Beginning in the late 1980s, Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) (or Critical Discourse Studies [CDS]) has now become a well-established fi eld in the social sciences. CDA cannot be regarded as a discrete academic discipline in any traditional sense, with a fi xed set of theories, categor ies, assumptions or research methods. Instead, CDA can be seen as a problem-oriented interdisciplinary research programme, subsuming a var iety of approaches, each drawing on different epistemological assumptions, with different theoretical models, research methods and agenda. What unites them is a shared interest in the semiotic dimensions...