Locating Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) in discourse and social studies

This article addresses the position of Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) in discourse and social studies. It provides information about the principles of critical discourse analysis and what makes it different from other discourse analyses, which are considered to be non-critical. The term 'critical' has been the keyword that distinguishes any types of discourse analysis, i.e. whether or not they are oriented to social issues. Further, CDA concerns on social issues, e.g. power and social inequality, which collaborates micro-analysis of language and macro-analysis of social structure, have brought significant contributions to linguistics and social studies. Especially for linguistics, CDA has brought significant impacts to the textual analyses, which are oriented to investigate how power, social inequality, hegemony and discrimination are established and maintained through discourse presentations.