Showing papers in "Discourse & Society in 2013"
TL;DR: In this paper, performance comedy serves as a mechanism for expressing ethnic and racial stereotypes in public and presents a challenge to studies of contemporary racial discourse which suggest that race stereotypes can be expressed in performance comedy.
Abstract: This article contends performance comedy serves as a mechanism for expressing ethnic and racial stereotypes in public and presents a challenge to studies of contemporary racial discourse which sugg...
107 citations
TL;DR: In this article, the authors investigate meetmarket, a South African online community for men who are looking for other men, using a quantitative approach to queer linguistics, and present a textual an...
Abstract: This study investigates meetmarket, a South African online community for men who are looking for other men. Utilising a quantitative approach to queer linguistics, the article presents a textual an...
104 citations
TL;DR: The authors discusses the theoretical underpinnings of the connection between discourse studies and Queer Linguistic Approaches to Discourse (QLAD) approaches to discourse, and discusses the relationship between discourse and queer linguistics.
Abstract: This introductory essay to the Discourse & Society special issue on Queer Linguistic Approaches to Discourse discusses the theoretical underpinnings of the connection between discourse studies and ...
79 citations
TL;DR: The authors examines the discourses of denial that feature in the talk of local anti-racism actors in Australia, and asks whether denial is one of the key features of modern racism.
Abstract: Literature on modern racism identifies denial as one of its key features. This article examines the discourses of denial that feature in the talk of local anti-racism actors in Australia, and asks ...
74 citations
TL;DR: In this article, the role of talk in constructing speakers as heterosexual beings is examined, and it is concluded that "Heterosexuality is a cultural construction relying on strictly enforced norms for its continuing dominan...
Abstract: In this article, I examine the role of talk in constructing speakers as heterosexual beings. Heterosexuality is a cultural construction relying on strictly enforced norms for its continuing dominan...
52 citations
TL;DR: This article examined how ethnic Finnish migrants construct their ethnic identities before and after migrating from Russia to Finland and used a discursive psychological (DP) approach to analyzes their ethnic identity in the process of migration.
Abstract: In this article, we examine how ethnic Finnish migrants construct their ethnic identities before and after migrating from Russia to Finland. We use a discursive psychological (DP) approach to analy...
45 citations
TL;DR: This paper argued that the concept of indexicality, as theorized across diverse fields in sociocultural linguistics, has the potential to offer a much richer account of subjectivity than found in dominant strands of queer theory.
Abstract: In a review of contributions to a special issue of Discourse & Society on queer linguistics, this article argues that the concept of indexicality, as theorized across diverse fields in sociocultural linguistics, has the potential to offer a much richer account of subjectivity than found in dominant strands of queer theory. While queer theory valorizes practice over identity, viewing the latter as fixed and necessarily allied with normativity, research on language and social interaction suggests that an analytic distinction between practice and identity is untenable. The indexical processes that work to produce social meaning are multi-layered and always shifting across time and space, even within systems of heteronormativity. It is this semiotic evolution that should become the cornerstone of a (new) queer linguistics.
44 citations
TL;DR: In this article, the authors present an analysis of the discursive response of two British politicians, the Prime Minister David Cameron and the leader of the opposition, Ed Miliband, to the riots that took place in British cities in August 2011 and the Occupy protests of later in the same year.
Abstract: In this article, I present an analysis of the discursive response of two British politicians – the Prime Minister David Cameron and the leader of the opposition, Ed Miliband – to the riots that took place in British cities in August 2011 and the Occupy protests of later in the same year. Considering this response as, following Van Leeuwen, recontextualisation of the events with which the two politicians are concerned, I suggest that in both cases a particular neoliberal discourse is employed that serves to moralise what is in actual fact material, class-based opposition. Cameron suggests that the riots are indicative of a ‘moral collapse’ in contemporary Britain, and Miliband, superficially aligning himself with the movement, suggests that the Occupy protests indicate a ‘value gap’. In both cases, I argue, the discursive response serves as an attempt to assert as hegemonic a substantively identical moralised neoliberal understanding of the inequalities of contemporary capitalism. This is an understanding ...
44 citations
TL;DR: Pro-anorexia is an internet-based movement that hails eating disorders as a lifestyle choice as discussed by the authors, and the authors of this article aim to reveal pro-anoresxia members' underlying conceptualisations of anorexia that contri...
Abstract: Pro-anorexia is an internet-based movement that hails eating disorders as a lifestyle choice. This article aims to reveal pro-anorexia members’ underlying conceptualisations of anorexia that contri...
41 citations
TL;DR: This paper used discourse analysis to identify both current activist discourses and rhetorical strategies, and how these shape the responses of the opposition to the relocation of asylum seekers to a small South Australian town.
Abstract: The struggle to change negative responses to asylum seekers is becoming more difficult due to global economic insecurity and increasing numbers of people seeking asylum. Effective and persuasive advocacy and activism to shift these opinions and create better outcomes for asylum seekers are critical. As for all social movements, how advocates engage the wider public, particularly those opposed to asylum seeking, is key to gaining support for this project. In this article, I use discourse analysis as a method for identifying both current activist discourses and rhetorical strategies, and how these shape the responses of the opposition. Using letters to the editor, online comments and media articles from a 2010–2011 Australian debate on the relocation of asylum seekers to a small South Australian town, I explore a particular strategy for change used in asylum seeker advocacy: eliciting shame. I identify two ways that shaming is ‘done’ – through expressions of contempt and disgust, and through a comparison of...
37 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, critical discourse studies (CDS) can contribute to the analysis of values in political discourse and it is argued that although valuation is fundamental to CDS, the conce...
Abstract: This article aims to show how critical discourse studies (CDS) can contribute to the analysis of values in political discourse. It is argued that although valuation is fundamental to CDS, the conce...
TL;DR: The authors present personal and professional narratives from several NNS academics, and argue for a more positive framing of the discussion about ESL/EFL speaker discourses and a better recognition of ESL and EFL scholars' potential to contribute to their disciplinary communities.
Abstract: ‘as’ structure in citations, and how these choices reveal the writers’ evaluation of their sources. In Chapter 11, Ramona Tang further reaffirms her critique of the negative way in which ESL/EFL participation in academic discourses is mostly framed. Tang presents us with personal and professional narratives from several NNS academics, and – based on their experiences as well as her own – argues for a more positive framing of the discussion about ESL/EFL speaker discourses and a better recognition of ESL/EFL scholars’ potential to contribute to their disciplinary communities. This remarkable book sheds interesting light on the complex realities experienced by many ESL/EFL students and scholars, who live and write in English in such geographically and institutionally diverse countries as Australia, China, Japan, Italy and Poland. I highly recommend it to anyone interested in NNS written discourse, wishing to understand these complexities better. As a teacher of academic writing and a non-native speaker of English, I often grapple with language problems in texts written by my students or by myself – and, in this respect, I personally find many of its chapters pedagogically useful. But – above all – this book has deepened my understanding of ‘writing as social practice’ (p. 246) and has raised my awareness of the complex social and cultural issues involved in writing in academia across the world.
TL;DR: In this paper, an ethnographically-based, in-depth discourse analysis of linguistic constructions of non-heteronormativity at Eurovision Song Contest press conferences is presented.
Abstract: This article provides an ethnographically-based, in-depth discourse analysis of linguistic constructions of non-heteronormativity at Eurovision Song Contest press conferences. Contexts of high national salience have been found to largely support or even promote heteronormative discourses. The present study, by contrast, sets out to look at the construction of sexuality in a transnational community of practice of high European salience, in which macro-level heteronormativity has to face greater competition from the non-heteronormativity of the local context. The analysis identifies the following patterns of non-heteronormative construction: non-heteronormative talk about love song lyrics and performances, the construction of male same-sex desire, and the challenging of dominant gender discourses. Finally, it is argued that the European transnationalism of the context causes a normative shift from (nationally associated) heteronormativity to an expectation that non-heterosexual identities and desires be met...
TL;DR: This article examined the discursive strategies US youth employ as they talk about race in a multi-racial high school classroom and argued that US youth race talk is bound up in the construction and contestation of the nation's cultural memory of race and racism.
Abstract: Polls indicate that US youth are more racially diverse, and more tolerant of diversity, than were previous generations. Yet recent research documents the rise of a ‘new racism’ discourse among white US youth. The present study extends this research by examining the discursive strategies US youth employ as they talk about race in a multi-racial high school classroom. Using discourse historical analysis, the authors argue that US youth’s race talk is bound up in the construction and contestation of the nation’s cultural memory of race and racism. In particular, the authors examine how the students use the topos of unknowability and the topos of implicature to suppress or confront, respectively, the relationship between past racial injustice and present-day inequalities, and the questions of responsibility and redress it raises.
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors pointed out that "conflicting national media positions are often reflected in the discursive patterns used in news headlines" and that "this was clearer than in the recent contrasting reports of the Battl...
Abstract: Conflicting national media positions are often reflected in the discursive patterns used in news headlines. Perhaps nowhere has this been clearer than in the recent contrasting reports of the Battl...
TL;DR: This article developed ways to examine multiple genres over time, based in the discourse-historical approach, and ways to analyse the representation of social actors, based on social actor analysis, to examine simultaneously multiple societal levels.
Abstract: In this article, I set out new methods of analysis in critical discourse analysis. I develop ways to examine multiple genres over time, based in the discourse-historical approach, and ways to analyse the representation of social actors, based in social actor analysis. These methods provide a detailed way of using critical discourse analysis diachronically for multiple texts, analysing the textual, intertextual and contextual. I argue that because there is not a binary relationship between power at an elite level and resistance at a grassroots level, power and resistance rather being present everywhere, critical discourse analysis can and should examine simultaneously multiple societal ‘levels’. My methods help show to what extent more marginal speakers can make themselves heard. I explain how these methods were usefully applied to a study of the role that immigrant organisations have played in discussions about immigration control in the UK since the 1960s.
TL;DR: The desire to reconstruct traditional heteronormative gender roles in these contexts is striking as mentioned in this paper, and informants of the qualitative, ethnographic study presented here display high degrees of reflexive consciousness regarding the constructed nature of their gendered performance.
Abstract: Salsa dance and music has become popular worldwide and Salsa communities outside of Latin America offer a fertile environment for studying gender and heteronormativity in cultural contact zones. Often, the desire to reconstruct ‘traditional’ heteronormative gender roles in these contexts is striking. Interestingly, informants of the qualitative, ethnographic study presented here display high degrees of reflexive consciousness regarding the constructed nature of their gendered performance. This article also discusses and analyses non-heteronormative performances that do not adhere to ‘traditional’ gender roles, which may be understood as queer performances. These are found frequently; however, an analysis of discursive data that relates to these performances makes their subversive potential debatable.
TL;DR: In this article, a case study analysis of a talk radio broadcast on the topic of terrorism, the sequencing and membership categorisation work that is accomplished during the call openings of its contributors is examined.
Abstract: The current research undertakes a combined conversation analysis (CA)/membership categorisation analysis (MCA) approach to analyse the unfolding moral business of ‘talk radio’ discourse, and situates this analysis within a critical discourse studies framework. In a case study analysis of a talk radio broadcast on the topic of terrorism, the sequencing and membership categorisation work that is accomplished during the call openings of its contributors is examined. Local manifestations of discursive power allied to the ‘host’ role are identified, along with the data-driven distinction of ‘lay’ and ‘elite’ callers. The empowering versus disempowering consequences of sequential turn allocation and identity categorisation are explored, leading to some reflections on security versus human rights advocacy within terrorism talk. The contribution of this research to two research enterprises is then outlined. First, we highlight the benefit that a combined CA/MCA approach, which foregrounds powerplay, offers to ana...
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors appraise gender representation in the 1999 Nigerian Constitution using insights from critical discourse analysis, feminism and systemic functional linguistics, with particular emphasis on women empowerment.
Abstract: The article appraises gender representation in the 1999 Nigerian Constitution using insights from critical discourse analysis, feminism and systemic functional linguistics, with particular emphasis...
TL;DR: The authors used a combination of critical discourse analysis (CDA) and corpus linguistics (CL) to investigate the discursive realization of the security operation for the London 2012 Olympic Games, finding that the documents indeed realized key features of the ban-opticon: exceptionalism, exclusion and prediction, as well as what they call "pedagogization" and claimed that the Olympic venues were being constituted to resemble transit through national boundaries.
Abstract: This article uses a combination of critical discourse analysis (CDA) and corpus linguistics (CL) to investigate the discursive realization of the security operation for the London 2012 Olympic Games. Drawing on Didier Bigo’s (2008) conceptualization of the ‘ban-opticon’, it addresses two questions: (1) What distinctive linguistic features are used in documents relating to security for London 2012? (2) How is Olympic security realized as a discursive practice in these documents? Findings suggest that the documents indeed realized key features of the ban-opticon: exceptionalism, exclusion and prediction, as well as what we call ‘pedagogization’. Claims were made for the exceptional scale of the Olympic events; predictive technologies were proposed to assess the threat from terrorism; and documentary evidence suggests that access to Olympic venues was being constituted to resemble transit through national boundaries.
TL;DR: This paper provided an analysis of two texts written from a lesbian subject position at different points in recent history, to show how the authors constructed (non-)normative in-group representati...
Abstract: This article provides an analysis of two texts written from a lesbian subject position at different points in recent history, to show how the authors construct (non-)normative in-group representati...
TL;DR: In this article, mothers' accounts of initial interactions and encounters with healthcare professionals and the outcomes where questions about their children's problems are concerned are explored, and a case-b...
Abstract: This article explores mothers’ accounts of initial interactions and encounters with healthcare professionals and the outcomes where questions about their children’s problems are concerned. A case-b ...
TL;DR: In this article, linguistic patterns associated with the forms of representation of guerrillas and right-wing paramilitaries, the main illegal actors in the internal Colombian confederacy, are examined.
Abstract: This article examines the linguistic patterns associated with the forms of representation of Marxist guerrillas and right-wing paramilitaries, the main illegal actors in the internal Colombian conf...
TL;DR: Work in queer linguistics addresses diverse themes, but finds common interest in critical studies of homonormativity as mentioned in this paper, and such studies connect social expe..., as the articles in this special issue suggest.
Abstract: Work in queer linguistics addresses diverse themes, but finds common interest in critical studies of homonormativity. As the articles in this special issue suggest, such studies connect social expe...
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors analyse the written messages in a visitors' book used for a sit-in that took place in Murcia, Spain, in 2001, and select 100 of these messages to determine the degree of involvement that visitors show towards immigrants.
Abstract: We are experiencing a time during which there is a clear crisis of values, meaning a distancing with regard to the problems of socially disadvantaged groups. This article’s main purpose is to discuss whether this situation has had any impact on solidarity discourse towards immigrants. To fulfill our objective, we will analyse the written messages in a visitors’ book used for a sit-in that took place in Murcia, Spain, in 2001. We selected 100 of these messages to determine the degree of involvement that visitors show towards immigrants. In this regard, we have proposed four processes of involvement, from low to high: proximity, accompaniment, support and identification. We will analyse these processes from a critical and constructive viewpoint in an attempt to determine which is the most common and which combinations of processes are preferred by the authors of the messages. In addition, we will focus on the use of key expressions, terms of intensification, and argumentative structures as basic elements fo...
TL;DR: In this article, the communicative acts employed in the creation of HIV/AIDS posters which focus on people living with HIV living with their relatives/friends and their friends are explored. And the generic...
Abstract: This article explores the communicative acts employed in the creation of HIV/AIDS posters which focus on people living with HIV/AIDS (PLWHA) and their relatives/friends and investigates the generic...
TL;DR: This paper provided a diachronic rhetorical profile of the annual American Memorial Day presidential speech as an example of epideixis, focusing on four sample texts selected from a corpus of 4,000 sentences.
Abstract: This article aims to provide a diachronic rhetorical profile of the annual American Memorial Day presidential speech as an example of epideixis, focusing on four sample texts selected from a corpus...
TL;DR: The authors investigated what Uruguayan teenagers know about the dictatorship (1973-1985) and what discourses come into play in shaping these views, finding that there are four main arguments used by the youth to explain the dictatorship: reaction to guerrillas, authoritarianism, regional ideological war, and intolerance.
Abstract: Investigating how contested periods are remembered by younger generations allows us to better understand the contents that are passed on as well as the discursive processes through which intergenerational transmission occurs. This article explores the intersections of collective and personal memory. We investigate what Uruguayan teenagers know about the dictatorship (1973–1985) and what discourses come into play in shaping these views. The analysis of a group interview, part of an ethnographic project, identifies arguments, representations and evaluations of the period, while exploring intertextual links. The findings show that there are four main arguments used by the youth to explain the dictatorship: reaction to guerrillas, authoritarianism, regional ideological war, and intolerance. The social actors are evaluated in terms of social sanctions with negative evaluations of the guerrilla. Intertextual connections foreground the reception of hegemonic discourses that explain the period in terms of ‘two de...
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors highlight the discourse of teasing as realized by Nigerian fans of the English Premier League (EPL), from a pragmatic perspective, and identify 12 teases or teasing expressions, ascribed three judgmental values (positive, neutral, and negative) as assigned by both the teaser and the teased.
Abstract: Previous research on the linguistics of football fandom has said little on the value of teasing in this popular public space. This qualitative study, however, highlights the discourse of teasing as realized by Nigerian fans of the English Premier League (EPL), from a pragmatic perspective. In all, 12 teases or teasing expressions, ascribed three judgmental values – positive, neutral, and negative – as assigned by both the teaser and the teased are identified and analyzed. It is discovered that when other-directed, the tease is usually either neutral or negative, but when self-directed, the tease is either neutral or positive. First, I observe that fans often use a tease when their team is in a position of advantage. Second, the teaser–target relationship is ever-fluid: the teasers could become the targets at any time during the course of a match, depending on the in situ performance of the teams playing the game. I argue that despite the face threats expressed by most of the teases, the performance of tea...
TL;DR: In this paper, a critical analysis of media discourses in which a dissident social actor is represented in China's state-run English-language press is presented, focusing on media coverage of Liu et al.
Abstract: This article is a critical analysis of media discourses in which a dissident social actor is represented in China’s state-run English-language press. Specifically, it looks at media coverage of Liu...