criticallinguisticsanditsexamples批评语言学及其例子分析解析

1、DefinitionCritical linguistics (CL) and critical discourseanalysis (CDA) can best be defined as a sharedperspective on doing linguistic, semiotic ordiscourse analysis (van Dijk 1993b: 131). Although CL and CDA are by many linguists seen as quite different in methodology, they canboth be said to occu

2、py the same paradigmatic space.CL may be defined as fundamentally interestedin analyzing opaque as well as transparentstructural relationships of dominance, discrimination, power and control as manifested in language. In other words, CL aims to investigatecritically social inequality as it is expres

3、sed, signalled, constituted, legitimized etc. by languageuse (or in discourse). CL focus not exclusively on spoken or writtentexts as objects of inquiry. A fully criticalaccount of discourse would require a theorization and description of both the socialprocesses and structures which give rise to th

4、eproduction of a text, and of the social structures and processes within which individuals or groups as social-historical subjects create meanings in their interaction with texts (Fairclough & Kress 1993: 2ff).HistoryIn the 1960s and 1970s, many scholars adopted amore critical perspective in languag

5、e studies. Among the first was the French scholar Pecheux(1992), whose approach traced its roots to the work of Russian theorists Bakhtin and VoloSinov, who had postulated an integration of language andsocial processes in the 1930s. In the late 1970s, agroup of Hallidayan linguists at the University

6、 of East Anglia began applying the term criticallinguistics (CL) in their research on language usein different institutions (see e.g. Fowler et al. 1979;Kress & Hodge 1979). Kress & Hodge assumedstrong and pervasive connections betweenlinguistic structure and social structure, claimingthat discourse

7、 cannot exist without socialmeanings. The authors reacted strongly againstcontemporary trends in pragmatics (e.g. speechact theory) and Labovian quantitativesociolinguistics. Since 1979, this generalapproach has been refined, broadened, changedand reapplied by other linguists coming from very differ

8、ent traditions, many of whom believe that the relationship between language and the social, because of its complex and multifaceted character, requires interdisciplinary research. Scholars from backgrounds including sociolinguistics, formal linguistics, social psychology and literary studies have co

9、ntributed to the growth of the tradition, and have directed CL research into subject domains such as racism, ethnicity, gender studies,political oratory, etc.Principles of CLPolitical commitmentProblem-oriented researchRelationship between language and the social Interdisciplinary research Inclusion

10、 of the historical perspective Discourse as action The social construction of meaningsSocial and political practices are addressed The search for a critical theory of language: Political commitment Uncovering inequality and injustice, denaturalizing ideologies, demystifying dominance and power struc

11、tures, making the latter conscious to those who suffer under oppression are all aims which practitioners of CL view as both desirable and realizable. The subjects under investigation cannot be treated merely as objects. Specific interests and values guide the choice of subjects CL and CDA analyze. C

12、ritical linguists would deny that an objectiveinterpretation results, and consider it advisable at least to make their normative orientations explicit.This is one of the reasons why CL are oftencriticized for being political, only because theytend to choose socially relevant problems for their analy

13、ses, or because their political values aremade explicit, while the interests and values of other researchers remain implicit. Problem-oriented research CL investigate language behavior in every-day situations of immediate and actual social relevance: institutional discourse, media discourse, school

14、textbooks, minority problems, all kinds of discrimination, etc. CL and CDA are thus problem-oriented, which means they aim less to contribute to a specific discipline, paradigm, school of discourse. theory, than to address what they believe to be pressing social issues which they hope to understand

15、better, and possibly change, through their analysis. Relationship between language and the social CL does not view language and the social as two separate entities, but as connected to each other through a dialectical relationship. Linguistic features are sometimes strategically characterized by opa

16、city, due to certain ideologies of the text producers, to power structures on the micro- and macro levels of society, and to historical intertextuality. Linguistic signs (understood as language in use) atany level are the result of social processes (e.g.Kress 1993), and hence motivated conjunctions

17、offorms and meanings. The more powerful (theelites in society, see van Dijk 1993a), have moreand easier access to communication and morechoices in communicative behavior. Example2007 年6 月26 日，俄罗斯总统普京与北约秘书长夏侯雅伯在莫斯科就美国在欧洲部署反导系统计划以及欧洲常规武装力量条约等问题进行会晤。本文的新闻语篇即是路透社记者对这一会晤进行的报道。记者在报道北约秘书长夏侯雅伯建议俄罗斯不要进行导弹威胁举

18、动时，全部使用的是动作性强的物质过程的表达方式，例如：NATO chief chides Russia over missile threatNATO Secretary-General Jaap de Hoop Schefferadvised all sides to .The NATO chief stressed though that thiswarning .On Kosovo, de Hoop Scheffer said he hadto Putin to .In his opening remarks at his meeting with Putin, de Hoop Scheffer urged Russia to .在报道俄罗斯针对北约的指责作出回应时，也选用了动作性强的物质过程和一个心理过程，例如:物质过程：Russia, which holds a veto in the Council, opposesa Western-backed proposal .Russia earlier this year provoked NATO concernby .Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrovack