An Inquiry Into Fairclough’s Critical Discourse Analysis: Theory and Methodology

Xinli LI

Abstract


Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) emerged as a prominent linguistic paradigm in the late 1970s, with its core focus on the enactment of power through linguistic practices. The text-oriented CDA framework developed by British sociolinguist Norman Fairclough establishes an intrinsic link between language and society, emphasizing both contextually embedded texts and the dynamic process of meaning construction. This paper provides a systematic overview of Fairclough’s foundational theoretical system and his influential three-dimensional analytical framework.

 


Keywords


Critical discourse analysis; Discourse order; Social practice; Three-dimensional framework

Full Text:

PDF

References


Baxter, J. (2018). Critical discourse analysis and gender studies: Intersections and innovations. Discourse Processes, 55(3), 189–204. https://doi.org/10.1080/0163853X.2017.1399245

Chouliaraki, L., & Fairclough, N. (1999). Discourse in late modernity: Rethinking critical discourse analysis. Edinburgh University Press.

Fairclough, N. (1992). Discourse and social change. Polity Press.

Fairclough, N. (2003). Analysing discourse: Textual analysis for social research. Routledge.

Fairclough, N. (2005). Critical discourse analysis, organizational discourse, and organizational change. Organization Studies, 26(6), 237–266. https://doi.org/10.1177/0170840605050876

Fairclough, N. (2015). Language and power(3rd ed.). Routledge.

Halliday, M. A. K. (1993). An introduction to functional grammar(2nd ed.). Edward Arnold.

Hammersley, M. (1997). On the foundations of critical discourse analysis. Language & Communication, 17(3), 237–248. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0271-5309(97)00010-1

Ji, Y. H., & Li, X. C. (2011). On the “criticality” in critical discourse analysis. Foreign Languages and Literature, 27(4), 39–45.

Ji, Y. H., & Wu, J. P. (2008). The discourse view of the critical discourse analysis school and its enlightenment. Foreign Languages and Their Teaching, (1), 1–4.

Kress, G. (Ed.). (1996). Texts and practices: Readings in critical discourse analysis. Routledge.

Thompson, J. B. (1990). Ideology and modern culture. Polity Press.

van Dijk, T. A. (1993). Principles of critical discourse analysis. Discourse & Society, 4(2), 249–283. https://doi.org/10.1177/0957926593004002006

Wang, P. F. (2008). Critical discourse analysis: A new perspective in contemporary educational research. Journal of Capital Normal University (Social Sciences Edition), (5), 129–133.

Wodak, R., & Meyer, M. (Eds.). (2016). Methods of critical discourse analysis(3rd ed.). SAGE Publications.




DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.3968/13956

Refbacks

  • There are currently no refbacks.


Copyright (c) 2026 Studies in Literature and Language

Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.


Share us to:   


 

Online Submissionhttp://cscanada.org/index.php/sll/submission/wizard

Please send your manuscripts to sll@cscanada.net,or  sll@cscanada.org  for consideration. We look forward to receiving your work.


We only use three mailboxes as follows to deal with issues about paper acceptance, payment and submission of electronic versions of our journals to databases: caooc@hotmail.com; sll@cscanada.net; sll@cscanada.org

 Articles published in Studies in Literature and Language are licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 (CC-BY).

 STUDIES IN LITERATURE AND LANGUAGE Editorial Office

Address: 1055 Rue Lucien-L'Allier, Unit #772, Montreal, QC H3G 3C4, Canada.
Telephone: 1-514-558 6138 
Website: Http://www.cscanada.net; Http://www.cscanada.org 
E-mailoffice@cscanada.net; office@cscanada.org; caooc@hotmail.com

Copyright © 2010 Canadian Academy of Oriental and Occidental Culture