Discourse Analysis - Discourse and analysis as separate terms - Discourse analysis as a concept - Discourse analysis as an approach - The analysis of language - Patterns of language across various contexts Origins of discourse analysis - The term “discourse analysis” was first introduced by Zellig Harris in 1952. Harris had two main interests: - (i) The examination of language beyond the level of sentence - (ii) The relationship between linguistic and non-linguistic behaviours. - “(…) connected discourse occurs within a particular situation - whether of a person speaking, or of a conversation, or of someone sitting down occasionally over the period of months to write a particular kind of book in a particular literary or scientific tradition.” (Harris, 1952, p. 3). - Using language in particular situations - Characteristic linguistic features associated to particular situations - Meanings in particular situations (the field of pragmatics, the study of what and how people mean with which resources) Discourse Analysis - “Discourse analysis focuses on knowledge about language beyond the word, clause, phrase and sentence that is needed for successful communication” (Paltridge, 2006, p. 2). - Knowledge about language? - Beyond linguistic structures? - Successful communication? - Descriptive vs. prescriptive? - “Discourse analysts are also interested in how people organise what they say in the sense of what they typically say first, and what they say next and so on in a conversation or in a piece of writing” (Paltridge, 2006, p. 4). Different views of discourse analysis - Diferent views on what discourse analysis is. - All researchers involved in the study of language do work that is concerned with the analysis of discourse. - Yet, they may use diferent terms to define and characterise what they do. - Throughout its history, the term “discourse analysis” has shifted from highlighting one aspect of language use to another, and has been used in diferent ways by various researchers (see Mills, 1997). - Two main views on discourse analysis (see Cazden, 1998). For some researchers (see Fairclough, 2003), these two views are compatible with one another. - (i) the analysis of fragments of naturally occurring language, - (ii) the analysis of diferent ways of talking and understanding. - Discourse analysis studies “how people manage interactions with each other, how people communicate within particular groups and societies, as well as how they communicate with other groups and with other cultures. It also focuses on how people do things beyond language, and the ideas and beliefs that they communicate as they use language” (Paltridge, 2006, p. 9). Different views of discourse analysis -VIEW 1: Discourse as the social construction of reality - Language use is embedded in social and cultural practices - How we write and speak shape and are shared by these practices - Discourse, reflexively, is both shaped by the world as well as shaping the world. - In other words, discourse is shaped by the people who use the language as well as shaping the language that people use. - Exemplary study (for interested participants): Wetherell, M. 2001. Themes in discourse research: The case of Diana. In Discourse Theory and Practice. Different views of discourse analysis - VIEW 2: Discourse as socially situated identities - “When we speak or write we use more than just language to display who we are and how we want people to see us” (Paltridge, 2006, p. 11). - How we use the language (that is, the choices we make while using it) influence how we display our social identity/identities. -The way we dress, the gestures we produce, the ways we use our bodies, etc. - How we value things, our attitudes, our thoughts influence and are reflected through the ways in which we use the language. - Ex: how we address other people in co-present environments, how we refer to third parties in their absence, pronoun choices, address term choices, etc. - Discourses involve the socially situated identities that we enact and recognise in diferent settings. - Ex: Teacher, mom, sister, driver, (professional, public, familial identities as they become relevant) - Social identities are not pre-given, but established and are made relevant in the use of language in interaction. - Exemplary study for interested students: Benwell & Stokoe (2006) Discourse and identity. Different views of discourse analysis - VIEW 3: Discourse as performance - Performance and performativity is taken from Judith Butler (1990), deriving from speech act theory. - In saying something, we do it. - We bring states of afairs into being as a result of what we say and what we do. - Famous example: “I pronounce you man and wife” . Upon uttering this, the couple is becoming man and wife. •