Session 4, Text & Sign II
RECAP: Social meaning of language variation
E.g. a play (drama):
1. Use dimension:
 Register: fictional literature – not e.g. natural conversation
(cp. interactional features)
 Genre: stage dialog – not e.g. poem, novel, short story, etc.
2. User dimension:
The characters within the “reality” of the fiction:
What does their use of language show about …
 who they are (social stereotypes)?
 their social relationship to other characters?
 their social attitudes and values?
”Language and Power” - Discourse Analysis
 Sociolinguistics: concerned with spoken language
especially – form and (social) function
 Discourse analysis: Concerned with written language
especially – form and content
Definitions of Discourse:
A. Text across sentences, spoken or written (structural
cohesion/coherence)
B. Conversational interaction (the “management” of the
conversation)
C. Particular ways of structuring areas of knowledge and
social practices
Critical Discourse Analysis
We can see (A), (B) and (C) as different levels of social
practice, but –
– regardless of the level analyzed:
Discourse Analysis = analysis of the discourse
by any or all methods!
i.e. it may involve any number or type of linguistic,
pragmatic and/or social theories or methods
(including e.g. Sign Theory and Speech Act Theory)
Critical Discourse Analysis
 is based on a ”conflict” model of society: language
creates, sustains and replicates fundamental social
inequalities
 Sociolinguistics is more often based on a consensus
model of society– according to some analysts
Discourse (Analysis) theory
 Already in Speech Act theory, language not only
reflects, it creates reality – cp. speech act theory
 Thus variation in language/texts = variation in reality!
 A text is rarely true or false …
 … but may construct a different reality than some other
text
 This notion is called Linguistic Relativity
 The different discursive realities tend to be politically
or ideologically determined
 representing different power structures, conflicts,
inequalities, etc.
Early Foucault
 identities are constructed through the range of
discourses available to the individual
(language controls consciousness – cp. Sapir/Whorf)
Later Foucault
 identities are constructed by relations of power
= “the internalization of the norms and values implied
by the prevailing discourses”
= “what seems attractive and desirable” – “socially
useful”  Fairclough
Fairclough’s model (Readings pp.77-78)
– adds a more linguistic dimension
1. A concrete text (written, spoken or signed)
TEXT
DISCOURSE PRACTICE
SOCIAL PRACTICE
2. Discourse practice (of text production or
interpretation
3. Sociocultural Practice (wider social and
political relations)
Fairclough cont.
Orders of Discourse
(cp. Bourdieu’s Linguistic Markets)
 Discourse practices within, e.g., education
system, labor market, government, everyday
interactions
 The particular order of discourse of an
institution comprises a hierarchy of more or less
acceptable discourse types
 Some have an on-stage role – others an off-
stage role – in the practices of the institution
Pierre Bourdieu: Four types of capital
 1. Economic
 2. Cultural (knowledge, skill, education)
 3. Social (connections, membership)
 4. Symbolic (prestige, honor, status)
 Interactions take place within Linguistic Marketplace
 Symbolic capital  symbolic domination
 Capital coveted the most: that which is most unequally
distributed
 The powerless believe in the legitimacy of the powerful
Bourdieu cont.
Habitus – euphemization: durable, transposable
(class) dispositions influencing individual practices
cp. Basil Bernstein’s ”particularistic vs. universalistic”
orders of meaning (1973)
Critique of Bourdieu:
Focuses on power at the expense of the solidarity
dimension
Undervalues structure and function of working class
vernaculars
Discourse Analysis: Some key notions for discussion
 Power – solidarity (hierarchical><non-hierarch.)
Tu/Vous distinction in your language(s)?
 Hegemony /Ideological State Apparatuses (ISA)
Power disguised, government with consent of the
governed
- macro level, e.g. tacit language norm
- micro level, e.g. tacit status & role relationships
 Voices/polyphony (Bakhtin) –
- “decentered subjects” (Foucault)
- intertextuality (e.g. Fairclough)
Key concepts, cont.
The ideological nature of the sign
 Voloshinov (1973)/ Bakhtin (1981): linguistic signs
open to different social orientations (i.e. not ”neutral”)
 Heteroglossia / polyphony: coexistence and
interplay between several ”voices” in an utterance
 Bakhtin: dominant classes try to downplay polyphony
of the sign, to make the sign uniaccentual
 Construction of self via language = entering into
dialogue with, and adopting, many social ”voices”
- cp. ”acts of identity” in later sociolinguistics
Related concepts:
 (Positive) connotations (Barthes) of some words
preferable to (negative) connotations of alternatives
 Euphemization (Bourdieu): discarding the
disagreeable word for the sake of appropriateness
(”market accommodation”)
 Relexicalization (Halliday): replacement of old words
for new in the “anti-language”
The Lopez text
Fairclough’s ”text” level: Purpose?
– what kind of social act does it constitute?
Ad-like features: ”code play” – intended effect?
Puns:
Fanny-tastic (caption)
Copy her moves (metaphor/literal) 1st par.
Kick-ass caboose, 1st par.
Behind the seams (cp. scenes) picture, below
Cosmo Buff, top left
Lopez, cont.
Alliteration: Caption –
dug up the dish
her well-rounded rear ranked
best backside
1st par. –
shapely star
butt boosting
kick-ass caboose
Sub-headings –
rump running
tush toning
Lopez, cont.
Cohesion:
Different words for one item (!) is
the main principle of cohesion throughout
– Find all these different ”synonyms”
– Group them according to type
i.e. Synonyms for buttocks in Lopez:
FORMAL
INFORMAL
SLANG
rear euph.
backside euph.
fanny AE! – cp. BE: taboo!
rump humor euph
tush AE
butt ”end” cp. cigarette butt
caboose = last train wagon
(kick)ass rude, taboo!
NOT USED
behind euph.
bum euph.
bottom euph.
i.e. 8 words for ”buttocks” used in Lopez
– all of them with obvious connotations –
only word not used is the ”neutral” one: buttocks!
 Relexicalization (Halliday)
 Euphemization (Bourdieu)
”anti-language”
”market accommodation”
What commodity is being put on the market,
in Lopez?
 ”keeps her well-rounded rear ranked Hollywood’s
best backside”
 ”Copy … and you’ll have a kick-ass caboose in three
weeks”
 Implication: Women will compete for beauty / see
this as a matter for competition
”kick-ass” intertextuality: games / fighting
 Picture: Icon and Symbol (of beauty, metonymically
represented in language and picture emphasis by
”tush”!
Lopez cont.
Fairclough’s Discourse Practice (level two)
 Divide text into sections and label them
 according to (main) language function (Readings, p. 45)
Lopez cont.
Language Functions (cp. Readings p. 45):
Reportive/directive (”Copy …)
+ Commissive (”and you’ll have …)
= style of advertising
2nd & 3rd columns:
Directive/reportive: style of instruction manual
Lopez cont.
Conversational style (”interaction”): Often in ads!
Here ?
Tabloid style (cp. ”Kate’s boobs”)
Here?
Fairclough’s Social Practice (level three):
Does the text challenge or reinforce expected social
roles?
Purist
 Reports attitude:
”… instructed by my father to say ’It is I’”
”… dozens of rules of speech”
”… a question of being properly brought up”
”… class came into it”
Ex. of irony – the author speaking with two ”voices”?
”… And when we started writing, we were told never to
begin a sentence with the word and”
”… nor to use a preposition to end a sentence up with”
Purist cont.
Expressive of the author’s attitude:
”… Frankly, I don’t regret these injunctions”
”… they have taken on almost moral overtones”
”… I find it hard to trust someone who says …”
”… sense of superiority … scorn for the speaker …”
”… my disapproval is such that … I’m not going to give
them any free advertising”
Implicit value judgments:
”… bad grammar has a wider mass appeal than normal
grammar” [DISCUSS ”bad,” ”mass,” ”normal”! ]
[Identify the ”linguistic symbols of mass culture”
in the last paragraph]