Language and significance - or the importance of import: implications for critical discourse analysis.

Sayer, R. A. (2006) Language and significance - or the importance of import: implications for critical discourse analysis. Journal of Language and Politics, 5 (3). pp. 449-471. ISSN 1569-2159

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Abstract

One of the main functions of discourses is to impute significance to, or interpret the significance of, things. Claims about significance are not merely expressive or evaluative but informative or descriptive, often referring to matters bearing on well-being or flourishing. It is argued that critical discourse analysis (CDA) can hardly be critical unless it acknowledges and evaluates how discourses impute and interpret significance or import and how this relates to well-being. Critical thought in contemporary social science is undermined by dualisms such as fact/value, reason/emotion, and positive/normative, which tend to position critique as `merely subjective' and beyond the scope of reason or science. Although, like any critical social science, CDA uses terms like `oppression', `racism', `abuse', `exploitation' and `suffering', these cannot be reduced wholly to either positive or normative matters. The paper shows how significance can be understood by challenging these dualisms.

Item Type:
Journal Article
Journal or Publication Title:
Journal of Language and Politics
Additional Information:
RAE_import_type : Journal article RAE_uoa_type : Sociology
Uncontrolled Keywords:
/dk/atira/pure/subjectarea/asjc/3200/3200
Subjects:
?? critiquefact-valuesignificancewell-beinggeneral psychologysociology and political sciencelinguistics and languagehistorygeneral social sciencesgeneral arts and humanitiespsychology(all)social sciences(all)arts and humanities(all)hm sociology ??
ID Code:
3477
Deposited By:
Deposited On:
13 Mar 2008 16:50
Refereed?:
Yes
Published?:
Published
Last Modified:
16 Jul 2024 08:39