Within the framework of an interdisciplinary project on discourse and knowledge, this paper explores the more critical, sociopolitical aspects of the relationship between these two fundamental notions in the humanities and social sciences, relating them with another fundamental notion, namely that of power. More specifically, I focus on power abuse – or domination – as a major dimension of social inequality. After a summary of the main properties of knowledge as I define it – namely as justified, shared beliefs of an epistemic community – I first examine the fundamental role of knowledge in discourse production and comprehension, for instance in the construction of mental (situation) models that are the basis of discourse meaning as attributed by the participants. It is argued that in addition to the standard cognitive theory of discourse processing, we also need a pragmatic component defining contexts as mental context models subjectively representing the relevant parameters of the communicative situation, and defining the appropriateness of discourse. One of the fundamental appropriateness conditions is that speakers adapt their discourse to the (assumed) knowledge of the recipients. It is at this point that the paper focuses on the possible domination as power abuse when powerful persons or institutions manage knowledge or information to recipients in their own interests. The paper examines various levels and structures of discourse as possible means to manipulate knowledge in communication and interaction, finally illustrated with an analysis of the usage of knowledge by former UK Prime Minister Tony Blair in his well-known Iraq speech in the House of Commons on March 13, 2003.
2022. Popularizing in legal discourse: What efforts do Russian judges make to facilitate juror’s comprehension of law-related contents?. Discourse Studies 24:5 ► pp. 527 ff.
Kakisina, Peggy A., Tantri R. Indhiarti & Muchamad Sholakhuddin Al Fajri
2022. Discursive Strategies of Manipulation in COVID-19 Political Discourse: The Case of Donald Trump and Jair Bolsonaro. Sage Open 12:1
Berrocal, Martina, Michael Kranert, Paola Attolino, Júlio Antonio Bonatti Santos, Sara Garcia Santamaria, Nancy Henaku, Aimée Danielle Lezou Koffi, Camilla Marziani, Viktorija Mažeikienė, Dasniel Olivera Pérez, Kumaran Rajandran & Aleksandra Salamurović
2021. Constructing collective identities and solidarity in premiers’ early speeches on COVID-19: a global perspective. Humanities and Social Sciences Communications 8:1
Schnegg, Michael, Coral Iris O’Brian & Inga Janina Sievert
2021. It’s Our Fault: A Global Comparison of Different Ways of Explaining Climate Change. Human Ecology 49:3 ► pp. 327 ff.
Catalano, Theresa & Linda R. Waugh
2020. The Main Approaches to CDA/CDS. In Critical Discourse Analysis, Critical Discourse Studies and Beyond [Perspectives in Pragmatics, Philosophy & Psychology, 26], ► pp. 155 ff.
2017. On drafting, interpreting, and translating legal texts across languages and cultures
. International Journal of Legal Discourse 2:1 ► pp. 1 ff.
Waugh, Linda R., Theresa Catalano, Khaled Al Masaeed, Tom Hong Do & Paul G. Renigar
2016. Critical Discourse Analysis: Definition, Approaches, Relation to Pragmatics, Critique, and Trends. In Interdisciplinary Studies in Pragmatics, Culture and Society [Perspectives in Pragmatics, Philosophy & Psychology, 4], ► pp. 71 ff.
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