Cognitive Linguistics in Critical Discourse Analysis: Application and Theory - Hardcover

In contemporary linguistics, both cognitive and critical approaches to language have been elaborated in some detail. Unfortunately, the two perspectives have seldom converged, despite the potential theoretical advances such collaboration offers. The contributions to this volume explore the convergence of cognitive and critical trends in the guise of Cognitive Linguistics and critical discourse analysis. The volume addresses a range of socio-political discourses in various international contexts, including discourses on nation, education, immigration, and war. One single integrated model is not presented, but rather, a number of methodologies are developed and assessed across the chapters. The application of established Cognitive Linguistic theories, including conceptual metaphor theory, conceptual blending theory and frame semantics, are discussed, as well as developing theories, such as metaphor power theory and discourse space theory. The book is of value to anyone interested in the interaction between language, mind, and society, including both students and scholars of Cognitive Linguistics and Critical Discourse Analysis. 'Critical Discourse Analysis has grown at a surprising rate over the past two decades. It has grown in terms of the range of social and political issues that it confronts. Practitioners of CDA are now found in many countries across the globe. The present volume reflects these developments. In addition it paves the way for new theoretical and methodological frameworks. In parallel with CDA, Cogntive Linguistics has produced exciting new ways of linking human language to the human mind and the human experience.The present volume brings together these currents of thought in a way that poropels critical approaches to language in new ground-breaking directions. Anyone who is looking for new ways to do CDA will have to consult this excellent collection of papers.' Paul Chilton, Professor of Linguistics, Lancaster University 'This book is a welcome addition to the rising tide of research combining critical and cognitive approaches to discourse. As such, it features the work of established and young scholars who apply a range of notions from cognitive linguistics to the study of authentic data. Each chapter is firmly grounded in such empirical research and provides a balanced discussion of cognitive and critical linguistics. The book will be of interest to postgraduate students in linguistics and media studies, as well as to researchers in both Cognitive Linguistics and Critical Discourse Analysis who seek to integrate the two. Veronika Koller, Lecturer in English Language, Department of Linguistics and English Language, Lancaster University 'This collection gives a timely and vigorous contribution to a fast-developing field of research at the interface between Cognitive Linguistics and Critical Discourse Analysis. The editors and contributors are genuinely committed to both disciplines, and show how the application of Cognitive Linguistics and Critical Discourse Analysis can lead to significant advances in both research paradigm. In sum, this is an exciting and ground-breaking book, which represents the state-of-the-art in cognitively-oriented Critical Discourse Analysis.' Elena Semino, Lancaster University 'This collection of articles illustrates and explores theoretically how cognitive linguistics (CL) in its various forms can contribute to a more psychologically robust critical discourse analysis (CDA). Its value lies in the scholarly depth of its theoretical explorations, the range of theories it touches upon, and the variety of texts (from the literary to the political) and cultures (USA, Belgium, Egypt, UK etc.) from which it takes its illustrative texts. Analysis is never for its own sake but always to exemplify different kinds of theoretical symbiosis between CDA and CL.