1.

9 CDA Framework by Fairclough- Three Dimensional Model

Fairclough is the most significant contributor in the field of CDA. His model may be

called the foundation of the whole field of CDA because he is the first in the whole network of

scholars who has provided a theoretical framework that eventually becomes a guideline for

upcoming researchers in the field of CDA. He states that CDA deals with social problems and

reconstruct identities by exposing those hidden abuses of power. He is the one who has clearly

defined the relationship between language and power, Fairclough, (1989) and also gives a

theoretical framework to identify those ideological, social, religious, and ethnic groups who are

exercising the wrong use of power and ideas in any society. He examines that how those ways

through which we interact are controlled by the construction and forces of those social

institutions in which we live and work. (Fairclough 1989). Through his multiple writings he

describes his views on discourse and text analysis. He identifies three level of discourse:

1. Social conditions of production and interpretation

2. The process of production and interpretation

3. Text (The product of first two levels)

 4.

Consequent to the three levels of discourse he prescribes three dimensions of CDA:

1. Description ( Text Analysis: Concerned with formal properties of text)

2. Interpretation ( Processing Analysis: Concerned with the relationship between text and

interaction)

3. Explanation ( Social Analysis: Concerned with the relationship between interaction and

social context)

(Fairclough, 1989)

Fairclough (1989) states that in description the text is analyze. A text can be evaluated by

unfolding its linguistic features that are, vocabulary, grammar and textual structures. That is

further divided into 10 questions.

A. Vocabulary

1. What experiential values do words have?

What classification schemes are drawn upon?

Are there words which are ideologically contested?

Is there rewording or over wording?

What ideologically significant meaning relations are there between words?

2. What relational values do words have?

Are there euphemistic expressions?

Are there markedly formal or informal words?

3. What expressive values do words have?

4. What metaphors are used?

B. Grammar

5. What experiential values do grammatical features have?

What types of process and participants predominate?

 Is agency unclear?

Are processes what they seem?

Are normalizations used?

Are sentences active or passive?

Are sentences positive or negative?

6. What relational values do grammatical features have?

What modes are used?

Are there important features of relational modality?

Are the pronouns we and you used and if so, how?

7. What expressive values do grammatical features have?

Are there important features of expressive modality?

8. How are (simple) sentences linked together?

What logical connectors are used?

Are complex sentences characterized by coordination or/ subordination?

What means are used for referring inside and outside the text?

C. Textual Structures

9. What interactional conventions are used?

Are there ways in which one participant controls the turns of others?

10. What larger scale structures does the text have?

Fairclough (1989: 110-2)

These three terms; experiential, relational and expressive, are of great value to

comprehend the framework. In experiential values CDA attempts to show how the experience of

the text producer of social world effects and is revealed in a text. Through experiential value and
its features a person’s view of the social world can be identifies. Relational values attempts to

identify the social relationship between the addressor of the text and its addressee. In expressive

value the producer’s evaluation of the reality it relates to is examined. This may identify the

related parties to the text’s social identities (Atkins, 2002).

The analyst, in interpretation, will construe the situational framework and inter-textual

context. In this aspect the focal point is to infer the participants, meanings and understandings

that are marked in the linguistics choices of an interaction. Explanation is the third dimension of

Fairclough (1989) model of CDA. In explanation the re-description of linguistics choices in term

of particular theoretical orientation is pointed out. It may be headed for any issue of the

relationship of “ideology and power”. Fairclough (2001) states that, the central part in

explanation is to know the manifestation of some particular suppositions about culture, identity

and social relationships and the work that can change or sustain the existing power relations.