时间：2022-09-03 09:43:24
Abstract:Language and culture are co-constitutive and their relationship is expressed through different discourses. How language is interrelated with culture can be revealed by analysing the lexical, grammatical, rhetorical choices that are made in the construction of all texts, which is known as Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA). This article adopts an advertisement Take off to Thailand and Discover Paradise Koh Yao from WHO magazine and identifies how language is interrelated with culture by means of CDA.
Key words:Critical Discourse Analysis language culture discourse
Introduction
Language and culture are co-constitutive (Lankshear, 1994; Carr, 1999). Language can be defined as“social practice in which meanings are made, fixed, and shared publicly” (Lankshear, 1994, p.35). With language, we can construct, contest, preserve, destroy or reconfigure particular meanings within a particular culture (Sapir, as cited in Wierzbicka, 1997). Culture has many definitions, either as "membership in a discourse community that shares a common social space and history, and common imaginings" (Kramsch,1998, in 2006, p.17) or as "the systemic and collective of making of meaning" (Lankshear, 1994, in Carr, 2003, p.105). All this is expressed through discourses which are "ways of being in the world, or forms of life which integrate words, acts, values, beliefs, attitudes " (Gee, 1996, in Miller, 2004, p.292). We learn through acquiring competence and identities in new discourses (Carr, 2003).
Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) is an analytic method that looks at how culture is underpinning language (Carr, 1999). It identifies how language is interrelated with culture by analysing the lexical, grammatical, rhetorical choices that are made in the construction of all texts (Carr, 1999). CDA can be applied to all forms of text, especially to the medium of advertising in a consumer oriented society. To exemplify this process, an advertisement Take off to Thailand and Discover Paradise Koh Yao is adopted. In analyzing this advertisement, the producer, the purpose and readership of the text are firstly conducted. Then, I will analyze the discourses including participants, lexical and grammatical choices of the text, interpret how the writer has positioned the reader, pinpoint who is excluded from the text and discuss how the piece could have been written differently. Finally, implications of CDA in foreign language learning and teaching are explored.
The text is an advertisement for an exotic journey to Koh Yao Island, Thailand, placed in a popular Australian weekly magazine "Who". The advertisement was written by the Marketing Department of Thailand Airways International and was published in the middle of the October 13, 2008 issue in Australia. The main aim of the advertisement is to promote its holiday package tour to an island named Koh Yao in Thailand. The text tells readers where the target destination is, what it is like, what it can offer to you (potential consumers), and how you can access it. It also describes the price of the tour and the extra bonus. The text is in an easy to read font and is divided into three sections with a salient big blue heading. Four attractive photographs which demonstrate the stunning vistas of sea and deluxe accommodation are presented round the literal description.
"Who" features articles on all the latest news about celebrities, people, entertainment, health, beauty and fashion. According to Roy Morgan Readership Survey based on Jul 2007 to Jun 2008, this magazine ranks Australia's Top 10 selling national consumer magazine by readership and 75% of its readers are female and the top two age groups of Who readers are 14-24 and 35-49, occupying 27% and 31% of all the readers respectively. Apparently, the readership of "Who" tends to young female readers who aspire to rich, famous, fashionable and luxurious lifestyle and aspirational identities.
The text shares the language and ideals from six different discourses. In order of paragraphs, these are the discourses of tropical paradise, elitism, recreation, health and beauty, and business. Language from the tropical paradise can be seen throughout the whole text as a large proportion of the text is devoted to the representation of scenic beauty of Koh Yao Island, the most important participant of the text. The phrases such as "secluded islands", "breathtaking scenery", "turquoise waters", "blue lagoons", "incredible white beach", "glorious vistas" and "spectacular sea views" tend to represent an attractive natural scenery and an ideal holiday destination. All the lexical choices aim to back up "Paradise Koh Yao" idea and construct a positive emotion.
The elitism discourse is salient in the first section of the text. Specifically, "James Bond", "Leonardo DiCaprio", the collective noun "the rich and famous" and the phrases "that everyone wanted", "spa treatment", "relaxation therapy" are utilized, trying to construct a discourse of elitism by demonstrating that the target island is where elite people love and everyone want to be, and thus construct successfully a sense of elitism appealing to the assumed young female readers who aspire to a new identity, dream to be rich and famous, live a luxurious life, desire physical and emotional release. The above phrases also mean to symbolize the tour to this exotic island as a chance of realizing the elite identity.
The discourses of recreation, health and beauty are also evident in the text, especially in the second section. The author of the text chooses noun phrases and words including "studio", "rock climbing", "scuba diving", "shopping", "massages", "hydrating facial treatments", "natural herbal products", "rejuvenate" and verbs "design". Through the choice of these words and phrases, the writer/producer ingeniously constructs a convincing notion that their holiday package tour caters for consumers' entertainment, health and beauty as well and that consumers may keep healthy and look young and beautiful by engaging in these recreational activities provided on Koh Yao Island. Consequently, beauty and health ideals are subtly suggested through the text. The importance of looking young, sexy and beautiful, of being healthy and hygienic is also embedded in the text. Not only does the text define the ideals, it also suggests the access to realize them. Thus, the popular perspectives that being healthy and beautiful is highly valued is represented in the text.
Finally, the discourse of business features in the text and can be found in both section two and three, particularly in section three. For instance, "this incredible Who Reader Bonus offer", " an additional $ 1,000 in bonus extra" and "All this for $1,999 " aim to build up a view that readers can enjoy more entertainments with less money and make maximum use of their money if they purchase the Koh Yao island holiday package tour, which is obviously appealing to the young female readers. Besides that, in the second section, "just an hour's boat transfer" tends to present readers a perception of high efficiency, which is also consistent with the widely accepted belief that "Time is money; efficiency is life" in this well-developed country Australia.
To interpret the tenor of the text, for instance, the relationship that is being established between the writer/producer of the text and the reader, a grammatical analysis should be completed. This advertisement contains three sections, which consists of largely affirmative and imperative verb moods and tone. For instance, the headline is in the imperative mood, it tells the reader to do something, "Take off to Thailand and discover paradise Kou Yao". This imperative tone reappears in section two "Pamper yourself at Paradise Spa " and section three "Take advantage of this incredible ". These underpin a desire to build up a sense of authority and confidence. In addition, in the first section, there is an interrogative " who wouldn't be seduced by the turquoise waters and ", though without a question mark. This indicates that a question is being posed to the reader, but the answer is already known by both the reader and the company, making the question rhetorical.
The advertising text also relies heavily on the limited but effective use of personal pronouns to establish a close relationship between the company and the potential consumer. The second section uses personal pronouns "our" to refer to the former as a whole and "you" for the latter. The word "our" effectively replaces the large, international corporation impersonal persona with an image of the company as a caring, sensitive body, concerned about the customer satisfaction and good customer service while "you" draws readers into the text towards the end of the text through the use of this personal pronoun.
All texts construct a reading position for their reader (Wallace, 1992, p.68). This advertisement employs the conventions of health and beauty that are usually used to sell products. It differs to most tourism promotions by representing the target destination as a means of realizing elite identity as well as women as the 'achievers' and the doers' rather than just sexual objects and home-tenders. Although the writer/producer of the advertisement have taken a new perspective on the way tourism products are promoted, the mainstream idea that young women tend to desire elite social identities and must look beautiful and attractive to be successful still remains. This links to the ideology that elite, health and beauty equals happiness.
When analyzing text, one must identify who is excluded and included in the text. It is obvious that the young female readers are included while the aged women and the poor are excluded within the advertisement because of its focusing on promoting the elitism, famous and luxurious lifestyle as well as being young, heath and health. This underpins the common attitude that the whole society value young people more the aged. If the advertisement serves for different potential readers, for example, the aged, there will be totally different lexical choices for the words "seduce", "scuba diving", "rock climbing". Or if it servers for different purposes, namely, academic one, the style will be total different and the informal words including "hideaway" and "indulgence" will be abandoned. The above assumptions proves Eagleton's (1983) statement that the language a writer/producer uses implies one range of possible audiences/readers rather than another (in Wallace, 1992).
Conclusion
CDA enables us to "identify culture at work, systematically explore the essential text-context relationship, notice the lexical, syntactical, rhetorical, discursive choices that are made in the construction of all texts, and how these choices have material effects" (Carr, 1999, p.105). Using tools such as metalanguage, lexical analysis and discourse analysis, we can consciously identify the discourses operating in the text and the underlying ideological meaning. CDA also helps us to develop some analytical skills and makes it possible for us to reflect our own experience as language users in particular social and cultural contexts (Carr, 2003). By the practice of analyzing a text, we have obtained a deeper understanding of the notion that co-constitutiveness of language and culture is apparent (Lankshear, 1994; Carr, 1994) and that with language, we can construct, contest, preserve, destroy or reconfigure particular meanings within a particular culture (Sapir, as cited in Wierzbicka, 1997).
EFL students often excluded as readers compared with their L1 peers, as there is a lack of linking reading activity and written texts with social contexts in EFL classrooms (Lankshear, 1994). However, reading involves a consideration of cross-cultural aspects regarding who reads what and why in what situations (Wallace, 1992, p.3). Consequently, EFL teachers need to arouse and foster students' awareness of ideological content and culture underpinning it and make them understand the link between culture and language in the language classroom, and thus develop their intercultural competence and prepare them for studying abroad or communicating with people from different cultural backgrounds.
References:
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