Critical Discourse Analysis and Language Cognition

An interdisciplinary study of issues of language manipulation, this book explores the interpretation stage of critical discourse analysis (CDA) for students in areas such as English language, media studies and applied linguistics, as well as practitioners in the field. It also offers a new way forward for highlighting manipulative language, accomplishing this through the innovation of a model of reading for gist. The model is an original synthesis of elements from four contemporary cognitive frameworks: connectionism, cognitive linguistics, psycholinguistic evidence on inference generation, and relevance theory. Significantly, Kieran O’Halloran also shows how each of these frameworks challenges current notions of cognition in CDA and he carefully works through the implications of this for how CDA highlights manipulative language.Features:*Shows clearly how more systematic and reliable prediction can be made as to whether a news text is likely to manipulate someone reading for gist*Provides accessible outlines of connectionism, cognitive linguistics, psycholinguistic research on inference generation, relevance theory, which assume no previous knowledge*Brings together contemporary linguistic and cognitive approaches which usually do not communicate*Provides a useful overview of how language cognition is understood in CDA, revealing tensions in this understanding.In offering novel criticism of some key aspects of CDA and in suggesting ways in which critical analyses of news texts can be improved, this book is likely to be both topical and controversial.

Kieran O’Halloran is a Reader in Applied Linguistics at King's College London