A few questions to stimulate (critical) discourse analysis:
1. Take note of the way the main text is framed. What is significant, in your
opinion?
2. List all the modal verbs used in the text and suggest the reasons why they
were chosen. Are they deontic or epistemic (or both?)?
3. What are the most salient intertextual references employed? What do think
they are intended to add to the communicative effect of the text?
4. What kind of text is it? Written? Spoken? Something else? Is this important?
5. Are there any evidentialities in the text? Are they important for our analysis?
6. Is quotation or indirect speech used? Why/why not? How?
7. Besides modal verbs, what other linguistic elements contribute modality to
the text and underline its stance?
8. What rhetorical devices are explicitly used? Can you suggest their effect?
9. Are any other grammatical choices significant?
10. What semantic fields are in evidence? Does this help our interpretation?
11.Does the text make explicit reference to historical/political events, or other
discourses? Are there implicit references?
12.Who wrote, edited, and published the text? What is the expected social role
of the text?
