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Discourse Vs - Text

There is confusion in the literature between the terms "discourse analysis" and "text analysis". Some researchers use the terms interchangeably, while others attempt to distinguish them, but their proposed distinctions do not consistently hold. For example, Widdowson distinguished discourse as involving coherence and text as involving cohesion, but later argued discourse involves both; and definitions distinguishing discourse as a process and text as a product overlap considerably. Most researchers now see discourse analysis as encompassing the study of supra-sentential language structures regardless of modality. The term "text analysis" is best abandoned due to confusion, unless referring strictly to physical text arrangement.

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383 views11 pages

Discourse Vs - Text

There is confusion in the literature between the terms "discourse analysis" and "text analysis". Some researchers use the terms interchangeably, while others attempt to distinguish them, but their proposed distinctions do not consistently hold. For example, Widdowson distinguished discourse as involving coherence and text as involving cohesion, but later argued discourse involves both; and definitions distinguishing discourse as a process and text as a product overlap considerably. Most researchers now see discourse analysis as encompassing the study of supra-sentential language structures regardless of modality. The term "text analysis" is best abandoned due to confusion, unless referring strictly to physical text arrangement.

Uploaded by

Immo Eagle JuniØr
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Discourse vs.

Text
Is it discourse analysis
Or Text analysis?

Introduction
There has been some confusion in
the literature regarding the
distinction between discourse
analysis and text analysis.

It is a result of the confusion in the


terms discourse and text.

The Confusion
Some researchers label their analysis

discourse analysis, while others claim


they are doing text analysis, but the
difference is often inconsistent.
Some claim to make clear distinctions
between discourse and text, but a
closer look reveals that their
distinctions do not hold.

Examples:
Widdowson (1973)
Text:

Discourse:

is made up of
sentences.
- A text is made up of
sentences having
the property of
grammatical
cohesion.
-Text Analysis: deals
with cohesion.

is the use of such


sentences.
- A discourse is made
up of utterances
having the property
of coherence.
- Discourse analysis:
investigates
coherence.

Problems with the


distinctions:
It contradicts the known and well-

established distinction between sentence


and utterance in the literature.

Widdowson did not maintain this

distinction himself: In 1978 he argued that


discourse is made up of sentences
having the properties of cohesion &
coherence!

Another distinction
Text:
Text is defined in

terms of its being a


physical product.

Discourse:
Discourse is viewed
as a process.

Meaning is derived

Meaning is not
found in text.

through the
readers interaction
with the text
discourse.

Problems with such


distinctions:
There is considerable overlap between the
findings of studies claiming to look at text
as product and of those claiming to
investigate discourse as process.

Thus, it is not necessary to maintain a

distinction between discourse analysis and


text analysis on the basis of investigating a
process as opposed investigating a product.

Others
Text:
written
Text analysis:
investigates
written form

Discourse:
Spoken
Discourse analysis:
analyzes spoken
form.

Problems:
Many studies have used models

originally developed for studying spoken


form to investigate written form (Tadros
1981), and vice versa (Hoey 1983).

Thus, such a distinction is not necessary.

Conclusion
Many researchers have come to this

conclusion:
Discourse analysis includes all
studies investigating the suprasentential structure of any stretch of
language, spoken or written.

What about text analysis?


The terms text / text analysis lead
to confusion.
Therefore, the term text should be
abandoned unless it is used to refer
to the physical arrangement of
linguistic signals on paper (Tadros,
1981).

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