Blommaert Jan. Discourse: A Critical Introduction

Cambridge University Press, 2005. — 314 p.This new and engaging introduction offers a critical approach to discourse, written by an expert uniquely placed to cover the subject for a variety of disciplines. Organised along thematic lines, the book begins with an outline of the basic principles, moving on to examine the methods and theory of CDA (critical discourse analysis). It covers topics such as text and context, language and inequality, choice and determination, history and process, ideology and identity. Blommaert focuses on how language can offer a crucial understanding of wider aspects of power relations, arguing that critical discourse analysis should specifically be an analysis of the effects of power, what power does to people, groups, and societies, and how this impact comes about. Clearly argued, this concise introduction will be welcomed by students and researchers in a variety of disciplines involved in the study of discourse, including linguistics, linguistic anthropology, and the sociology of language.
Jan Blommaert is Professor of African Linguistics and Sociolinguistics at Ghent University. He has undertaken fieldwork in East and Southern Africa, and in 2002--2003 he was awarded the Emile Verhaeren Chair at the Free University of Brussels. He is the author of State Ideology and Language in Tanzania (1999), co-author of Debating Diversity (1998), editor of Language Ideological Debates (1999), and co-editor of the Handbook of Pragmatics (1995-2002). He has also published in a wide variety of journals.