Kỳ thị giới tính trong ca dao việt nam về tình yêu hôn nhân và gia đình

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES -------- NGUYỄN PHƯƠNG THANH SEXISM IN VIETNAMESE FOLK POEMS

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES



NGUYỄN PHƯƠNG THANH

SEXISM IN VIETNAMESE FOLK POEMS

ON LOVE AND MARRIAGE

Kỳ thị giới tính trong ca dao Việt Nam

về tình yêu, hôn nhân và gia đình

M.A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS

Field: English Linguistics

Code: 60220201

HANOI, 2017

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES



NGUYỄN PHƯƠNG THANH

SEXISM IN VIETNAMESE FOLK POEMS

ON LOVE AND MARRIAGE

Kỳ thị giới tính trong ca dao Việt Nam

về tình yêu, hôn nhân và gia đình

M.A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS

Field: English Linguistics Code: 60220201

Supervisor: Dr Nguyễn Thị Thu Hà

HANOI, 2017

DECLARATION

I hereby declare that the thesis entitled “Sexism in Vietnamese folk poems on

love and marriage” has been carried out at the University of Languages and

International Studies under the guidance of Dr Nguyen Thi Thu Ha The work is original and has not ever been submitted in part or full by me for any degree at

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

During the process of doing the thesis, I have received a lot of precious lessons, necessary support and timely encouragement from my teachers, family and friends

First of all, I wish to express my deepest gratitude to my supervisor, Dr Nguyen Thi Thu Ha, who has always been willing to give me valuable advice and patience so that I can successfully complete the thesis

My sincere thanks are also sent to all of the teachers at the University of Languages and International Studies for their useful lessons during my two-year learning here

Last but not least, I would like to send my heartfelt thanks to my family and friends for everything

ABSTRACT

The current investigation is an attempt in CDA, conducting data analysis into

2000 Vietnamese folk poems on love and marriage, basing on Fairclough‟s dimensional framework with the grounding of Systemic Functional Grammar by M

three-K Halliday The research aims to unveil the underlying sexist ideologies behind language, generally manifesting the domination of men over women in the feudal time To achieve the aims, experiential values of words and grammar are deliberately exploited The research has reached some findings Gender bias was clearly seen when women undertook varying roles both in the domestic and social sphere, but most of them were subordinate to men‟s In terms of linguistic means which make great contributions to the discursive construction and representation of social relations, transitivity and semantic features display sexism the most

TABLE OF CONTENTS

DECLARATION i

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ii

ABSTRACT iii

TABLE OF CONTENTS iv

ABBREVIATIONS vi

LIST OF FIGURES vi

PART A: INTRODUCTION 1

1 Rationale 1

2 Aims and research questions 2

3 Research methods and scope 2

4 Significance 3

5 Design 3

PART B: DEVELOPMENT 5

CHAPTER 1: LITERARUE REVIEW AND CONTEXTUAL BACKGROUND 5

1.1 Literature review 5

1.1.1 Gender and language studies 5

1.1.2 Language and Sexism 6

1.2 Contextual background 7

1.2.1 Confucianism and its implications for gender equality in Vietnam 7

1.2.2 The Vietnamese women‟s status in patriarchal society 10

1.2.3 Vietnamese folk poems on love and marriage 11

CHAPTER 2: THEORETICAL BACKGROUND AND METHODOLOGY 14

2.1 Theoretical background 14

2.1.1 Definition of CDA 14

2.1.2 Key notions of CDA 15

2.1.3 Main tenets of CDA 16

2.1.4 Fairclough‟s analytical framework 16

2.1.5 Halliday‟s systematic functional grammar and CDA 19

2.2 Methodology 21

2.2.1 Data collection 21

2.2.2 Procedure of data analysis 22

CHAPTER 3: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSIONS 23

3.1 Women in the family setting 23

3.1.1 Women as caretakers for children 23

3.1.2 Women as caretakers for in-law family‟s members 26

3.1.3 Women as caretakers for house chores 27

3.1.4 Women as helpers for men 28

3.1.5 Women waiting for men 30

3.1.6 Women as inferiors 31

3.1.7 Women badly treated 32

3.1.8 Women as dependent beings 32

3.2 Women in the social setting 36

3.2.1 Women in low social hierarchy 36

3.2.2 Women as dependent beings 40

PART C: CONCLUSION 42

1 Conclusion 42

2 Limitations 43

3 Suggestions for further research 43

REFERENCES 44

PART A: INTRODUCTION

1 Rationale

Both women and men make up the whole world and are important workforce and integral elements of the economic development and the advance of society However, over hundreds of years struggling in many parts of the world, women‟s rights finally became human‟s rights as voiced by Hillary Clinton at the United Nations Fourth World Conference on Women in China, 5 September 1995 She said,

“Women‟s rights, in other words, have been recognized as important components of two scholarly disciplines and movements – international human rights and law and development Neither international human rights nor law and development can afford

to ignore women‟s rights and remain true to their core objectives” (Cao, 2016)

In Vietnam, the acknowledgement of women‟s rights has been amounted to after the people achieved the independence from feudalism and colonialism The Proclamation of Independence of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam which was announced in public at the Ba Đình Square on September 2, 1945 served as a stroke in people‟s rights in general and women‟s rights in particular Before this event, there was no explicit feminist movement in Vietnam and feminism was an unpopular topic and rarely mentioned (Duong, 2001) However, it is apparent that during millennium Chinese occupation, Vietnam was profoundly influenced by Confucianism, which lowers Vietnamese women‟s status Central to Confucian doctrine was that men were superior and women inferior It clearly supported a patriarchal social order, putting women in a lower social rank compared to men Those ideologies have been imprinted into people‟s mind till now

The treasure of Vietnamese folk poems has been seen as the possessed cultural heritage, making their contributions to diversifying mental life of the people They are sometimes described as a tool which is drawn on to represent reality and experiences of the people such as human relations, productive labour and daily activities, even national war Concerning human relations, the number of folk poems about experiences in love and marriage exceeds the others all the time and

nationally-exhibits behaviors among people With their powerful language, folk poems are not a neutral vehicle Words are employed to hold people in respect but demonstrate blatant disregard for others

Therefore, I manage to do a thesis called “Sexism in Vietnamese folk poems on

love and marriage” to partly disclose a social-cultural problem underlying the

discourse The study approached the folk poems from a linguistic stand point, aiming

to systematically show the hidden gender ideologies and the linguistic means basing

on linguistic theories and framework This feature may set the study distinguished from literary analysis in which meanings are more often derived from personal interpretation and emotions

2 Aims and research questions

The current paper is devoted to a critical discourse analysis of positive and negative evaluation of men and women carried out in Vietnamese folk poems on love

and marriage The aims of this research are to clarify the ideologies embedded in the

discourse and to investigate linguistic means in which the ideologies are expressed In fact, the two aims are closely interrelated and they will be achieved simultaneously throughout the process of data analysis Moreover, this analysis of the literature momentum of the Vietnamese people is expected to raise people‟s critical awareness

of the persisted gender inequality and partly help with gender balance through language The study attempts to answer the following research questions:

1 What are the sexist ideologies in Vietnamese folk poems on love and marriage?

2 How are these ideologies linguistically reflected in Vietnamese folk poems on love and marriage?

3 Research methods and scope

This research adopted the approach of Critical Discourse Analysis It analyzed

2000 selected folk poems on love and marriage which were collected in two anthoplogies of Vietnamese folk poems by Vũ Ngọc Phan and Phúc Hải The analysis decoded gender dominance in folk poems that linked to the society The qualitative

method of data analysis was applied for the research After data collection, the analysis

of verbal elements is performed basing on Fairclough‟s three-dimensional framework Description-Interpretation-Explanation with Systemic functional grammar by M A K Halliday as a ground The analysis procedure will be further explained in the

methodology chapter

4 Significance

In response to massive development and advancement in the globe, the issue of language and gender has been an appeal for linguists Therefore, the current research

in part provides readers with a critical view on the issue

CDA often serves as an advocatory side for the people who suffer from discrimination in gender This study adds one more to a pile of linguistics investigations, critically reflecting on the social problem

Vietnamese folk poems have a life expectancy of thousand years but are faded over the time To awaken the interest in this literature monument, the study offers a chance to summon it up and cultivate its vitality generations after generations

5 Design

The research consists of three parts:

Part A, INTRODUCTION, outlines the background of the research In this

chapter, a brief account of relevant information is provided about the rationale, aims, scope, significance, methodology and design of the research

Part B, DEVELOPMENT, includes four chapters:

Chapter 1, LITERATURE REVIEW AND CONTEXTUAL BACKGROUND, presents literature review and contextual background Importantly, it gives an overview of some previous research on the same subject

Chapter 2, THEORY AND METHODOLOGY, refers to basic concepts, the framework, the data as well as the method to collect and analyze the data to facilitate the research process

Chapter 3, FINDINGS AND DISCUSSIONS, presents and discusses the findings of the data analysis, organized by themes, then supported by linguistic analysis

Part C, CONCLUSION, draws important conclusions and makes suggestions

for further research

PART B: DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER 1: LITERARUE REVIEW AND CONTEXTUAL BACKGROUND

This chapter offers an opportunity to have an insight into the controversial issue

of language and gender At the same time, a quick look at studies on language and sexism is taken

1.1 Literature review

1.1.1 Gender and language studies

The issuance of “Language and woman‟s place” by Lakoff (1975) first

established the relationships between gender and language The publication triggered a controversy on women‟s and men‟s different language use (Nguyen, 2017) In her study, Lakoff attributed gendered language to basic assumptions about outstanding language use of women However, a range of studies protested Lakoff‟s findings about women‟s language For example, “Sex roles, interruptions and silences in conversation”

by Zimmerman and West (1975) or a study entitled “Man made language” by Spender

in 1980 assumed that language differences were due to power domination Then gender and language studies could be classified in the direction of two approaches – dominance and difference Fishman, Zimmerman and West were involved in the former The later was associated with Tennen (1985) Although the two approaches agreed that cultural difference and male dominance were the reasons for different language use, they both saw gender as naturally determined (Nguyen, 2017)

Another approach of this domain of linguistics in the 1980s and 1990s was post-modernism, referring to the general philosophical movement incorporating all fields of knowledge such as art, architecture, and also feminism (Nguyen, 2017) Hall (2004) affirmed, “In the early 1990s, the field of language and gender began to shift to what many scholars now identify as an ideological understanding of linguistic gender.” Many investigations in the field of feminist linguistics and in the domain of media studies have been carried out to these days, sharing the same foci on gender representation, the discursive construction of gender and gender identities Scholars of

vast disciplines, including gender bias, feminist or socio-linguistics all currently contradict the reasons for variance in women‟s and men‟s language and variables in language use to talk about women and men A typical illustration of post-modernist approach is Cameron‟s “Performing gender identity” (Coates, 1998) She shared the same opinion with the other two approaches that something other than gender contributed to the complicated issue of different language use

However, as Litosseliti (2006) said, “who we are is partly because of the way

we use language” Post-modernism not only saw language as a social practice to reflect the reality but a constituent to create such reality Therefore, adopting this approach, many research focused on language used by men and women, also language

to talk about them Accordingly, Litosseliti (2006) also said, language is “dynamic, complex and subject to change” meanwhile, “gender can be seen as a broader, a more encompassing and complex term”

The highlight of the current study is to answer the question of how language reflects our world More specifically, this study is expected to examine language used

to talk about men and women

1.1.2 Language and sexism

Since the 1960s, there have been many discussions of the sexist language and those discussions have been widened beyond the feminist circles The focal point is on language use which shows discrimination against women and trivializes the activities associated with women According to Darweesh & Abdullah (2016), “sexism is defined as “the practices whereby someone foregrounds gender when it is not the most salient feature” Like racism and other discriminatory forms of language, sexism derives from larger societal forces against the less powerfull class Accordingly, sexism is the struggle of gender – males and females (Mills, 2008)

Darweesh et al., (2016) posited that, “sexism does not reside in certain words and phrases, but it resides in the beliefs that see women as being inferior to men” (cited from Cameron, 2016) That is the reason why the studies on sexism have had academic and popular appeal, especially in CDA both in the globe and in the context

of Vietnam In feminist campaigners‟ opinion, language here does not serve the function of representing reality It is used as a weapon in a war against sexism

In Vietnam, Vu (2016) conducted an analysis on gender discrimination which was clearly expressed behind diversifying linguistic signals in Vietnames folk songs and proverbs His research reached some important findings such as: men as active, women as passive; men as talents, women as mediocre things; men as rational, women

as emotional; women as dependent on men; women as men‟s possession He stated sexism underlying the discourse in Vietnam was derived from Confucianism Although the current research seems in a quite adjacent context with his research, the two research is different in main details First, sharing conventional ideologies about men and women in the feudal time under the influence of Confucianism with the previous research, the current one views women in different spheres, which is believed

to be more comprehensive and systematic Second, with regard to methodology, this one employs a well-established framework proposed by Fairclough and bases itself on the influential theory of systematic functional grammar by Halliday The findings, hence, are hoped to be profound and exhaustive

1.2 Contextual background

Although the domain of sexism has had academic and popular appeal and has flourished internationally for ages, there is no common formula to clarify this issue because its origin is from the historical and socio-political context Hence, one thing noted from the literature of gender and language studies is that contextual background should be of paramount importance in revealing the embedded ideologies in language from a CDA perspective

1.2.1 Confucianism and its implications for gender equality in Vietnam

Vietnam experienced millennium colonization from 111 BC to 938 AD by the Northern invader at the medieval time Under its domination, China‟s culture was disseminated in the Vietnamese society with both the dark and bright sides It enormously benefited the community but caused from tangible to intangible damages

as well “From the fifteenth century onward, Confucianism became the dominant orthodoxy for maintaining national integration and stability (Wilfred, 2014)

Concerning social order, as Pham (2005) stated, “Confucianism emerged as one

of many schools of thought that sought to provide order to society” Over 1,900 years

of dissemination, the Vietnamese society was maintained in a rigidly stratified social order People were supposed to hold a definite status in the social hierarchy and to behave accordingly As Ly (2015) said, Confucian scholars, aristocrats and officials following the Confucian pattern were regarded as the social senior and the inherent classes such as farmers, craftsmen, and businessmen were socially inferior While the senior group was attributed to be national governers, the inferior group was responsible for serving the upper classes and themselves as well Among them, scholars, aristoscrats and teachers were treated with greatest respect Even it was believed that “a teacher's position was higher than parents were and only lower than the king” (Sloper & Le, 1995)

About erudition, a hallmark of Confucius' thought was that education became engrossed against other aspects Only great intellect and immense erudition were associated with the value of a person It gave an individual the role of a “Mandate from Heaven” Confucius stated that “his lessons were destined for all men, without exception His pupils came from the lowest as well as the highest levels of society, and

access to education was thereby broadened considerably” (Yang, 1999)

However, as history goes, under the influence of Confucianism and in control

of Vietnamese feudalism, Vietnamese women were in the lower social rank, having few education opportunities The less education opportunities they had, the less opportunities they gained to escape from their own lowly positions According to Jiang (2009), Confucianism had such great influence on the society that sexist practices and infamous oppression on women are taken for granted Women‟s inferior position was

widely sustained without question

Regarding manners, according to Confucianism, there was a need to devise a code to regulate behavior and morals of people, which made people comply with,

eliminating the unrest of the society Central to the Confucianism doctrine was three fundamental principles – the behavior, loyalty and obedience People was to abide by the code of conduct of deference: children were to show their filial duties to their parents, wives were to voluntarily surrender themselves to their husbands, students were to obey teachers and citizens were forced to yield to their rulers In a word, women were repeatedly considered as the lower social class compared to men Their practice of obedience to their husband was seen as a common sense and the most important virtue of women At the age of marriage, the girl was followed to her spouse‟s house and given the cautionary words: “when you go to your new home, you must be respectful and circumspect Do not disobey your husband” Despite women‟s obedience, polygyny was among prevailing social problems and accepted by law (Jiang, 2009)

In terms of gender bias in domestic worship, Confucius said "man is the representative of Heaven and is supreme over all things Woman yields obedience to the institutions of man and helps him to carry out his principles" (Robertson, 2014) One of the major principles of Confucianism is “the cult of ancestor worship or veneration gives the male double roles: head of the household and religious head of household for ancestor veneration Since this rite is normally conducted only by the male descendents Boys are more desirable than girls” (US Navy, 1967)

Besides, language and documents were witnessed massive impacts Ly (2015) affirmed, “the acculturation generally and dissemination of Han culture specifically left a deep influence on Vietnamese language and writing” Ly (2015) showed us, regarding the grammatical aspect, for Vietnamese modern language, affixes were added to form Sino – Vietnamese words; compounds and many words of Chinese-origin were imported As for vocabulary, the majority of Vietnamese vocabulary was borrowed from Chinese Even such the amount to date has still been used frequently, including ancient Sino - Vietnamese words, medieval Sino-Vietnamese words, contemporary Sino-Vietnamese words - conversational language of Vietnames - Chinese people in South Vietnam, and words containing Sino - Vietnamese elements

The diffusion of China‟s calligraphy is given because Vietnamese folk poems in the current study witness its deep penetration

1.2.2 The Vietnamese women’s status in patriarchal society

According to UNESCO materials (1989), “the introduction of a rigid Confucian hierarchy by the Chinese rulers left an indelible mark on Vietnamese history and culture” In patriarchal society, there remains the idea that “men are to be respected, women despised” and women are “weak and helpless creature” against men, said Confucius (Pham, 1999) Confucius also said, “the populace and women is ignorant, filled with bad instincts, and hard to educate” (Eno, 2015) Female children hardly escaped from their inherent inferior status cause only male children could get access to the nation‟s education system, mandarinate was destined for males

In marriage, women had no options rather than abide by whatever suitor chosen for them by their parents That was such the obvious fact that there went a saying, women were “sit wherever her parents ordered her to” They could not get married to a man of love For wedding – a lifetime event, women were considered a tribute, the same as money, jewels and other material objects to the owners of the family UNESCO materials (1989) demonstrated, “for a sum of money given to poor peasants

in distress, or for unpaid debt or land rent, they could seize young girls often reknowned for their beauty” Despite the beauty, marriage was an institution designed

to take full use of women‟s labour After wedding, women were subjected to the husband‟s family

Being considered an important production force, women were resorted to all sorts of household work Women did all the domestic chores, tedious agrarian tasks and all the manual labour Nevertheless, being a female spouse, “if you have a son, you can say you have a descendant But you cannot say so if you have even ten daughters”, said Confucius (Pham, 1999) Sexist discrimination was shown right in the ways the family members received the next generations The young girl had no material possession and no rights to have succession as prescribed by a will, even though they made great contributions to the families

Under feudalism, as prescribed by law, polygyny and child marriage were acceptable, allowing the marriage of a man with several women (UNESCO, 1989) Often, the rich man or his parents would choose a little girl as his wife, who would

be in charge of operating the housework as a cheap servant At adulthood, the man could marry other girls while the little girl had to be loyal to her husba nd for her whole life, becoming unpaid servants bound for life to their ignoble exploiters

1.2.3 Vietnamese folk poems on love and marriage

The Vietnamese term “ca dao”, also “phong dao” simply refers to the

romantic song without the music but the melody According to Balaban (1980), “Ca

dao” are always lyrical, sung to melodies without instrumental accompaniment by

an individual singing in the first person, not the narrative third person of traditional oral, epic poetry in the West The range of “ca dao” includes children‟s game songs, love songs, lullabies, riddles, work songs, and reveries about spiritual and social orders No stories are plotted The singer, to quote Confucius, merely

“gives vent to his complaint” “Ca dao” have no titles, no authors The Vietnamese people are the composers of these songs so in terms of conveyed messages, “ca dao” present Vietnam‟s ideologies

With regard to the content, first and foremost, folk poems are written to record daily life of the ordinary Vietnamese, both material and spiritual one In peasant farming, Vietnamese farmers whisper to the moon, a heron or an ant They sing these songs during break time after fishing or seafaring In human relations, these popular literature products tell the story about their concerns with a surprisingly candid voice From social to kinship ones, from reciprocal to interpersonal ones, even sexual ones are included Vietnam‟s folk songs act as a standard for romance poetry Through folk poems, the love of labourers is expressed in many aspects: romantic love between males and females, family love, love for the village, love for the fields, love for the work, love for nature, etc Besides, folk poems show readers their profound knowledge

of the social and natural environment as well as people‟s awareness about production Take some folk poems as examples:

Example 1: Anh ơi phải lính thì đi,

Cửa nhà đơn chiếc đã thì có tôi

(Darling, go and perform military service House chores, I manage)

Example 2: Tháng chạp cày đất trồng khoai,

Tháng giêng trồng đậu, tháng hai trồng cà”

(In December, plough to plant sweet potatoes,

In January, plant bean trees, in February, cultivate egg-plants)

It is an undeniable fact that folk poems attach great importance to the history According to Vu (2010), oral folk literature, like medieval literature and modern literature, reflects economic, politic, and socio-cultural situation of a certain period of time Also, those demonstrate people‟s emotions and social ideologies to historical events Its ideology was so dominant that by the late 1880s, when Vietnam became one of France‟s most lucrative colonial possessions, in order to shield their colonialism from antagonists, French imperialists placed great importance to curbing folklore literature propaganda since these verses are regarded as a potent weapon by the people against feudalism, invaders and henchmen French colonial governors, officials and bureaucrats even controlled the collection and edition of folklore literature Those activities were taken over by priests Not only were the verses prohibited from being sung but grossly distorted as well However, colonial officlials still failed to stamp out

a resistance fire from our people In contrast, artistic activities supporting nationalism dramatically flourished after the August Revolution of 1945

Example 3: Giáo gươm cờ quạt tưng bừng,

Nhác trông uy vũ tưởng chừng năm xưa

Anh hùng trí dũng có thừa,

Sử vàng bia đá bây giờ là đây

Non xanh nước biếc sánh tày, Danh thơm Phù Đổng xưa nay tiếng truyền

(Swords, scimitars and flags jubilant

Military power, like the old days

Men of honour, wisdom and courage

Golden days of history Beautiful and wonderful fatherland Thunderous reputation of Phù Đổng remains long since)

Despite harsh conditions of nurturing, folk poems remain prosperous among farmers and villagers, deserving to be a profound spiritual value and national heritage until now

Among the throne of the most popular subjects, poems on love and marriage vastly outnumber the others They are always the goal and the interest of all times not only for Vietnamese linguists but also scholars in different domains of social study Possibly, folk poems are detailed documents of love and a variety of its different emontional and mental states at any time Worries and pains are not exceptional by any means Even most of the poems are men and women‟s laments and moan for their destiny in love and marriage

Example 4: - Anh thương em răng nỏ muốn thương?

Sợ lòng bác mẹ như rương khóa rồi

(Why don’t you love me?

Are you afraid of my parents’s will, like a locked closet)

In the old days, folk poems on love and marriage well recorded the love of Vietnamese people in the context of contemporary society The affection between males and females had to overcome numerous societal bariers of feudalism and partriarchalism - a rusty chain to hold people back in traditional rituals Such feudal decencies kept being a burden on people‟s lives and love No matter how they loved, they were absolutely bound by feudal decencies The lovers could not decide their fate themselves Although love on folk poems primarily revolved on male and female and they were narrators themselves, the folk poems reflected the relationships beyond the reciprocal one Those are believed to disclose social ideologies and power

CHAPTER 2: THEORETICAL BACKGROUND AND METHODOLOGY

This chapter aims at providing the theoretical background for the research of CDA in which this approach coincidentally offers the analytical framework for the entire research In term of methodology, how to collect and analyze data is mentioned

in detail

2.1 Theoretical background

2.1.1 Definition of CDA

Fairclough (1980) defines CDA as: “by critical discourse analysis, I mean

DA which aims to systematically explore often opaque relationships of causality and determination between (a) discursive practices, events and texts, and (b) wider social and cultural structures, relations and processes; to investigate how such practices, events and texts arise out of and are ideologically shaped by relations of power and struggles over power; and to explore how the opacity of these relationships between discourse and society is itself a factor securing power and hegemony”

According to van Dijk (1986), CDA is a field that is concerned with studying and analyzing written and spoken texts to reveal the discursive sources

of power, dominance, inequality and bias It examines how these discursive sources are maintained and reproduced within specific social, political and historical contexts

According to Wodak (2001), “CDA may be defined as fundamentally concerned with analyzing opaque as well as transparent structural relationships of dominance, discrimination, power and control as manifested in language In other words, CDA aims to investigate critically social inequality as it is expressed, signaled, constituted, legitimized and so on by language use (or in discourse)”

To brief, language construction and the role of language in structuring power relations in society are the target of CDA Most scholars agree that CDA

does not necessarily a single method but tends to be an approach, which constitutes itself to different levels (Meyer, 2001)

2.1.2 Key notions of CDA

The key notions of CDA are important to understand with a view to have an insight about this linguistics approach

a Critical

Fairclough (2001) assumed that the concept of “critical” was employed in a special way to unearth hidden connections between language and power and ideology

Wodak (2001) said, “basically, „critical‟ was to be understood as having distance to the data, embedding the data in the social, taking a political stance explicitly, and a focus on self-reflection as scholars doing research”

b Ideology

“Ideology, for CDA, is seen as an important aspect of establishing and maintaining unequal power relations CL takes a particular interest in the ways in which language mediates ideology in a variety of social institutions” Wodak (2001)

Van Dijk (2001) quoted the definition of ideology from Destutt de Tracy‟s writing by saying that, ideologies have something to do with system of ideas, and especially with the social, political or religious ideas shared by a social group or movement The definition highlights the reflection of the society‟s belief that urges them to preserve it and affect them

c Power

Power is an abstract concept Muqit (2012) said, “It is defined as the ability of its holder to exact compliance or obedience of their individuals to their will” In CDA, language serves as the effective device to execute power between the one in more powerful position and the others in inferior place “Language is not powerful on its own – it gain power by the use powerful people make of it” (Wodak, 2001) One group utilizes language to establish hierarchy of the community

2.1.3 Main tenets of CDA

CDA appeared in the 1970s, adding a stroke to the interest of linguistic research

It turned from the concern for formal and structural properties of the text to the functional aspects of language as it related to the society This approach pays particular attention to the connections between language, power, domination, and ideology in general

Fairclough and Wodak (1997) encapsulate the main eight tenets in CDA as follows:

1 CDA addresses social problems

2 Power relations are discursive

3 Discourse constitutes society and culture

4 Discourse does ideological work

5 Discourse is historical

6 The link between text and society is mediated

7 Discourse analysis is interpretative and explanatory

8 Discourse is a form of social action

While van Dijk distinguishes his approach from others in CDA by the mediation between society and discourse, i.e, between social cognition and personal cognition, Wodak differs his perspective from others by focusing on the historical contexts of discourse, Fairclough‟s CDA “brings social science and linguistics together within a single theoretical and analytical framework, setting up a dialogue between them” (Chuliaraki & Fairclough, 1999) His approach not only provides a critical view to the social problems, disclosing underlying power, ideology, etc but also has issue-addressed orientations Importantly, regarding language as a social practice, Fairclough can establish dialectical relationships between language and society in which historical and contextual elements are not excluded

2.1.4 Fairclough’s analytical framework

Concerning CDA, Fairclough has been seen as the most important contributor

to CDA in the development of the analytical framework so far His framework is

considered the most useful vehicle to implement CDA Fairclough‟s three-part scheme

of analysis is foremost mentioned as follows: text (description: formal properties of text), discourse practice (interpretation: relationship between text and interaction), and sociocultural practice (explanation: social determination of the production processes and interpretation and their social effects)

a Description: Fairclough (2001) proposed ten questions to facilitate the

analysis of discourse in terms of vocabulary, grammar and textual structure However, the current research mentions seven of them which really work for this investigation

Vocabulary:

1 What experiential values do words have?

- What classification schemes are drawn upon?

- Are there words which are ideologically contested?

- Is there rewording or overwording?

- What ideologically significant meaning relations (synonym, hyponym, antonym)

are there between words?

2 What relational values do words have?

- Are there euphemistic expressions?

- Are there markedly formal or informal words?

3 What expressive values do words have?

4 What metaphors are used?

Grammar:

5 What experiential values do grammatical features have?

- What types of process and participant predominate?

- Is agency unclear?

- Are processes what they seem?

- Are nominalizations, active/ passive sentences, and positive/ negative sentences

used?

6 What relational values do grammatical features have?

- What modes (declarative, grammatical question, imperative) are used?

- Are there important features of relational modality?

- Are the pronouns „we‟ and „you‟ used? And if so, how?

7 What expressive values do grammatical features have?

- Are there important features of expressive modality?

As a suggested direction in the first stage of CDA, Fairclough recommends that both vocabulary and grammar carry a set of three values to facilitate data analysis, including experiential, relational and expressive ones

First, concerning experiential value, as Fairclough (2001) said, “A formal feature with experiential value is a trace of and a cue to the way in which the text producer‟s experience of the natural or social world is represented Experiential value

is to do with contents, knowledge, and beliefs” This value is related to word choice, the repetition of ideologically contested words and the use of the words with similar or different traits of meanings to reflect the social reality

Second, relational values have something to do with formality of words To specify, choices of formal words or informal alternatives help with illustrating formality of societal relations between the producer of the text and the audience

Third, in expressive value‟s turn, it is placed in the dialectical relationships with the above two values, shedding light on subjects‟ evaluation of social identities (Fairclough, 2001)

Especially, metaphor is the use of a word or phrase to indicate something different from the literal meaning As metaphor has traditionally been viewed as the most important form of figurative language use, and is usually seen as reaching its most sophisticated forms in literary and poetic language (John, 2009)

In this current research, by looking at a triad of words‟ and grammar‟s values and figures of speech, posed sexism can be addressed

b Interpretation: The goal of this stage is to show the relationship between text

and interaction This goal can be reached by answering the six questions about the producer, the objectives, the event, the process of the event, the relationships and the role of language To specify, such the factors can be of the source discourse and the

analyzed product Interaction occurs among the producer of the discourse, the analyst and the third-person, i.e the readers who receive the source discourse In this stage, interpreters, basing on background knowledge of language, unravel surface of utterance, meaning of utterance, local coherence and text structure and points (Fairclough, 2001)

c Explanation: In CDA, the socio-historical situation is the element that

governs the process of constructing and understanding of the text Solely concentrating

on textual interpretations is not sufficient for disclosing the relation embedded in discouse Therefore, for this stage, the context can not be excluded to reveal power behind discourse

The threesome of stages does not take place separately and step after step, but they are intermingled in CDA

2.1.5 Halliday’s systematic functional grammar and CDA

Wodak (2001) said, “whether analysts with a critical approach prefer to focus

on micro-linguistic features, macro-linguistic features, textual, discursive or contextual features, whether the angle is primarily philosophical, sociological or historical – in most studies there is reference to Hallidayan systemic functional grammar This indicates that an understanding of the basic claims of Halliday‟s grammar and his approach to linguistic analysis is essential for a proper understanding of CDA”

Halliday distinguishes three metafunctions of language which are continuously interconnected: firstly, the experiential function through which language lends structure to experience (the experiential structure has a dialectical relationship with social structure, both reflecting and influencing it); secondly, the interpersonal function which constitutes relationships between the participants; and thirdly, the textual function, which constitutes coherence and cohesion in texts (Halliday, 2014)