Lecture Introduction to linguistics: Discourse & discourse analysis. In this chapter, students will be able to understand: What is discourse? definitions of discourse, doing discourse analysis, scope, influences, approaches. | Discourse & Discourse Analysis Dr. Ansa Hameed Today’s Lecture What is discourse? Definitions of Discourse Doing Discourse Analysis Scope Influences Approaches Why analyse discourse? Some (many?) things happen primarily (only?) in language From (say) promising to come to dinner To (say) telling someone you love them (Or indeed: talking to the dog) Discourse is “language above the sentence or above the clause” (Stubbs, 1983: 1). 1960s grammarians became convinced of the usefulness of considering stretches longer than individual sentences in their analyses, at least two terms came to be used in parallel fashion: text linguistics and discourse analysis. Originally, some people preferred to use text to refer to written language and kept discourse strictly for oral production. However, we do not make any distinctions between text linguistics and discourse analysis, and between discourse and text, because they are now often used interchangeably. Definitions of Discourse (1) A particular unit of language (above the sentence), or discourse in structure; A particular focus on language use, discourse as function. Discourse as structure ? Problem: you can have a unit which looks like a sentence but doesn’t mean anything . Colourless green ideas sleep furiously but on the other hand the units in which people speak do not always look like sentences. . You can run a hou- whatcha- now whatcha you can run a house-you can run a house a- and do the job, which is important, y’ can’t y- a man can’t do it himself, and a woman can’t do it himself w- if y’ want it to be successful. In most cases. How do you analyse something which is not a sentence? Discourse as a System of functions ? . “what’s the time?” Phatic function (opens a contact) Emotive function (conveys the need of the speaker) Conative function (asks something of the addressee) Referential function (makes reference to the world outside the language) PROBLEM: Discourse analysis may turn into a more general and . | Discourse & Discourse Analysis Dr. Ansa Hameed Today’s Lecture What is discourse? Definitions of Discourse Doing Discourse Analysis Scope Influences Approaches Why analyse discourse? Some (many?) things happen primarily (only?) in language From (say) promising to come to dinner To (say) telling someone you love them (Or indeed: talking to the dog) Discourse is “language above the sentence or above the clause” (Stubbs, 1983: 1). 1960s grammarians became convinced of the usefulness of considering stretches longer than individual sentences in their analyses, at least two terms came to be used in parallel fashion: text linguistics and discourse analysis. Originally, some people preferred to use text to refer to written language and kept discourse strictly for oral production. However, we do not make any distinctions between text linguistics and discourse analysis, and between discourse and text, because they are now often used interchangeably. Definitions of Discourse (1) A particular .
