Book Review: Binhua Wang and Jeremy Munday (eds), Advances in Discourse Analysis of Translation and Interpreting (Linking Linguistic Approaches With Socio-Cultural Interpretation)

Abstract

These updates, together with those discussed above, help align this third edition with discourse studies’ cutting edge. Yet, in other ways, the book remains what it has been: an accessible, introductory guide to discourse analysis, one that, by definition and no doubt design, perhaps succeeds more in breadth than in depth. In his review of the first edition, Meadows (2010) noted the under-theorization of certain conceptual links between conversation analysis and ethnomethodology and between CDA and Marxism. Similarly, I suggest that in future editions Paltridge consider more thoroughly arguing his social constructionist perspective, perhaps contrasting its focus on individuals’ roles and interactions with, for instance, a Focualdian approach that accounts for how individuals interpret and reproduce those interactions (Khan and MacEachen, 2021). Guiding aspiring discourse analysts through this thinking could help further demonstrate the process of choosing and justifying a research approach. Also reviewing the first edition, Timofeeva (2008) noted that the book largely targeted language teachers, citing that focus as both a strength, for how it linked concepts to teaching environments, and a weakness, for potentially excluding social scientists interested in discourse studies. Two editions later – and despite mentions throughout of English as a lingua franca – some might claim of this edition the reverse: that the focus on language teaching has become all but obscured. Yet, if Paltridge’s primary audience has indeed shifted, it is now arguably more inclusive of those learning and using discourse analysis as a research tool. With its diverse illustrative examples, lucid summaries, discussion questions, exercises, sample studies, glossary, and suggested readings, as well as its accessible writing and pedagogical sequencing, this book is ideal for foundational discourse analysis courses in the social sciences and the humanities.