A Critical Discourse Analysis Of Polylogue

The term "polylogue" was first introduced by Kerbrat-Orecchioni in 2004 in analogy of "monologue","dialogue" etc.to refer to the communicative situation involving three or more participants.Since the term was coined,it has become a heated topic in conversation analysis and pragmatics.The Journal of Pragmatics in its first issue of 2004 launched an initial investigation of polylogue from various perspectives.However,most studies in this volume are generally conducted within the field of conversation analysis.As Fairclough (2001) points out,one of the most distinct shortcomings of conversation analysis is that it always ignores the participants' social status and power in communication process.In real conversations,due to the different power and status attached to different participants,the turn-taking and topic control are not equal in interaction.As a common communicative mode in our society,polylogue is not only the reflection of the reality but also a type of social institution.Therefore,polylogue deserves an in-depth analysis from both linguistic and social perspectives.Authorized by this reason,the present study analyzes polylogue from the perspective of critical discourse analysis(CDA) by exploring its discursive structure and linguistic features,attempting to illuminate the underlying power relations and ideology.Critical discourse analysis is a socially directed application of linguistic analysis, aiming at exploring the relationships among language,power and ideology.With CDA as the theoretical framework,this thesis investigates the macro discursive structure and other linguistic features,such as tum-taking and topic control ofpolylogue,with the objective to explore how language is used by participants to exert power and how the latent ideology contributes to polylogue.The research yields the following findings:first,the discursive structure of polylogue is largely decided by the more powerful participants;second,turn-taking and topic control are the major devices manipulated by the more powerful to exert interactional control; third,discourse power is not possessed by any person permanently,but shifted around and struggled during the course of interaction,and finally,ideology is always hidden behind polylogue to control the interaction to some extent.This thesis falls into five chapters.Chapter One gives a general introduction to the present research about the rationale,objects,methodology and data collection.Chapter Two reviews previous studies on critical discourse analysis and polylogue.Chapter Three presents the theoretical framework as well as the analytical tools of this thesis.Chapter Four makes a practical analysis of six excerpts of polylogue by applying the theoretical framework.Chapter Five first summarizes the findings from the analysis,and then discusses the implications,limitations of this thesis,and finally points out the prospects for the future studies.