Critical Discourse Analysis And Cognitive Science

This study advances a model for Critical Discourse Analysis which draws on Evolutionary Psychology and Cognitive Linguistics, applied in a critical analysis of immigration discourse. It will be of special interest to students and researchers with which to explore new perspectives in CDA.

This text offers a new way forward for highlighting language manipulation on behalf of lay-readers as well as for enhancing the interpretative authority of the analyst. It accomplishes this through the innovation of a model of lay-reader processing. The model is an original synthesis of elements from four contemporary cognitive frameworks - connectionism, cognitive linguistics, psycholinguistic evidence on inference generation, relevance theory.

Critical Discourse Studies (CDS) is an exciting research enterprise in which scholars are concerned with the discursive reproduction of power and inequality. However, researchers in CDS are increasingly recognising the need to investigate the cognitive dimensions of discourse and context if they want to fully account for any connection between language, legitimisation and social action. This book presents a collection of papers in CDS concerned with various ideological discourses. Analyses are firmly rooted in linguistics and cognition constitutes a major focus of attention. The chapters, which are written by prominent researchers in CDS, come from a broad range of theoretical perspectives spanning pragmatics, cognitive psychology and cognitive linguistics. The book is essential reading for anyone working at the cutting edge of CDS and especially for those wishing to explore the central place that cognition must surely hold in the relationship between discourse and society.

An introduction to the methodology of cognitive discourse analysis, focusing on eight key areas, from attention to cognitive strategies.

Can discourse analysis techniques adequately deal with complex social phenomena? What does 'interdisciplinarity' mean for theory building and the practise of empirical research? This original volume debates critical theory and discourse analysis, focussing on the extent to which CDA can draw on a range of disciplines in the social sciences.

In this book, Christopher Hart provides a comprehensive description of an applied form of Cognitive Linguistics in Cognitive Critical Discourse Analysis (Cognitive CDA). Cognitive CDA applies frameworks in cognitive linguistics in analyses of political texts and talk to highlight the ideological qualities and legitimating functions of conceptualisations associated with dominant discourse practices. Across the ten lectures, various frameworks in cognitive linguistics are applied, including cognitive grammar, conceptual semantics, conceptual metaphor theory and discourse space theory. Texts and talk from a variety of contexts and genres are analysed. In the final two lectures, Cognitive CDA is extended to multimodal data in the form of images and gestures.

Meaning is embodied - but it is also social. If Cognitive Linguistics is to be a complete theory of language in use, it must cover the whole spectrum from grounded cognition to discourse struggles and bullshit. This book tries to show how. Cognitive Linguistics knocked down the wall between language and the experiential content of the human mind. Frame semantics, embodiment, conceptual construal, figure-ground organization, metaphorical mapping, and mental spaces are among the results of this breakthrough, which at the same time provided cognitive science as a whole with an essential human dimension. A new phase began when Cognitive Linguistics started to see itself as part of the wider movement of 'usage-based' linguistics. Bringing about an alliance between mind and discourse, it complemented the conceptual dimension that had been dominant until then with a 'use' dimension - thereby living up to the explicit 'experiential' commitment of Cognitive Linguistics. This outward expansion is continuing: The focus on 'meaning construction', which began with the theory of blending, highlights emergent, online effects rather than underlying mappings. Cognitive Linguistics is integrating the evolutionary perspective, which links up individual and population-based features of language. The empirical obligations incurred by this expansion have led to greatly increased attention to corpus and experimental methods, especially in relation to sociolinguistic and language acquisition research. The book describes this development and goes on to discuss the foundational challenge that it creates for Cognitive Linguistics as it begins to cover issues that are also central to types of discourse analysis focusing on social processes of determination. The book argues for a synthesis based on a renewed Cognitive Linguistics, which can accommodate everything from bodily grounding to deconstructible floating signifiers in an integrated complete picture, which also covers the roles of arbitrariness and structure.

This is a 'how to' guide to conducting research in discourse analysis in which readers are taken step by step through the research process. This is the ideal companion for any student undertaking research in discourse analysis within English language, linguistics, applied linguistics and communication studies.