A4. DISCOURSE AND IDEOLOGY
-Texts promote certain points of view or ideologies; at the same time,
they construct them and reinforce them. We can be attracted, it is a
promotional aspect
1) Authors (any person) create versions of reality based on their choice
and combination of words, it’s not reality but how they/we perceive
reality, their own version through the words they choose.
The choice of words creates a version of reality, everyone tells a different
story. (Reading news on different newspapers)
2) Authors construct certain relationships between themselves and their
readers.
3) Authors represent the words of other people and position themselves
in relation to those words (and those people): summarise what people
say
4) Author index and invoke larger concepts, systems of social
organization or relationships of power and, by doing so, reinforce
these concepts, systems, and relationships.
Our words are never neutral: words always represent the world in a
certain way and create certain relationship with the people with whom
we are communicating.
TEXTS PROMOTE A PARTICULAR IDEOLOGY
An ideology is a specific set of beliefs and assumptions people have about
such things as what is good and bad, what is right and wrong, what is
normal and abnormal.
Ideologies provide us with MODELS: of behaviour that we follow, apply
(cultural models) to fit in a society. Ideologies help to create a shared
worldview and sense of purpose among people in a particular group. On the
other hand, ideologies also limit the way we look at reality and tend to
marginalize or exclude altogether people, things and ideas that do not fit
into these models.
LIMITS: or limitations that a model can create.
All texts, somehow, involve these systems of inclusion and exclusion.
(fill out a form: indicate married/single; this question reinforce the idea that
your marital status is an important aspect of your identity)
MARGINALIZATION: who doesn’t share the same models, or your cultural
models is marginalized and considered wrong. So, ideologies can create
exclusion for those who doesn’t share them.
The linguistic Michael Halliday pointed out that whenever we use language we
are always doing three things at once:
1. We represent the world – IDEATIONAL FUNCTION of language.
2. We create, ratify, negotiate our relationships with whom we are
communicating – INTERPERSONAL FUNCTION of language.
