Download presentation
Presentation is loading. Please wait.
Published byChristian Cooper Modified over 6 years ago
1
Macquarie University/Australian National University
Chris Candlin’s Ongoing Engagement with the Concept of Interdiscursivity . Alan Jones Macquarie University/Australian National University [Presentation given as a part of Trading Places, Creating Spaces: A Symposium in Honour of Chris Candlin, at Victoria University of Wellington, Wellington, 26 April, 2017]
2
“systems need to be peopled”
In a conference address, for an AMEP audience, dated Nov , Chris used a selection of modern paintings as metaphors for different approaches to language, discourse, and language teaching. I focus on La danse (1942) by Fernand Leger. “For Leger.” said Chris, “… systems, whether constructivist or simultaneous, cannot be merely symbolic, they have to be peopled.” So, systems, yes! – but real world systems as opposed to systems of the grammar or of communication ….
3
MACPO Chris’s ambition for applied linguistics and applied linguistics research was to extend the study of language-in-use to a wide range of academic and professional and institutional contexts. He adopted the concept of discourse and of distinct contextually appropriate discourses, and their potential for recontextualisation, as two of the most fundamental analytical tools in this enterprise. These were ambitions I came to share. It came about that, in 2001, along with David Hall, Chris and I began to devise a suite of programs to be entitled the ‘Masters in Professional and Organisational Communication’, or MACP for short. In due course this subject was offered as a professional doctorate. Chris and I focused on one of the three core units, with an ambitious title: ‘Acquiring Professional Communicative Expertise’. We would meet weekly for brainstorming sessions, during which I had privileged access to Chris’s prodigious intellect and enormous learning….
4
Discourse and genre – evolving concepts….
Michel Foucault on grand, disciplinary discourses – but Foucault neglected text Norman Fairclough – TODA (Text Oriented Discourse Analysis) Activity types, discourse types, etc. – Stephen Levinson, Srikant Sarangi Discourses are “different ways of representing aspects of the world” (Fairclough) Tony Watson (1997) wrote that discourses are “languages within languages” Foucault (1984): “a regulated practice that accounts for a number of statements”. Discourses as ideologies? Interest based ways of speaking? (Habermas…) Bhatia has focused on the genre concept as an element within a discourse. Fairclough (2003): “Genre mixing is an aspect of the interdiscursivity of texts”. For Candlin (2000) a discourse was “a self-standing metaphor for the languaging of social and institutional practices”
5
Towards interdiscursivity
Chris’s work, over his academic career, makes it clear there are different types of interdiscursivity, depending on the types of discourse that are combined: Someone’s primary unreflective discourse, as acquired in the home Restricted vs elaborated A particular disciplinary discourse, typically an academic discourse A particular professional discourse, grounded in service-based practice An interest based discourse, as in business and commerce More broadly we can perhaps distinguish between identity based discourses, emblematic of established social roles, rights, etc. Ideology based discourses, grounded in contestable systems of beliefs and values – these are interest-based discourses, using discourse to structure the world tendentiously, to secure privileged access to goods and services [But – do speakers sincerely espouse, mimic or subvert the discourse they animate?]
6
Different types of interdiscursivity?
1. Interdiscursivity as complexity – a challenge! Candlin, C., & Plum, G. (1999). Engaging with the challenges of interdiscursivity in academic writing: researchers, students and tutors. (In Writing: Texts, processes and practices: ). 2a. Interdiscursivity in/as mediation – a strategic resource Candlin, C. N., & Maley, Y. (1997). Intertextuality and interdiscursivity in the discourse of alternative dispute resolution. In Gunnarsson, B. L., Linell, P., & Nordberg (eds), The construction of professional discourse. Routledge. The construction of professional discourse, 2b. Interdiscursivity in/as professional expertise – again a resource Candlin, C. N. (1999). How can discourse be a measure of expertise? Unpublished address, International Association for Dialogue Analysis, University of Birmingham, 1999. 3. Interdiscursivity as antagonism, contestation, conflict Bhatia, V. K., Candlin, C., & Gotti, M. (2012) ‘Contested Identities in International Arbitration Practice.’ Ch. 17 in Bhatia, Candlin & Gotti (eds), 2012.
7
Chris’s earliest work on interdiscursivity
The topic of interdiscursivity was still latent in a 1998 publication, where the focus was on literacies. Candlin, C., Plum, G., Spinks, S., Cayley, M., & Johansen, E. (1998). Researching academic literacies. Sydney: Macquarie University. This collection of papers was the result of a large-scale ARC-funded research project called ‘Framing Student Literacy’ that ran from 1995 to The results of that research were summarised and reflected on in several further publications: Candlin, C. N., & Hyland, K. (1999). Writing: Texts, processes and practices. Routledge. Candlin, C., & Plum, G. (1999). Engaging with the challenges of interdiscursivity in academic writing: researchers, students and tutors. (In Writing: Texts, processes and practices: ). Another volume, also published in 1999, was to prove basic to course development for the ‘Masters in Professional and Organisational Communication’ offered at Macquarie from 2003 to 2010, i.e., Sarangi, S., & Roberts, C. (Eds.). (1999). Talk, work and institutional order: Discourse in medical, mediation and management settings. (Mouton/Walter de Gruyter). And an earlier chapter anticipated some of Chris’s later work on international arbitration: Candlin, C. N., & Maley, Y. (1997). Intertextuality and interdiscursivity in the discourse of alternative dispute resolution. In Gunnarsson, B. L., Linell, P., & Nordberg (eds), The construction of professional discourse. Routledge. The construction of professional discourse, Routledge.
8
Must the worlds collide? Perhaps not ….
Chris began with a relatively benign conception of interdiscursivity in which disparate discourses simply coincided – such as, for example, in the intermingling and hybridisation of disciplinary, professional and academic discourses that habitually takes place in the context of tertiary education. Academic literacies > interdiscursivity….. While acknowledging the discursive complexity of tertiary education, Chris and his colleagues suggested mediational contexts and pathways – esp tasks that would scaffold the analytical, reasoning and textualisation skills required by university students planning to practice law. Candlin, C., Bhatia, V., Jensen, C. Must the worlds collide? Professional and academic discourses in the study and practice of law (2002). In Cortese, G. and Riley, P. (eds), Domain-specific English: textual practices across communities and classrooms. Oxford: Peter Lang.
9
Mediation: “a discursively mediated … social practice”
Mediation is generally understood to be a form of conflict resolution that aims to help two or more parties resolve their dispute through the help of a third party, that is, a mediator. However, we can include advice-giving and counselling as kinds of mediational practice, inasmuch as they are aimed at uncertainty reduction. Mediation can be defined as “a discursively mediated and constructed social practice” (Candlin, Maley & Sutch, 1999: 331). The mediator (a family planning counsellor, a legal or medical advisor, a facilitator in alternative dispute resolution, etc., etc.) employs a range of discursive strategies to find common ground between competing interests or to help the participants decide on an acceptable course of action. The mediator may mingle “discourse types” (e.g., informing, advising) or employ discursive strategies in brokering disagreements. She may also mix or hybridise discourses (Roberts & Sarani, 1999). She typically exploits the ambiguity of key terms to achieve agreement or consensus (Candlin, Maley & Sutch, 1999).
10
Mediation – discursive strategies qua resource
Chris, in an early paper with Judy Lucas (1986), recognised the profoundly dynamic and contingent nature of interdiscursivity – hence its reliance on discursive strategy use. In a paper on the mediational nature of counselling discourse we find the following example: “The Counsellor, by virtue of the ethics and regulations of her profession, was precluded from giving advice (since Counsellors may not make evaluative judgements); furthermore, she was also institutionally forbidden to do so as such matters were the prerogatives of licensed physicians in that community. Yet, her clients nevertheless sought advice. What was to be done? The recourse of the Counsellor was to couch her remarks about actions, such as smoking, which might affect the health of the unborn child, as anecdotal stories of her experience, personal to her and her family, about how such practices could have negative effects.” See also: Candlin, C. N., & Maley, Y. (1997). Intertextuality and interdiscursivity in the discourse of alternative dispute resolution. In B. L. Gunnarsson, P. Linell, & B. Nordberg (eds), The Construction of Professional Discourse, pp
11
Discourse as a resource for professional expertise
The intersection of discursive expertise and professional expertise became a major focus for both Chris and Sally Candlin. Some important publications are: Candlin, C. N. (1999). 'How can discourse be a measure of expertise?' Unpublished address, International Association for Dialogue Analysis, University of Birmingham, Candlin, C. N., & Candlin, S. (2002). Discourse, expertise, and the management of risk in health care settings. Research on Language and Social Interaction, 35(2), Candlin, S. (2002). Taking risks: an indicator of expertise? Research on language and social interaction, 35(2), Candlin, C. N., & Candlin, S. (2003). Health Care Communication: A Problematic Site for Applied Linguistics Research. Annual Review of Applied Linguistics 23: Developing expertise was viewed as the acquisition of professional/organisational literacies and seen as providing an indispensable basis for interpretive understanding within contexts of work in the professions.
12
Interdiscursivity as ‘conflict’ – early treatments
As early as 1987, Chris had investigated moments of conflict in discourse. See: Candlin, C. N. (1987) Explaining moments of conflict in discourse. In Steele, Ross and Threadgold (eds), Proceedings of the 1987 AILA Congress. Sydney. Benjamins. ( ). He argued that such critical moments , conflicts between within and between individuals often pointed to conflicts within the wider social context. Other early treatments of ’conflict’ were phrased in terms of ‘alterity’ – which was “open to expropriation for particular communicative purposes [i.e.] used in some sense strategically” (Candlin 2002: 28). Chris’s definition of ‘discourse’ itself, in 2002, was “in terms of thinking and talking in action and involv[ing] the management of alterity” (2002: 34). Interdiscursivity could in other words be ‘managed’. Candlin C.N., 2002, “Alterity, Perspective and Mutuality in LSP Research and Practice”, in M. Gotti, D. Heller and M. Dossena (eds.), pp
13
Euphemisation of ‘conflict’
Chris often chose to investigate discursive action in sites and practices that presuppose and enact conflicting agendas/interests, e.g.: Industrial arbitration in Australia in the 1990s International commercial arbitration today However, especially in his later writing, Chris rarely uses the term “conflict”, speaking instead of contestation and negotiation, “critical moments”, harmonisation and accommodation. Commercial arbitration practice is described in terms of “contested identities”, exhibiting “interdiscursive contestation” (Bhatia, Candlin, Gotti, 2012: 16). In 1999, Chris (with Maley and Sutch) was prepared to state that aspects of the industrial arbitration process in Australia had “created confusion, dissension and even industrial unrest” (1999: 327). But still it was “hybridised” processes or systems, which framed and generated “lengthy, inconclusive and acrimonious” meetings (1999: 329). Ambiguous roles and indeterminate aims and processes created “tensions” and “uncertainty” (330). More critically, it is maintained that these sensations are exploited via the strategic and opportunistic realignment of affiliations ( ).
14
When the worlds (really do) collide….
It was in that 1999 paper that Chris’s interests resonated most profoundly with my own. My interest in interdiscursivity (Jones 2009) grew out of a darker vision of society (and its organisations and institutions) which drew on Bourdieu as well as some key premises of Habermas and Rawls and C. W. Mills. Jones (2009) explores the inevitability of conflict – usually to some extent covert – in business communication. I there appeal to a Habermasian notion of social action as being made up of recurring compromises between “communicative action” aimed at reaching agreement and “strategic action” aimed at individual success. Strategic action encompasses the possibility of deception, which may be conscious or unconscious, and of “systematically distorted communication”. That view was articulated by Candlin, Maley and Sutch (1999: 345), who noted that: “the political rhetoric of consensuality and common purpose” – ostensibly underlying union-management or management-workforce enterprise bargaining – “is hard to substantiate in practice….” Since: “In one sense, this difficulty is to be expected since the need for an enterprise bargain has to imply at least two sets of competing interests. It is inherently adversarial” …the authors adding that “this sense of contestation is worked out in the interactions…”
15
Two conflicting discourses – arbitration vs litigation
In recent discourse analytic research, Chris and some of his colleagues have revealed the increasing colonization of arbitration practices by adversarial litigation type discourse – a development contrary to the spirit and aims of arbitration. “In practice, this overwhelming influence of litigation over arbitration results in an increasing mixture of discourses as arbitration becomes, as it were, ‘colonised’ by litigation practices, threatening to undermine the integrity of arbitration practice, thus compromising the spirit of arbitration as a non legal practice.” (Bhatia, Candlin & Gotti, 2012: 79) Bhatia, V. K., Candlin, C. N., & Engberg, J. (Eds.). (2008). Legal discourse across cultures and systems (Vol. 1). Hong Kong University Press. Bhatia, V. K., Candlin, C., & Gotti, M. (2010). The Discourses of Dispute Resolution (Vol. 123). Peter Lang. Bhatia, V. K., Candlin, C., & Gotti, M. (eds). (2012). Discourse and practice in international commercial arbitration: Issues, challenges and prospects. Ashgate. See esp., Bhatia, Candlin, & Gotti (2012): Contested Identities in International Arbitration Practice. Ch. 17 in Bhatia, Candlin & Gotti (eds), 2012. Echoing an ongoing focus, all these investigations associate identity and role with discourse and interdiscursivity!
16
Interdiscursivity – systematic theorisation
In an important 2006 paper, Chris built on work by Srikant Sarangi to propose “a neat and nested arrangement among activity types, discourse types, strategies, and their particular textualisations or semioticisations” “although activity types and how they are interpreted, are central to the understanding of the discourses of the workplace, there is a sense in which they might be seen as too static” – hence a new emphasis – on strategy…. A need to emphasise “the particular purposes of participants and the actions that participants performed in respect of such purposes within the activity” Purpose > Strategy The new focus on purpose/strategy links discourse to its situated, rhetorical and lexicogrammatical realisations (i.e., its “textualisations or semioticisations”) Candlin, C. N. (2006) ‘Accounting for interdiscursivity: Challenges to professional expertise.’ In Gotti, Maurizio and Giannoni, Davide (Eds) New Trends in Specialized Discourse Analysis. Bern: Peter Lang (1-24) Sarangi, Srikant 2000 Activity Types, Discourse Types and Interactional Hybridity: The Case of Genetic Counselling. In Sarangi & Coulthard (eds) Discourse and Social Life. London: Pearson, 1-27.
17
Systematising discourse-in-use – adding the people
In his 2006 article Chris attempts to construct a ‘peopled system’, in the sense that the system of nested ‘types’ accounts for the communicative behaviour of real people in their everyday lives, down to actual instances of language use. Qua system the 2006 account in terms of nested features has impressive explanatory potential when applied to authentic speech data. But by emphasising purpose and strategy, as revealed by unique textualisations and semioticisations, the system Meanwhile, inspired by Aaron Cicourel, Chris was developing his multi- perspectived research agenda that was to inspire so many of his (and my) PhD students – another…….include context in all its richness
18
Personal note Chris was immensely engaging, perceptive, and generous. His inspiration has fired many a doctoral student and his support and encouragement have nurtured many careers, in academe and in the wider world of practical affairs, just as his own research has benefited both the profession of applied linguistics and other apparently professions, in the worlds of business, medicine and legal practice.. Chris will be remembered as a scholar and teacher, an inspiring lecturer and enthralling speaker, with enormous vision, a deep and broad understanding of language use and language education, and above all a great generosity of spirit. A sentence from a tribute written by Lynda Yates, John Knox and Stephen Moore (published in LINGLINE June 2015) evokes a pareticularly vivid picture: “Chris travelled often, but his energy, his enthusiasm, his voice and his laughter seemed to fill the corridors each time he returned.” I well remember how that booming voice and his larger-than-life presence filled the dark corridors of the linguistics Department, on Floor 5 of Building C5A, at Macquarie, in the 2000s. I know that some may have felt overwhelmed by Chris but, for others, his input expanded intellectual horizons and seeded minds.
19
Death & Transfiguration by John Coburn
John Coburn ( ) described his style as “precise, clear and deliberate”. Essentially, it consists of simple shapes, flat signs and silhouettes placed on fields of radiant colour. Chris and Sally were great aficionados of Coburn’s art and it seems fitting to end my presentation with a painting - inspired by a tone poem by Richard Strauss – that combines Christian iconography with abstract shapes and symbols of the natural world, evoking the lasting nature of Chris’s intellectual impact.
20
Selected references for Candlin, and Candlin et al.
Candlin, C. N. & Lucas, J. (1986). Interpretations and Explanations in Discourse: Modes of ‘Advising’ in Family Planning. In Ensink, van Essen & van der Geest, (eds) Discourse Analysis and Public Life. Dordrecht: Foris, Candlin, C. N. (1987) Explaining moments of conflict in discourse. In Steele, R. and Threadgold, T. (eds), Language Topics Vol 2 Proceedings of the 1987 AILA Congress, John Benjamins. Pp Candlin, C. N., & Maley, Y. (1997). Intertextuality and interdiscursivity in the discourse of alternative dispute resolution. In Gunnarsson, Linell, & Nordberg (eds), The Construction of Professional Discourse, pp Candlin, C., & Plum, G. (1998). Researching academic literacies. Framing student literacy: Cross-cultural aspects of communication skills in Australian university settings. Sydney: NCELTR, Macquarie University. Candlin, C. N., & Hyland, K. eds, (1999). Writing: Texts, processes and practices. Routledge. Candlin C., Maley Y. & Sutch H. (1999). Industrial instability and the discourse of enterprise bargaining. In S. Sarangi & C. Roberts (eds.): Talk, Work and the Institutional Order, Mouton de Gruyter. Candlin, C. N., Bhatia, V. K., & Jensen, C. H. (2002a). Developing legal writing materials for English second language learners: Problems and perspectives. English for Specific Purposes, 21(4), Candlin, C., Bhatia, V., & Jensen, C. (2002b). Must the worlds collide? Professional and academic discourses in the study and practice of law. In Cortese, G. and Riley, P. (eds), Domain-specific English: textual practices across communities and classrooms. Oxford: Peter Lang. Candlin, C. N. (2006). Accounting for interdiscursivity: Challenges to professional expertise. In Gotti, M., & Giannoni, D. S. (Eds.), New trends in specialized discourse analysis (Vol. 44). Peter Lang.
21
General bibliography Bhatia, V. K. (2010). Interdiscursivity in professional communication. Discourse & communication, 4(1), Bhatia, Vijay K. (2011). Interdiscursive colonisation of arbitration practice. World Englishes 30(1): 76–80. Bhatia, V. K., Candlin, C., & Gotti, M. (2010). The discourses of dispute resolution (Vol. 123). Peter Lang. Hyland, K. (2004). Disciplinary Discourses, Michigan Classics Ed.: Social Interactions in Academic Writing. University of Michigan Press. Jones, A. (2009). Business discourse as a site of inherent struggle. In Mahboob, A., & Lipovsky, C. (eds.), Studies in applied linguistics and language learning. Cambridge Scholars Publishing. Pp Jones, A., & Sin, S. (2013). Achieving professional trustworthiness: Communicative expertise and identity work in professional accounting practice. In Candlin and Crichton (eds), Discourses of Trust. Palgrave. Lemke, J. L. (1988/1995). Discourses in conflict: Heteroglossia and text semantics. In J. D. Benson & W. S. Greaves, eds, Systemic functional approaches to discourse, Praeger, 29-50; reprinted in J. L. Lemke, Textual Politics, Taylor & Francis Sarangi, Srikant, and Celia Roberts. (1999). The dynamics of interactional and institutional orders in work- related settings." In Sarangi and Roberts (eds), Talk, work and institutional order: Discourse in medical, mediation and management settings. Walter de Gruyter. Pp Sarangi, S. (2000). Activity types, discourse types and interactional hybridity: the case of genetic counselling. In Sarangi, S., & Coulthard, M. (eds), Discourse and social life, 5. Routledge. Pp Sarangi, S., & Candlin, C. N. (2011). Professional and organisational practice: A discourse/communication perspective. In Candlin & Sarangi, eds, Handbook of Communication in Organisations and Professions, 3-58. Sarangi, S., & Coulthard, M., eds (2014). Discourse and social life. Routledge. (First published 2000)
22
International commercial arbitration – references
Bhatia, V. K., Candlin, C., & Gotti, M. (2010). The Discourses of Dispute Resolution (Vol. 123). Peter Lang. Bhatia, V. K., Candlin, C., & Gotti, M. (eds). (2012). Discourse and practice in international commercial arbitration: Issues, challenges and prospects. Ashgate. Bhatia, V. K., Candlin, C. N., & Gotti, M. (2012). Contested identities in international arbitration Practice. Discourse and Practice in International Commercial Arbitration. Issues, Challenges and Prospects, See esp., Bhatia, Candlin, & Gotti (2012): Contested Identities in International Arbitration Practice. Chapter 17 in Bhatia, Candlin & Gotti (eds), 2012. See also: Bhatia, V. K., Candlin, C. N., & Engberg, J. (Eds.). (2008). Legal discourse across cultures and systems (Vol. 1). Hong Kong University Press. Two relevant resources for social-economic conflict theory Colaguori, Claudio ( 2012). Agon Culture: Competition, Conflict and the Problem of Domination. De Sitter Publications. Hirshleifer, Jack (2001). The Dark Side of the Force: Economic Foundations of Conflict Theory. Cambridge University Press.
Similar presentations
© 2025 SlidePlayer.com Inc.
All rights reserved.