Political debates usually focus on mobilising the other side to commit to a preferred course of action, thereby not only ignoring an apparent opposition in ideological viewpoints, but also the fact that sharing a common official language and common institutions does not necessarily entail a consensus on the issue at hand. As a sui generis collectivity in the Pacific, New Caledonia is currently involved in a decisive debate on self-determination with one of the most powerful former colonising nations in Europe. The negotiation process between New Caledonia and France pertaining to the full or partial independence of the island agglomeration remains ongoing. A referendum will be organised to decide upon a final outcome in the second half …show more content…
106). The present study aims to partially redress this imbalance. Instead of privileging literary texts or explicitly political discourse, uttered at the higher levels of society, grassroots level discourse will be given all the attention it deserves as the result of political interaction and the emphasis will be on language as it is used by all of the interactants in the context of the New Caledonian independence debate. The project aims to explore the relations between discourse, power and social interaction. Consequently, the audience of the political speeches, radio interviews or public letters, the recipients, equally deserve consideration, especially as a group that not only reacts to the discourse, but, at the same time, critically evaluates the argumentation and then responds to it. All of the groups involved make attempts at convincing the other groups of the validity of their propositions. Other analytical approaches to discourse that focus on the social aspects of dialoguing equally understand discourse to be a form of social interaction (van Dijk, 1985; Boden & Zimmennan, 1991). Since it is mainly through the exchange of discursive acts that a final consensus is reached, the focus of the study is on the social practice of deliberation or argumentation, rather than the social actors themselves.
In the society we live today we surround ourselves with positivity and negativity. The stuff that is happening today are they getting better or worse? Based on the article “Taking a ‘War of Words’ Too Literally”, by Deborah Tannen, she defines the new norm of our society “the argument culture”. Tannen discusses her experiences and states that we are more confrontational and less open to others.
In his essay “The Concept of Discourse Community,” John Swales, an educator and researcher, establish the definition of a discourse community. He argues that there is a difference between a speech community and a discourse community. According to John Swales, there are six defining characteristics for a group to be a discourse community. He then gives an example and discusses further issues regarding the concept of a discourse community. While the purpose of this essay is to acknowledge the readers about the characteristics of the discourse community with some explaination about each characteristics. He also establishes a formal tone to the readers. This work is significant because it provides some usefull information about discourse community so that the readers can know which discourse community they belongs to.
Gee’s entire assessment of discourses is the highlight of the essay. According to him, discourses cannot be imbibed or simply learnt in traditional classrooms, they cannot be taught to a person but rather they are what one learns through his experiences and social interactions. Since his experiences may encompass a great variety of social interactions and discussions with people from different spheres, these discourses are not very singular and may have conflicts among themselves. It is eventually the amalgamation of discourses that a person experiences that ultimately shape
Over the past class periods in ENGL 1301, we went over the rhetorical skills used around us in our daily lives. By persuading the audience using Ethos, Pathos and Logos, writers can maneuver their audience in any way that they wish. More specifically, in order to be part of a community, that person must share the views to be considered a member. All throughout my four years of high school, I believe I was part of a discourse community. That discourse community was the basketball team. This paper will allow me to confirm that notion with my teacher as well as my fellow students with the credibility, the community knowledge, and the same values that the community and I shared. A discourse community in the words of Linguist John Swales, are "groups that have goals or purposes, and use communication to achieve these goals." Our goal as a basketball team was to make it to the playoffs and win the state championship. Although people saw that goal as a little farfetched, we as group of teammates believed that that was
“A discourse community has mechanisms of intercommunication among its members”.(Wardle & Downs, 2014, p: 221)
On an individual level, discourse is a method for investment, the vehicle through which people talk about the issues of the day, cast their votes, and effectively join in the procedures of choice making that shape the commonwealth. Free discourse serves the singular's entitlement to join the political brawl, to stand up and be tallied, to be a dynamic player in the vote based system, not an inactive observer.
In the excerpt by Deborah Tannen entitled, The Argument Culture: Moving from Debate to Dialogue Tannen speaks about the oppositional nature of public discourse. She expressed her thoughts on how we are determined to seek certainty by using arguments from two different standpoints, as if there are no additional angles that can be examined. Oftentimes, there are more than two sides of an issue, but due to the way society has taught us, we only look at issues from two extreme perspectives. I find Dr. Tannen to be extremely intelligent in her observations of how people communicate using debates and opposition as a means to express what we believe to be true. Although Americans habitually view issues from only two extreme points of view, dialogue solves more problems than debates because it does not cause division among people as frequently as debates does.
As a consequence of the revolt, New Caledonia’s indigenous population was subjected to the ‘code de l’indigénat’ (native code), more or less leaving them to the goodwill of local administrators, without any citizenship rights and vulnerable to punishment for a whole array of offences. The Kanaks were exploited through forced labour while constructing most of the roads on Grande Terre. It is often assumed that Melanesians were not actively taking part in the development of the nation at the end of the 19th century, wich may be erroneous, since, as Latham (2008) points out, they were not only involved in ‘corvée’ labour but appeared to be fervent traders as well (p. 58). As a further form of ethnic segregation, they were forced to live in ‘réserves’
Learning how to communicate can be is a great tool when coming together in this country. Everyone has an opinion, but, cannot seem to come together on an agreement. Take for instance, Republicans feel that the Obama Care is an unneeded program and is costing billions of unnecessary tax paying dollars. Now on the other hand, we have the Democrats feel the Obama Care gives everyone a chance to have a fair share of proper health care where it is affordable no matter what bracket citizens are in poor, middle class, or rich. This is where that good ole English class come into play. The democrats and republicans have to go through the legislative process to make a bill into law. This process is long, stressful, and sometimes very argumentative.
Through the conceits of Newspeak, which is a sanctioned venue of communication in Oceania, Orwell shows how the limitation of language leads to the conscription of thought, and how when the ability to think is reduced, holding absurdly contradictory ideas in one’s mind is possible. This device ultimately serves to manipulate the citizenry. “Newspeak,” a language created by the Party to limit and control individual thought by restricting the expression of the English language, allows the Party to maintain its psychological control on citizens. When an institution is able to control speech in its followers, it gains power and thus limits social development. It is one of the Party’s techniques of stripping its citizens of psychological independence and identity. Social development is an indication of one’s ability to converse and relate with those around them and ultimately positively contribute to society via interaction with others. Through relationships, mainly verbal, one becomes aware of social values, thus, is able to build a sense of who they are. When prevented from developing socially because of the limits of free speech, one is not able to respond to social influences and therefore cannot develop their humanity. Freedom of speech is cardinal in a society, especially in one like Oceania. Being able to communicate to others is essential because when conversation ensues, positive societal change can occur. Orwell argues that the ability to communicate through words is
Such questions were a true cause of glory in the “Glorious revolution”. People with incompatible views, despite the passion of beliefs and the heat of the moment, where driven together in pursuit of a compromise through diplomacy. This uncertainty, arising as a result of
In the South Pacific Ocean, about 1,300 miles north of New Zealand, there is a country that is made of 300 islands and 540 islets. These islands combined form the Republic of Fiji. Out of all 300 islands, only about 150 are inhabited by humans. The largest island is Viti Levu, also known as Great Fiji, and the capital is Suva. Fiji is a democratic country, with the government system set up very similar to the United States. Sports are also popular in Fiji, such as rugby and soccer. My goal is to inform readers about the Republic of Fiji
Before venturing into a theory of metaphor, a definition of the term "discourse" is due. Barker and Galasinki give a detailed account of the term's characteristics (2001). The first one of those features is the socially constitutive nature of discourse (p. 64). Since discourse is basically a social practice, language users employ it to construct social realities. Moreover, via use of discourse, patterns of domination, power, and bias among others can be either consolidated or conversely redressed. In other words, discourse can be used by language users as a means to promote the status quo or as a way of resisting it (p. 65). Furthermore, discourse is presented as "a system of options" (p. 65), from which language users make choices to create a representation of reality. The process of representing reality is a selective one, that is, through the use of discourse each language user is capable of deliberately concealing aspects of reality and revealing others. The last feature of discourse is its close
According to van Dijk (1998: 352), Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) studies the way social power abuse, dominance and inequality are enacted, reproduced and resisted by text and talk in the social and political context. He identifies some of the dominant notions in CDA as power, dominance, inequality, hegemony, ideology ,class, gender, race, discrimination‘, among others which he labels as macro level of analysis‘. However, he posits that micro-level of social order involves language use, discourse, verbal interaction and communication. CDA, thus, tries to bridge the 'gap' between the two micro and macro
Evaluating the text from a Structuralist perspective reveals language as the primary source of political discourse and hegemony. In 1984, language is both an instrument and an effect of power. Michel Foucault’s discursive practices suggest that discourse “transmits and produces power” (Foucault, 1980). It has the capacity to govern social interactions, limit the parameters of human thought and endorse political ideologies. Structuralist Jonathan Culler corroborates Foucault’s dissertation in his book, Structuralist Poetics: Structuralism, Linguistics and the Study of Literature, by asserting that language “governs the individual and determines meaning” (Culler, 1968). He elaborates on this notion by construing that the linguistic-structuralist model can assist in “formulating the rules of particular systems of convention rather than simply affirm their existence" (Culler, 1968). When Winston has lunch with a Party member named Syme, who is producing the newest edition of the Newspeak dictionary, Syme explains how Newspeak narrows the range of thought, thus reducing the concept of what it means to be human: