Course Quantitative discourse analysis: A corpus-based approach to critical discourse analysis

ECTS: 3

Course leader: Ulf Dalvad Berthelsen

Language: English

Graduate school: Faculty of Arts

Course fee: 0.00 DKK

Status: Course is open for application

Semester: Fall 2023

Application deadline: 12/10/2023

Start date: 15/11/2023

Administrator: Henriette Jaquet

NB.

All students are placed on a waiting list until we reach application deadline.

The course offers an introduction to analyzing discourse through a combination of critical discourse analysis and quantitative corpus-based approaches.

The aim of this course is to introduce participants to the skills and knowledge necessary to conduct critical analyses of discourse in various contexts using quantitative corpus-based methods. By the end of the course, participants will have a deeper understanding of the ways in which language is used to construct and maintain power dynamics in society, as well as experience in conducting critical discourse analysis by means of quantitative corpus linguistic methods.

The course introduces Norman Fairclough's approach to critical discourse analysis, which emphasizes the relationship between language and power in social contexts. During the course, we will work with different types of texts, e.g. social media posts, policy documents and news articles. We will mainly be working with corpora of Danish texts.

The course also includes a basic introduction to working with text in Python. Participants will learn to use Python to preprocess and analyze large text corpora. They will also learn how to use NLP tools such as sentiment analysis and topic modeling to identify linguistic patterns and features in discourse.

No prior experience with Python or statistics is required.

Aim:

The aim of this course is to introduce participants to the necessary skills and knowledge to conduct critical analyses of discourse in various contexts using quantitative corpus-based methods.

Literature:

Baker, P. (2012). Acceptable bias? Using corpus linguistics methods with critical discourse analysis. Critical Discourse Studies, 9(3), 247–256. https://doi.org/10.1080/17405904.2012.688297

Fairclough, N. (2010). Critical Discourse Analysis: The Critical Study of Language (Second edition). Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315834368

Jacobs, T., & Tschötschel, R. (2019). Topic models meet discourse analysis: A quantitative tool for a qualitative approach. International Journal of Social Research Methodology, 22(5), 469–485. https://doi.org/10.1080/13645579.2019.1576317

Jørgensen, M. W., & Phillips, L. (1999). Diskursanalyse som teori og metode (1. udgave.). Samfundslitteratur.

Nordahl-Hansen, A., & Kvernbekk, T. (2020). Construct Validity in Scientific Representation: A Philosophical Tour. Nordisk tidsskrift for pedagogikk & kritikk, 6, 88–99. https://doi.org/10.23865/ntpk.v6.1704

Target group:

The course is especially relevant for early-stage PhD-students, but it is also relevant for later-stage students already working with corpus-based approaches or critical discourse analysis

No prior experience with Python or statistics is required.

Form:

Lecturers and hands-on workshops.

Lecturers:

Lecturer

Ulf Dalvad Berthelsen, udb@cc.au.dk

Teaching assistants

Ea Lindhardt Toft. elt@cc.au.dk

Kenneth Enevoldsen, kenneth.enevoldsen@cas.au.dk  

Venue:

Campus Aarhus, Jens Chr. Skous Vej 3, 8000 Aarhus C, room 1453-131 

Course dates:

  • 15 November 2023 10:00 - 16:00
  • 16 November 2023 09:00 - 16:00
  • 17 November 2023 09:00 - 14:00