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Unit 1 DA Practice Exercise

Discourse Analysis examines language in context, focusing on how meaning is constructed and unified for users. It encompasses both spoken and written interaction, analyzing language as a tool for action and a reflection of social structures. The field includes various interdisciplinary approaches that address issues of power, inequality, and ideology within different social domains.

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7 views2 pages

Unit 1 DA Practice Exercise

Discourse Analysis examines language in context, focusing on how meaning is constructed and unified for users. It encompasses both spoken and written interaction, analyzing language as a tool for action and a reflection of social structures. The field includes various interdisciplinary approaches that address issues of power, inequality, and ideology within different social domains.

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alu0101431062
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Discourse Analysis: Introductory Aspects

Practice: Definitions of Discourse Analysis

Below are a number of definitions of the term ‘Discourse Analysis’. Read each of
these definitions and summarize the main features they list as being characteristic
of Discourse Analysis.

■ Discourse Analysis examines how stretches of language, considered in their full


textual, social, and psychological context, become meaning and unified for their
users. (Cook 1989: viii).

Cook, G. Discourse. Oxford: OUP, 1989.

■ Discourse Analysis is concerned with the study of the relationship between language
and the contexts in which it is used… Discourse Analysis is not only concerned
with the description and analysis of spoken interaction… discourse analysts are
equally interested in the organization of written interaction. (McCarthy 1991:
12).

McCarthy, M. Discourse Analysis for Language Teachers. Cambridge: CUP,


1991.

■ Discourse Analysis is the analysis of language in use. Better put, it is the study of
language at use in the world, not just to say things, but to do things. (Gee 2011:
ix).

Gee, J.P. How to do Discourse Analysis: A Toolkit. New York: Routledge,


2011.

■ While some discourse analysts focus on how meaning and structure are signalled in
texts, others, especially since the early 1990s, have used discourse analysis more
critically to examine issue relating to power, inequality and ideology. (Baker and
Ellece 2011: 32).

Baker, P. and Ellece, S. Key Terms in Discourse Analysis. London: Continuum,


2011.

■ Discourse is language use relative to social, political and cultural formations –it is
language reflecting social order but also language shaping social order, and
shaping individuals’ interaction with society. (Jaworski and Coupland 2006: 3).

Jaworski, A. and Coupland, N. ‘Introduction: Perspectives on Discourse


Analysis’. In A. Jaworski and N. Coupland (eds.). The Discourse Reader. 2nd
edition. London: Routledge, 2006, pp. 1-37.
■ Discourse Analysis is not just one approach, but a series of interdisciplinary
approaches that can be used to explore many different social domains in many
different types of studies. (Philips and Jorgenson 2002: 1).

Philips, L. and Jorgenson M.W. Discourse Analysis as Theory and Method.


London: Sage, 2002.

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