A corpus-driven discourse analysis of transcripts of Hugo ChĂĄvezâs television programme âAlĂł Presidenteâ
This study proposes a methodology that combines techniques from corpus linguistics with theory from the Discourse-Historical Approach (DHA) to Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA). The methodology is demonstrated using a corpus comprising transcripts of Hugo ChĂĄvezâs television programme, AlĂł Presidente, broadcast between January 2002 and June 2007. In this thesis, I identify a number of criticisms of CDA and suggest that corpus linguistics can be used to reduce the principle risks: over-/under-interpretation of data and ensuring that the examples used are representative. I then present a methodology designed to minimise these effects, based upon a hypothesis that semantic fields are used more frequently in periods when they are topical, and therefore one can isolate instances which were produced at times of change. I use the AlĂł Presidente corpus to present a detailed description of three such semantic fields and then adopt the concept of discourse strategies from the DHA to demonstrate how ChĂĄvezâs framing of the topics changes with time. This leads to a set of conclusions which seek to answer the research question: How is life in Venezuela framed as having changed under ChĂĄvezâs Presidency by reference
Smith, Dominic N. A.
P Philology. Linguistics ; PC Romance languages
A corpus-driven discourse analysis of transcripts of Hugo ChĂĄvezâs television programme âAlĂł Presidenteâ. This study proposes a methodology that combines techniques from corpus linguistics with theory from the Discourse-Historical Approach (DHA) to Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA). The methodology is demonstrated using a corpus comprising transcripts of Hugo ChĂĄvezâs television programme, AlĂł Presidente, broadcast between January 2002 and June 2007. In this thesis, I identify a number of criticisms of CDA and suggest that corpus linguistics can be used to reduce the principle risks: over-/under-interpretation of data and ensuring that the examples used are representative. I then present a methodology designed to minimise these effects, based upon a hypothesis that semantic fields are used more frequently in periods when they are topical, and therefore one can isolate instances which were produced at times of change. I use the AlĂł Presidente corpus to present a detailed description of three such semantic fields and then adopt the concept of discourse strategies from the DHA to demonstrate how ChĂĄvezâs framing of the topics changes with time. This leads to a set of conclusions which seek to answer the research question: How is life in Venezuela framed as having changed under ChĂĄvezâs Presidency by reference
corpus_driven discourse_analysis transcript television_programme study propose combine technique corpus_linguistics theory discourse historical critical_discourse_analysis cda demonstrate use corpus_comprise transcript television_programme broadcast identify number criticism cda suggest corpus_linguistics use reduce principle risk over under interpretation data ensure example use representative present design minimise effect base_upon hypothesis semantic_field use frequently period topical therefore isolate instance produce time change use corpus present_detail description semantic_field adopt concept discourse strategy frame topic_change time lead set conclusion seek_answer question life venezuela frame change presidency reference