Discourse analysis

Discourse analysis (DA), or discourse studies, is an approach t o t he analysis of writ t en,

vocal, or sign language use, or any significant semiot ic event .

The object s of discourse Analysis (discourse, writ ing, conversat ion, communicat ive event ) are
variously defined in t erms of coherent sequences of sent ences, proposit ions, speech, or
t urns-at -t alk. Cont rary t o much of t radit ional linguist ics, discourse analyst s not only st udy
language use 'beyond t he sent ence boundary' but also prefer t o analyze 'nat urally occurring'
language use, not invent ed examples.[1] Text linguist ics is a closely relat ed field. The
essent ial difference bet ween discourse analysis and t ext linguist ics is t hat discourse
analysis aims at revealing socio-psychological charact erist ics of a person/persons rat her t han
t ext st ruct ure.[2]

Discourse analysis has been t aken up in a variet y of disciplines in t he humanit ies and social
sciences, including linguist ics, educat ion, sociology, ant hropology, social work, cognit ive
psychology, social psychology, area st udies, cult ural st udies, int ernat ional relat ions, human
geography, environment al science, communicat ion st udies, biblical st udies, public relat ions,
argument at ion st udies, and t ranslat ion st udies, each of which is subject t o it s own
assumpt ions, dimensions of analysis, and met hodologies.

History

Early use of the term

The ancient Greeks (among ot hers) had much t o say on discourse; however, t here is ongoing
discussion about whet her Aust ria-born Leo Spit zer's Stilstudien (Style Studies) of 1928 is t he
earliest example of discourse analysis (DA). Michel Foucault t ranslat ed it int o French.[3]
However, t he t erm first came int o general use following t he publicat ion of a series of papers
by Zellig Harris from 1952 report ing on work from which he developed t ransformat ional
grammar in t he lat e 1930s. Formal equivalence relat ions among t he sent ences of a coherent
discourse are made explicit by using sent ence t ransformat ions t o put t he t ext in a canonical
form. Words and sent ences wit h equivalent informat ion t hen appear in t he same column of an
array.

This work progressed over t he next four decades (see references) int o a science of
sublanguage analysis (Kit t redge & Lehrberger 1982), culminat ing in a demonst rat ion of t he
informat ional st ruct ures in t ext s of a sublanguage of science, t hat of Immunology, (Harris et
al. 1989)[4] and a fully art iculat ed t heory of linguist ic informat ional cont ent (Harris 1991).[5]
During t his t ime, however, most linguist s ignored such development s in favor of a succession
of elaborat e t heories of sent ence-level synt ax and semant ics.[6]

In January 1953, a linguist working for t he American Bible Societ y, James A. Lauriault /Loriot ,
needed t o find answers t o some fundament al errors in t ranslat ing Quechua, in t he Cuzco area
of Peru. Following Harris's 1952 publicat ions, he worked over t he meaning and placement of
each word in a collect ion of Quechua legends wit h a nat ive speaker of Quechua and was able
t o formulat e discourse rules t hat t ranscended t he simple sent ence st ruct ure. He t hen
applied t he process t o Shipibo, anot her language of East ern Peru. He t aught t he t heory at
t he [7] Summer Inst it ut e of Linguist ics in Norman, Oklahoma, in t he summers of 1956 and
1957 and ent ered t he [8] Universit y of Pennsylvania t o st udy wit h Harris in t he int erim year.
He t ried t o publish a paper [9]Shipibo Paragraph Structure, but it was delayed unt il 1970
(Loriot & Hollenbach 1970). In t he meant ime, Kennet h Lee Pike, a professor at Universit y of
Michigan,[10] Ann Arbor, t aught t he t heory, and one of his st udent s, Robert E. Longacre
developed it in his writ ings. Harris's met hodology disclosing t he correlat ion of form wit h
[11]
meaning was developed int o a syst em for t he comput er-aided analysis of nat ural
language by a t eam led by Naomi Sager at NYU, which has been applied t o a number of
sublanguage domains, most not ably t o medical informat ics. The soft ware for t he Medical
Language Processor (ht t p://mlp-xml.sourceforge.net /) is publicly available on SourceForge.

In the humanities

In t he lat e 1960s and 1970s, and wit hout reference t o t his prior work, a variet y of ot her
approaches t o a new cross-discipline of DA began t o develop in most of t he humanit ies and
social sciences concurrent ly wit h, and relat ed t o, ot her disciplines. These include semiot ics,
psycholinguist ics, sociolinguist ics, and pragmat ics. Many of t hese approaches, especially
t hose influenced by t he social sciences, favor a more dynamic st udy of oral t alk-in-
int eract ion. An example is [12]"conversat ional analysis", which was influenced by t he
Sociologist Harold Garfinkel,[13] t he founder of Et hnomet hodology.
Foucault

In Europe, Michel Foucault became one of t he key t heorist s of t he subject , especially of

discourse, and wrot e The Archaeology of Knowledge. In t his cont ext , t he t erm 'discourse' no
longer refers t o formal linguist ic aspect s, but t o inst it ut ionalized pat t erns of knowledge
t hat become manifest in disciplinary st ruct ures and operat e by t he connect ion of knowledge
and power. Since t he 1970s, Foucault 's works have had an increasing impact especially on
discourse analysis in t he field of social sciences. Thus, in modern European social sciences,
one can find a wide range of different approaches working wit h Foucault 's definit ion of
discourse and his t heoret ical concept s. Apart from t he original cont ext in France, t here is,
since 2005, a broad discussion on socio-scient ific discourse analysis in Germany. Here, for
example, t he sociologist Reiner Keller developed his widely recognized 'Sociology of
Knowledge Approach t o Discourse (SKAD)'.[14] Following t he sociology of knowledge by
Pet er L. Berger and Thomas Luckmann, Keller argues t hat our sense of realit y in everyday life
and t hus t he meaning of every object , act ion and event is t he product of a permanent ,
rout inized int eract ion. In t his cont ext , SKAD has been developed as a scient ific perspect ive
t hat is able t o underst and t he processes of 'The Social Const ruct ion of Realit y' on all levels
of social life by combining t he prement ioned Michel Foucault 's t heories of discourse and
power while also int roducing t he t heory of knowledge by Berger/Luckmann. Whereas t he
lat t er primarily focus on t he const it ut ion and st abilizat ion of knowledge on t he level of
int eract ion, Foucault 's perspect ive concent rat es on inst it ut ional cont ext s of t he product ion
and int egrat ion of knowledge, where t he subject mainly appears t o be det ermined by
knowledge and power. Therefore, t he [15]'Sociology of Knowledge Approach t o Discourse' can
also be seen as an approach t o deal wit h t he vividly discussed micro–macro problem in
sociology.

Perspectives

The following are some of t he specific t heoret ical perspect ives and analyt ical approaches
used in linguist ic discourse analysis:

Applied linguist ics, an int erdisciplinary perspect ive on linguist ic analysis[16]

Cognit ive neuroscience of discourse comprehension[17][18]

Cognit ive psychology, st udying t he product ion and comprehension of discourse.

Conversat ion analysis

Crit ical discourse analysis

Discursive psychology
 Emergent grammar

Et hnography of communicat ion

Funct ional grammar

Int eract ional sociolinguist ics

Mediat ed St ylist ics

Pragmat ics

Response based t herapy (counselling)

Rhet oric

St ylist ics (linguist ics)

Sublanguage analysis

Tagmemics

Text linguist ics

Variat ion analysis

Alt hough t hese approaches emphasize different aspect s of language use, t hey all view
language as social int eract ion and are concerned wit h t he social cont ext s in which discourse
is embedded.

Oft en a dist inct ion is made bet ween 'local' st ruct ures of discourse (such as relat ions among
sent ences, proposit ions, and t urns) and 'global' st ruct ures, such as overall t opics and t he
schemat ic organizat ion of discourses and conversat ions. For inst ance, many t ypes of
discourse begin wit h some kind of global 'summary', in t it les, headlines, leads, abst ract s, and
so on.

A problem for t he discourse analyst is t o decide when a part icular feat ure is relevant t o t he
specificat ion required. A quest ion many linguist s ask is: "Are t here general principles which
will det ermine t he relevance or nat ure of t he specificat ion?[19]"

Topics of interest

Topics of discourse analysis include:[20]

The various levels or dimensions of discourse, such as sounds (int onat ion, et c.), gest ures,
synt ax, t he lexicon, st yle, rhet oric, meanings, speech act s, moves, st rat egies, t urns, and
ot her aspect s of int eract ion
 Genres of discourse (various t ypes of discourse in polit ics, t he media, educat ion, science,
business, et c.)

The relat ions bet ween discourse and t he emergence of synt act ic st ruct ure

The relat ions bet ween t ext (discourse) and cont ext

The relat ions bet ween discourse and power

The relat ions bet ween discourse and int eract ion

The relat ions bet ween discourse and cognit ion and memory

Prominent academics

Jan Blommaert

Teun van Dijk

Michel Foucault

Heidi E. Hamilt on (ht t ps://csd.georget own.edu/heidi_ h/)

Barbara Johnst one

Sinfree Makoni (ht t ps://aplng.la.psu.edu/people/sbm12)

Jonat han Pot t er

Deborah Schiffrin

Deborah Tannen

Margaret Wet herell

Rut h Wodak

Political discourse

Polit ical discourse is t he t ext and t alk of professional polit icians or polit ical inst it ut ions,
such as president s and prime minist ers and ot her members of government , parliament or
polit ical part ies, bot h at t he local, nat ional and int ernat ional levels, includes bot h t he speaker
and t he audience.[21]

Polit ical discourse analysis is a field of discourse analysis which focuses on discourse in
polit ical forums (such as debat es, speeches, and hearings) as t he phenomenon of int erest .
Policy analysis requires discourse analysis t o be effect ive from t he post -posit ivist
perspect ive.[22][23]
Polit ical discourse is t he formal exchange of reasoned views as t o which of several
alt ernat ive courses of act ion should be t aken t o solve a societ al problem.[24]

Corporate discourse

Corporat e discourse can be broadly defined as t he language used by corporat ions. It

encompasses a set of messages t hat a corporat ion sends out t o t he world (t he general
public, t he cust omers and ot her corporat ions) and t he messages it uses t o communicat e
wit hin it s own st ruct ures (t he employees and ot her st akeholders).[25]

See also

Act or (policy debat e)

Crit ical discourse analysis

Dialogical analysis

Discourse represent at ion t heory

Frame analysis

Communicat ive act ion

Essex School of discourse analysis

Et hnolinguist ics

Foucauldian discourse analysis

Int erpersonal communicat ion

Linguist ic ant hropology

Narrat ive analysis

Pragmat ics

Rhet oric

Sociolinguist ics

St at ement analysis

St ylist ics (linguist ics)

Worldview

References
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2019-11-25.

2. "Yatsko's Computational Linguistics Laboratory" (http://yatsko.zohosites.com/integrational-discour

se-analysis-conception.html) . yatsko.zohosites.com. Retrieved 2019-11-25.

3. Elden, Stuart (2016-11-10). "When did Foucault translate Leo Spitzer?" (https://progressivegeograph
ies.com/2016/11/10/when-did-foucault-translate-leo-spitzer/) . Progressive Geographies.

4. Hardy, Donald E., -- (1991-04-01). "The foundations of linguistic theory: Selected writings of Roy
Harris Ed. by Nigel Love (review)" (https://www.deepdyve.com/lp/linguistic-society-of-america/the-f
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ISSN 1535-0665 (https://www.worldcat.org/issn/1535-0665) .

5. Hardy, Donald E., -- (1991-04-01). "The foundations of linguistic theory: Selected writings of Roy
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6. John Corcoran, then a colleague of Harris in Linguistics at University of Pennsylvania, summarized

and critically examined the development of Harris’s thought on discourse through 1969 in lectures
attended by Harris’ colleagues and students in Philadelphia and Cambridge.

Corcoran, John (1972). Plötz, Senta (ed.). "Harris on the Structures of Language".
Transformationelle Analyse. Frankfurt: Athenäum Verlag: 275–292.

7. "SIL International" (https://www.sil.org/) . SIL International. Retrieved 2020-12-03.

8. "University of Pennsylvania |" (https://www.upenn.edu/) . www.upenn.edu. Retrieved 2020-12-03.

9. Loriot, James; Hollenbach, Barbara (1970). "Shipibo Paragraph Structure" (https://www.jstor.org/st

able/25000427) . Foundations of Language. 6 (1): 43–66. ISSN 0015-900X (https://www.worldca
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55) , Wikipedia, 2020-11-16, retrieved 2020-12-03

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13. Lynch, Michael (2011-07-13). "Harold Garfinkel obituary" (https://www.theguardian.com/education/

2011/jul/13/harold-garfinkel-obituary) . The Guardian. Retrieved 2020-12-03.

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(1): 43–65. doi:10.1007/s10746-011-9175-z (https://doi.org/10.1007%2Fs10746-011-9175-z) .
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17. Barbey, Aron K.; Colom, Roberto; Grafman, Jordan (January 2014). "Neural mechanisms of
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56336) .

20. Van Dijk, Teun (2005-01-01). "Critical discourse analysis". In Schiffrin, Deborah; Tannen, Deborah;
Hamilton, Heidi E. (eds.). The Handbook of Discourse Analysis. Malden, Massachusetts, USA:
Blackwell Publishers Ltd. pp. 352–371. doi:10.1002/9780470753460 (https://doi.org/10.1002%2F9
780470753460) . ISBN 978-0-470-75346-0.

21. Kitaeva, Elena; Ozerova, Olga (2019). Intertextuality in Political Discourse (http://www.igi-global.co
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23. Hult, F.M. (2015). "Making policy connections across scales using nexus analysis". In Hult, F.M.;
Johnson, D.C (eds.). Research Methods in Language Policy and Planning: A Practical Guide
(First ed.). Chichester, West Sussex: Wiley. pp. 217–31. ISBN 978-1-118-33984-8. OCLC 905699853
(https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/905699853) ..
24. Johnson, David W.; Johnson, Roger T. (2000). "Civil political discourse in a democracy: The
contribution of psychology". Peace and Conflict: Journal of Peace Psychology. 6 (4): 291–317.
doi:10.1207/S15327949PAC0604_01 (https://doi.org/10.1207%2FS15327949PAC0604_01) .
ISSN 1532-7949 (https://www.worldcat.org/issn/1532-7949) .

25. Breeze, Ruth (2013). Corporate Discourse. London: Bloomsbury Academic. ISBN 978-1-4411-7753-
7. OCLC 852898361 (https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/852898361) .

External links

DiscourseNet . Int ernat ional Associat ion for Discourse St udies (ht t p://www.discourseanalys
is.net )

The Discourse At t ribut es Analysis Program and Measures of t he Referent ial Process (ht t
p://www.t hereferent ialprocess.org/t he-discourse-at t ribut es-analysis-program-daap) .

Linguist ic Societ y of America: Discourse Analysis, by Deborah Tannen (ht t ps://web.archive.

org/web/20101125032435/ht t ps://lsadc.org/info/ling-fields-discourse.cfm)

Discourse Analysis by Z. Harris (ht t ps://web.archive.org/web/20141006074640/ht t p://wau

condast ore.com/discourse-analysis-z-harris/)

Daniel L. Everet t , Document ing Languages: The View from t he Brazilian Amazon (ht t ps://w
eb.archive.org/web/20081217104207/ht t p://www.llc.ilst u.edu/dlevere/docs/soas.pdf )
St at ement concerning James Loriot , p. 9

A discourse analysis relat ed int ernat ional conference (ht t p://met adiscourseacrossgenres.
com) You can find some informat ion and event s relat ed t o Met adiscourse Across Genres
by visit ing MAG 2017 websit e

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