Critical Discourse Analysis

Abstract

This entry focuses on what critical discourse analysis ( CDA ) does rather than is, exploring its origins, current work, and compelling features. First, by examining its potential to address the multimodality of texts, as well as intertextual and interdiscursive connections between language and social action and, second, reviewing the work of its major scholars. The entry also addresses the promise and shortcomings of CDA as ideologically driven social research, in the hope of a productive transdisciplinary dialogue.