The Ideological Construction Of Reality In Discourse

Abstract

The main purpose of this paper is to set the floor for a fresh debate vis-à-vis a number of issues pertinent to the theory of ideology and language through a critical survey of some key notions in the critical discourse analysis arena (henceforth CDA). In a broad sense, we will shed light on how ideology articulates in the use of language (both text and talk) and where ideologies, more importantly the skewed ones, are being encoded in language. Special attention will be drawn to ideology and discourse as separate concepts and processes. With reference to Professor Teun A. Van Dijk’s socio-cognitive framework, we will argue that the manufacturing of social realities through the selection of specific language structures and rhetorical devices is only one façade of discourse processing. Accordingly, it is crucial to resort to the underlying social and cognitive aspects of discourse production and comprehension to make sense of how discourse is being formulated and loaded with ideological preferences. This would make it possible to deconstruct the implicit ideological ingredients of any given text or talk in the different communicative situations and contexts. ملخص إنّ الهـدف الأسـاسي لهـذه الدراسـة هـو أن نفتـح مجـالا لنقـاش مجـدد حـول نظريـة اللغـة و الإيديولوجيـة مـن خـال التحليـل النقـدي لمجموعـة مــن المفاهيــم الموظفــة في تحليــل الخطــاب. بعب ّ ــارة أخــرى نــود أن نــبرز تمفصــل المارســة اللغويــة بالبعــد الإيديولوجيــة و لــو كان لــكلّ واحــدة منهـا هويـة مفهوميـة خاصـة و إجـراءات خاصـة كذلـك.