This collection of papers, with their focus on social change in different settings and through a wide range of voices, offers a fresh view of both Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL) and Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA), and, ultimately, the relationship between the two. In the Theoretical Section, the authors explore ways to study social, political, and economic transformations; in the Applied Section, the authors examine the effects of social change on national and institutional identities. In each of these papers, the examination of the 'social' is in addition to, but not in place of, thorough linguistic analyses of discursive events. One of the main purposes of the collection is to make explicit the connections between SFL and CDA - two approaches to the study of language. This volume is the first to make explicit this connection so that novices as well as experienced researchers examining the two fields under "one microscope" can more fully understand how they are related and how CDA can draw on analytical tools rooted in SFL. The book has several aims: to extend the connections between SFL and CDA; to provide analyses of social change that are rooted in linguistic theory and methodology, specifically SFL which provides a solid analytical foundation that helps researchers avoid ideological bias; to critically analyse discursive material that includes, but is not limited to, media; and finally to offer a broad range of international perspectives on the role of discourse in changing social practices and patterns.

Author Biography

Lynne Young is Associate Professor at the School of Linguistics and Applied Language Studies, Carleton University, Canada. Claire Harrison is a professional writer and editor and the co-author of Developing Online Content (John Wiley & Sons, 2000).