Fairclough

Norman Fairclough

Fairclough was a professor of linguistics at Lancaster University. He is one of the founders of CDA (critical discourse analysis). CDA is concerned with the amount of power exercised through language.

Fairclough’s line of study, also called textually orientated discourse analysis, to distinguish it from philosophical enquiries not involving the use of linguistics methodology.

Critical discourse analysis (CDA) is a type of discourse analytical research that primarily studies the way social power abuse, dominance and inequality are enacted, reproduced and resisted by text and talk in social and political context.

Tenets of CDA

. Discourse does ideological work

. Discourse is historical

. The link between text and society is mediated

.Discourse analysis is interpretative and explanatory

. Discourse is a form of social action. Whereas some of these tenets have also been discussed

Questionnaire analysis

The attitude towards the Afro Caribbean influence on standard English

Everyone who responded and took my survey where students aged 16-18 years old, they were a mix of male and female. The main language spoken by all the students was English and they considered themselves as British.

The results of the questionnaire turned out to be quite mixed. The opinion of some people was that the Afro Caribbean influences Standard English language, many of the people who said that mentioned the children cartoon “Rasta Mouse”. They said Rasta mouse breaks up the language of its viewers especially with them being of a young age. On the other hand, when asked if English Language is mixing with other cultures 60% answered yes. Their reasoning behind their answer was that many people are moving to this country and pick up the language and dialect.

What conclusions can you gather about the attitudes towards Standard English and Ethnicity?

From the results of my questionnaire, I can see that the attitudes towards Standard English are that majority of the people believe that the Afro Caribbean influence does not affect the English Language. They believe this because the queen has the power to correct English.

There was a mixed opinion on the attitudes towards ethnicity as 20% said the language used by black people is non standard.

Using secondary data I can come to the conclusion that the attitudes of adults who are middle class use Standard and the correct form of English. They believe that the media also uses formal and Standard English.

When asking in my questionnaire peoples beliefs of the word “ethnicity” many people could not explain it and just came to the conclusion that it is the Country you come from. Also when asking people what “Standard English” was many people couldn’t explain it and just said it is the right way to communicate.