Discourse and Ideologies

This book discusses the relationship between ideology and language, especially such questions as: What are ideologies? How can they be described? and, How can they be related to the processes involved in the production or interpretation of discourse? In the main contribution, Teun van Dijk develops new theoretical notions and analytical distinctions to link explicitly structures of society, cognition and discourse. Ideologies are defined as socially shared belief systems of groups with social and cognitive functions. Their main social function is to sustain the interests of a group: they monitor group-related social practices. Cognitively, ideologies are assumed to assign an overall orientation, coherence and organisation to a cluster of attitudes. Ideologies and their structures have to be inferred from more directly observable structures of cognition, interaction and society. Therefore, the notion of 'opinion' and its complex relations to the structures of discourse and ideology are examined. Opinions are typically expressed, acquired and changed by discourse in interactional contexts. This implies that specific grammatical or other verbal means are typically associated with the expression of opinions. An analysis of a sample text illustrates how argumentation structures reflect preexisting, underlying structures of social cognition. In this way, discourse analysts can contribute to the development of a critical language awareness. Contributors to the debates include Michael Billig, Paul Chilton, David Graddol, Ulrike Meinhof and Kay Richardson.