Cognitive linguistic critical discourse analysis

This chapter introduces a form of discourse analysis based in cognitive linguistics. Cognitive linguistics emerged in the late twentieth century as a radical revision of linguistic theory placing meaning, usage, and experientialism at the heart of its analyses. Although it developed primarily to account for 'traditional' rank levels of linguistic structure (phonological, lexical, and morphosyntactic), the focus found in cognitive linguistics on meaning in usage events makes it a particularly convivial framework to work with in various areas of discourse analysis. The research described in this chapter falls largely within critical discourse analysis. The chapter takes as a particular case study motion events in UK media discourses of immigration. Drawing specifically on Talmy's (2000) model of motion event description, the chapter demonstrates how cognitive linguistics can be deployed in discourse analysis to reveal the ideological qualities of texts and the conceptualisations of events they invoke. An example analysis is conducted along four conceptual parameters: structural configuration, framing, identification, and positioning.