Discussion Of Theory Research Articles

Using discourse analysis in contemporary social research

The aim of this article is to sum up the principles of social constructivism as a foundation of all theories of discourse, and to identify key characteristics of main discursive theories, as well as perspectives of their use in the research of inequalities. We explore key theories of discourse (critical discourse analysis and theoretical frameworks based on works of Foucault and Laclau and Mouffe), and application of methodological approaches of discourse analysis stemming out from these theories, in current social research. All discourse theories are founded on principles of social constructivism: social construction of knowledge, existence of multiple variants of knowledge, simultaneous construction and reproduction of social reality in the process of social relations, and an idea that subjects construct knowledge inside of discourse, while discourse in turn constructs social reality. Characteristics of discourse theories were identified around criteria of the degree of inclusivity of discourse, functions of discourse, stability of discursive structure, degree of subjects’ agency. Approaches to discourse analysis that stem from the works of Foucault and Laclau and Mouffe suggest a strong link between theory and methodology, with research methods less clearly defined. Critical discourse analysis fills this gap in methodological developments. In particular, for social research purposes, Norman Fairclough’s approach to critical discourse analysis is widely used, looking at discourse as a social practice, a type of speech, typical of a certain area of knowledge, and as an articulation of a person’s or a social group’s lived experience that stems from their structural position. Fairclough’s analytical model consists of three levels: a detailed linguistic analysis of the text, analysis of daily routine practices and ways in which people construct social order, and macrosociological analysis of the social practice. The article ends with discussion of examples and common areas of discourse analysis usage in research of structural social inequalities.

The Language of Manipulation and Control: Operational Methods of the Securitate in A. Belc’s Film Metronom

The objective of the present study is to analyze the operational methods employed by the secret police agency (Securitate) in exerting influence and control over individuals within the Romanian communist society, as depicted in the film Metronom directed by Alexandru Belc. Through an analysis of the dialogue between the protagonist and a Securitate officer, this research explores the tactics used by the Romanian secret police to manipulate and deceive citizens, preserve power, and maintain social control. Drawing on critical discourse analysis and theories of power, this study reveals the subtle and insidious ways in which the Securitate operated within the Romanian society to silence opposition, spread propaganda, and maintain a stranglehold on society. In this line of work, a set of elements has been delineated, aimed at evaluating the manipulative nature of communist discourse strategies. The findings provide insights into the cinematic portrayal of the Securitate in Romanian communist society, highlighting the use of language and discourse as tools for controlling and manipulating both the population and individuals.

CRITICAL DISCOURSE ANALYSIS: DONALD TRUMP SPEECH BROUGHT THE U.S. TO PANDEMIC PREVENTION FAILURE

This research focuses on Donald trump’s speech on preventing COVID-19 at White House Conference on May 18, 2020. His speech was about the suggestion on taking hydroxychloroquine which known as an anti-malaria. The method used in this research is mix method, as the data displayed using description and numbers and the analysis data of this research uses critical discourse theory by Fairclough, and meta function within systematic functional linguistic proposed as the tool to scrutinized the object of the research through transitivity analysis, modality analysis, and textual analysis. As for the result of the research shown that (1)the most process used by trump is material process; (2)mental process, in which becomes the reason of the audience has unconsciously followed the irresponsible suggestion by Trump; (3)modality analysis shows that Trump rarely used modal verb; (4) textual analysis shows that Donald Trump’s speech has been delivered coherently and transitivity analysis found two the new process forms, both processes are existential process + relational process and relational process + existential process.

Специфика драматургической тональности дискурса (на примере новостного корпоративного дискурса)

This article analyses the particular type of the discourse category of tonality, namely, dramaturgic tonality. Being a pragmatic parameter of discourse, dramaturgic tonality has a cognitive nature and is culturally and socially significant. This allows us to resort to the analytical tools of different branches of the humanities. Dramaturgic tonality is characterized as being performative, evaluative and targeted. It is based on the linguosemiotic category of theatricality and permeates the structure of the text. The paper identifies the prototypical function of dramaturgic tonality: achieving an understanding and interpretation of the message by the addressee as similar as possible to those intended by the addresser. The author of this article suggests analysing dramaturgic tonality in the framework of the presentational theory of discourse, as the main function of tonality is strategic structuring of communication. Dramaturgic tonality profiles the value orientations of the subject of a discourse, demonstrating the meanings to the addressee. At the same time, it encourages the addressee to actively interpret and generate meanings. Dramaturgic tonality acts as a mechanism for managing the effect produced and becomes important in the context of social interaction. News articles published on the website of Northern (Arctic) Federal University were used as the material for linguistic analysis, which identified linguistic devices actualizing the effect of dramaturgic tonality. In the type of discourse under study, the discursive development of a communicative event is characterized by predictability. The author considers this to be a manifestation of the mechanism of dramaturgic tonality relevant to this type of discourse (media discourse). A conclusion is made that the architectonics of a discourse fragment, the role status of the subject of the discourse, the modality frame of the message and its expressiveness are the main means of actualizing dramaturgic tonality.

Первая речь члена парламента как жанр парламентского дискурса: функциональный аспект

Introduction. The paper focuses on the genre of a maiden speech, which is the first official speech of a newly elected parliamentarian. The relevance of the research is due to the fact that no special studies of this genre have been presented in the linguistic literature so far.
 Aim. The study aims at discovering and describing the functional features of a maiden speech. 
 Methodology and research methods. The methods used in the work include the descriptive method, the methods of discursive, contextual, functional and stylistic analysis.
 Results. As a result of the study, the following main functions of a maiden speech are identified: the functions of presentation, social identification and solidarity, the performative function, the functions of orientation, differentiation and confrontation. Special features and means of implementing each of the functions are considered. It is concluded that a maiden speech is a “hybrid” speech genre, in which the signs of ritual genres are combined with the signs of orientational genres; the features of agonal genres can also be found in a maiden speech.
 The scientific novelty of this study lies in the functional approach to the description of the speech genre under consideration.
 The practical significance of the paper is determined by the fact that its results can be used in the courses of lectures on political linguistics, discourse theory, genristics and rhetoric.

Дихотомия стратегий умиротворения и раздражения как основа коммуникативного поведения немецкоязычных поэтов-хайкаистов

Introduction. The article considers the genre of German haiku as an element of a communicative act stipulating certain dialogue between the addresser (haiku poet) and the recepient (reader).
 The aim of research is to identify communicative strategies and tactics representing the communicative behavior of contemporary haiku authors. Methodology and research methods. The research work used methods of systematization and generalization of the scientific material, descriptive-analytical method, method of linguistic and stylistic analysis of the text. Results. It has been shown that the author's intention in the texts of modern German haiku is explicated through two basic strategies — tranquility and annoyance. Each strategy is represented by a set of main tactics. In particular, the strategy of tranquility includes tactics of observation and adaptation, the strategy of annoyance involves tactics of breaking the taboo topics, intimidation, and creating a negative mood.
 In the 21st century, due to the haiku genre evolution and transformation of the social values it is possible to adopt a micro-diachronic approach to the research of changes in the communicative behavior of haiku poets in the light of the communicative strategies dichotomy. Previously haiku poems were composed exclusively according to the canons of Japanese poetry. This fact also determines the relevance of the study.
 Scientific novelty lies in the study of the specifics of communicative strategies and tactics, the norms of artistic communication in terms of German haiku genre.
 The practical significance is determined by the possibility of using the obtained scientific results in special university basic courses on literary translation, discourse theory, linguistic and stylistic interpretation of the text.

Representation of Family Law in the Digital Space: A Study of Discourse Analysis on Instagram Accounts

The emergence of interesting content through Instagram accounts managed by a person or a certain group representing a family law is important to discuss. One of the discourses that appears in these contents is related to the advice of husband and wife in building their household, then brings up tips for husband and wife to pay attention to each other. The husband and wife can apply the contents which are posted on the instagram account to create a harmonious household life. This paper aims to see the narratives that appear in the posts of intagram accounts through a discourse analysis approach. This research data is focused on 3 Instagram accounts with a selection of many followers on the Instagram account. The 3 Instagram accounts are @suami.istri.bahagia, @nasihatsuamiistri, @suamiistriromantis. This research leads to Netnographic studies or digital-based research. Then, because the data obtained is in the form of written content narratives, pamphlets, and videos posted on Instagram, it will be analyzed using discourse theory. The results showed that the content of the program gave rise to two studies that represented family law. First, it relates to the husband's obligation to the wife and the wife's obligation to the husband by posting content in the form of advice for the husband and wife. Second, post content about parents' obligations to children by posting narratives in the form of tips and procedures. Furthermore, the author found that the problem that occurs in these Instagram accounts is the existence of gender bias, this means that posts that represent family law are more content intended for the Wife and their content reflects the business of selling Products.

Board of Trustees

This brief overview of my research explores the impact of one aspect of New Zealand's self-managing reforms on the changing and predicted gender profile of the principalship in primary schools. The research in progress is a national study of boards of trustees' selection practices of principals carried out in 2002. It examines how trustees interpret and act upon often contradictory and conflicting official discourses from self-managing policies and Equal Employment Opportunities (EEO) legislation, as well as populist discourses mobilised by the media. Using feminist discourse theory (Bacchi 2000) I argue that the reforms have not contributed to a significant shift in the gender diversity representation of the principalship.

X, analyst

ABSTRACT This essay situates X González’s oratory and activism for gun legislation within Jacques Lacan’s Discourse of the Analyst to argue for the affirmative role of analytic silence in a body politic riddled with gun death, gridlock, thoughts, and prayers. Psychoanalytic treatment aims at intervention into a patient’s recurring patterns of behavior and speech that uphold their status quo of suffering. My essay argues for the practical and conceptual utility of Lacan’s discourse theory for rhetorical studies by advancing X as analyst against the cultural logic of the Firearm, a logic of domination I model via the Discourse of the Master.

A socio-cultural discourse study of cultural-political elites’ stances on LGBTI+ identities and practices in Ghana

Recently, cultural-political elites made competing and conflictual statements regarding LGBTI+ identities and practices in Ghana which attracted national and international attention. How do cultural-political elites discursively construct LGBTI+ discourse in postcolonial Ghana and what are the implications? This study employed qualitative methodology and engaged discourse theory and method to analyse cultural-political elites’ discursive practices and stances on LGBTI+ discourse in Ghana. The analytical method is dialectical and focuses on the relationship between the data (text) and sociocultural and political context for meaning making. Social relations of knowledge and statements articulated to power-knowledge provide the analytical framework. The study demonstrates that essentialising the cultures and traditions of Ghana short of a detailed concrete contextual definition of the complex multicultural and multiethnic post-colonial nation limits the socio-cultural interpretation, understanding and stances on LGBTI+ discourse in Ghana and can lead to ambiguities and contradictions. Different social actors take divergent positions in their interpretations and understanding of LGBTI+ discourse in Ghana. Also, the study notes that attempts at understanding sexuality, especially, LGBTI+ discourse and same-sex intimacies in non-western societies requires dialogue and intercultural engagements capable of promoting human existence in a socially cohesive and harmonious manner.

The Representation of Argumentative Discourse in Doha Debates

The study aims to analyze the argumentative process contained in the YouTube Channel Doha Debate with the title “Gender Equality (Full Debate) Doha debates presenting three spokespersons by using five principles based on Damer’s theory. The method used in this study is qualitative descriptive. Data has been collected in the analysis by way of presenting, describing, and interpreting data. Research results show that there are twelve data in in this study, such as structural principle (twelve data), relevance (ten data), acceptability (one Data), sufficiency (six data), and rebuttal principle (four data). The researcher found that the structural principle is most dominantly used in the argument because there is a claim from the speaker’s argument to strengthen the speaker’s statement so that it can be accepted by the audience, relevance of reasons that are directly related to the claim, acceptability of the audience's opinion regarding the speakers’ argument, sufficiency provides evidence to strengthen the argument, and rebuttal principle which is the speaker's criticism of the argument presented by the opponent. Therefore, this concluded that the most consistent during the debate was Randa saying that quotas can help gender equality while Christina said that quotas cannot work and only harm because there is no evidence that gender quotas can help equality.

The "Logic" of the natural language functioning in the Oxford School philosophy

This article focuses on the linguistic philosophy, specifically on John Austin's theory of speech acts. This theory examines the speech acts in the situation of direct communication. The theory author divides the speech acts into three action types, and introduces terms for their designation: locutionary, illocutionary, perlocutionary acts. Austin tried to identify and classify illocutionary verbs, but he did not give a precise definition or criteria for classification; he proposed dividing all the verbs into 'classes of use', upon that, the same verb could belong to different classes. The article author analyzes the speech act theory development lines, particularly, the research of John Rogers Searle, who was a follower of J. Austin. He introduced such terms as illocutionary point, conditions of satisfaction, direction of fit. These three terms allow him to identify five varieties of speech acts: assertives, directives, commissives, expressives, declaratives. It is Searle's philosophy of language that remains popular among linguists who try to find the structural rules that create the phenomenon. The article discusses other development variants of John Austin's ideas, related to the speech communication modelling and discourse theory. The author concludes by pointing out the weaknesses of the everyday language theory.

“Phonics Monkeys” and “Real Life Reading”: Heteroglossic Views of a State Reading Initiative

ABSTRACT Framed by Bakhtinian theories of authoritative discourse and heteroglossia, this study examines perceptions of a Science-of-Reading-based state reading initiative five years into implementation. Using interview transcripts, researchers engaged in polyphonic analysis to bring the voices of teachers, reading interventionists, parents, administrators, and state department of education officials into created dialogue. Findings from this qualitative study suggest there were contrasting perspectives about reading and the SRI, that many participants felt the initiative narrowed reading instruction and constrained teachers’ agency, and that, overall, there have been limited opportunities for dialogue about the initiative. Findings demonstrate that a narrow view of reading research may silence and delegitimize some stakeholder voices. This state’s goal of sharpening the focus of reading instruction led to instruction that was perceived by some stakeholders as narrow, boring, and meaningless, unlikely to create the statewide culture of reading that was targeted. Implications for this and future state reading initiatives point to the value of dialogue among varied stakeholders, which might allow for the idiosyncrasies of the teaching and learning of reading and writing to be addressed.

CRITICAL CONFABULATIONS – Corresponding Practices and Mappings

This exposition is based on an archaeological survey in the landscapes around Kilmartin Glen, Argyll and Bute, western Scotland, and references digital datasets – archaeological reference points –alongside the acts (enactments) of field walking, photography, drawing and poetry – experiences and representational discourses – to consider how land and landscapes may be read as dynamic palimpsestic and multi-dimensional fields of entanglement. Digital datasets were used by the survey to garner fruitful material to aid identification and to analyse (subtle) surface archaeological remains in the inhospitable terrain on the hills bordering Kilmartin Glen. By analysing, categorising and archiving such information, through naming and cataloguing, archaeological methodology effectively orders and tames such wildernesses. We, by contrast, are seeking to draw art and archaeological practices into dialogue with one another in order to assert the importance of recording experiences and random acts as a part of field research and, thereby, to both re-vivify and re-wild our encounters with landscape. Our exposition, and shared practices, intentionally encourage nuances of reading and interpretation that are found at the dialogic intersection between an artist/poet encountering archaeological landscape survey, and an archaeologist experiencing artistic, poetic and linguistic readings of land: reflecting in the process upon contemporary methodologies and underlying theoretical discourses. As such this research sits within the wider contemporary turn towards interdisciplinary practice, and seeks to establish a dialogue across disciplines; between humans and landscapes, practice and matter, that provides emerging approaches and hopes to remind us of the wild experience.

GRAND JETÉ

In this work, our analysis gesture will go around the social imaginary and memory, through historically repeated sayings about the bodies that were/are not authorized to dance ballet. We will question discourses that regulate and naturalize only thin bodies as dancers. And, thus, the only ones to end legitimization by comforting the standards socially imposed aesthetic limitations, and continuing to link/fix these images (thin-perfect-body) as exceptionally capable to. The corpus, therefore, is composed of files from Instagram posts of a fat ballerina. Therefore, we aim to reflect on how the fat body through dance (art) is able to break with pre-established meanings and "create" spaces of resistance in the face of sayings that configure discourses of representations through art. In order to reach our intention and to discuss part of this context, the theoretical contribution of the present study is the French Discourse Analysis derived from Michel Pêcheux, which proposes the analysis of the conditions of possibilities and displacements of the open discourse to the possible of the meaning. Keywords: Body; Subjectivation; Resistance; Art; Dance.

Articulation in ‘Image Event’: The Media Discourse from the Perspective of Post-Marxism

Media discourse is the main ideographic system in the world today. Post-Marxist discourse theory, represented by Laclau and Mouffe, argues that media discourse no longer merely conveys information but, more importantly, it has a powerful constructive and representational power over reality. Post-Marxist discourse theory has been gradually applied to social science research, and has also been further developed in the field of communication studies. ‘Articulation’ is a very significant rhetorical practice in the discursive generation mechanism of image events. The basic idea of articulation is to discover and activate the relationship between things and specific discourses. Many of the image events are disseminated through the deliberate appropriation of a series of established discourses, discovering a hidden interface between the topic and the established discourse, which not only enables the production and recreation of a new discourse, but also gives the event a legitimate discursive underpinning. This article aims to provide a post-Marxist analysis of the media discourse interface that exists in the image event in order to broaden theoretical and methodological horizons and create new perspectives for the study of media discourse.

Conflict and antagonism within global psychiatry: A discourse analysis of organisational responses to the UN reports on rights-based approaches in mental health.

Between 2017 and 2020, the UN Special Rapporteur (SR) Dainius Puras published three reports that called for significant changes to organisation, funding and service provision in mental health care in ways that emphasise inclusive, rights-oriented, democratic and sustainable community health services. This article aims to examine formal organisational responses to the UN mental health reports and consider the underlying arguments that either support or delegitimise the SR stance on the need for a paradigmatic shift towards a human rights-based approach to mental health. By combining several different search strategies to identify organisational responses across the web, a total of 13 organisational responses were included in the analysis. Given the political nature of the responses, concepts from discourse theory were used to analyse the responses. The analysis showed how the responses articulated two binary positions and contesting articulations of good mental health care, which formed a backdrop for rejecting the SR reports in defence of psychiatry. The discussion elucidates how the responses tend to resemble previous ways in which critique has been dealt with mainly by 'biological psychiatry', but that the counter-critical nature of the medical and psychiatric organisational responses remains in contrast to the broader reception within the UN community.

The impact of interviewer characteristics on residency candidate scores in Emergency Medicine: a brief report

Background: At the conclusion of residency candidate interview days, faculty interviewers commonly meet as a group to reach conclusions about candidate evaluations based on shared information. These conclusions ultimately translate into rank list position for The Residency Match. The primary objective is to determine if the post-interview discussion influences the final scores assigned by each interviewer, and to investigate whether interviewer characteristics are significantly associated with the likelihood of changing their score. Based on Foucault’s ‘theory of discourse’ and Bourdieu’s ‘social capital theory,’ we hypothesized that interviewer characteristics, and the discourse itself, would contribute to score changes after a post-interview discussion regarding emergency medicine residency candidates. Methods: We conducted a cross-sectional observational study of candidate scores for all candidates to a four-year emergency medicine residency program affiliated with Yale University School of Medicine during a single application cycle. The magnitude and direction of score changes, if any, after group discussion were plotted and grouped by interviewer academic rank. We created a logistic regression model to determine odds that candidate scores changed from pre- and post-discussion ratings related to specific interviewer factors. Results: A total of 24 interviewers and 211 candidates created 471 unique interviewer-candidate scoring interactions, with 216 (45.8%) changing post-discussion. All interviewers ranked junior to professor were significantly more likely to change their score compared to professors. Interviewers who were women had significantly lower odds of changing their individual scores following group discussion (p=0.020; OR 0.49, 95% CI 0.26-0.89). Conclusions: Interviewers with lower academic rank had higher odds of changing their post-discussion scores of residency candidates compared to professors. Future work is needed to further characterize the influencing factors and could help create more equitable decision processes during the residency candidate ranking process.

Spatial and Narrative Escape in Fae Myenne Ng’s Bone

Bone is the impressive first novel written by Fae Myenne Ng, a first-generation Chinese American woman writer. Under the guidance of Gaston Bachelard’s and M. M. Bakhtin’s theories of space and Gérard Genette’s theories of narrative discourse, this paper probes into the narrative space and time in Ng’s Bone, trying to detect the protagonist’s escape consciousness revealed in the form of spatial and narrative escape. Leila’s individual escape, which derives from the family tragedy under the exploitation and expulsion of racial minorities in America, is, in fact, the epitome of every anxious Chinese American’s impulse to run away.

Enacted Offstage Images, Reported Onstage Action, and Parallel Fictional Worlds in Dead Centre’s Chekhov’s First Play (2015) and Tim Crouch and Rachana Jadhav’s Total Immediate Collective Imminent Terrestrial Salvation (2019)

This essay addresses how the collision of image, text, and speech in contemporary scripted performances discloses something significant about both being in and thinking about the theatre. It examines cases wherein recent examples of theatre practice disrupt long-standing expectations about the form and function of reported offstage action. While Tim Crouch and Rachana Jadhav’s Total Immediate Collective Imminent Terrestrial Salvation (2019) literalises the relationship between text and performance by putting the play script in the hands of the audience and employing illustrations as a means of reporting that inverts established ekphrastic modes, Dead Centre’s Chekhov’s First Play (2015) literalises offstage presence through the audio narration of a figure named as ‘The Director’. These acts of staging literally key conceptual and practical challenges of theatrical representation work in both cases to reveal instances of mimetic disjuncture. Audiences are not sure which version of each performance to invest in: the staged action or illustrated text of Terrestrial Salvation and the onstage adaptation or The Director’s critical reporting in Chekhov’s First Play. By making available different versions of the same theatrical event, each production connects resonantly to a cultural moment wherein we are often exposed to alternative narratives but may not always recognise or acknowledge these alternate perspectives. Reviewed together, these two productions present a wide-ranging sensorial problematising of theatrical representation. They construct points of meaningful divergence through unscripted performances and the disaggregation of actor and character. Methodologically, this essay works to address these questions of representational multiplicity through a form of discursive practice that reports between the two case study examples. This approach serves to reveal the discourse of theatre and performance studies as frequently grounded in ekphrastic reportings that recount theatrical images no longer available to view. The argument marks out first how reported action and other forms of ekphrastic representation have historically been about what cannot be staged in order to propose that what comes to be unrepresentable in these examples – even as it is the means of representation – is theatrical performance itself. The essay then traces how these metatheatrical questions related to the representational affordance of these performances – in this case to do with impossibility of representing the theatre itself – ripple into wider consequences that can have substantial implications related to race, freedom, and collective endeavour.