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Against Arbitrariness: The Social Production of the Sign as a Foundational Issue in Critical Discourse Analysis

The paper argues that CDA needs the theory of the motivated relation of signifier and signified as an essential foundation and legitimation of the enterprise of critical reading. Such a theory rests on a recognition of the `interest' of producers of signs; their social histories; the micro histories of the production of the sign; including the social structures which constituted the relevant contextual features; the structurings of power at work in the production of signs; the reading/reception regimes in operation at particular points in the reading of signs; the `interests' of readers of signs; particular attention to the question of the boundaries of signs, and their maintenance; and the invariable multi-modality of signs. CDA needs to be clear about the texts which it selects as objects of critical analysis. Ideologically the most effective may be the text which does not overtly declare its ideological constitution, but the bland text.