Discourse Analysis

Unit I: Contents
Discourse and discourse Analysis

Discourse, text, and conversation compared

What is Discourse Analysis? Historical overview :American discourse Analysis and British discourse analysis

Spoken and written Discourse. Discourse types

The role of context

Types of contexts : situational,background, co-textual; context of culture(genre) and context of situation
(register). Discourse processing:schemata, frames and scripts; bottom up and top down processing.
 Zellis Harris ‘Discourse Analysis’ the study and analysis of disourse
 What is ‘discourse’?
Its origins- Latin ‘discursus’ `conversation,speech; ‘running to and from’. In general, the
definitions of discourse fall into three main categories:
Linguistic definitions

 Discourse is anything beyond the sentences

What does it mean?
1. Beyond the sentence

That’s his

No man does

That is their tragady

All women become like

theirs mothers. That is their
tragedy.No man does .that`s
his.
The importance of being
Earnest by Oscar wilde
Pick up a handful of soil in your. Ordinary unexciting earth . Yet it is one nature`s
miracles,and one of her most complex products. Your success as a gardener will largely
(en gran parte) depend upon its condition , so take the first bold step in gardening – get
to know you soil.

Fertilizers put back what the rain and plants take away . Plastic pots are not just
substitutes for clay ones. Pears are a little more temperamental than apples . Supporting
and training are not quite the same thing.
2. Discourse is language in use
Non-linguistic definitions