// Discourse & Society, 1995, Sage (London, Thousands, Oaks, Ca
and New Delhi), vol. 6(2): 243-289.This article presents fragments of a new, multidisciplinary
theory of ideology and its relations with discourse, formulated in the
broader framework of a critical discourse analysis. Ideologies are defined as
basic systems of fundamental social cognitions and organizing the attitudes
and other social representations shared by members of groups. They thus
indirectly control the mental representations (models) that form the
interpretation basis and contextual embeddedness of discourse and its
structures. In this framework, it is examined how semantic structures of
discourse (such as topic, focus, propositional structure, local coherence,
level of description, implications and macrostructures) are monitored by
underlying ideologies, as expressed in opinion articles in the New York
Times and the Washington Post.
Key words: attitudes, discourse, editorials, ideology, meaning, models, New
York Times, opinion articles, semantics, social representations, text,
Washington Post
