Institutional discourse

Discourse and ideology

The uneasy relationship between the concepts of discourse and ideology puzzles most scholars in critical language studies at some point in their career. Indeed, why do we have both racist ideologies and racist discourse, whereas we prefer to talk about feminist discourse rather than feminist ideology? And while we can explain language ideologies as “cultural conceptions of the nature, form and purpose of language” (Gal and Woolard 1995: 130), we cannot define racist ideologies as cultural conceptions of the nature, form, and purpose of racism or race— we would rather define such ideologies as, for instance, misguided cultural conceptions of the nature of humankind. Most of us accept discourse and discourses to be present in all language but many of us consider ideology or ideologies to reside with varying degrees in different discourses. And while we often find discourse to be a concept that is easier to operationalize than ideology when analyzing the data, we prefer ideology as an analytical tool when that data is about language— when we examine language ideologies.

While these concerns typically dissipate as our careers advance, they reappear once in a while when we teach introductory courses. Typically, we then put the problem aside as unsolvable and adopt provisional solutions such as deliberately using both concepts without a clear distinction, or making ad hoc distinctions that work within a clearly defined discipline or only in the cases that are being examined. Sometimes we also argue that such difficulties and transgressive practices are enriching and even empowering: certain paradigms show their strength precisely by contesting normative definitions.

A self- reflective analysis of the researcher’s position vis- à- vis the objects of inquiry and the research activity itself is an important component of both critical discourse analysis and linguistic anthropology. Indeed, the examination of the ways in which theoretical concepts, analytical tools, and the very foundations of disciplines are formed, reshaped, or rejected provides crucial information about the general nature of knowledge production in the past, present, and perhaps also in the future. However, the crucial questions “Why this, why now?” and “What is at stake?” need to be asked not only about our data and the themes that are in vogue, but also about the concepts with which we operate.

In this chapter, I will first examine discourse and ideology as contested concepts. Subsequently, I will summarize some of the ways in which they have been used in French discourse analysis, critical discourse analysis, and linguistic anthropology. In conclusion, I will analyze the evolution of the concepts as part of our infinite yet unconscious search for operational concepts, essences, and truth.

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