Discourse Structures and Social Cognition

This book uses T. A. Van Dijk's Sociocognitive Approach and Corpus Linguistics to analysis discourse structures and social cognition. Lexicalisation, repetition, and nominalisation are analysed in a corpus of David Cameron's speeches delivered between 2005 and 2014. The abstract and introduction are followed by an extensive review of related literature. The methodology chapter details the quantitative tools used to assist in the qualitative analysis. The analysis takes into account the context structure of the corpus and details the continuity and change in the use of the three discourse structures. The findings unveil Cameron's discursive strategies in defining 'Our' social representations.