Cover not available

Article published In: Moving towards Peace, Compassion and Empathy through Semiotic Enquiry: Special issue of the Journal Language, Context and Text 6:1 (2024)
Edited by Elizabeth A. Thomson, Awni Etaywe, Ingrid Wijeyewardene and Penny Wheeler
[Language, Context and Text 6:1] 2024
► pp. 60–87

Get fulltext from our e-platform
JBE logo with link
PDF logo with download linkDownload PDF
EPUB logo with download linkDownload EPUB

Acknowledging dispossession

A CDA/PDA perspective on discourse dealing with unceded land

 | University of Sydney, Australia
 | Ateneo de Manila University, Philippines
Open Access logo
Available under the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) 4.0 license.

For any use beyond this license, please contact the publisher at rights@benjamins.nl.

Open Access publication of this article was funded through a Transformative Agreement with University of Sydney.

Published online: 20 August 2024
DOI logo with link
https://doi.org/10.1075/langct.00065.mar
Abstract
This paper illustrates what can be revealed by a linguistic analysis of the discourse strategies deployed in a bilingual text acknowledging the dispossession of Indigenous peoples in Mindanao (Philippines). The analysis draws on systemic functional linguistics (SFL) descriptions of English, which model language as a resource for making meaning. It explores the choices involved from the perspective of critical discourse analysis (CDA), exposing language in the service of power, and positive discourse analysis (PDA), appreciating language as an instrument of social change. In doing so we exemplify the role of SFL-informed CDA/PDA in processes of reconciliation, including personal and public acknowledgements and apologies, alongside considerations of “making peace” with dispossessed Indigenous people through existing, renovated or emerging genres.
Article outline
  • 1.Unceded land
  • 2.Recognition
  • 3.Growing up in Davao
  • 4.Autobiography
  • 5.History
  • 6.Stiches and seams
  • 7.Whose history?
  • 8.Confession
  • 9.Critique and design
  • Permission
  • Notes
  • References
References (41)
References
Almario, Emelina S., Virgilio Almario & Ani Rosa S. Almario (eds.). 2009. Regional profiles: People and places. Manila: Adarna House.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Anthonissen, Christine. 2003. Challenging media censoring: Writing between the lines in the face of stringent restrictions. In J. R. Martin & Ruth Wodak (eds.), Re/reading the past: Critical and functional perspectives on time and value, 91–112. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Australian Academy of the Humanities. n.d. Acknowledgement of country. [URL] (8 December, 2022)
Bartlett, Tom. 2012. Hybrid voices and collaborative change: Contextualising positive discourse analysis. London and New York: Routledge. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2017. Positive discourse analysis. In John Flowerdew & John E. Richardson (eds.), The Routledge handbook of critical discourse studies, 133–147. London: Routledge. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Bloor, Meriel & Thomas Bloor. 2007. The practice of critical discourse analysis. London: Hodder Arnold.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Caldas-Coulthard, Carmen Rosa & Malcolm Coulthard. 1996. Readings in critical discourse analysis. London: Routledge.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Coffin, Caroline. 2006. Historical discourse: The language of time, cause and evaluation. London: Continuum.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Cruz, Priscilla Angela T. & J. R. Martin. to appear. Analysing Filipino discourse: Meaning in text. submitted to De la Salle University Press.
Dreyfus, Shoshana & Anne Helwig. 2023. Moving beyond apology: A linguistic analysis of Acknowledgements of Country. Journal of Australian Studies 47(3). 590–610. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Fairclough, Norman. 1989. Language and power. London: Longman.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2010. Critical discourse analysis: The critical study of language. London: Longman (Longman Applied Linguistics).Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
French, Edward. 2016. Recognition for tribe in Canada advances. The Quoddy Tides. [URL] (20 March, 2023)
Gore, Jennifer. 1993. The struggle for pedagogies: Critical and feminist discourses as regimes of truth. London: Routledge.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Halliday, M. A. K. & Christian M. I. M. Matthiessen. 2014. Halliday’s introduction to functional grammar (4th edition). London: Arnold. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Janks, Hilary & Roz Ivanič. 1992. CLA and emancipatory discourse. In Norman Fairclough (ed.), Critical language awareness, 305–331. London: Longman.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Keating, P. J. 1992. Australian launch of the International Year for the World’s Indigenous People. [URL] (15 March 2023)
Kowal, Emma. 2015. Welcome to country: Acknowledgement, belonging and white anti-racism. Cultural Studies Review 21(2). 173–204. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Kress, Gunther. 1996. Representational resources and the production of subjectivity: Questions for the theoretical development of critical discourse analysis in a multicultural society. In Carmen Rosa Caldas-Coulthard & Malcolm Coulthard (eds.), Texts and practices: Readings in critical discourse analysis, 15–31. London: Routledge.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2000. Design and transformation: New theories of meaning. In Bill Cope & Mary Kalantzis (eds.), Multiliteracies: Literacy learning and the design of social futures, 153–161. London: Routledge.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Luke, Allan. 2002. Beyond science and ideology critique: Developments in critical discourse analysis. Annual Review of Applied Linguistics 221. 96–110. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Lumbera, Cynthia. 2009. Growing up in Davao. In Emelina S. Almario, Virgilio Almario & Ani Rosa S. Almario (eds.), Regional profiles: People and places, 1451. Manila: Adarna House.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Martin, J. R. 2000. Close reading: Functional linguistics as a tool for critical analysis. In Len Unsworth (ed.), Researching language in schools and communities: Functional linguistic perspectives, 275–303. London: Cassell.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
2002. From little things big things grow: Ecogenesis in school geography. In Richard Coe, Lorelei Lingard & Tatiana Teslenko (eds.), The rhetoric and ideology of genre: Strategies for stability and change, 243–271. Cresskill, N.J.: Hampton Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
2004. Positive discourse analysis: Solidarity and change. Revista Canaria de Estudios Ingleses (Special Issue on Discourse Analysis at Work: Recent Perspectives in the Study of Language and Social Practice) 491. 179–200.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
2010. Semantic variation: Modelling system, text and affiliation in social semiosis. In Monika Bednarek & J. R. Martin (eds.), New discourse on language: Functional perspectives on multimodality, identity and affiliation, 1–34. London: Continuum.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
2014. Evolving systemic functional linguistics: Beyond the clause. Functional Linguistics 11. 3. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
2016. Meaning matters: A short history of systemic functional linguistics. Word 61(2). 35–58. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Martin, J. R. & Yaegan J. Doran. 2023. Rethinking context: Realisation, instantiation and individuation in SFL. Journal of World Languages (Special Issue edited by David Banks, Systemic Functional Linguistics – Advances and Applications).Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Martin, J. R. & David Rose. 2007. Working with discourse: Meaning beyond the clause (2nd edition). London: Continuum.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2008. Genre relations: Mapping culture. London: Equinox.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Martin, J. R. & P. R. R. White. 2005. The language of evaluation: Appraisal in English. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Matthiessen, Christian M. I. M. & Kazuhiro Teruya. 2016. Registerial hybridity: Indeterminacy among fields of activity. In Donna R. Miller & Paul Bayley (eds.), Hybridity in systemic functional linguistics: Grammar, text and discursive context, 205–239. London: Equinox.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
McKenna, Mark. 2014. Tokenism or belated recognition? Welcome to country and the emergence of indigenous protocol in Australia, 1991–2014. Journal of Australian Studies 381. 476–489. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Miller, Donna R. & Paul Bayley (eds.). 2016. Hybridity in systemic functional linguistics: Grammar, text and discursive context. London: Equinox.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
National Archives of Australia. 2012. Prime Minister Paul Keating – Launch of International Year of the World’s Indigenous peoples, 1993. [URL] (15 March, 2023)
Peskotomuhkati Nation at Skutik. 2021. Peskotomuhkati First Nation. [URL] (15 March, 2023)
Rayner, Barb. 2018. Ownership of land at Indian Point continues to be disputed. The Saint Croix Courier. [URL] (15 March 2023)
Transitional Justice and Reconciliation Commission. 2016. Report of the Transitional Justice and Reconciliation Commission. [URL] (15 March 2023)
University of Sydney. n.d. Acknowledgement of country. [URL] (8 December, 2022)
Young, Lynne & Brigid Fitzgerald. 2006. The power of language. London: Equinox.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Mobile Menu Logo with link to supplementary files background Layer 1 prag Twitter_Logo_Blue