16.2299, Review: Discourse: Blommaert (2005)

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Subject: 16.2299, Review: Discourse: Blommaert (2005)

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1)
Date: 30-Jul-2005
From: Shiv Upadhyay < upadhyay at yorku.ca >
Subject: Discourse: A Critical Introduction 

	
-------------------------Message 1 ---------------------------------- 
Date: Sun, 31 Jul 2005 17:40:55
From: Shiv Upadhyay < upadhyay at yorku.ca >
Subject: Discourse: A Critical Introduction 
 

AUTHOR: Blommaert, Jan
TITLE: Discourse
SUBTITLE: A Critical Introduction
SERIES: Key Topics in Sociolinguistics
PUBLISHER: Cambridge University Press
YEAR: 2005
Announced at http://linguistlist.org/issues/16/16-1240.html


Shiv R. Upadhyay, 
Department of Languages, Literatures, and Linguistics, York University,
Toronto, Canada

INTRODUCTION

Discourse, by Jan Blommaert, is one of the few books published so far 
by Cambridge University Press in a new series entitled Key Topics in 
Sociolinguistics. As the subtitle of the books suggests, this book 
essentially offers a critical overview of mainstream critical discourse 
analysis (CDA) and seeks to expand its scope by including language 
use in contexts hitherto overlooked in CDA and by amending the 
methodology used in the current critical study of discourse.

SUMMARY

In Chapter One, Blommaert states the purpose of his book, which is to 
offer 'a proposal for critical reflection on, and analysis of, discourse' 
(p. 1). For Blommaert, however, the scope of critical discourse 
analysis is extended to cover the effects of power in discourse 
produced in the globalized context of language use. He accordingly 
argues that 'a critical analysis of discourse ... necessarily needs to 
provide insights in the dynamics of societies-in-the-world' (p.2). The 
author identifies linguistic anthropology and sociolinguistics as 
the 'building blocks' of his work. He outlines five principles that 
underlie his work. Four of them are derived from these building blocks, 
and the fifth one is his own view that 'communicative events are 
ultimately influenced by the structure of the world system' (p. 15).  

In Chapter Two, Blommaert discusses the origin and development of 
Critical Discourse Analysis (CDC) and provides a critical survey of 
assumptions underlying its theory and methodology. He attributes the 
origin of CDA to the seminal work of 'critical linguists' at the University 
of East Anglia in the 1970s, which focused on the use of language in 
institutional contexts and the relations between language, power, and 
ideology. The work of these linguists was inspired by Michael 
Halliday's systematic-functional and socio-semiotic view of language. 
Blommaert also refers to the British cultural studies carried out at the 
Birmingham Centre for Contemporary Culture Studies as a significant 
source of influence on CDA. The Centre dealt with issues of political, 
social, and cultural nature in British capitalist society, many of which 
later became topics in CDA. Blommaert observes that, while some 
linguists are in favor of adopting diverse methodologies in CDA, the 
dominant practice has been for a methodology that 
involves 'linguistically defined text-concepts' (p. 29). He views textual 
structures as having 'a crucial function' of producing such social 
attributes as authority, power, inequality, and ideology. He refers to 
Fairclough's research methodology in CDA as having a three-way 
function, namely description, interpretation, and explanation. While the 
descriptive function is concerned with the analysis of linguistic/textual 
features of discourse and the interpretive function with the analysis of 
social, ideological, and cognitive resources employed by discourse 
producers, it is the explanatory function that is most crucial to CDA as 
it seeks to render discourse analysis 'critical' by exposing the 
underlying ideological perspectives through social theory. The rest of 
Chapter Two discusses two kinds of criticism made against CDA: (1) 
criticism made by others on method, methodology, and analytical 
approaches, and (2) criticism that is mostly Blommaert's own on the 
potential of CDA as 'a critical study of language.' 

In Chapter Three, Blommaert begins by pointing out and explaining 
two principles, namely (1) context is always needed in discourse 
analysis and (2) contextualization is dialogical. He then critically 
discusses the use of context in two areas of discourse analysis, 
namely CDA and conversation analysis (CA). Blommaert 
disapprovingly points out that CDA involves a great deal of a priori 
contextualization. The use of social-theoretical concepts and 
categories in CDA in an 'off-hand' and 'seemingly self-evident' manner 
results in very 'simplified models of social structures and patterns of 
action' (p. 51). Similarly, power relations are generally predefined and 
tokens of them are then sought in the text. One major problem that 
Blommaert sees is that the critical discourse analyst's 'critique' 
generally becomes an object of belief rather than an object open for 
inspection. On the other hand, context in CA is not a priori but 
something that emerges from the interactional contribution of 
speakers and thus becomes observable in the interaction. While he 
points out that human interaction is viewed in CA as being dense and 
complex, Blommaert views its principles and 'self-imposed restrictions' 
on its methodology as having limited relevance to his own agenda. He 
points out two main problems with the CA methodology, particularly 
the one developed by Schegloff. First, CA entextualizes interaction; 
that is, it analyzes human interactions as mere texts, thereby stripping 
them of their social context. The practice of entextualization in CA 
leads to Blommaert's second problem, namely talk in CA tends to 
be 'mundanized,' and any special context must be established through 
the internal analysis of talk. However, this methodology poses a 
problem because the preference in CA for short sequences of talk 
disallows the connection between discourse and social structure, 
although the latter serves 'as a critical context for a text' (p. 57).

Blommaert then discusses three types of what he calls 'forgotten' 
contexts. The first one of them is 'the complex of linguistic means and 
communicative skills' (p. 58), generally viewed as resources. In a 
critical analysis of discourse, the context of resources provides an 
understanding of why some individuals, but not others, have access to 
these resources and how inequalities result between those who 
possess them and those who do not. The second 'forgotten' context 
that Blommaert identifies involves 'shifting texts between contexts' (p. 
62), which are tied to the issue of power and hence are very relevant 
to critical discourse analysis. The third 'forgotten' context is that of the 
history of 'discourse data.' Its relevance to the critical analysis of 
discourse lies in the fact that our understanding of them is influenced 
by how the data were selected, gathered, and treated.

Chapter Four is a critical discussion of discourse and inequality. 
Inequality is associated with the issues of voice. Blommaert takes 
voice to be 'the capacity for semiotic mobility' (p. 69) and argues that 
understanding voice requires the investigation of how speakers 
achieve functional goals through the use of linguistic forms. Inequality 
thus ensues when speakers differ in terms of the extent to which they 
have access to resources, which in turn determines their ability to 
achieve mobility in various contexts of language use. In the globalized 
context of language use, inequality is significantly associated with 
orders of indexicality, a system by which languages or varieties of a 
language are attributed values and social meanings. Orders of 
indexicality allow institutions to manage inequality by assigning values 
to language forms, one result of which is that standard varieties are 
accorded superior values whereas non-standard varieties are 
assigned inferior values. Blommaert examines three samples of 
discourse that serve to demonstrate how the same discourses can 
receive different orders of indexicality in local and international 
contexts of language use, thereby explaining how inequality can arise 
in these contexts.

In Chapter Five, Blommaert makes the point that, while human 
communication consists of creative language forms, it is also 
constrained by 'normativities.' Thus, communicative events involve the 
interaction between the creativity of discourse forms and political, 
social and cultural constraints. Relevant to the discussion of the 
limitation of human communication is Foucault's notion of archive, 'a 
historical system of formation and transformation of statements' (p. 103), 
which varies across societies. Blommaert analyzes written 
documents produced by sub-Saharan Africans for use in the trans-
location of Belgian society and demonstrates these documents to be 
multi-modal and 'encyclopedic' in that they involve the use of not only 
writing but also drawing, listing, tabulating, and clearly 
presenting 'topical divisions in sections and chapters' (p. 119). More 
importantly, his analysis points out that, while these 'hetero-
graphically' produced texts may be befitting in the local orders of 
indexicality since they may be viewed as good and functionally 
adequate in sub-Saharan African society or its diasporic community in 
Belgium, they are evaluated negatively when subjected to the norms 
of literacy of Belgian society. 

Chapter Six is a discussion of the view that, while discourse takes 
place within 'a real-time and synchronic event,' it simultaneously 
represents 'several layers of historicity' (p. 130).  Discourse 
participants may or may not be aware of these layers of historicity. 
Blommaert refers to the works of such researchers as Norman 
Fairclough and John Thompson that point out that human activities 
represent history in various ways and that the process by which 
history is represented in discourse imposes restrictions on what 
participants can say. Discourse producers select certain layers of 
historicity and synchronize them to the position they take, thus 
performing an act of power.

In Chapter Seven, Blommaert begins by accepting a view of ideology 
in which the ideational aspect is 'materially mediated' (p. 164). 
Blommaert presents Antonio Gramsci's view of hegemony as 
the 'cultural domination' of the bourgeoisie and as soft power by which 
the bourgeoisie is related to other social classes. Gramsci's idea of 
socialist revolution consisted of two aspects; one was hegemony, as 
power by consent, and the other coercion. While hegemony was used 
to define the proletariat's relationship with their allied groups like the 
peasants, coercion was used to define the relationship with their 
enemy, namely the bourgeoisie. Blommaert identifies hegemony and 
coercion as dominant and determining factors, respectively, in 
ideological processes and observes that underlying the reproduction 
of dominant culture is the 'coercive and disciplining system of 
education,' which in Foucault's view is the 'locus of capillary power, all-
pervasive surveillance, and perpetual punishability' (p. 167). 
Blommaert also points out  James Scott's view that behind a 'smooth 
hegemony' there may be hidden 'dissenting views and practices,' also 
known as 'hidden transcripts,' which may surface at the time of crisis 
or conflict. Another significant point that Blommaert makes and 
illustrates through critical analyses of actual political texts is that 
ideological processes work 'in and through polycentric and stratified 
systems,' in which different ideologies function 'at different levels and 
in different ways' (p. 173). 

In Chapter Eight, Blommaert begins by making two points about 
identity in discourse: one, as commonly held, identity is produced, 
enacted, and performed, and two, processes of identity construction, 
while semiotic, 'need not be interpersonal' (p. 206). He posits that 
identity, rather than being stable, is constructed as 'forms of semiotic 
potential, organized in a repertoire' (p. 207) and explains two 
advantages of his view of identity. First, the view shows how identities 
are connected to semiotic resources, and second how it allows the 
critical discourse analyst to examine the link between identity and 
inequality, particularly in the globalized context of verbal interaction.

Chapter Nine is the conclusion of the book, in which the author 
restates his main argument, namely the contextualization of discourse 
needs to be 'a central element' in an expanded study of language in 
society, particularly in critical discourse analysis, and that the existing 
scope of context must be broadened to include not only transnational 
and globalized contexts of language use but also the context long 
before and after the emergence of discourse 'as a linguistically 
articulated object' (p. 234). The author justifies the need for the 
expansion of the scope of critical discourse analysis based on his 
observation of 'new' discourse patterns emerging in transnational 
communication and in light of 'the body of theory produced on 
globalization in the social sciences' (p. 235). 

EVALUATION

Blommaert's book Discourse seeks to expand the critical study of 
discourse to a new domain of language use, namely the globalized 
world, and argues for a greater role of context in the methodology of 
CDA. CDA is generally viewed as the study of 'the relationship 
between discourse and power' (van Dijk, 2001, p. 363), a study that 
addresses social problems (Fairclough and Wodak, 1997). As long as 
the world continues to be globalized, one cannot disagree with 
Blommaert that the globalized world creates situations in which 
individuals and institutions representing different national, socio-
cultural and dialectical backgrounds are involved in communicative 
events. Blommaert argues in this book that communicative events in 
transnational contexts produce discourse that is shaped less 
by 'textual or philosophical coherence' and more by 'the occasion, the 
particular point in time, and the actors involved' (p. 234). He has 
empirically and persuasively shown that, as discourse moves across 
socio-cultural as well as national boundaries, it undergoes changes in 
its order of indexicality and is subjected to power abuse and 
inequality. I believe that he has robustly argued for the need to 
expand CDA to include the analysis of discourse produced in 
globalized contexts as it pursues its core mission to 'understand, 
expose, and ultimately resist social inequality' (van Dijk, 2001, p. 352). 

In Discourse, Blommaert also argues for a greater role of context in 
the critical analysis of discourse. He views the notion of context in 
current CDA as 'restricted' since it overlooks 'the modes of production 
and circulation of discourse' (p. 233). In Blommaert's view, 
ethnographically constructed context is the right way to address the 
problem of 'restricted' context. To the extent that he has empirically 
shown the changes that discourses in transnational contexts undergo 
in their order of indexicality, the socio-semiotic complexity of such 
discourses, and the new discourse patterns that emerge in them, his 
argument for ethnographically informed context makes a great deal of 
sense.

The significance that Blommaert attaches to context becomes evident 
when he says that '[A] critical analysis of discourse needs to begin 
long before discourse emerges as a linguistically articulated object, 
and it needs to continue long after the act of production' (p. 234). In a 
critical analysis of discourse that begins before and lasts after the 
production of discourse, the analyst must, following Blommaert, adopt 
an ethnographically informed notion of context as a crucial component 
of its methodology in order to adequately account for the relationship 
between language and power. Other critical studies of discourse (for 
example, Cicourel 1992, Philips 1992) have shown ethnographically 
informed context to be crucial to the critical study of discourse in 
institutional settings. However, Blommaert's methodology places much 
greater emphasis on ethnographically derived context than does the 
methodology of other critical studies of discourse, including CDA. To 
further support the legitimacy of ethnographically informed context, 
Blommaert also argues that, as long as discourse is accepted 
as 'contextualized language,' the critical discourse analyst must adopt 
the view of linguistics as 'a social science of language-in-society' (p. 
235) beyond a certain point in the critical analysis of discourse. To 
conclude, Blommaert's book Discourse is a very important contribution 
to the critical study of language. In addition to providing an excellent 
overview of various aspects of critical discourse study, this book 
expands the field to the globalized context of language use and offers 
a methodology that is more elaborate and more theoretically motivated 
than that of current CDA. It is a must-read book for anyone who is 
seriously interested in the critical study of language.

REFERENCES

Cicourel, Aaron V. (1992). The interpretation of communicative 
contexts: Examples from medical encounters. In Alessandro Duranti 
and Charles Goodwin (eds.), Rethinking context. Cambridge: 
Cambridge University Press. 

Fairclough, Norman and Wodak, Ruth (1997). Critical discourse 
analysis. In Teun A. van Dijk (ed.), Discourse Studies: A 
Multidisciplinary Introduction, Vol. 2. London: Sage. 

Philips, Susan U. (1992). The routinization of repair in courtroom 
discourse. In Alessandro Duranti and Charles Goodwin (eds.), 
Rethinking context. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 

van Dijk, Teun (2001). Critical Discourse Analysis. In Deborah 
Schiffrin, Deborah Tannen, and Heidi Hamilton (eds.) The Handbook 
of Discourse Analysis. Oxford: Blackwell. 

ABOUT THE REVIEWER

Shiv R. Upadhyay is a faculty member in the Department of 
Languages, Literatures, and Linguistics at York University in Toronto, 
Canada. He teaches content-based ESL and Linguistics. His main 
research interests are in discourse analysis, sociolinguistics, 
pragmatics, and second language acquisition.





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