Discourse analysis
Discourse analysis is a research method focused on the study of language beyond the sentence level, examining how oral or written statements interact with their social, cultural, and linguistic contexts. This approach analyzes the nuances of communication by considering the intentions of both the speaker and the listener, as well as the broader implications of language use. Originating from the work of linguist Zellig Harris in 1952 and evolving through the 1970s, discourse analysis has become an interdisciplinary method that bridges linguistics with fields such as psychology, sociology, and anthropology.
While traditional linguistic analysis concentrates on aspects like phonetics and syntax, discourse analysis looks at how meaning is constructed and transformed in various communication forms. It encompasses diverse sub-disciplines, including conversation analysis, critical discourse analysis, and Foucauldian discourse analysis, each with unique perspectives on language's role in shaping social realities. These schools of thought collectively acknowledge that language functions as a form of action, influencing how individuals experience and interpret their worlds rather than merely conveying information. This makes discourse analysis a valuable tool for understanding complex social dynamics and power structures through language.
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Subject Terms
Discourse analysis
The term discourse analysisis often defined simply as the study of language “beyond the sentence.” It is a way of methodically examining the details of an oral or written statement longer than a single sentence, considering the creator of the utterance, the recipient, and its linguistic and social contexts. Unlike linguistic analysis, which focuses on such things as phonetics, morphology, semantics, and syntax, discourse analysis focuses on larger works of language and on what is achieved through them. Discourse analysts are not concerned with literal meanings or language as merely a means of transferring information; they are interested in how meaning is made and how meanings are altered by situations.
Overview
First described by Russian-American linguist Zellig Harris in 1952, discourse analysis developed into a research method in the 1970s, and in the decades since it has become a multidisciplinary approach that has expanded to include not only linguistics, semiotics, and poetics, but also fields such as psychology, sociology, and anthropology. Because discourse analysis is concerned with the social, political, and cultural dimensions of language, it is a method that researchers within the social sciences, the humanities, and the natural sciences have found useful.
Given the wide range of disciplines from which scholars engage in discourse analysis, it is not surprising that various schools and sub-schools have developed with diverse definitions of key terms and different discourse traditions. Differences exist on issues as fundamental as what constitutes discourse and whether “talk” refers to spoken communication and “text” to written communication or whether “talk” and “text” each encompasses both modes of communication. The latter view is the more widely accepted within contemporary discourse analysis. A written text such as a novel may include talk, and text may refer to a conversation, an editorial, an interview, an advertisement, or any one of countless other utterances, both spoken and written.
Some of the most popular types of discourse analysis include conversation analysis, discursive psychology, critical discourse analysis, and Foucauldian discourse analysis, each of with has its own theories and methods. Conversation analysis focuses on talk ranging from family dinner conversation to classroom discussions to courtroom trials, but in each case the focus is on how conversation makes things happen. Discursive psychology analyzes discourse in order to understand the underlying motives, attitudes, and morals, viewing talk as a means of achieving goals within social contexts. Critical discourse analysis examines social power as it is executed, replicated, and opposed in text and talk, with the goal of resisting social inequality. Foucauldian discourse analysis, shaped by the ideas of Michel Foucault, a French historian and philosopher, is concerned with the network of power relationships that are created and authorized through discourse.
Despite the differences in these and other schools of discourse analysis, they share an interest in the ways meaning is shaped in speech acts. They also have in common a view of language as action. Language is not just about things; it also does things. Discourse does not merely describe an external reality, but rather it fashions the world as the speaker/writer experiences it.
Bibliography
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Gee, James Paul. An Introduction to Discourse Analysis: Theory and Method, 4th ed. Routledge, 2014.
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