Your Module

ENGL1419 - Discourse Analysis

In-person classes at C.307

Week 1 (12/2) and Week 2 (19/2):

live lessons on Teams

The class starts at 9:10 and ends at

11:40 on Wednesday mornings
Your Lecturer
Bồ Khánh Linh

Research interest:
second language writing, discourse analysis,
contrastive linguistics, corpus linguistics

Contact:
Message on Teams
Email: [email protected]
Blog: https://linkthings.org/
ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3182-3777
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Cad61xUIVJQNY0aYLcPunmjY3oKTQf37ExpTM61aJL0/edit?usp=sharing
Discourse Analysis Week 1

Introduction to
Discourse Studies
What is discourse? What does discourse
analysis cover?
Some approaches to discourse analysis
The interface between pragmatics and
discourse analysis
Discourse Analysis Week 1 Introduction to Discourse Studies

What is discourse? What does discourse analysis cover?

...the word discourse has suffered something of an identity crisis. While the term language
is largely understood to non-linguists, discourse can be an excluding shibboleth which does
little to make academic research accessible or relevant to people who do not work or study
in the social sciences.
Baker & McEnery, 2015, p. 3
Given that ‘critical’, ‘discourse’ and ‘studies’ all belong to a group of words that are
overused but all too often under-defined in the social sciences, it seems worthwhile
providing some working definitions.
Koller, 2014, p. 148
Discourse Analysis Week 1 Introduction to Discourse Studies

Hunting Discourse! 10 minutes

How many definitions of (randomly assigned)
discourse can you find? groups of 3-5 students

Find at least 3 definitions of "discourse" from different sources:

You can use your Preparatory Readings, Additional Readings, Google Scholar,
Wikipedia, Online Dictionaries, or any other reliable source.

Compare the definitions and identify the similarities and differences.

Share on Padlet: Group members' names; Definitions & sources;

Summary of similarities and differences.
Discourse Analysis Week 1 Introduction to Discourse Studies

What is discourse? What does discourse analysis cover?

…within linguistics, there are three main definitions that tend to be used. These form the
basis for the majority of approaches to the study of discourse, and will therefore be our
focus in this section. These definitions, which don’t need to mean much to you at this
stage, and which we will unpack as we go, are as follows:
1. Discourse is language ‘above the clause or above the sentence’.
2. Discourse is language ‘in use’.
3. Discourse is a form of social practice in which language plays a key role.
Malory, 2022, p. 206
Malory, 2022, p. 208
Malory, 2022, p. 212
Koller. 2014, p. 153
Discourse Analysis Week 1 Introduction to Discourse Studies

What is discourse? What does discourse analysis cover?

Discourse studies is the discipline devoted to the investigation of the relationship between
form and function in verbal communication.
Renkema & Schubert, 2018, p. 1
Discourse Analysis Week 1 Introduction to Discourse Studies

What is discourse? What does discourse analysis cover?

Discourse analysis is the study of language in use. It is the study of the meanings we give
language and the actions we carry out when we use language in specific contexts.
Discourse analysis is also sometimes defined as the study of language above the level of a
sentence, of the ways sentences combine to create meaning, coherence, and accomplish
purposes. However, even a single sentence or utterance can be analyzed as a
“communication” or an “action” and not just as a sentence structure whose “literal
meaning” flows from the nature of grammar. Grammar can tell us what “I pronounce you
man and wife” literally means, but not when and where it actually means you are married.
Gee & Hanford, 2023, p. 1
Discourse Analysis Week 1 Introduction to Discourse Studies

What is discourse? What does discourse analysis cover?

Discourse analysis examines patterns of language across texts and considers the
relationship between language and the social and cultural contexts in which it is used.
Discourse analysis also considers the ways that the use of language presents different
views of the world and different understandings. It examines how the use of language is
influenced by relationships between participants as well as the effects the use of language
has upon social identities and relations. It also considers how views of the world, and
identities, are constructed through the use of discourse.
Paltridge, 2012, p. 2
Discourse Analysis Week 1 Introduction to Discourse Studies

Quick Discussion
Why should we study discourse? What
applications do you think it can bring to
your fields (i.e. language teaching,
translation & interpretation, business)?
Discourse Analysis Week 1 Introduction to Discourse Studies

Some approaches to discourse analysis

Approach Research Focus

Conversation Talk-in-interaction: how people take turns, respond to each other

Analysis (CA) (adjacency pairs), and structure conversations

Critical Discourse How language is used to maintain and perpetuate powers (imbalances
Analysis (CDA) and social inequalities)

The structure, content, and function of narratives and how they create
Narrative Analysis
meaning, identity, and social order

Texts within specific communities of practice

Genre Analysis
The conventions and expectations associated with different genres
Discourse Analysis Week 1 Introduction to Discourse Studies

Some approaches to discourse analysis

Approach Research Focus

How language performs actions (e.g., promises, requests, apologies)

Speech Act Theory The literal meaning of words (locutionary act) and the intended action
they perform (illocutionary act)

Face and
Sense of self (face) in interaction
Politeness

Ethnographic
Combined with ethnographic methods (e.g., participant observation)
Discourse
How language is used in specific cultural settings
Analysis
Discourse Analysis Week 1 Introduction to Discourse Studies

The interface between pragmatics and discourse analysis

Pragmatics is the study of meaning in relation to the context in which a person is speaking
or writing. This includes social, situational and textual context. It also includes background
knowledge context; that is, what people know about each other and about the world.
Pragmatics assumes that when people communicate with each other they normally follow
some kind of cooperative principle; that is, they have a shared understanding of how they
should cooperate in their communications.
Paltridge, 2012, p. 38
Discourse Analysis Week 1 Introduction to Discourse Studies

The interface between pragmatics and discourse analysis

Sometimes the term “pragmatics” is used for the study of language in use (Levinson,
1983) and people reserve the term “discourse analysis” for studying how the sentences in
an oral or written “text” pattern together to create meaning and coherence and to define
different genres (e.g., dialogues, narratives, reports, descriptions, explanations, and so
forth).
Gee & Hanford, 2023, p. 1

Pragmatics and discourse analysis have much in common: they both study context, text
and function.
Cutting, 2002, p. 2
Discourse Analysis Week 1 Introduction to Discourse Studies

Quick Discussion
Based on the module guide, what do you
think our module would cover?
What definition(s) of discourse analysis
shall we use?
Discourse Analysis Week 1

Grouping
Time!

10 minutes

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1cWo0rBYzvNkugzXOc3Xq5i0WB0IrfMNgLd5Uaafl
8fc/edit?usp=sharing
Discourse Analysis Week 1

Contextual Phenomena
Approaches to context
Deixis
Information management
Perspectivization
Implicit meaning
Discourse Analysis Week 1 Contextual Phenomena

Approaches to context

Static conceptualisation Dynamic conceptualisation

Context is a relatively fixed set of

parameters that remain constant during a Context is permanently updated and
communicative exchange and serve as negotiated during the production and
the background for the comprehension of comprehension of utterances.
utterances.

Communication occurs within a pre- Communication shapes and is shaped by

defined context. the evolving context.

Discourse is not only context-dependent

Discourse is context-dependent.
but also context-creating.
Discourse Analysis Week 1 Contextual Phenomena

Approaches to context
Three main categories of context
1. Social and socialcultural context
2. Linguistic context (co-text)
3. Cognitive context
Discourse Analysis Week 1 Contextual Phenomena

10 minutes
Exploring Contextual
Phenomena In groups as registered

Briefly describe the core idea(s) of your assigned concept(s) in your own words, based
on the preparatory readings.

Find one or two real-life examples that clearly illustrate your assigned concept(s).
These examples should be drawn from sources like news articles, magazines, films,
movies, advertisements, social media, etc. Do not use examples from the textbook.

Share on Padlet: Your own description of the concept(s); Your real-life example(s) with
explanations and proper source citations.
Discourse Analysis Week 1 Contextual Phenomena
Discourse Analysis Week 1 Contextual Phenomena

What do you take away from the first session?

Write one sentence in one minute.
Discourse Analysis Week 1

Week 2 and Week 3

Speech act theory
Complete the required readings before the class:
Renkema & Schubert (2018): Chapter 2 (2.1, 2.2 & 2.3)
Huang (Ed.) (2017): Chapter 10
Austin (1962): Lecture VIII
Discourse Analysis Week 1

References
Baker, P., & McEnery, T. (Eds.). (2015). Corpora and discourse studies: Integrating discourse and
corpora [Palgrave Advances in Language and Linguistics]. Palgrave Macmillan.
Cutting, J. (2002). Pragmatics and discourse: A resource book for students. Routledge.
Koller, V. (2014). Applying social cognition research to critical discourse studies: The case of
collective identities. In C. Hart & P. Cap (Eds.), Contemporary critical discourse studies (pp. 147–165).
Bloomsbury.
Malory, B. (2022). Studying discourse. In J. Culpeper, B. Malory, C. Nance, D. Van Olmen, D.
Atanasova, S. Kirkham, & A. Casaponsa (Eds.), Introducing linguistics (pp. 205-225). Routledge.
Paltridge, B. (2012). Discourse analysis: An introduction (2nd ed.). Bloomsbury.
Renkema, J., & Schubert, C. (2018). Introduction to discourse studies. John Benjamins.
Handford, M., & Gee, J. P. (Eds.). (2023). The Routledge handbook of discourse analysis (2nd ed.).
Routledge.