Language Power and Ideology in Commercial Discourse: A Prologue to Critical Discourse Analysis for Neophyte Analysts

Critical discourse analysis (CDA) has increasingly become popular as one of interdisciplinary approach to gain insight into various kinds of discourses. A large number of undergraduate and postgraduate courses in applied linguists and media studies across the world have included various forms of language analysis to familiarise graduates with different dimensions of text analysis. This paper reviews the concept of critical discourse analysis, its various dimensions and tools which can be used for discourse analysis for a critical insight into texts by focusing on an example of commercial discourse. The discussion provides theoretical and practical layers of the approach by illustrating the concepts through sample analyses of the texts. The paper aims to serve as a quick reference note for readers with little or no previous knowledge of CDA, providing rudimentary understanding of the topic. DOI: 10.5901/ajis.2014.v3n4p22