DISCOURSE - TEXT - DISCOURSE ANALYSIS

The term Discourse analysis means different things to different people. Since 1952 when Zellig
Harris first used the term a number of trends have developed for the study of discourse based on
the proponents approach to this linguistic reality. For some scholars the term denotes a process,
for others, all forms of writing and speaking, still for others it denotes a particular unit of
communication.
Definitions of discourse
The functionalist approach: (focuses on the functions of discourse in communication)
1. Discourse is a process in which communication evolves as an interaction between the
participants.
2. Discourse is an interpersonal transaction in a linguistic act of communication which
includes two more planes the message and the text.
3. Discourse is language in the context in which it is used.
The formalist-structuralist approach: (focuses on the form and structure of discourse)
Discourse is a particular unit of language above the sentence or the clause.
Our working definition:
Discourse refers to an instance of communication in which a speaker/writer uses language
in connected utterances to exchange meanings and to achieve social and cultural goals in a
certain context.
These definitions show that discourse involves the action of encoding thoughts into words,
interaction, i.e. the participants process message by turns or take turns at talk, and transaction,
i.e. participants negotiate information and meaning of words.
Discourse versus text
Text: Text is the verbal record of an instance of communication; it is the product of a
communicative act.
Classification of discourse: one frequent criterion for the classification of discourse is the
domain in which it functions. According to it, we distinguish non-literary or pragmatic discourse
and literary discourse. The former class includes sub-classes such as economic, political,
administrative, legal, scientific and advertising.
DISCOURSE ANALYSIS
Studies:
1. the way people interact and produce discourse through interaction, i.e. how they make
sense of a stretch of language; how they put intentions into words; how they can adapt
their message to a context
2. the way texts are created as products, their sequential relationships, intersentential
structure and organization: coherence, cohesion, structure, i.e. discourse properties.
Specifically, it studies how sentences contribute to the overall message; how sentences are
related to one another
Teaches students how to process discourse/texts and to produce discourse/texts according to the
situation of communication
Gives knowledge of language in use by highlighting patterns of communicative practices in a
culture, by analyzing the elements of communicative situations and the interaction between the
text and the context.

GENRE ANALYSIS
Genre is a communicative event characterized by a set of communicative purposes understood
by the members of the professional community which uses it regularly. The major feature for a
text to count as a genre specimen is the communicative purpose, which determines and controls
the other major text components: content and form. Genres also incorporate elements of the
context: the addressees needs, expectations, purposes; characteristics of the place and time of
communication, professional communicative norms and conventions, which act as cultural and
institutional constraints.
Exercise
Characterize the given genres by identifying their peculiar features of context.
Discourse
Addressor Addressee Function Inter-texts Situation Paralanguage
Road signs
Transport Motorists Warn,
Other road roadside
Large letters,
ministry
inform
signs
drawings
Handout
Ad
Press release
Report
Travel leaflet
Letter
Prescription
Lecture
Speech
Interview
Inter-text: text which the participants perceive as belonging to other discourse type or, but which
they associate with the text under consideration and which affects their interpretation.
Paralanguage: choice of typeface and letter sizes (in writing); gestures, facial expressions, pitch
of voice (in speech).