1. Conference Presentation
Common Destiny? A Critical Discourse Analysis of the Independence Debate between France and New Caledonia
Conference Presentation
Research Methodology
12 May 2014
M. Lecompte-Van Poucke

2. colonies in the Pacific…
A Western country
somewhere in Europe…
Source:
And one of its former
colonies in the Pacific…
Source:

3. Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA):
Studies the link between discourse and social practice
Focuses on social issues and phenomena: especially unequal power relations
Relationship between discourse
and social practice
is said to be “dialectical” and
“critical” (Fairclough, 1989)
Source:

4. “Discourse”
is a complex bundle of simultaneous and sequential interrelated linguistic acts, which manifest themselves within and across the social fields of action as thematically interrelated semiotic, oral and written tokens, very often as ‘texts’, that belong to specific semiotic types, that is, genres.
(Wodak, 2001, p. 66)

5. A Critical Discourse Analysis of three French texts:
a speech made in 1983 by
Jean-Marie Tjibaou : opening stage of debate
a speech made in 1998 by
Lionel Jospin:
confrontation stage
an interview given in 2009 by Jacques Lafleur: concluding stage
Source:

6. Focus : the process of negotiation between France and New Caledonia
Each sample of political discourse:
a complex speech act
Debate:
a form of dialogue over a prolonged period of time
(van Eemeren & Grootendorst, 2001)
Source:

7. Research questions
How do Jospin and Lafleur construe their reality of a “common destiny” for France and New Caledonia?
How does Tjibaou create his view of “Kanaky” (New Caledonia)?
Do Jospin and Lafleur display a neo-colonialist attitude in their discourse?
What is Tjibaou’s attitude towards the former colonisers and how does he express it discursively?

8. How do the underlying values of the political argumentation translate into reasons for selecting a particular course of action?
What kind of consensus is reached through the argumentation? Is it a unanimous consensus or rather a justified consensus and why?
Is this a reasonable debate? Why (not)?

9. The negotiation process between France
and New Caledonia does not appear to constitute
a cooperative dialogue.
French political strategy to maintain
a power relationship of dominance with NC
Justified consensus symbolised by the
collocation of “common destiny”
Focus on:
underlying social representations in values premise
proposed course of action in goal premise
“reasonableness”: hidden premises/fallacies

10. Critical Discourse Analysis
Textual analysis and social theory
Interdisciplinary, no CDA theory
My research project
Multidisciplinary theoretical framework
Linguistic analysis
Social theory
Postcolonial theory
Argumentation theory/Pragma-dialectics

11. Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL): Halliday
Social theory: Foucault
Postcolonial theory: Edward W. Said
Discourse Ethics: Habermas
Speech act theory: Searle
Argumentation theory (Pragma-dialectics):
van Eemeren, Grootendorst
Quantitative micro-analysis providing linguistic
evidence for qualitative macro-analysis

12. Distinctives of study Uses a functional approach to study discourse
within a particular context of action
Applies a newly developed theoretical framework, combining SFL, pragma-dialectics, social theory and postcolonial theory to various French discourse samples
Constitutes a new form of “cross-cultural” CDA, focusing on conflict and dialogue
across highly divergent discourse communities

13. Bibliography
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Fairclough, N., & Fairclough, I. (2012). Political Discourse Analysis. A method for advanced students. New York: Routledge.
Foucault, M. (1972). The Archaeology of Knowledge (A. M. Sheridan Smith, Trans.). New York: Pantheon Books.
Foucault, M. (1980). Truth and Power. In C. Gordon (Ed.), Power/Knowledge: Selected Interviews And Other Writings (1972–1977). London: Tavistock.
Foucault, M. (1981). The Order of Discourse. In R. Young (Ed.), Untying the text: a post- structuralist reader (pp ). Boston, London; Henley: Routledge; Keagan Paul.
Foucault, M. (1988). Madness and Civilization: A History of Insanity in the Age of Reason. New York: Vintage Books.
Habermas, J. (1972). Knowledge and Human Interests. London: Heinemann.
Habermas, J. ( ). The theory of communicative action. Boston: Beacon Press.
Halliday, M., & Matthiessen, C. M. I. M. (1999). Construing experience through meaning: a language-based approach to cognition. London: Continuum.
Halliday, M. A. K. (2004). An introduction to functional grammar (C. M. I. M. Matthiessen Ed. 3rd ed.). London: Hodder Education.

14. Interview de Jacques Lafleur. (2009). 2014, from http://www. oceanefm
Jospin, L. (1998). Declaration de M. Lionel Jospin, Premier ministre, sur le bilan des accords de Matignon, la négociation sur l'avenir de la Nouvelle-Calédonie, la signature de l'accord de Nouméa du 21 avril sur les principes de l'organisation politique et sociale de l'île, et le suivi de l'application de l'accord, Nouméa le 5 mai , from
Lukin, A., Moore, A., Herke, M., Wegener, R., & Wu, C. (2008). Halliday's model of register revisited and explored. Linguistics and the human sciences, 4(2),
Said, E. (1978). Orientalism. New York: Random House.
Searle, J. R. (1969). Speech acts : an essay in the philosophy of language. London: Cambridge University Press.
Searle, J. R. (2003). Social ontology and political power. In F. F. Schmitt (Ed.), Socializing Metaphysics: The Nature of Social Reality. Lanham, MD: Rowman and Littlefield.
Searle, J. R. (2010). Making the Social World: The Structure of Human Civilization. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Tjibaou, J.-M. (1996). La présence kanak. Paris: Éd. Odile Jacob.
van Eemeren, F. H. (2001). Crucial Concepts in Argumentation Theory. Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press.
van Eemeren, F. H., & Grootendorst, R. (1992). Argumentation, communication, and fallacies: a pragma-dialectical perspective. Hillsdale, N.J. : L. Erlbaum.
Wodak, R. (2001). What CDA is about – a summary of its history, important concepts and its developments. In R. a. M. Wodak, Michael (Ed.), Methods of Critical Discourse Analysis (1 ed., pp. 1-14). London: Sage Research Methods.