DISCOURSE ANALYSIS?
Discourse analysis is used to refer to what people do, how they do it or both
Linguists, but also others working in fields such anthropology, rhetoric, cultural
studies, psychology and educational research.
Pose many different questions and offers many different answers.
E.G. A JOURNAL ISSUE!
Media terms in a given case
Differences between English and Japanese
Newspaper coverage of a prison scandal in Europe
Metaphor
Analysis expression of identity
Talking about a poem
Use of the pronoun ‘I’ in formal writing
DISCOURSE!
To discourse analysts: ‘discourse’ is the actual instances of communication in the
medium of language.
semiotic systems: photography, clothing, music , gesture, dance, architecture!
DISCOURSE ANALYSIS OR LANGUAGE ANALYSIS?
Use of ‘Discourse analysis’ rather than ‘language analysis’: underscore the fact that
we are not centrally focusing on language as abstract system.
Interested in what happens when people draw on the knowldege they have about
language base on what they have heard, seen or written to do things in the world:
Exchange of information
Express feelings
Make things happen
Create beauty
Entertain themselves
Discourse is both: this knowledge+ the results of it
Foucault followers (1970,1980,1990) use the term ‘discourses’ to refer to the linke
between ways of talking and ways of thinking.
This link constitute Ideologies (sets of interrelated ideas) and serves to circulate
power in society.
‘discourses’ involves patterns of belief and habitual action as well as patterns of
language.
‘Discourses’ are ideas as well as ways of talking that influence and are influenced by
the ideas.
‘discourses’ in their linguistic aspect, are conventionalized sets of choices, or talk
ANALYSIS!
Why discourse analysis rather than ‘discourse ology’?
Discourse analysis Typically focuses on the analytical processes in a relatively explicit
way.
Discourse is a methodology that can be used to answer many kinds of questions
DA systematically asks questions, takes several theoretical perspectives performs a
variety of tests!
USES OD DISCOURSE ANALYSIS
Nature of language
Language learning
Forensic linguistics
Moved the description of languge structure up a level: looking at actual stretches odf
connecte3d text or transcript and providing descriptions of the structure of
paragraph, stories, and conversations
FACETS OF DISCOURSE ANALYSIS
Museum of Egyptology.. Advertising for an informal material: ‘Splendors of Ancient
Egypt’.. The exhibit was presented as ‘blockbuster’ advertising it heavily.
Gave rise to many texts: articles in many magazines, 3wall placards, labels in the
exhibit, materials at the gift shop set up at the exit of the exhibit.
A HEURISTIC FOR ANALYSIS!
Kinds of questions? How to answer them?
Discourse analysts work with different materials: transcript of audio or video-talk,
written documents, proverbs, printouts of on-line communication.
Why is this text the way it is? Why is it no other way? why these particular words in this
particular order?
ANSWERS!
What the text is about.. What a person is talking about has a bearing on what is said
how it is said.
Who said/wrote it?
How the intended audience are.
Who the actual hearers or readers are.
What motivates the text.
The language it is in… what can be done with the language.
Discourse is shaped by the world, and discourse shape the world.
Discourse is shaped by language, and the discourse shapes the language.
Discourse is shaped by participants, and discourse shapes participants.
Discourse is shaped by prior discourse, and discourse shapes the possibilities for
future discourse.
Discourse is shaped by its medium, and discourse shapes the possibilities of its
medium.
Discourse is shaped by purpose, and discourse shapes possible purpose.
DISCOURSE IS SHAPED BY THE WORLD, AND
DISCOURSE SHAPES THE WORLD.
‘Splendor of Egypt’: choice of words that has the effect of creating a particular image
of this world in the minds of the readers: Egyptian are depicted as ‘full of
mystery’, ’superstitious’, ’obsessed with living forever’, ’preoccupied with death’.
They need ‘spells’, ‘curses’, and ‘incantation’ to protect them from harm
DISCOURSE IS SHAPED BY LANGUAGE, AND THE DISCOURSE
SHAPES THE LANGUAGE.
Mummy Mask of paser…
New Kingdom , Dynasty18, 1570-1320 B.C
Cartonnage, which can be compared to papier mache, painted and
gilded, fidspot not known
Germanic way of forming words, Latinate term,,
How the structure foregrounds some elements of the description and
backgrounds others.
First thing, is a label in English not in Egyptian. In Roman letters not in
hieroglyphic.
Effect: this label removes the object from its original context and puts it into
a western frame of reference.
DISCOURSE IS SHAPED BY INTERPERSONAL RELATIONS AMONG
PARTICIPANTS IN IT, AND DISCOURSE HELPS TO SHAPE INTERPERSONAL
RELATIONS
Interpersonal relations include the relations among the speakers and writers ,
audiences and over hearers who are represented in the text.
Example: ‘splendors of Ancient Egypt’ gives evidence of several and sometimes
conflicting versions of the relationships between museum staff and museum
patrons.
Sometimes the intended audience is clearly youthful as in:
these small blue figures are called shabies (pronounced shabtees). They are
made of faience, a type of glazed pottery. Shabtis were believed to help people who
died . They were placed in tombs to be servants in the afterlife, working for the dead.
Hundreds of shabits have been found in king’s tombs. These shabits are holding
hoes used by farmers for digging. They are standing like wrapped mummies, ready to
work in the afterlife
This is adults language addressed to children. It represents in adult’s idea of how a
child’s mind might work.
Jumpy paragraph, no explicit link between sentences
No conjunctions like thus/so
DISCOURSE IS SHAPED BY EXPECTATIONS CREATED BY FAMILIAR
DISCOURSE, AND NEW INSTANCES OF DISCOURSE HELP TO SHAPE OUR
EXPECTATIONS ABOUT WHAT FUTURE DISCOURSE WILL BE LIKE AND HOW
IT SHOULD BE INTERPRETED.
‘intertextual’ relations between texts and other texts enable people to
interpret new instances of discourse with reference to familiar activities
and familiar categories of style and form.
DISCOURSE IS SHAPED BY THE LIMITATIONS AND POSSIBILITIES OF ITS
MEDIA, AND THE POSSIBILITIES OF COMMUNICATIONS MEDIA ARE SHAPE
BY THEIR USES IN DISCOURSE
Mixing of media is evident in the ‘splendors of Ancient Egypt’..
Magazine ads: more oral (spoken-like) quality than do the
magazine article.
Punctuation: to represent the rhythm of speech ‘they had spells for
this. Incantations for that. And curses to protect them from harm’
Visual imagery is extremely prevalent and often repeated:
Use of Egpytian writing as decoration: birds, cup, sphynx-like figures,
human arms and legs, abstract shapes
DISCOURSE IS SHAPED BY PURPOSE, AND DISCOURSE
SHAPES POSSIBLE PURPOSE.
The purposes of ‘splendors’ show are several: several voices (sometimes in
competition) are heard…
The exhibit was meant to be educational: imperative, expressions of confidence in the
evidence one claims, simplification.
DATA OF DISCOURSE ANALYSIS
Texts: written
A great deal of discourse analysis is about non-written version
Unable to study oral or signed discourse in real time, as it is taking
place, we study records of discourse… transcripts or videotapes.
Choice; what to include & what to exclude. These choices have
important ramifications for the conclusions drawn.
TRANSCRIPTION
Representing speech in writing
Many ways of transcribing data as there are many researchers
Standardized transcription system exists (conversation
analysis), no single generally accepted way to represent
speech on the page
Transcription needs to be accurate, in the sense that it
includes what it claims to include not everything
Very detailed transcription include more information than
what is actually needed , which may lead to high rates of
errors
DESCRIPTIVE & CRITICAL GOALS
Foundational work in DA was descriptive linguistics; Pikes
(1967), Grimes (1975), Halliday & Hassan (1976) on what
makes English text cohesive
Critical:
1.
2.
Critical of producing a single, coherent, scientifically valid
description.
Critical of the social status quo and concerned to have
their work used in changing things for the better.