Discourse: A Critical Introduction

Key Topics in Sociolinguistics

by Jan Blommaert

Organized thematically, this introduction outlines the basic principles and moves on to examine the methods and theory of CDA (critical discourse analysis). Topics covered include text and context, language and inequality, choice and determination, history and process, ideology and identity. Jan Blommaert focuses on how language can offer a crucial understanding of wider aspects of power relations, arguing that CDA should specifically analyze the effects of power.

Genres: Nonfiction

316 pages, Hardcover

First published December 1, 2004

Reviews

[John Farebrother]

Although this is a very specialised book, I think it will also be very accessible and interesting for luddites. I read it while I was doing my MA in applied translation. The book analyses the nature of discourse, and how it can be interpreted in different ways, depending on the preconditioning of the parties, and of course the context. It cites some fascinating examples, such as the Red Army's failure to intervene in the Warsaw uprising, which would have required them to cross a river (they crossed it anyway, several days later). Different observers understand the discourse on this event in different ways, depending on the perspective from which they approach it: did they deliberately abandon the Warsaw partisans, many of them Jews, to their fate, or was caution in crossing a major river, at a time when the war was far from over, fully justified in military terms? These and many more questions all come down to human communication, which is the subject matter of this scholarly and exhaustive analysis.

[Will]

(Gelezen voor school)

[Theo]

apesar de às vezes as categorias serem pouco claras (um mapa de realização X instanciação ajudaria muito, mas talvez seja "linguístico demais"), é um livro útil e em geral bastante claro, além de fazer a óbvia, mas (bizarramente) esquecidíssima ponte entre a análise do discurso e a antropologia linguística (ou, de modo mais geral, a linguística sociocultural estadunidense). ecletismo organizado é algo sempre louvável.

[Everett Egginton]

Key work in sociolinguistics. Successfully argues for a much broader view of discourse, above and beyond the field of linguistics. I've used it as my principal text in an education graduate course in linguistics and bilingual education.