ABSTRACT
Critical discourse analysis (CDA) investigates how language use may be affirming and indeed reproducing the perspectives, values and ways of talking of the powerful, which may not be in the interests of the less powerful. The relationship between language, power and ideology is a crucial focal point. CDA consists of an interdisciplinary set of approaches which attempt to describe, interpret and explain this relationship. Among its principal architects are Paul Chilton, Norman Fairclough, Teun van Dijk and Ruth Wodak. In this chapter, I shall set out what ‘critical’, ‘discourse’ and ‘analysis’ mean in CDA, out-
line a number of key approaches within it, and then demonstrate a critical discourse analysis.
Critical
