Approaches to Discourse
Analysis
What’s it all about?
• Leaning to use the
analysis of language
to solve real-life
problems at work, at
school and at home.
• Theory and Practical
Application
The ‘D’ Word
Discourse
• Discourse is: ‘language above the sentence
level or above the clause.’
• Stubbs 1998
• The study of discourse is the study of any
aspect of language use.
• Fasold 1990
• The analysis of discourse is the analysis of
language in use…it cannot be restricted to
the description of linguistic forms independent
of the purposes or functions that they serve in
human affairs.
• Brown and Yule 1983
Discourse
• ‘Discourse’ is for me more than just language
in use: It is language use, whether speech or
writing, seen as a type of social practice.
• Fairclough 1992
• Discourse constitutes the social…Discourse
is shaped by relations of power, and invested
with ideologies.
• Fairclough 1992
Big D and Little d
• Discourse (non-count) vs.
‘Discourses’
• Saying, Doing, Thinking,
Behaving, Believing,
Valuing, Interacting
combinations that show
who we are
(Gee)
• The ‘Discourse of medicine’
• The ‘Discourse of romance’
Discourse is…
• How language reflects reality
• How language creates reality
• How language shapes our identities and
interactions
• How language is used as to tool to
control people
What is the meaning of this
sentence?
Meaning depends on…
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•
•
•
•
How
Where
When
To whom
Why
The ‘P’ Word
Pragmatics
• From the Greek pragma meaning ‘deed’
• How we ‘do things with words’
• The study of meaning in different contexts of
use
• How language is used to do things in real
world situations
• Speech act theory
• Conversational logic
Discourse Analysis
Multimodal
Discourse
Analysis
Critical
Discourse
Analysis
Ethnography
Of
Speaking
Mediated
Discourse
Analysis
Discourse
Analysis
Conversation
Analysis
Genre
Analysis
Pragmatics
Discourse analysis
An Example
Questions
• Who are these people?
• What is going on here? What are these people
doing?
• What kinds of tools/language are they using to do
it?
• Are they being successful/doing it well?
• Who has more power in the conversation? How
can you tell?
• What do the two people want? What strategies are
they using to get what they want?
• Who wins?
Questions
•
•
•
•
•
Who are these people?
What is going on here? What are these people doing?
What kinds of tools/language are they using to do it?
Are they being successful/doing it well?
Who has more power in the conversation? How can you
tell?
• What do the two people want? What strategies are they
using to get what they want?
• Who wins?
The Ethnography of
Communication
• Communication as a matter of cultural
competence
• Focus on things like setting,
participants, mood, and other kinds of
behavioral rules
• What are some of the rules for
‘complaining to your superior’?
Genre Analysis
• Communication as using the generic
conventions of a discourse community
• Focus on the structure of the interaction
• Do ‘moves’ occur in a predictable way?
Pragmatics
• Communication as doing things with
words
• Sentence meaning vs. speaker meaning
Politeness Theory
• Communication as a way of encoding
social relationships
• Focus on ‘Face threatening acts’ and
‘Face saving strategies’
Conversation Analysis
• Communication as joint activity
• Attention to the sequential organization
of talk, turn-taking and topic
management
Interactional Sociolinguistics
• Communication as a way of signaling social
activities and social identities
• Attention to strategies speakers use to signal
activity and identity
• Competing ‘frames’
Critical Discourse Analysis
• Communication as a way of exercising
and resisting power
• Focus on existing power relations and
how they are reinforced
• Examines underlying assumptions
• Asks, ‘who really won?’
Multimodal Discourse Analysis
• Communication as a matter of
combining multiple modes
• Focus not just on words but on
gestures, facial expressions, posture,
proxemics, gaze, object handling,
spatial layout, time and timing
Mediated Discourse Analysis
• Communication as a tool for taking action
• Focus on actions and the cultural tools that
make them possible
Conclusion
• Communication is not just a matter of
words
• Communication is a matter of action
• Communication is a matter of
relationships and power
• Communication creates and re-creates
our social worlds