Talk:Critical discourse analysis

This section is preserved as an archive of a discussion from the proposal that Discourse should be merged with CDA. Consensus has been reached to oppose the merge. The JPS^{talk to me} 18:59, 18 November 2006 (UTC) Please do not modify it.

[edit] Merger

On 23 January 2006, Lapaz proposed a merger between this article and Discourse.

• Oppose - Critical discourse analysis should not be merged into Discourse. The concepts are too complex for this. Discourse, especially, can be used and implemented in such a number of ways that this article can become huge if related concepts were moved into it. Both articles are manageable sizes, with sufficient content to justify seperate articles. CDA should not even be merged into discourse analysis. The JPS 22:12, 23 January 2006 (UTC)
  • I have left the following on the person who proposed the merger's talk page:

You have proposed a merger between discourse and critical discourse analysis. Could you please show some wikiquette by providing a reason for your proposal. The JPS 22:15, 23 January 2006 (UTC)

• Oppose - I agree. The terms are not at all interchangeable and neither term has a single definition. Phil Graham
• Opposing Merger - Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) is a complex theory and model that has interpretations of texts and languages that go beyond the study of discourse analysis, and exceed the scope of many schools of thought on the interpretation of discourse.

  CDA should remain independant from Discourse Analysis (DA) due to its innovative and complex nature. Whilst similar, the studies achieve different results when applied, and thus CDA and DA should remain apart, and more people should focus on the addition of Critical Linguistics (CL) as a conterpoint to CDA and as a resource for those interested in Discourse Analysis. The combination of CDA, DA, and CL would improve the understanding of the masses and no one would have even suggested such a merger be allowed.

  Adam Moreland

• Strongly Oppose - for many reasons, the major one being the very principle of Wikipedia to provide correct, detailed and relevant information: (a) CDA obviously is a specific part (approach, perspective) within discourse studies in general, and hence cannot be identified or collapsed with the broader field: we do not collapse syntax with grammar, or grammar with linguistics either: an encyclopedia should also have items that are specific; (b) CDA is now a vast field of research with many scholars, its own journals, meetings, etc. in many countries (c) Many users search the internet specifically for CDA and should thus also find it in Wikipedia (indeed the Wikipedia item on CDA comes out on top in Google!). The article is not perfect, and there are regular intrusions that add blatant errors or information that has nothing to do with CDA, but as it stands the article gives the essential. More specifically what is needed is (i) more history of the development of CDA in several disciplines, (ii) a longer section on methods of CDA (also showing that there is no such thing as specific methods of CDA), (iii) more information about the applications of CDA in real world problems. Teun A. van Dijk (Nov 17, 2006)