DISCOURSE
ANALYSIS
DISCOURSE
Definition
Common concern
Abstract
Realised in
communication
Realised by language
Realised by texts
DISCOURSE
Definition
Language use beyond sentence
Language use in contexts
Social practice
LANGUAGE IN A SOCIAL-
SEMIOTIC PERSPECTIVE
‘Social semiotic’ as
a general ideology
As an intellectual
stance
As conceptual angle
of the subject
SEMIOTICS
A general study of signs
A study of meanings in
most general sense
Linguistics is a kind of
semiotics
Culture is a set of semiotic
systems, a set of systems
of meanings, all of which
interrelate.
EXAMPLES
Traffic lights
Colours
Language (sounds,
letters)
Interpretation of
colours (salted
eggs, navy blue)
LANGUAGE AS SOCIAL
SEMIOTIC
Used by a community
Based on convention
At all levels: word,
phrase, sentence, text
TEXT
Discourse is
realised by texts
Communication
happens in text
Text is central to
discourse analysis
What is text?
CULTURE
Genre (Purpose)
Situation
Who is
involved?
(Tenor)
Subject matter
Channel
(Field)
(Mode)
Register
TEXT
TEXT
It is a semantic unit.
Something is called a’
text’ when it is
meaningful.
It is spoken and written.
It is not a phonological
or a graphological unit.
It occurs in a context of
situation.
CONTEXT OF SITUATION
There are three elements
Subject matter
(field)
Participants
involved (tenor)
Channel (mode)
CONTEXT OF CULTURE
Every culture produces text
types.
A text type is a genre
Two general purposes:
Transactional and
Interpersonal genres
Transactional: to get
something done
Interpersonal: for different
purposes of communication
BASIC ENGLISH GENRES
Procedur News item
e Discussion
Descripti Explanatio
ve n
Narrative Exposition
Recount Review
report
TEXT ANALYSIS
Needs linguistic
analysis
Interpretation is based
on linguistic evidence
Text analysts need the
right ‘knife’ to cut the
right ‘bread’
Different ‘knives’ for
different ‘bread’
DISCOURSE ANALYSIS
How texts relate to contexts
of situation and context of
culture
How texts are produced as a
social practice
What texts tell us about
happenings, what people
think, believe etc.
How texts represent ideology
(power struggle etc.)
TEXT & DISCOURSE
ANALYSES(NUNAN, 1993)
Text analysis is the study of formal
linguistic devices that distinguish a
text from random sentences.
Discourse analysts study these
text-forming devices with reference
to the purposes and functions for
which the discourse was produced,
and the context within which the
discourse was created. The
ultimate goal is to show how the
linguistic elements enable
language users to communicate.
Discourse, according to Stubbs
(1983:1), i
“language above the sentence or
above the clause” and ‘the study of
discourse is the study of any
aspect of language use.
“the study of language in
use”.
(Fasold1990: 65).
“Discourse constitutes the
social. Three dimensions of the
social are distinguished –
knowledge, social relations, and
social identity – and these
correspond respectively to three
major functions of language …
Discourse is shaped by relations
of power, and invested
ideologies.” (Fairclough 1992:8)
Discourse analysis, in turn, is
composed of a wide range of sub-
disciplines, such as pragmatics,
conversational analysis, speech act
theory and ethnography of
speaking. The discipline studies
language used in the context, so its
subject matter is language as a
whole, either written or spoken, in
terms of transcriptions, larger
texts, audio or video recordings,
which provides an opportunity to
the analyst to work with language
rather than a single sentence.
COMMUNICATION
Exchange of meanings
Happens in texts
See the following
diagram onn
stratification and
metafunctions
CULTURAL LEVEL
Discourse Semantic
Level
Textual
Interpersonal
Lexicogrammatical
Level
Ideational
Phonology
/
Grapholog
y
Level
STRATIFICATION
Discourse semantic
level
Leexico-grammatical
level
Phonological /
graphological level
All of these are related
by realisation