Activist Sociolinguistics in a Critical Discourse Analysis Perspective

Abstract

Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) advocates interdisciplinarity in research, forging bonds among rather than divisions in research paradigms. In this chapter I propose we conjoin the linguistic and social picture, which many conference panels present, by examining applied research which more fully fleshes out and inherently repositions us as members of both a linguistic research community as well as a global community whose interests include social organizations, cultural representations, political and ideological praxis, new technologies for learning and communicating, conflict management, workplace roles, crime, justice, survival, and identity, and — if we want to dream large — an improved quality of life. How can our research add to the quality of life? John Rickford suggested in an address at the Georgetown University Roundtable on Linguistics 2000 that we linguists are at a crossroads where we must consider our parts in doing more with the knowledge we produce. This chapter takes up that challenge suggesting that an activist sociolinguistics can emerge from the empirical work we linguists do. In light of the 11 September terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center in New York and the Pentagon in Washington, DC, and their association with compelling discourses calling for violence and counter-attacks, we can see even more of an urgency to conjoin our work in understanding the connections between what we research and what we do with research, especially research such as mine that deals with discourses of violence. These keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.

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