Discourse Analysis

Discourse Analysis

Formalists (Chomsky) tend to regard language primarily as a mental phenomenon. Funtionalists (Halliday) tend to regard it primarily as a societal phenomenon.
Formalists tend to explain linguistic universals as deriving from a common genetic linguistic inheritance of the human species. Functionalists tend to explain them as deriving from universality of the uses to which language is put in human society.
Formalists are inclined to explain childern’s acquisiton of language in terms of a built-in human capacity to learn language. Functionalists are inclined to explain it in terms of development of the child’s communicative needs and abilities in society.
Above all, formalists study language as an autonomous system, whereas functionalists study it in relation to its social function. (Leech,1983:46)

Definitions to dicourse

1) Discourse is “language above the sentence or above the clause.”(Stabbs,1983:1)

2) Discourse is “language in use” and discourse analysis, therefore, involves purposes and “functions of language” in human life. Discourse is a socially and culturally organized system through which particular functions are realized. It is as collection of contextualized units of language use. The study of discourse is the study of any aspect of language use. (Fasold,1990; Brown &Yule,1983; Halliday,1973;Schiffrin,1994)

3) Discourse is “utterances”.(Schiffrin,1994:39) “Discourse is fun.”

“….. I have characterized discourse as essentially involving three main dimentions, namely language use, cognition, and interaction in their sociocultural contexts. Instead of vaguely summarizing, paraphrasing or quoting discourse, as is stil often the case in social scientific approaches, discourse analytical studies distinguish various levels, units or constructs within each of these dimensions, and formulate the rules and strategies of their normative or actual uses. They functionally relatesuch units or levels among each other, and thereby also explain why they are being used. In the same way, they functionally connect discourse structures with social and cultural context structures, and both again to the structures and strategies of cognition. Dicourse analysis thus moves from macro to micro level of talk, text, context or society, and vice versa. (van Dijk)

Approaches to Discourse

1) Speech Act Theory focuses on communicative acts performed through speech.

2) Interactional Sociolinguistics focuses on the social and lingustic meaning created during interaction.

3) The Ethnography of Communication focuses on language and communication as cultural behaviour.

4) Pragmatics focuses on the meaning of invidual utterances in hypothetical contexts.

5) Conversation Analysis focuses on how sequential structures in conversation provide a basis through which social order is constructed.

6) Variation Theory focuses on structural categories in texts and how form and meaning in clauses help to define text. (Schiffrin,1994)

Discourse Analysis is fun.

Discourse Analysis is fun

S1 : I really like my linguistics courses.

S2 : Oh I do too! Discourse Analysis is fun.

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