Testing the language-power assumption of critical discourse analysis: the case of Israel's legislative discourse

Citation:

Shenhav, S. R., Rahat, G., & Sheafer, T. (2012). Testing the language-power assumption of critical discourse analysis: the case of Israel's legislative discourse. Canadian Journal of Political Science , 2 (1), 207-222 . Canadian Political Science Association.

Date Published:

2012///

Abstract:

The growing interest in the relation between language and politics brings new assumptions and theoretical frameworks to the study of politics. This study presents a simple empirical test of a major assumption of the critical discourse analysis school: that power is a major factor in political discourse. It examines whether the discourse of Israeli members of parliament (Knesset) represents a view of the world through the prism of power or whether parliament members refer to the experience of similar democracies. We demonstrate that power is a strong and significant factor in Israeli legislative discourse through time and across issues while relevance plays no role. L'interet grandissant que suscite le lien entre langage et politique, genere de nouvelles hypotheses et de nouvelles theories de l'etude du politique. Cette etude propose de tester l'une des principales hypotheses de l'analyse critique de discours, a savoir que le pouvoir serait un facteur essentiel du discours politique. Le discours des membres du parlement israelien (la Knesset) est analyse afin de determiner s'il reflete une vision du monde a travers le prisme du pouvoir, ou si au contraire les membres du parlements se referent plutot a experience d'antres democraties sous differents angles, en particulier celui de la similarite de leur travail parlementaire. Cette etude demontre que le pouvoir constitue un facteur important et significatif du discours legislatif israelien, a la fois sur la longue duree et concernant une variete de sujets, alors que le facteur de la pertinence ne joue aucun ro1e. doi: 10.1017/S0008423911000965

Notes:

Item Citation: Canadian Journal of Political Science. March 2012, Vol. 45 Issue 1, p207, 16 p.Accession Number: edsgcl.290733926; Publication Type: Academic Journal; Source: Canadian Journal of Political Science; Language: English; Publication Date: 20120301; Rights: Copyright 2012 Gale, Cengage Learning. All rights reserved., COPYRIGHT 2012 Canadian Political Science Association; Imprint: Canadian Political Science Association

Publisher's Version

Last updated on 08/18/2015