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Chapter One: What Is Discourse Analysis?1

1. What is discourse?
The online Meriam Webster dictionary offers more than one definition of the
word discourse. The simplest of these definitions is a “verbal interchange of
ideas”. Based on this definition, any form of language that involves an
interchange of ideas, i.e., gives a message, is a piece of discourse. Accordingly,
discourse is any piece of spoken or written language that conveys a message to
a receiver. Also based on this definition, drawings, photos, or signs that convey
ideas/messages can be considered instances of nonverbal discourses. Therefore,
discourse can be defined as a broad term that encompasses all forms of
communication, including spoken and written language, as well as visual
communication and other forms of nonverbal communication. Thus, discourse
covers a very broad variety of spoken or written texts such as a conversation, a
speech, a lecture, a report, a poem, a news story, a news broadcast, an editorial,
a book, etc.

Another significant definition of the word discourse is related to its context of

use. This makes it more like a genre, such as political discourse or media
discourse. Also, discourse can be related to a subject or a topic such as
environmental discourse or economic discourse. (Baker & Ellece, 2011, pp.
30-31)

Sometimes the term discourse is defined in terms of its length: “a linguistic unit
larger than a sentence” (Meriam Webster). It is believed that such definition
originated mainly to distinguish new linguistic research interested in language
use above the sentence level. However, it is argued that the length of discourse

1
All information in this chapter and the successive chapters are summarized and paraphrased from many
references that are listed at the end of the book. In-text citations are used only in cases of direct quotations or
adopting examples, texts, exercises from other sources.

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can vary broadly. For instance, road signs, which usually consist of one or few
words, still meet the definition of conveying an idea/message to a receiver.
Similarly do words such as “ladies”, “men”, “staff only”, “cashier”, and “exit”
in giving instructions or directions inside a building. Also, a single sentence
such as “handle with care” on a cartoon box communicates a clear message to
the user of this box. Thus, it is the communicative power of a piece of language
that is significant in classifying it as discourse. Therefore, linguists prefer to
define discourse in terms of its communicative nature or social role. For
instance, Fairclough (2001) states that "Discourse refers to the interconnected
system of language, knowledge, and power that shapes and controls the way
we think, speak, and act in society" (p. 3). Van Dijk (1997) defines discourse
as "a social practice that constitutes and is constituted by social interaction,
through which people produce and reproduce the social world they live in" (p.
1). Wodak and Meyer (2009) state that "Discourse encompasses not only
language use but also the social practices, beliefs, and ideologies that are
embedded within it" (p. 1).

To sum up, Discourse is not simply a matter of individual words or sentences,

but rather refers to the larger patterns and structures of language use in a
particular context. It includes the ways in which language is used to construct
meaning, convey information, and accomplish social actions, such as giving
information, persuasion, warning, negotiation, and socialization. It is worth
noting that in this sense, many linguists use the term “text” interchangeably
with the term “discourse”.

Activity 1: Write at least 10 examples of discourse other than those mentioned

above.
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2. What is discourse Analysis?

In simple terms, discourse analysis can be defined as a linguistic analysis of a
piece of discourse. Yet, there is more to say about discourse analysis to
understand what it really means. It is a very wide field in linguistics that
emerged in the late 1960s and early 1970s. It is concerned with the study of
language in use, particularly how language is used in social contexts and how
it is used to create meaning. It goes back to the work of Harris (1952) who went
beyond the single sentence and was interested in examining extended texts and
finding the links between these texts and their social contexts. According to
Lwin (2022), discourse analysis “deals with the linguistic study of text, i.e.,
how linguistic units are used in actual texts to convey meanings. It focuses on
uncovering meanings represented or constructed in texts, and so can be referred
to as the study of ‘text meaning’” (p. 1574). McCarthy (1991) states that
“discourse analysis has grown into a wide-ranging and heterogeneous
discipline which finds its unity in the description of language above the
sentence and an interest in the contexts and cultural influences which affect
language in use.” (p. 7).

3. Approaches of discourse analysis

As an area of study, discourse analysis has grown widely since its beginnings
in the 60s and 70s of the twentieth century to include many approaches, some
of which has certainly developed to be independent disciplines in linguistics. It
is beyond the scope of this book to give a comprehensive representation of all
these approaches or disciplines that emerged from the study of discourse

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Analysis. Yet below are some of these key approaches and disciplines that
should give an idea about the broadness of the field of discourse analysis.

A. Conversation Analysis:
Conversation Analysis is a major approach in discourse analysis that is
concerned with the study of naturally occurring talk. It focuses on the structure
and organization of conversation, and how participants in a conversation use
language to accomplish social actions.

B. Critical Discourse Analysis:

Critical discourse analysis is a wide major approach in discourse analysis that
is concerned with the ways in which language is used to construct and maintain
power relations, social identities, and social inequality. It focuses on the ways
in which language use reflects and reinforces existing social norms and values
especially those related to gender, ethnicity, and social class, and how they are
reflected in communication patterns. It also investigates how language can be
used to construct and maintain social inequalities, and to challenge and resist
dominant power relations and ideologies.

C. Multimodal Discourse Analysis:

Multimodal discourse analysis is concerned with the study of communication
that involves more than just language, such as visual communication, gestures,
and other forms of nonverbal communication. It focuses on how different
modes of communication work together to construct meaning.

D. Genre Analysis:
Genre analysis is that area of discourse studies that is concerned with the study
of different types of discourse, such as news articles, academic papers, or legal

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documents. It focuses on the conventions and structures that are characteristic
of different genres, and how these conventions are used to construct meaning.

E. Corpus Linguistics:
Corpus linguistics is concerned with the study of language use in large
collections of texts, known as corpora. It focuses on the patterns and regularities
that can be identified in language use across different types of texts and
contexts. What distinguishes corpus linguistics is that it uses computer assisted
programs in analysing large corpora to reach generalizations about language
use in different types of texts and contexts.

F. Sociolinguistics:
Sociolinguistics is a discipline that emerged from discourse analysis that is
concerned with the relationship between language and society. It focuses on
how social factors such as gender, ethnicity, and social class influence language
use, and how language use in turn reflects and reinforces social norms and
values.

G. Pragmatics:
Pragmatics is another discipline that also emerged from discourse analysis
studies. It is concerned with the study of language use in context. It focuses on
how meaning is constructed through language, and how context, intention, and
social factors influence the interpretation of meaning.

In conclusion, discourse analysis covers a diverse and interdisciplinary range

of approaches that are used to study language use in social contexts. It must be
noted that the above list is not a comprehensive list of approaches, (sub)-
disciplines that come under the general umbrella of discourse analysis.

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4. Historical development of discourse Analysis.
Before delving into details of the discipline of discourse analysis, it is necessary
to trace how it emerged and developed. McCarthy (1991) gives a brief historical
overview of the development of discourse studies, listing the most effective
scholars in different disciplines whose work contributed to what is known now
as discourse Analysis. Their studies generally focused on the investigation of
language in use in relation to its social context from different perspectives.

Dell Hymes (1964) provided a sociological perspective with the study of speech
in its social setting. Austin (1962), Searle (1969) were influential in the study
of language as social action. Their work was reflected in the speech-act theory,
one of the very early theories formulated in discourse studies.

Grice (1975), Goffman (1976; 1979), and Sacks, Schegloff and Jefferson
(1974) focused on studying naturally occurring conversations to examine their
norms and mechanics. Their work eventually developed into conversation
analysis that is concerned with the study of the structure and organization of
conversation. Grice (1975) formulized conversational maxims, known as
Grice’s maximus where he sets a number of cooperative principles between
speakers that help make a conversation successful. He also examines how these
maxims are violated and the communicative significance of their violations.
Conversation analysis has been particularly influential in the development of
pragmatic theories of language use.

Sinclair and Coulthard (1975) developed a model for the description of

teacher-pupil talk. It was based on examining a large data of naturally occurring
interactions in classrooms. Their work was very influential and was followed
by many studies that focused on similar planned discourses such as doctor-
patient interaction, service encounters, interviews, debates, business

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negotiations, etc. Labov (1972, 1977, 1982, 1997) has worked extensively on
oral narratives and his interest in investigating oral storytelling have
contributed to a long history of interest in narrative discourse. Moreover, he
was interested in investigating “the relationship between social factors that
influence language change, such as sex, age, ethnicity, and social class” (Baker
& Ellece, 2011, p. 175).

The work of the French philosopher Michel Foucault (1975, 1976) was one of
the most influential contributions to the field of discourse analysis. Foucault
emphasized the power relations that are inherent in social discourse and how
language is used to reinforce or challenge existing power relations. He
emphasized the ways in which language use is shaped by power relations and
how language is used to construct and reinforce social norms and values. His
ideas were particularly influential in the development of critical discourse
analysis.

In the 1970s and 1980s, the field of discourse analysis began to expand and
diversify. Researchers began to apply discourse analysis to a wide range of
different contexts, including political discourse, media discourse, and academic
discourse. This led to the development of a wide range of different approaches
to discourse analysis, each with its own theoretical and methodological
assumptions.

According to McCarthy (1991), text grammarians who focused more on

examining written texts, such as van Dijk (1972), De Beaugrande (1980),
Halliday and Hasan (1976) saw texts as language elements strung together in
relationships with one another. Their work has been very influential on
discourse analysis. For example, van Dijk “has theorized on how people
produce, comprehend and remember texts and talk and is also interested in the

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relationship between discourse, ideology and power” (Baker & Ellece, p. 183).
His work has greatly contributed to the development of critical discourse
analysis.

This brief historical background of the beginnings of the field of discourse

analysis reveals that the origins of discourse analysis can be traced back to
several different intellectual fields, including not only linguistics, but also
sociology, anthropology, and psychology. Discourse analysis continues to be a
vibrant and dynamic field within linguistics, with researchers from a wide range
of different disciplines contributing to its ongoing development. It is a field that
is constantly evolving and adapting to new forms of communication and to
changes in the social and cultural contexts.

5. Scope of discourse Analysis

The scope of discourse analysis is broad and interdisciplinary, encompassing a
wide range of different fields and domains. Some of the key areas of inquiry
within discourse analysis include:

A. Language and communication:

Discourse analysis is concerned with the study of language and communication
in all its forms, including spoken and written language, visual communication,
and nonverbal communication.

B. Culture and society:

Discourse analysis is interested in understanding the ways in which language
use reflects and shapes social and cultural norms and values, and how language
is used to construct and maintain social identities and power relations.

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C. Politics and power:
Discourse analysis is concerned with the ways in which language is used to
legitimize or challenge existing power relations, to promote particular
ideologies or worldviews, and to mobilize support for or against particular
policies or political actors.

D. Media and technology:

Discourse analysis is interested in understanding the ways in which language
is used in the production and distribution of news and other forms of media
content, and how media discourse reflects and shapes social, political, and
cultural norms and values.

E. Education and pedagogy:

Discourse analysis is concerned with the ways in which language is used in
educational settings, and how language use shapes the construction of
knowledge and the development of learning processes. Discourse studies in the
educational field has particularly served research in language acquisition.

F. Psychology and cognition:

Discourse analysis is also interested in understanding the ways in which
language use reflects and shapes cognitive processes, such as memory,
attention, and perception. Discourse analysts may study how language is used
to influence attitudes and beliefs, or how language use varies depending on
individual differences in personality or cognitive style.

G. Health and medicine:

Discourse analysis can provide insights into how language use shapes health
behaviours and perceptions, and how communication practices in healthcare
settings can impact patient outcomes. For example, discourse analysts may

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examine the ways in which doctors and patients communicate about medical
conditions, or how public health campaigns use language to promote health
behaviours.

H. Law and justice:

Discourse analysis can be used to understand how language is used in legal
settings, such as courtrooms and law enforcement contexts, and how language
use can impact outcomes in legal proceedings. For example, discourse analysts
may examine the ways in which lawyers and judges use language to persuade
juries, or how police officers use language to elicit confessions from suspects.

I. Business and economics:

Discourse analysis can be used to understand the ways in which language use
reflects and shapes economic and business practices. For example, discourse
analysts may study how language use in advertising and marketing shapes
consumer behaviour, or how language use in corporate communications
reflects and reinforces organizational culture.

J. International relations:
Discourse analysis can be used to understand the ways in which language use
shapes international relations and diplomacy. For example, discourse analysts
may examine the ways in which political leaders use language to communicate
with other nations, or how language use in international media can impact
public perceptions of other countries and cultures.

Considering the above, the scope of discourse analysis is broad and

interdisciplinary, encompassing a wide range of different fields and domains.
It includes analysing any naturally occurring data whether spoken or written
and connecting it to its more general context. It attempts to provide a powerful

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framework for understanding the complex ways in which language is used in
different fields and domains.

6. Check your knowledge.

Exercise. 1. Decide if the statement is True or False. Correct the false statements.

Statement Answer

1. Discourse refers only to spoken language.

2. Discourse analysis involves studying the structure of sentences.

3. Discourse analysis is a limited approach in the field of linguistics.

4. Discourse analysis is concerned with how language is used in social

contexts.

5. Discourse analysis only focuses on individual words and their meanings.

6. Discourse analysis can be used to examine both written and spoken texts.

7. The scope of discourse analysis is limited to the study of language.

8. Discourse analysis can be used to analyze political speeches.

9. Discourse analysis is concerned with the power relationships that exist

in language use.

10. Discourse analysis is only relevant to the study of literature.

11. Discourse studies in the educational field served research in first and
second language acquisition.

12. Studying the language of advertising has no benefit for business or

economics.

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Exercise. 2. Choose the best answer to the following questions.
1. What is discourse?
a. A type of language used only in formal contexts.
b. Language used in social contexts.
c. The study of individual words and their meanings.
d. The language used in literary texts.
b
2. What is discourse analysis?
a. The study of individual words and their meanings.
b. The study of how language is used in social contexts.
c. c. The study of phonetics.
d. d. The study of formal grammatical structures.
b
3. Which of the following is NOT a key approach of discourse analysis?
a. Sociolinguistics
b. Conversation analysis
c. Structural linguistics
d. Critical discourse analysis
c
4. Which of the following is a key assumption of discourse analysis?
a. Language use is primarily a matter of individual psychology.
b. Language use reflects social structures.
c. Language use is determined by biological factors.
d. d. Language use is determined by individual choice.
b
5. Which of the following is a potential application of discourse analysis?
a. Studying the structure of sentences
b. Analyzing advertising language.
c. Understanding individual word meanings
d. Examining the structure of language in scientific texts
b
6. Which of the following is NOT a key approach/sub-discipline of discourse
analysis?
a. Conversation analysis
b. Pragmatics
c. Phonetics
d. Gener analysis

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7. What is the scope of discourse analysis?
a. Limited to the study of language in Western cultures
b. Limited to the study of written texts
c. Broad and includes the study of language use in a range of social contexts.
d. Limited to the study of language use in formal context
c
8. Which of the following is NOT a potential application of discourse analysis?
a. Analyzing scientific papers.
b. Analyzing social media posts
c. Understanding individual word meanings
d. Examining the structure of job interviews.
c
9. Which of the following is a key sub-discipline of discourse analysis?
a. a. Phonetics
b. b. Sociolinguistics
c. c. Syntax
d. d. Morphology
b
10. Which of the following is NOT a potential application of discourse analysis?
a. Studying political speeches
b. Analyzing advertising language
c. Understanding the structure of sentences
d. Examining legal language
c
11. Which of the following is a key assumption of discourse analysis?
a. Language use is determined by individual choice.
b. Language use is primarily a matter of individual psychology.
c. Language use reflects social structures.
d. Language use is determined by biological factors.
c
12. When did discourse analysis emerge as a field of study?
a. In the early 1900s
b. In the late 1960s and early 1970s
c. In the 1990s
d. d. In the 1950s
b
13. What was Harris interested in examining in his work?
a. Single words
b. The structure of sentences

Chapter one What is discourse Analysis?

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c. Extended texts and the links between them and their social contexts
d. Historical development of language use

14. According to Lwin (2022), what does discourse analysis focus on?
a. Uncovering meanings represented or constructed in texts.
b. The structure of sentences
c. The historical development of language use
d. The study of individual words
a
15. What is Conversation Analysis?
a. An approach of discourse analysis that is concerned with the study of naturally
occurring talk.
b. An approach of discourse analysis that is concerned with analyzing the linguistic
features of specific types of discourse, such as news articles, academic papers, or
political speeches.
c. An approach of discourse analysis that focuses on the way social factors such as
gender, ethnicity, and social class influence language use.
d. The study of individual words in a conversation.

Exercise. 3. Answer the following questions. (You would need to search for more
information to support your answers)
1. Compare Multimodal discourse analysis and genre analysis and explain if
they can be applied together to the same text.
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2. What are the effects of Corpus Linguistics on discourse studies? Give

examples.
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3. How can discourse studies benefit the fields of translation? Support your
answers with examples.
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Chapter one What is discourse Analysis?