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1. The concepts of discourse, power and ideology and their relationship
Critical discourse analysis is a subdivision of discourse analysis, which emphasizes how and why certain discourse is produced rather than focuses on describing discourse (Teo, 2000). It means that critical discourse studies aims at finding the implied ideology contained in the texts through analyzing the linguistic features of discourse and social factors surrounding discourse and further reveals the power relationship hidden such ideology. Van Dijk (2001) gives a more specific definition to critical discourse analysis that it mainly studies how social inequality and dominance are legislated, reproduced and strived against by spoken and written texts in social context. From the two definitions, discourse, power and ideology are three important terms in critical discourse analysis and they are closely related to each other. So, it is necessary to explain the concepts of these three terms firstly.
Language is of great important in our social life. Discourse is seen as language use in texts or talks (Fairclough and Wodak, 2004). It can represent the world from different perspectives and affect how people see the world. And discourse is also regarded as a form of social practice or an action, which is not only a transparent medium for recording information or reflecting real world, but is ideological as everyone produces discourse from a specific ideological stance (Fairclough, 1989). Since it has important influence on society, it resulted in the concerns of power used in discourse.
Power is another concept that attracts attention. Power, especially social power of groups, means control. The more powerful groups can control the behavior and though of the less powerful groups through various ways. It can be achieved through coercive way by employing the police or the army, which is physical force. However, in most cases, the power of ruling groups is achieved through manufacturing consent or toleration by being integrating in laws, rules, norms and habits (van Dijk, 2001). It is noted that power is not used in an abusive way obviously by dominant group. By contrast, it exists in our everyday “natural” action and though, especially if it is exercised through consent. Ideology is the primary way to achieve consent (Fairclough, 2001).
Ideology is a system of ideas and beliefs shared by a group or a community, which is organized from a certain aspect (Hodge
Critical discourse analysis is a subdivision of discourse analysis, which emphasizes how and why certain discourse is produced rather than focuses on describing discourse (Teo, 2000). It means that critical discourse studies aims at finding the implied ideology contained in the texts through analyzing the linguistic features of discourse and social factors surrounding discourse and further reveals the power relationship hidden such ideology. Van Dijk (2001) gives a more specific definition to critical discourse analysis that it mainly studies how social inequality and dominance are legislated, reproduced and strived against by spoken and written texts in social context. From the two definitions, discourse, power and ideology are three important terms in critical discourse analysis and they are closely related to each other. So, it is necessary to explain the concepts of these three terms firstly.
Language is of great important in our social life. Discourse is seen as language use in texts or talks (Fairclough and Wodak, 2004). It can represent the world from different perspectives and affect how people see the world. And discourse is also regarded as a form of social practice or an action, which is not only a transparent medium for recording information or reflecting real world, but is ideological as everyone produces discourse from a specific ideological stance (Fairclough, 1989). Since it has important influence on society, it resulted in the concerns of power used in discourse.
Power is another concept that attracts attention. Power, especially social power of groups, means control. The more powerful groups can control the behavior and though of the less powerful groups through various ways. It can be achieved through coercive way by employing the police or the army, which is physical force. However, in most cases, the power of ruling groups is achieved through manufacturing consent or toleration by being integrating in laws, rules, norms and habits (van Dijk, 2001). It is noted that power is not used in an abusive way obviously by dominant group. By contrast, it exists in our everyday “natural” action and though, especially if it is exercised through consent. Ideology is the primary way to achieve consent (Fairclough, 2001).
Ideology is a system of ideas and beliefs shared by a group or a community, which is organized from a certain aspect (Hodge