Critical Discourse Analysis: Fairclough versus Van Dijk

Critical Discourse Analysis: Fairclough versus Van Dijk

What is CDA?
CDA is short form for Critical Discourse Analysis. The major contributors to the study of CDA are
Fairclough and Van Dijk. Both these critical discourse analysts have their own approach to CDA. In this
article, you will learn about five major differences between Fairclough and Van Dijk regarding their
approach to critical discourse analysis, under the heading Critical Discourse Analysis: Fairclough versus
Van Dijk.

1. Main Focus of Analysis Language & Power versus Language and Ideology:
For Fairclough, the main focus of analysis is to uncover ideological and power patterns in texts. On the
other hand, for Van Dijk, the main focus of analysis is to show how various ideologies are expressed in
various kinds of linguistic structures.
2. Social versus Political Issues
In What is CDA?, Fairclough attempts to extract and highlight social issues expressed through text and
talk. Van Dijk, on the other hand, is more concerned about the political issues.
3. Whatness versus How & Whyness
While Van Dijk focuses on whatness of discourse, i.e. what can be expressed through discourse,
Faircloughs analysis has gone beyond the whatness of the text description towards the how and
whyness of the text interpretation and explanation.
4. Three Part CDA Framework versus Three Dimensions of Ideologies Analysis:
Fairclough proposes a three-part model for CDA which consists of texts (social events), orders of
discourse (social practices) and social structures. Van Dijks model involves three dimensions of ideology
analysis, namely, discourse, sociocognition and social analysis.
5. Sociocognition versus Discourse Practice
For Van Dijk, it is the sociocognition which mediates between discourse and the society while, for
Fairclough, it is the discourse practice (i.e. text production and consumption) which serves as a mediator
between the discourse and the society.
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