Michel Pêcheux's theory of language and ideology and method of automatic discourse analysis: A critical introduction

This article presents a detailed exposition of Michel Pêcheux's approach to the study of the relations between language and ideology. Pêcheux's method of automatic discourse analysis (AAD) and his meta-theory of discourse are discussed and critically assessed, and examples of empirical studies in this tradition are described. In addition, the manual AAD-syntactic analysis phase is discussed in relation to a mini-study of English discourse. In conclusion, some similarities and differences of AAD and critical discourse analysis (CDA) are identified, as well as a summary of Pêcheux's specific contributions to knowledge.