Scribd
Upload
73 views

Discourse Analysis Is Sometimes Defined As The Analysis of Language

Discourse analysis is the study of language use beyond the sentence level, examining how language is used in texts and social contexts. It developed in the 1970s and analyzes patterns of language across multiple sentences to understand speaker-listener interactions. Discourse analysis draws from various fields like linguistics, sociology, and psychology using approaches such as conversation analysis, pragmatics, and text linguistics.

Uploaded by

Arif Prasetyo
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
Available Formats
Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
73 views

Discourse Analysis Is Sometimes Defined As The Analysis of Language

Discourse analysis is the study of language use beyond the sentence level, examining how language is used in texts and social contexts. It developed in the 1970s and analyzes patterns of language across multiple sentences to understand speaker-listener interactions. Discourse analysis draws from various fields like linguistics, sociology, and psychology using approaches such as conversation analysis, pragmatics, and text linguistics.

Uploaded by

Arif Prasetyo
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
Available Formats
Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
You are on page 1/ 2

Discourse analysis is sometimes defined as the analysis of language 'beyond the sentence'.

This
contrasts with types of analysis more typical of modern linguistics, which are chiefly concerned with
the study of grammar: the study of smaller bits of language, such as sounds (phonetics and
phonology), parts of words (morphology), meaning (semantics), and the order of words in sentences
(syntax). Discourse analysts study larger chunks of language as they flow together.

Discourse analysis is a broad term for the study of the ways in which language is used in texts and
contexts. Also called discourse studies.

Developed in the 1970s, the field of discourse analysis is concerned with "the use of language
in a running discourse, continued over a number of sentences, and involving the interaction of
speaker (or writer) and auditor (or reader) in a specific situational context, and within a
framework of social and cultural conventions" (Abrams and Harpham, A Glossary of Literary
Terms, 2005).

Discourse analysis has been described as an interdisciplinary study of discourse within


linguistics, though it has also been adopted (and adapted) by researchers in numerous other
fields in the social sciences. Theoretical perspectives and approaches used in discourse
analysis include the following: applied linguistics, conversation analysis, pragmatics,
rhetoric, stylistics, and text linguistics, among many others.

Definitions

(1) In linguistics, discourse refers to a unit of language longer than a single sentence.

(2) More broadly, discourse is the use of spoken or written language in a social context.

Discourse studies, says Jan Renkema, refers to "the discipline devoted to the investigation of
the relationship between form and function in verbal communication" (Introduction to
Discourse Studies, 2004). Dutch linguist Teun van Dijk, author of The Handbook of
Discourse Analysis (1985) and the founder of several journals, is generally regarded as the
"founding father" of contemporary discourse studies. 

Examples and Observations

 "Discourse in context may consist of only one or two words as in stop or no smoking.
Alternatively, a piece of discourse can be hundreds of thousands of words in length, as some
novels are. A typical piece of discourse is somewhere between these two extremes."
(Eli Hinkel and Sandra Fotos, New Perspectives on Grammar Teaching in Second Language
Classrooms. Lawrence Erlbaum, 2002)
 "Discourse is the way in which language is used socially to convey broad historical meanings.
It is language identified by the social conditions of its use, by who is using it and under what
conditions. Language can never be 'neutral' because it bridges our personal and social
worlds."
(Frances Henry and Carol Tator, Discourses of Domination. University of Toronto Press, 2002)
 Contexts and Topics of Discourse
"Discourse can also be used to refer to particular contexts of language use, and in this sense
it becomes similar to concepts like genre or text type. For example, we can conceptualize
political discourse (the sort of language used in political contexts) or media discourse
(language used in the media). In addition, some writers have conceived of discourse as
related to particular topics, such as an environmental discourse or colonial discourse (which
may occur in many different genres). Such labels sometimes suggest a particular attitude
towards a topic (e.g. people engaging in environmental discourse would generally be
expected to be concerned with protecting the environment rather than wasting resources.
Related to this, Foucault (1972: 49) defines discourse more ideologically as 'practices which
systematically form the objects of which they speak.'"
(Paul Baker and Sibonile Ellece, Key Terms in Discourse Analysis. Continuum, 2011)
 Discourse and Text
"'Discourse' is sometimes used in contrast with 'text,' where 'text' refers to actual written or
spoken data, and 'discourse' refers to the whole act of communication involving production
and comprehension, not necessarily entirely verbal. . . . The study of discourse, then, can
involve matters like context, background information or knowledge shared between a
speaker and hearer."
(Meriel Bloor and Thomas Bloor, The Practice of Critical Discourse Analysis: an Introduction.
Routledge, 2013)
 Discourse as a Joint Activity
"[D]iscourse is more than a message between sender and receiver. In fact sender and
receiver are metaphors that obfuscate what is really going on in communication. Specific
illocutions have to be linked to the message depending on the situation in which discourse
takes place. . . . [Psycholinguist Herbert] Clark compares language in use with a business
transaction, paddling together in a canoe, playing cards or performing music in an orchestra.

"A central notion in Clark's study is common ground. The joint activity is undertaken to
accumulate the common ground of the participants. With common ground is meant the sum
of the joint and mutual knowledge, beliefs and suppositions of the participants."
(Jan Renkeme, Introduction to Discourse Studies. John Benjamins, 2004)
 Discourse in the Social Sciences
"Within social science, . . . discourse is mainly used to describe verbal reports of individuals.
In particular, discourse is analyzed by those who are interested in language and talk and
what people are doing with their speech. . . .

"The term discourse is also used to refer to meanings at the more macro level. This approach
does not study the individual words spoken by people but the language used to describe
aspects of the world, and has tended to be taken by those using a sociological perspective."
(Jane Ogden, Health and the Construction of the Individual. Psychology Press, 2002)

Pronunciation: DIS-kors

You might also like