CRITICS: KEYWORDS IN CDA Project

[Teun A. van Dijk]

KEYWORDS IN CRITICAL DISCOURSE ANALYSIS

A Proposal for a Collective E-Manual

Teun A. van Dijk

Version 1.0 (December 19, 1995)

Since some time I have been thinking of an idea to organize (and then
maybe publish) a collection of two-page mini-studies of major
analytical keywords in CDA. Such a collection of concepts would be a
fairly unique mixture of a practical Do-It-Yourself-CDA for students,
a manual and a compendium of analytical terminology of CDA. The
relevance of such a manual would be more practical than theoretical:
It would help analysts as a reminder of the (many) relevant aspects
of discourse that could usefully be examined in a critical study.

Each entry or mini-chapter in such a manual would focus on one term
or concept often used in critical discourse analysis, give a brief
theoretical description of that concept, one or two examples, and a
few key-references. Typical examples would focus on various levels
and dimensions of structures and strategies of text and talk, as well
as on their social and political functions, contexts, conditions or
consequences, and might include such concepts as:

NON-VERBAL EXPRESSION, REPRESENTATION AND INTERACTION
- -semiotic and multi/cross-media analysis in general
- -gestures
- -face-work
- -applause
- -print lay-out (e.g. of newspapers)
- -photographs
etc.

SOUND STRUCTURES
- -pitch, stress and intonation
- -rhyme and rhythm
- -pronunciation (standard and dialectal/sociolectal variations)
etc.

SYNTACTIC STRUCTURES
- -word order
- -clause structure
- -clause combining
- -pronouns
- -active vs. passive voice
- -nominalization
- -cohesion
- -discourse markers
- -deictic expressions
etc.

STYLE
- -All variations at the previous 'surface' levels
- -lexical choice and variation
- -register
etc.

'RHETORICAL' DEVICES
- -'figures of style'
- -sound, word and graphical repetition
- -special syntactic 'figures' (e.g. zeugma, incompleteness)
- -simile, metonymy and metaphor
- -irony
- -hyperbole
- -mitigation, euphemism
etc.

SEMANTIC STRUCTURES
- -reference
- -truth
- -intension/extension
- -propositional structure
- -topic and comment
- -focus and information dynamics (given-new, etc.)
- -local coherence
- -implication and entailment
- -indirectness
- -presupposition
- -paraphrase
- -disclaimers
- -generalization
- -levels of description and degrees of completeness
- -perspective and point of view
- -global topics
- -cognitive dimensions (models, knowledge, etc.)
etc. etc. etc.

SCHEMATIC ORGANIZATION
- -abstract schemata, categories and rules
- -argumentative structures
- -narrative structures
- -news schemata
- -overall conversational organization (e.g. Opening and Closing)
etc.

PRAGMATIC AND INTERACTIONAL STRUCTURES AND STRATEGIES
- -(inter)action types and levels
- -speech acts and illocutionary force
- -implicatures
- -cooperation maxims
- -politeness strategies
- -face-keeping and self-presentation
- -turn taking
- -side-sequences
- -adjacency pairs
- -(dis)agreement
etc.

CONTEXT STRUCTURES
- -social domain or 'field'
- -interaction types
- -setting (time, location)
- -circumstances
- -participant types and roles
- -patterns of 'access'
- -gender
- -class
- -ethnicity and 'race'
- -group membership and identity
- -intentions, purposes and goals
- -props
etc.

SOCIAL-POLITICAL FUNCTIONS AND PROCESSES
- -legitimation
- -reproduction
- -manufacturing consent
- -manipulation
- -dissidence and resistance
etc.

SOCIO-COGNITIVE FOUNDATIONS
- -mental processes and representations
- -strategic processing
- -event models and context models
- -knowledge representation (scripts)
- -opinions, attitudes
- -prejudice and stereotypes
- -ideologies
- -norms and values
- -memory and recognition
- -text production and comprehension
- -persuasion and influence
- -mind control and manipulation
etc.

Of course this is merely a very incomplete list. The point is to
focus on those analytical concepts that repeatedly have been found to
play a role in critical analyses, that is, those structures of text
and talk that are typically involved in the expression, reproduction
and legitimation of, or resistance against power, dominance and
inequality. This would also mark the major difference with existing
handbooks of linguistics or pragmatics.

The reason I post this idea on this list is threefold. First, to ask
you whether you think such a manual would be useful for yourself,
your students or colleagues in CDA. Secondly, to ask whether you
eventually would want to cooperate in this enterprise by submitting
proposals for a few items, viz., those with which you have been
familiar in your own work, or which you have 'invented' yourself. And
thirdly, whether you think the first versions of these 2 page (1000
word) items should be posted on this list, so that comments and
suggestions can be made by all who are specialized in any of the
items thus posted or by anybody else who has comments on them --both
experienced scholars as well as Ph.D. students.

In sum, this would be a proposal for a rather unique experiment,
viz., to devise a CDA-manual jointly and ongoingly, as some kind of
academic e-conversation, possibly with other contributors from
outside the list (or new future subscribers). If this enterprise
would be successful, we could also jointly decide to publish the
result as a manual. Of course, once we have the result in electronic
form, you could also download a version on the hard-disk of your PC,
and thus may use (search, etc.) the manual electronically.

To avoid that several people would start work on the same keywords,
each potential contributor would first announce on this list his or
her interest in writing on a specific item.

Please post general comments, suggestions and reaction to this idea
on the list (CRITICS-L at UVA.NL), but send more personal reactions to
me (teun at let.uva.nl).

Please feel free to forward this manual to others not on this list (a
list of list subscribers will be posted soon, and updates posted
regularly).

It would be great if such an experiment would work. It would be one
of the most useful functions of this list, I think.

Best wishes for the coming holiday season, and for 1996.


Teun A. van Dijk
University of Amsterdam
Program of Discourse Studies
210 Spuistraat
1012 VT Amsterdam, the Netherlands.
Phone: +31-20-525.3834 (office direct, 10-12 hrs)
Phone: +31-20-525.3865 (dept. secretary)
Phone: +31-20-6.27.37.47 (home --after 13 hrs)
FAX :  +31-20-639.1727
E-mail: teun at let.uva.nl