VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES -----***----- NGUYỄN THU PHƯƠNG A CRITICAL DISCOURSE ANALYSIS ON ENGLISH POLITICAL CARTOONS (PHÂN TÍCH DIỄN NGÔN PHÊ PHÁN VỀ TRANH BIẾM HỌA CHÍNH TRỊ TIẾNG ANH) Minor thesis Field: English Linguistics Code: 60 22 15 HANOI - 2010 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST- GRADUATE STUDIES -----***----- NGUYỄN THU PHƯƠNG A CRITICAL DISCOURSE ANALYSIS ON ENGLISH POLITICAL CARTOONS (PHÂN TÍCH DIỄN NGÔN PHÊ PHÁN VỀ TRANH BIẾM HỌA CHÍNH TRỊ TIẾNG ANH) Minor thesis Field: English Linguistics Code: 60 22 15 Supervisor: Prof. Nguyễn Hòa HANOI - 2010 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com iv LIST OF ABBREVIATION NR : Native Reader(s) NNR : Non-native Reader(s) CDA : Critical Discourse Analysis LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com 47 TABLE OF CONTENTS DECLARATION. III LIST OF ABBREVIATION. IV TABLE OF CONTENTS PART A.
SCOPE OF THE STUDY. AIMS OF THE STUDY. METHODS OF THE STUDY. ORGANIZATION OF THE STUDY.
Theories on Critical Discourse Analysis. What is Critical Discourse Analysis?. Principles and Aims of CDA. Power and Dominance.
Background knowledge about Cartoons. What are Cartoons and Political Cartoons?. General characteristics of Political Cartoons. Purpose of Political Cartoons.
Data Collection Methods. 16 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail. Data Analysis Procedures. PRESENTATION AND DISCUSION OF THE RESULTS .ERROR! BOOKMARK NOT DEFINED.
46 REFERENCES APPENDIX LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail. Rationale There is one question that has particularly fascinated people for thousands of years, whether our languages can reflect or reinforce our ways of looking at the world and if so, how? It is usually taken for granted that there exits the purely objective language and differs from our experience and attitude. However, it is well-known now that language use is an inherently social phenomenon. How we speak depends on such factors as where we grew up, our racial and ethnic identity, whether we are women or men, and our education.
And we now also understand that successful reading of journalistic discourse as well as graphics remains at a much higher level than just how language is used. For second language readers, this process is complicated by the fact that these readers often rely on sociocultural conventions of their native language, which is source of misunderstanding between Vietnamese readers and others of a language. Thus, the readers must not only acquire the correct forms and sounds of the target language, but also the knowledge of how language is used in the culture, especially for reading pictures, images or cartoons which is understood mainly on graphics and social context and language. Though critical thinking and text analysis are as old as language itself, critical discourse analysis (CDA) is a relatively new addition to the varieties of text analysis available.
CDA is a perspective on critical scholarship: a theory and a method of analyzing that individuals and institutions use language. Critical discourse analysts focus “on social problems and especially the role o discourse in the production and reproduction of power abuse or domination” (van Dijk, 1999). CDA starts by identifying social problem, choose the perspective of those who suffer most and critically analyses those in power, those who are responsible and those who have the means and the opportunity to solve such problem. In response to social inequality and the abuse of power, CDA demands “politically involved research with an emancipatory LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com 2 requirement” (Titscher et al.
Such an approach inevitably means that CDA takes an overt moral and political position with regard to the social problem analyzed. CDA can provide an insightful look into an authentic text, so that readers engage with the content critically at the same time as they attempt to understand other more superficial aspects of the text. For instances, readers may confront texts of a possibly xenophobic nature to explore the discourse mechanisms of racism. In short, with the aim of dealing with social problems by means of language, Critical Discourse Analysis, defined as discourse analysis “with an attitude” (van Dijk) has been in existence for several decades and has helped uncover the ideological assumptions that are hidden within texts.
It is a useful tool in language use analysis contributing positively to the process of struggling for power equality. Having gone through a long history to be an important industry as well as a social and psychological reflection, cartoons appear to be a very potential and appealing source of material because in cartoons people have a freedom to employ pragmatic strategies that allow them play to with words and drawings to achieve various communicative effects. Most dictionary definitions tend to use the word “humorous” when describing cartoons, but this does not always have to be the case. Certain cartoons, especially for political cartoons are not humorous at all, but are making serious messages about certain issues that the artist finds important.
Obviously, cartoons can supply people with a very rich of information about the native countries, people‟s lifestyles and culture differences. Having these in mind, I choose to carry out a case study on English political cartoons in the light of Critical Discourse Analysis in an attempt to find out hidden political opinions in cartoons. This paper also hopefully examines to what extent Vietnamese readers of English are able to interpret English cartoons and the way in which they differ from native readers of English in their interpretation of the cartoons. Then, it draws some causes of misunderstanding and gives some suggestions for better communication.
LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail. Scope of the Study The study of CDA on English Political Cartoons is confined to linguistic devices and symbolism of the cartoons under study and their conversational implicatures in relation to everyday life or political context although the author is well aware that the global context at the time cartoons were published and the gender of cartoons writer are certain important. Aims of the Study The objectives of the study on English Political Cartoons from CDA standpoint include: - To provide a theoretical background of CDA- its concepts, its analysis procedures as well as its role in linguistics - To find out hidden political opinions in the English Political Cartoons. - To investigate the extent to which Vietnamese readers of English understand the messages embedded in English Political cartoons.
Research Questions In order to realize these above aims, the case study is supposed to answer the following research questions: - How are political opinions embedded in English Political Cartoons? - Do Vietnamese readers of English understand what is intended to be conveyed via the cartoons? - What are the causes of misunderstanding? 5. Methods of the Study According to Ruth Wodak and Michael Meyer (2001), CDA does not constitute a well-defined empirical method but rather a cluster of approaches. Fairclough (2001) also stated that the choice of appropriate methods (data selection, collection and analysis) depends on the object of research. CDA entails some form of detailed textual analysis.
It specially includes a LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com 4 combination of interdiscursive analysis of texts (i. of how different genres, discourses and styles are articulated together) and linguistic and other forms of semiotic analysis. In other words, CDA is just an approach which is highly eclectic; therefore in this study a bundle of different techniques is employed to achieve the goal set from the beginning. The main methods of the case study are the quantitative and qualitative ones, as well as explanatory and contrastive analysis.
All the considerations, remarks, comments and assumptions are largely based on data analysis. Organization of the Study The study includes three parts as follows: Part A: Introduction, presents the rationale, the aims, the scope and the methods of the study as well as the organization of the study. Part B: Development, the main part of the thesis and consists of three chapters: - Chapter 1: Literature review This chapter discusses the theoretical background related to Critical Discourse Analysis. Of course, it focuses on definition of CDA, its characteristics, principles and aims of CDA.
Later part deals with the concepts of discourse and power. Then, coming to the background knowledge about cartoons, in general and political cartoons, in particular. Some general characteristics and purpose of political cartoons are mentioned in the last part of this chapter. - Chapter 2: Methodology This chapter first restates the three research questions then gives the detailed description of the study, which includes data collection instrument, subjects and data collection procedure.
- Chapter 3: Presentation and Discussion of the results This is the main part of the thesis with the data analysis which presents the results and in- depth discussions, and then an overall picture is given by synthesizing all the major findings and discussing them. LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com 5 Part C: Conclusion, summarizes the major findings and also deals with the limitation of the study as well as suggests the further study. Apart from the three main parts, the two survey questionnaires (one for native readers and one for non-native readers) are also included as appendix. LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.Theories on Critical Discourse Analysis 1.
What is Critical Discourse Analysis? In the 1970s, while linguistic research was still focused on formal aspects of language, sentences and components of sentences were still regarded as the basic units, there emerged a form of discourse and text analysis that recognized the role of language in structuring power relations in society. This new approach to linguistic research drew the attention of many researchers, among them the most prominent are Kress, van Dijk, Fairclough, Wodak and so on. In fact, Wokad (2001) provides a summary of different studies conducted by these researchers. Their work serves to explain and illustrate the main assumptions, principles and procedures of what had then become known as Critical Linguistics or CDA.
In recent years, there has been much written about CDA in its broadest sense. It appears to be quite difficult to define in simple terms and this is probably due to the nature of CDA. What makes CDA different from other forms of discourse analysis is “the critical point of view”. “Critical” means not taking things for granted, opening up complexity, challenging reductionism, dogmatism and dichotomies, being self-reflective in research, and through these processes, making opaque structures of power relations and ideologies manifest.
“Critical”, thus, does not imply the common sense meaning of “being negative” rather “skeptical”. Proposing alternatives is also part of being “critical”. The concept of CDA has been discussed for long. CDA encompasses a number of general tenets and uses a large range of techniques.
In simple words, Van Dijk (1988) defines CDA as “CDA is concerned with studying and analyzing written texts and spoken words to reveal the LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com 7 discursive sources of power, dominance, inequality, and bias and how these sources are initiated, maintained, reproduced, and transformed within specific social, economic, political and historical contexts”. Fairclough (1997) also provided us with an useful definition that encapsulated most other definition of CDA: “CDA is the study of often opaque relationship of causality and determination between (a) discursive practices, events and texts, and (b) wider social and cultural structures, relations and processes, to investigate how such practices, events and texts arise out of and are ideologically shaped by relations of power and struggles over power, and to explore how the opacity of these relationships between discourse and society is itself a factor securing power”. In general, the answer to such (critical) questions as “What is critical discourse analysis?”, “How is it different from other types of discourse analysis?”, “What are its aims, special methods?” and especially “What is its theoretical foundation?