Semiosis is viewed here as an element of the social process which is dialectically related to others – hence a “dialectical-relational” approach. Relations between elements are dialectical in the sense of being different but not “discrete”, i.e. not fully separate. We might say that each “internalizes” the others without being reducible to them (Harvey, 1996) – e.g. social relations, power, institutions, beliefs and cultural values are in part semiotic; they “internalize” semiosis without being reducible to it. For example, although we should analyse political institutions or business organizations as partly semiotic and other element? CDA focuses not just upon semiosis as such, but on the relations between semiotic and other social elements. The nature of this relationship varies between institutions and organizations, and according to time and place, and it needs to be established through analysis