Return to search

Applying Corpus-Assisted Critical Discourse Analysis to an Unrestricted Corpus: A Case Study in Indonesian and Malay Newspapers

In 2008, Baker et al. proposed a nine-step method that combines quantitative corpus linguistics with qualitative critical discourse analysis. To date this cycle has only been used to analyze a single language with a restricted corpus. Can this method, originally designed for this narrow focus, be applied cross-culturally to an unrestricted corpus? There are two over-arching goals for this paper, one linguistic and one methodological. The first goal is to learn about language ideologies in Indonesian and Malay newspapers; the second goal is to evaluate the efficacy of a mixed-methods corpus-driven approach to discourse analysis using the methods proposed by Baker et al. Our research will be based on the cross-cultural analysis of two 4-million-word corpora of newspaper articles; one Indonesian and one Malay. Malaysia and Indonesia are home to two peoples, living side by side and sharing a common language background, but reacting to the Islamic fundamentalist movement in different ways. Applying Baker et al.'s cycle, we will use keyword analysis, collocation, concordance lines, and qualitative analysis in this study. Whereas Baker employed a corpus restricted to articles about refugees, asylum seekers, immigrants, and migrants, our corpus encompasses articles on any topic; whereas their study focused solely on English, ours will compare Indonesian and Malay. To build a "useful methodological synergy" between qualitative and quantitative analysis (Baker, et al., 2008), this corpus-driven study will consider how Islam and related terms are being represented by government, historical, and religious sources. The results of this study will help us discern how these two countries are reacting to the fundamentalist movement. This study will also help evaluate the applicability of Baker et al.'s proposed methods to other types of sociolinguistic research and bring to light any modifications that could be made.

Identiferoai:union.ndltd.org:BGMYU2/oai:scholarsarchive.byu.edu:etd-7478
Date01 July 2017
CreatorsWhite, Sara LuAnne
PublisherBYU ScholarsArchive
Source SetsBrigham Young University
Detected LanguageEnglish
Typetext
Formatapplication/pdf
SourceAll Theses and Dissertations
Rightshttp://lib.byu.edu/about/copyright/

Page generated in 0.0019 seconds