Books like Discourse and social change by Norman Fairclough

Analysing Discourse offers a practical introduction to discourse analysis for students and researchers in the social sciences, guiding the study of real language data such as speeches, news reports, and corporate texts.

Language and Power is about how language works to maintain and change power relations in contemporary society, and how understanding these processes can enable people to resist and change them. Substantial changes in social life have taken place in the decade since the original publication, which have changed the nature of unequal power relations, and therefore the agenda for the critical study of language. In this second edition, Norman Fairclough brings the discussion completely up-to-date with the inclusion of a new chapter covering the 'globalisation' of power relations and the development of the internet in relation to language and power.

To understand the role of language in public life and the social process in general, we need first a closer understanding of how linguistic knowledge and social factors interact in discourse interpretation. This volume is a major advance towards that understanding. Professor Gumperz here synthesizes fundamental research on communication from a wide variety of disciplines - linguistics, sociolinguistics, anthropology and non-verbal communication - and develops an original and broadly based theory of conversational inference which shows how verbal communication can serve either between individuals of different social and ethnic backgrounds. The urgent need to overcome such barriers to effective communication is also a central concern of the book. Examples of conversational exchanges as well as of longer encounters, recorded in the urban United States, village Austria, South Asia and Britain, and analyzed to illustrate all aspects of the analytical approach, and to show how subconscious cultural presuppositions can damagingly affect interpretation of intent and judgement of interspeaker attitude. -- Publisher description.

"Discourse Analysis is an ideal textbook for students taking a first course in linguistic approaches to discourse. It presupposes no previous coursework in linguistics and is designed to encourage students to think about discourse analysis as an open-ended heuristic, a set of techniques for systematically studying every possible source of the meaning of a sequence of speech or writing."--BOOK JACKET.

"The Practice of Critical Discourse Analysis is an introduction to the aims, principles and practices of critical discourse analysis (CDA). It is suitable for students of linguistics, sociolinguistics, stylistics, English and anyone interested in discourse and social change. It is designed to prepare students for more advanced reading in the subject and to encourage them to develop their own skills in critical analysis."--Jacket.