Discourse Studies: Theories and Methods
Johannes Angermuller
University of Warwick
Centre for Applied Linguistics (CAL) http://www.johannes-angermuller.net

Discourse Studies as
• an intellectual fad?
• a method?
• an orientation?
• a field of research?
Discourse Studies = Discourse theory + discourse analysis in a variety of fields and orientations

1 Introducing the topic and ourselves
2 Mapping Discourse Studies a) Theory b) Analysis c) Fields d) Orientations
3 Analysing discourse as a positioning practice

Introduction: Discourse Studies as a transdisciplinary field
Discourse as social production of meaning in interactive situations and large communities
Discourse Studies integrates theories and methods to account for discourse in the social sciences
Key features:
• Discourse as constitutive of the social
• Subjectivity as a discursive effect
• Meaning-making practices in context
• Institutional and societal relevance

1 Taking up the intellectual place once held by Marxism and psychoanalysis
2 Adversaries a) Causalist (“positivist”) strands in social research b) Universalism in letters and humanities

Three strands of discourse theory
1 Poststructuralism
“Continental” tradition (Jacques Lacan,
Louis Althusser, Michel Pêcheux, Michel
Foucault, Jacques Derrida, Laclau/Mouffe,
Judith Butler, Slavoj Žižek)
Key features:
– Decentring the subject, actor, author
– “Undoing” structure, system, power
– Deconstructive critique

2 Normative-deliberative strands a) Jürgen Habermas: reaching agreement in the public sphere b) Jean-François Lyotard: differend c) Luc Boltanski: actors as moral agents
3 Critical realism a) Bob Jessop: cultural political economy b) Norman Fairclough: Critical Discourse
Analysis (CDA)

4 Interactionism and pragmatics a) George H. Mead: symbolic action b) Harvey Sacks: conversation analysis c) John Austin: speech acts

The triangle of discourse theory
Power
Knowledge
Discourse
Subjectivity

1 Discourse analysis as a methodological project: applying methods to analyse empirical material in order to study an object a) Qualitative (interactionism) vs. quantitative
(corpus analysis) methods b) Semantics versus pragmatics
2 Alternative methodological projects a) Content analysis (communication sciences) b) Hermeneutics (history)

Discourse analysis as a subdisciplinary field
Pragmatics as the interdisciplinary space of language & society studying uses of texts in contexts
Adjacent fields: a) Conversation analysis b) Sociolinguistics c) Linguistic anthropology d) Semiotics e) Corpus analysis f) Sociology of language g) Rhetorics

The triangle of discourse analysis
Language
Practice
Discourse
Context

The triangle of discourse theory
Power
Language Practice
Discourse
Knowledge Subjectivity
Context

Four ideal-typical orientations
1 Interdiscourse (‘French poststructuralism’)
2 Interaction (‘American pragmatism’)
3 Language in use (‘English pragmatics’)
4 Understanding the meaningful whole
(‘German hermeneutics’)

Analysing discourse as a positioning practice
Poststructuralist theory a) Discourse as a space where order needs to be constituted b) Construction of subject positions as existential challenge
Pragmatic methodology a) Enunciative pragmatics b) Utterances as smallest units c) Indexical references to its many
‘speakers’

An utterance refers to a locutor...
(1) is hot a it day
(2) L (locutor): ‘it is a hot day’
...and enunciators via markers
(3) it is not a hot day
(3’) l: ‘it’s a hot day’
(3’’) a: No, l is not right!

How are positions constructed in utterances?
George Osborne (03/11/14, Guardian):
“I’m someone who wants to stay in the EU,” he said. “I think that’s right for Britain, but it has to be a reformed EU.”
Nigel Farage (10/10/14, Guardian):
“We want people who have trade and skills. But we do not want people with criminal records and we cannot afford to have people with life threatening diseases.”
Nick Clegg (08/10/14, Guardian):
“The Liberal Democrats will borrow less than
Labour, but we’ll cut less than the Tories.”

How are positions constructed in utterances?
George Osborne (03/11/14, Guardian):
(1) “I’m someone who wants to stay in the EU,” he said. (2) “I think that’s right for Britain, (3) but it has to be a reformed
EU.”
L (Osborne): for staying
P->A (?): “Staying means EU is good.”
L (Osborne): for reform of EU

How are positions constructed in utterances?
Nigel Farage (10/10/14, Guardian):
“We want people who have trade and skills. But we do not want people with criminal records and we cannot afford to have people with life threatening diseases.”
L (Farage): for qualified immigrants.
P->A1 (?): “We want all qualified Immigrants.”
A2 (?): “We want criminal and sick immigrants.”
L (Farage): No, A2.

How are positions constructed in utterances?
Nick Clegg (08/10/14, Guardian):
“The Liberal Democrats will borrow less than Labour, but we’ll cut less than the
Tories.”
L (Clegg): for lowering debts.
P->A (?): “Lower debts mean cuts.”
L (Clegg): for fewer cuts.

How are positions constructed in utterances?
Ed Miliband (20/09/14, Guardian):
“Constitutional change matters, but we know that something else matters even more: this country doesn't work for most working people.”
L (Miliband): Scotland important
P->A (?): “Keeping Scotland in means giving up on all other questions.”
L (Clegg): for working people

Angermuller, Johannes/Maingueneau,
Dominique/Wodak, Ruth (eds) (2014):
The Discourse Studies Reader. Main
Currents in Theory and Analysis.
Amsterdam, Philadelphia: John
Benjamins
Texts and presentation: http://johannesangermuller.net/english/teaching/aktuel l.html