CRITICAL DISCOURSE ANALYSIS AND SYSTEMIC FUNCTIONAL LINGUISTICS IN EMPIRICAL RESEARCH: A SYSTEMATIC LITERATURE REVIEW
Vol.11, Issue 2, 2025, pp. 291-314 Full text: PDF . HTML
DOI: https://doi.org/10.33919/esnbu.25.2.6
Web of Science: 001643786800007
Authors:
1 Ángela Alameda Hernández https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8569-3533
2 Rocío Jiménez-Briones https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3867-3986
Affiliation:
1 University of Granada, Granada, Spain 04njjy449
2 Autonomous University of Madrid, Madrid, Spain 01cby8j38
Contributor roles:
Conceptualization, Methodology, Investigation, Data curation,
Formal analysis,; Resources, Visualization, Writing – original draft,
Writing – review & editing (A.A.-H.,R.J.-B.) equal
Abstract
Motivated by the long-standing connection between Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) and Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL), this paper presents the first systematic literature review of the most frequent and productive linguistic features from SFL that are applied in practice by CDA analysts. Guided by PRISMA 2020 and following the SALSA framework, 4 databases (Wiley, Scopus, Sage Publications, and ProQuest) were searched, from which 78 papers were extracted and statistically analyzed with the TexMiLAB tool. The linguistic features that are most productive in CDA are lexical choices and evaluative lexis at the lexico-semantic level; while at the grammatical level, it is the type of processes and type of participants, together with the analysis of other linguistic elements, such as metaphors and quotations. The systems of Transitivity and Modality, and Appraisal theory are more recurrent over the remarkably underused Theme system. It could be argued that, to a large extent, SFL remains central to CDA research, although some CDA practitioners do not seem to follow a systematic methodology when applying SFL to their analysis.
Keywords: CDA, SFL, systematic literature review, PRISMA, SALSA, lexicogrammatical features
Article history:
Submitted: 16 September 2025
Reviewed: 01 October 2025
Accepted: 08 October 2025
Published: 20 December 2025
Citation (APA):
Alameda-Hernández, A. & Jiménez-Briones, R. (2025). Critical Discourse Analysis and Systemic Functional Linguistics in empirical research: A systematic literature review. English Studies at NBU, 11(2), 291-314. https://doi.org/10.33919/esnbu.25.2.6
Copyright © 2025 Ángela Alameda-Hernández and Rocío Jiménez-Briones
This is an Open Access article published and distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY 4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Funding: This publication was funded by the Agencia Estatal de Investigación ( 003x0zc53) and the European Commission ( 00k4n6c32), and it is part of the Spanish R&D&I project PID2023-147137NB-I00, funded by MICIU/AEI/10.13039/50110001103 and by ERDF, EU.
[[refs=References marked with an asterisk * indicate studies included in the SLR.
Boell, S. K., & Cecez-Kecmanovic, D. (2014). A hermeneutic approach to conducting literature reviews and literature searches. Communications of the Association for Information Systems, 34(1), 257-286. https://doi.org/10.17705/1CAIS.03412
Booth, A., Sutton, A., Clowes, M., & Martyn-St James, M. (2021). Systematic approaches to a successful literature review. SAGE.
Briones, R. (2016). Textual analysis through Systemic Functional Linguistics. Journal of English Language Teaching and Linguistics, 1(2), 109-144. https://doi.org/10.21462/jeltl.v1i2.27
*Brookes, G., & McEnery, T. (2020). Correlation, collocation and cohesion: A corpus-based critical analysis of violent jihadist discourse. Discourse & Society, 31(4), 351-373. https://doi.org/10.1177/0957926520903528
Catalano, T., & Waugh, L. R. (2020). The main approaches to CDA/CDS. In T. Catalano & L. R. Waugh (Eds.), Critical Discourse Analysis, Critical Discourse Studies and beyond (pp. 155-217). Springer.
*Caughlan, S., & Jiang, H. (2014). Observation and teacher quality: Critical analysis of observational instruments in preservice teacher performance assessment. Journal of Teacher Education, 65(5), 375-388. https://doi.org/10.1177/0022487114541546
*Chen, W. (2018). A critical discourse analysis of Donald Trump's inaugural speech from the perspective of Systemic Functional Grammar. Theory and Practice in Language Studies, 8(8), 966-972. https://doi.org/10.17507/tpls.0808.07
*Chiluwa, I., & Ifukor, P. (2015). 'War against our children': Stance and evaluation in #BringBackOurGirls campaign discourse on Twitter and Facebook. Discourse & Society, 26(3), 267-296. https://doi.org/10.1177/0957926514564735
Chu, A., Ang, L. H., & Halim, H. A. (2024). Systematic literature review of ecological discourse analysis from 2014 to 2023. Theory and Practice in Language Studies, 14(11), 3431-3442. https://doi.org/10.17507/tpls.1411.12
*Course, S., Koç, F. S., & Saka, F. Ö. (2024). Representation of older adults in Turkish newspaper reports during the COVID-19 pandemic. Journal of Aging Studies, 69, Article 101232. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jaging.2024.101232
*De Jesus, F. L., & Caldas-Coulthard, C. R. (2018). Abjection and condemnation: Media representations of a transgender criminal in Brazil. Gender and Language, 12(3), 372-397. https://doi.org/10.1558/GENL.33299
Eggins, S. (2004). Introduction to Systemic Functional Linguistics (2nd ed.). Continuum.
Fairclough, N. (1995). Media discourse. Edward Arnold.
Fairclough, N. (1999). Linguistics and intertextual analysis within discourse analysis. In A. Jaworski & N. Coupland (Eds.), The discourse reader (pp. 183-212). Routledge.
Fenton-Smith, B. (2007). Diplomatic condolences: Ideological positioning in the death of Yasser Arafat. Discourse & Society, 18(6), 697-718.
Fernández-Vázquez, J., & Sancho-Rodríguez, A. (2020). Critical discourse analysis of climate change in IBEX 35 companies. Technological Forecasting and Social Change, 157, Article 120063.
Fionasari, R., & Saputra, E. (2024). Language and power: Analyzing discourse and communication dynamics in political and social contexts. Social Studies and Humanities Journal (SOSHUM), 1(1), 90-96.
Fontaine, L. (2013). Analyzing English grammar: A Systemic-Functional introduction. Cambridge University Press.
*Gerdin, G., Lundin, K., Philpot, R., Berg, E., Mooney, A., Kitching, A., Alfrey, L., Schenker, K., & Linnér, S. (2024). Despite good intentions: The elusiveness of social justice in health and physical education curricula across different contexts. European Physical Education Review, 31(1), 109-128. https://doi.org/10.1177/1356336X241249820
*Ghachem, I. (2014). A critical discourse analysis of self-presentation through the use of cognitive processes associated with "we". Journal of Language Teaching and Research, 5(3), 550-558. https://doi.org/10.4304/jltr.5.3.550-558
Grant, M. J., & Booth, A. (2009). A typology of reviews: An analysis of 14 review types and associated methodologies. Health Information and Libraries Journal, 26, 91-108. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1471-1842.2009.00848.x
Gusenbauer, M., & Haddaway, N. R. (2020). Which academic search systems are suitable for systematic reviews or meta‐analyses? Evaluating retrieval qualities of Google Scholar, PubMed and 26 other resources. Research Synthesis Methods, 11(2), 181-217. https://doi.org/10.1002/jrsm.1378
Halliday, M. A. K. (1994). An introduction to Functional Grammar (2nd ed.). Arnold.
Halliday, M. A. K., & Hassan, R. (1995). Cohesion in English. English Language Series. Longman.
Halliday, M. A. K., & Matthiessen, C. (2014). Halliday's introduction to Functional Grammar (4th ed.). Routledge.
*He, X., & Zhou, X. (2015). Contrastive analysis of lexical choice and ideologies in news reporting the same accidents between Chinese and American newspapers. Theory and Practice in Language Studies, 5(11), 2356-2365.
*Ijem, B. U., & Agbo, I. I. (2022). Challenging the status quo in a patriarchal world: A critical linguistic appraisal of masculine framing in Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie's Half of a Yellow Sun. Journal of Language Teaching and Research, 13(4), 731-739. https://doi.org/10.17507/jltr.1304.05
*Lecompte-Van Poucke, M. (2018). The conjunction of a French rhetoric of unity with a competing nationalism in New Caledonia: A critical discourse analysis. Argumentation, 32, 351-395. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10503-017-9444-8
Martin, J. R. (2000). Close reading: Functional Linguistics as a tool for Critical Discourse Analysis. In L. Unsworth (Ed.), Researching language in schools and communities. Functional linguistics perspectives (pp. 275-302). Cassell.
Martin, J. R., & White, P. R. R. (2005). The language of evaluation. Appraisal in English. Palgrave Macmillan.
*Martins, M. J., & Heberle, V. (2021). Amazon endangered: Investigating Chico Mendes's case in online newspapers. Organon, 36(71), 415-430. https://doi.org/10.22456/2238-8915.113135
Meyer, M. (2001). Between theory, method, and politics: Positioning of the approaches to CDA. In R. Wodak & M. Meyer (Eds.), Methods of Critical Discourse Analysis (pp. 14-31). Sage Publications.
*Milner, A. L., Browes, N., & Murphy, T. R. (2020). All in this together? The reconstitution of policy discourses on teacher collaboration as governance in post-crisis Europe. European Educational Research Journal, 19(3), 225-246. https://doi.org/10.1177/1474904120911754
*Murata, K. (2007). Pro- and anti-whaling discourses in British and Japanese newspaper reports in comparison: A cross-cultural perspective. Discourse & Society, 18(6), 741-764. https://doi.org/10.1177/0957926507082194
*My Nhat, T. N., & Thu Hien, H. T. (2023). Construction of roles, obligations and values in politicians' discourses on anti-corruption. Cogent Arts & Humanities, 10(1), Article 2249286. https://doi.org/10.1080/23311983.2023.2249286
Nartey, M., & Mwinlaaru, I. N. (2019). Towards a decade of synergising corpus linguistics and critical discourse analysis: A meta-analysis. Corpora, 14(2), 203-235. https://doi.org/10.3366/cor.2019.0169
*O'Farrell, K. (2022). 'Completely incapable of logical thought" Delegitimating the MeToo movement in YouTube comment sections. Internet Pragmatics, 5(2), 291-316. https://doi.org/10.1075/ip.00082.far
O'Grady, G. (2019). SFL and Critical Discourse Analysis. In G. Thompson, W. L. Bowcher, Fontaine L. & D. Schönthal (Eds.), The Cambridge handbook of Systemic Functional Linguistics (pp. 462-484). Cambridge University Press.
*Omari, O., Harchaoui, K., & Dagamseh, A. (2020). A Systemic Functional Grammar-Based Critical Discourse Analysis of Jamaica Kincaid's Lucy. Jordan Journal of Modern Languages and Literatures, 12(3), 307-325. https://doi.org/10.47012/jjmll.12.3.3
*Oni, J. F. (2013). Lexicalisation and discursive expression of power in Olusegun Obasanjo's speeches. i-manager's Journal on English Language Teaching, 3(2), 9-16. https://doi.org/10.26634/jelt.3.2.2294
Page, M. J., McKenzie, J. E., Bossuyt, P. M., Boutron, I., Hoffmann, T. C., Mulrow, C. D., Shamseer, L., Tetzlaff, J. M., Akl, E. A., Brennan, S. E., Chou, R., Glanville, J., Grimshaw, J. M., Hróbjartsson, A., Lalu, M. M., Li, T., Loder, E. W., Mayo-Wilson, E., McDonald, S., ... Moher, D. (2021). The PRISMA 2020 statement: An updated guideline for reporting systematic reviews. BMJ (British Medical Journal), 372, Article 71. https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.n71
Periñán-Pascual, C. (2024a). Minería de textos para investigadores lingüistas. Tirant lo Blanch.
Periñán-Pascual, C. (2024b). TexMiLAB (Version 4.3) ['Computer software']. https://texmilab.upv.es
*Qasim, A. (2014). A study of power relations in doctor-patient interactions in selected hospitals in Lagos state, Nigeria. Advances in Language and Literary Studies, 5(2), 177-184. https://doi.org/10.7575/aiac.alls.v.5n.2p.177
Randour, F., Perrez, J., & Reuchamps, M. (2020). Twenty years of research on political discourse: A systematic review and directions for future research. Discourse & Society, 31(4), 428-443. https://doi.org/10.1177/0957926520903526
Ravelli, L. (2000). Getting started with functional analysis of texts. In L. Unsworth (Ed.), Researching language in schools and communities. Functional linguistics perspectives (pp. 27-59). Cassell.
*Rogers, R., & Mosley, M. (2006). Racial literacy in a second-grade classroom: Critical race theory, whiteness studies, and literacy research. Reading Research Quarterly, 41(4), 462-495. http://www.jstor.org/stable/4151814
Sirulhaq, A., Yuwono, U., & Muta'ali, A. (2023). Why do we need a sociocognitive-CDA in hate speech studies? A corpus-based systematic review. Discourse & Society, 34(4), 462-484. https://doi.org/10.1177/09579265221126599
Snyder, H. (2019). Literature review as a research methodology: An overview and guidelines. Journal of Business Research, 104, 333-339. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbusres.2019.07.039
*Tehseem, T., Iqbal, H., & Zulfiqar, S. (2021). Depicting women through transitivity choices: A comparative analysis. Pakistan Journal of Women's Studies: Alam-e-Niswan, 28(1), 41-59. https://doi.org/10.46521/pjws.028.01.0087
van Dijk, T. A. (2010). Elements of critical context studies. Journal of Research in Applied Linguistics, 1(1), 3-27.
van Dijk, T. A. (2015). Critical discourse analysis. In D. Tannen, H. E. Hamilton & D. Schiffrin (Eds.), The handbook of Discourse Analysis (pp. 466-485). John Wiley & Sons.
*Wang, J. (2006). Questions and the exercise of power. Discourse & Society, 17(4), 529-548. https://doi.org/10.1177/0957926506063127
Wanyama, S. B., McQuaid, R. W., & Kittler, M. (2021). Where you search determines what you find: The effects of bibliographic databases on systematic reviews. International Journal of Social Research Methodology, 25(3), 409-422. https://doi.org/10.1080/13645579.2021.1892378
Wodak, R. (2001). What CDA is about - A summary of its history, important concepts and its developments. In R. Wodak & M. Meyer (Eds.), Methods of Critical Discourse Analysis (pp. 1-13). Sage.
Young, L., & Harrison, C. (2004). Systemic Functional Linguistics and Critical Discourse Analysis. Continuum.
*Yu, J. E., & Hong, H. C. (2016). Systemic design for applying the combined use of SSM and CDA to social practices. Systemic Practice and Action Research, 29, 149-171. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11213-015-9355-2
*Zeng, F., Huang, C-Y., & Bull, R. (2020). Police interview of suspects in China: Developments and analyses. International Journal of Police Science & Management, 23(1), 29-41. https://doi.org/10.1177/1461355720947548
*Zhang, Y., Akhtar, N., Farooq, Q., Yuan, Y., & Khan, I. U. (2022) Comparative study of Chinese and American media reports on the COVID-19 and expressions of social responsibility: A critical discourse analysis. Journal of Psycholinguistic Research, 51, 455-472. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10936-021-09809-9]]
Handling Editor: Boris Naimushin, New Bulgarian University
Verified Editor Record on Publons