Language and Ethnicity

This chapter first engages in a discussion of the integrative effect of pragmatics in the field of discourse. It discusses critical discourse analysis (CDA) and multi-modal discourse analysis (MDA), and examines the way in which both approaches to discourse can be seen as the outcome of a long pragmatic process. The chapter then turns to the question of the integration of sociolinguistics and discourse analysis. The textual and linguistic bias of mainstream discourse analysis is strongly present in CDA. Slembrouck identifies profound influence on CDA: British cultural studies. The purpose of CDA is to analyze opaque as well as transparent structural relationships of dominance, discrimination, power and control as manifested in language. Multi-modal analysis expands the range of data to include material processes in spoken communication, such as gesture, movement in space, spatial organization, dress and body posture.