2. Theoretical Framework
Discourses are not just about things that can be said or thought about, but also about who can speak, when, and with what authority. Discourses embody meaning and social connections. Foucault points out that his reliance on discourse as independent of language and thought does not mean that we can do nothing about its domination. Discourses are actions that systematically shape issues. Discourses don’t talk about topics and don’t identify them, they are the builders of the topics, and in the process of this construction they hide their intervention (Tajik, 1998: 15). Based on this, it can be said that discourse analysis is a part of qualitative research methods that is used to discover the meaning used in the text or speech and is used in various fields such as politics and media. Critical discourse analysis is a hybrid methodology that is mostly used by social researchers. In this method, quantitative and qualitative analysis is used to examine relationships based on critical theory. CDA is the application of critical theory to content analysis (Agiro, 2009). Given its critical roots in the critical language tradition, the CDA seeks to apply traditional language description methods to critical activities (Jones, 2007). Defining CDA analysis, David Crystal (1992) states: ”It is an approach to language analysis that aims to reveal the hidden relations of power and ideological processes in linguistics.” (Aghagolzadeh, 2016: 11).
Norman Fairclough considers critical analysis to be a method used to examine social and cultural change, among other methods, and is a reference used in the struggle against exploitation and domination (Yarmohammadi, 2014: 105). In fact, Fairclough considers the CDA to be the development of an analytical framework (theory and method) for the study of language in relation to power and ideology (Rahimi & Amalsaleh, 2018: 118). The CDA approach is a formative process of discourse analysis in linguistic studies that has theoretically and methodologically elevated discourse analysis from the level of descriptive texts to the level of explanation, and in terms of scope of research, its range have improved from the level of the individual’s position to society, history and ideology (Aghagolzadeh & Ghiasian, 2017: 18).
Critical linguistics and the CDA are interested in analyzing the overt or covert structural relationships of their dominance, racial discrimination, power, control, and expression in language. In other words, the goal of the CDA is to understand social inequalities, as used in language, and this continuous application contributes to its formation, consolidation and legitimacy. Accordingly, most critical discourse analysis endorse Habermas’s claim that “language is a means of domination and social force organized to legitimize power relations.” (ibid: 36). Fairclough calls his approach a critical study of language, with the first goal, which is more theoretical, “helping to correct the widespread lack of attention to language in producing, maintaining, and changing the social relations of power,” and the second, which is more practical goal, “It raises awareness of how language plays a role in dominating some over others”. This concept includes several implicit concepts: 1. Language is a part of society and is not outside it, 2. Language is a social process, and 3. Language is a conditional social process (it is conditional on other non-linguistic sections of society) (ibid: 37).
The CDA is a methodological content analysis used by social researchers to examine the thematic repetition of critical theory issues (Fairclough, 2003). The CDA is primarily concerned with analyzing ambiguous as well as explicit structural relationships such as domination, discrimination, power, and control. Texts are a very important resource for CDA. Because they can have a causal effect on people’s actions (beliefs, views, etc.), social relations and the material world and even change them. On the one hand, the processes of text production and their interpretation are formed through the nature of social action, and on the other hand, the production process shapes the text, and the interpretive process affects the signs and keywords in the text (Hill, 2009). The CDA is a three-dimensional framework that examines text, social action, and discourse (Leitch & Davenport: 2005).
Context
Discourse Social action
Figure 2-1- Triple levels of analysis in CDA (Hill, 2009)
Critical theory examines societies and evaluates how societies have treated minorities and groups that have traditionally been oppressed and silenced, this theory examines the negative effects of power in society and how to reduce these effects (Arnowitz & Giroux, 1991). Finally, the CDA sees language as a form of social action. The role of discourse in the production and reproduction of social reality, in the imposition and interpretation of social relations and identities, as well as the impact on social cohesion and change is also considered important (Koosha & Shams, 2005).