructs are
portrayed and formed in language. Third,
this theory assess who the most vulnerable
clauses and sentences are linked
together and text structure deals with
large scale organizational properties of
text. (Fairclough, 1992)
Review: Fairclough’s analysis is based on
three components—description,
interpretation and explanation. Linguistic
properties of texts are described (text
analysis), the relationship between the
productive and interpretative processes of
discursive practice and the texts is
interpreted, and the relationship between
discursive practice and social practice is
explained. The theory explore the multi-
layered analysis incorporates textual,
processing and social levels of discourse
analysis. Second, text is at the core of the
analysis. In addition to that, the theory
defined text, thus, for analyzed for linguistic
evidence for claims made out of the
discourse analytical work.
So, based on my understanding from
Fairclough’s theory, I found several
objectives; first, the theory seen text as any
piece of work which in terms of
communicative meaning, is complete in
itself. It is the observable product of a
writer’s or speaker’s discourse. Second,
text can be in the form of speech, writing,
or mixture of all two forms of
communication.
Debby Rizky
8226110002 | LTBI-A’22
Discourse Analysis
individuals in society are, as well as who
the most powerful are.