Critical Approaches to Discourse Analysis Across Disciplines (CADAAD)

By 'critical', it is understood that analysts explicitly object to inequality in social relations. According to Billig (2003: 38):

Critical Discourse Analysis does not claim to be 'critical' because of a technical or methodological difference from other approaches to the study of language. It is claimed that Critical Discourse Analysis . . . is critical because it is rooted in a radical critique of social relations.

Given this critical perspective and the insight into the power of discourse, 'critical' social theory which has concerned itself with discourse has provided a major theoretical ground for CDA to tread. Amongst the most influential of scholars here is the French post-structuralist philosopher, Foucault (Fairclough 1989, 1992, 1995, 2003). Another influential school of thought that has been an important source for CDA is the Marxist-influenced Critical Theory of the Frankfurt School, in particular that of Adorno and Horkheimer, later followed by Habermas (Fowler et al. 1979; Fairclough 1989; Wodak 1996; Wodak and Meyer 2001). Quoting Habermas (1977: 259), Wodak (2001: 2) asserts that:

most critical discourse analysts would endorse Habermas's claim that ‘language is also a medium of domination and social force. It serves to legitimise relations of organised power. In so far as the legitimations of power relations . . . are not articulated . . . language is also ideological'.