DISCOURSE AND PRAGMATICS

LECTURE 2

DISCOURSE ANALYSIS :
ITS ORIGINS AND DEVELOPMENT
 OUTLINE OF THE LECTURE
1. Definition of terms
2. The starting point of discourse
analysis
3. Factors influencing discourse
analysis
4. Spoken language analysis
(overview)
5. Written language analysis
(overview)
DEFINITION OF TERMS: DISCOURSE

 Written or spoken communication or

debate.
 In linguistics, a unit of language
longer than a single sentence.
 More broadly, the use of spoken or
written language in a social context.
DEFINITION OF TERMS: PRAGMATICS

A branch of linguistics concerned

with the use of language in social
contexts and the ways in which
people produce and comprehend
meanings through language.
 Studies on the ways in which context
contributes to meaning.
PRAGMATICS… CONTINUED

 Pragmatics encompasses speech act

theory, conversational implicature,
talk in interaction and other
approaches to language behavior in
philosophy, sociology, and
linguistics.
DEFINITION: DISCOURSE ANALYSIS

 The study of the ways in which

language is used in texts and
contexts.
 A general term for a number of
approaches to analyzing written,
spoken, signed language use or any
significant semiotic event.
 What is discourse analysis?

Discourse analysis : a linguistic

study examining the use of language
by its native population whose major
concern is investigating language
functions along with its forms,
produced both orally and in writing.
 The objects of discourse analysis—
discourse, writing, talk,
conversation, communicative event,
etc.—are variously defined in terms
of coherent sequences of sentences,
propositions, speech acts or turns-at-
talk.
 analyze 'naturally occurring'
language use, and not invented
examples.
 It also include:
CA- Conversation Analysis:
 In sociolinguistics, the study of the
talk produced in ordinary human
interactions.
 Involves both verbal and non verbal
in situations of everyday life.
What are the domains of discourse
analysis?

 Identification of linguistic qualities

of various genres

 Cultural aspects

 Social aspects
Carter 1993:
It’s a branch of applied
linguistics, dealing with the
examination of discourse,
attempts to find patterns in
communicative products as well
as their correlation with the
circumstances in which they
occur, which are not explainable
at the grammatical level.
 THE STARTING POINT OF
DISCOURSE ANALYSIS

The first modern

linguist who
studies on the
relation of
sentences and
coined the name
‘discourse analysis’
was Zellig Harris
(1909-1992).
 FACTORS INFLUENCING DISCOURSE
ANALYSIS

 The emergence of discourse analysis

is a result form these research areas:
 Linguistic - the study of the nature,
structure and variation of language:
phonetics, phonology and
morphology
 Sociology - the study of society
 Psychology - the study of mental
processes and behaviour
 Anthropology - the scientific study of
the origin, the behavior, and the
physical, social, and cultural
development of humans

 Psychotherapy - is a set of
techniques believed to cure or to help
solve behavioral and other
psychological problems in humans
 In1960s and 1970s, other scholars:
dealing with pragmatics -
enormously influenced the dev. of
this study

 Othercontributors: the Prague

School of Linguists – focusing on
organization of information in
communicative products indicated
the connection of grammar and
discourse.
A significant contribution to the evolution
of discourse analysis: made by British
and American scholars.

 InBritain: the examination of discourse

turns to- the social functions of language
in various situations – debates,
interviews, doctor-patient relations,
paying close attention to the intonation of
people participating in talks as well as
manners particular to circumstances
 In America: the focus is on
examining small communities of
people and their discourse in
genuine circumstances
- they also focus on:
i) conversation analysis: inspecting
narratives in addition to talks
ii) behaviour of speakers
iii)patterns repeating in given
situations
Other contributions of American
scholars:
- Divisions and specifications of
types of discourse and
- Social limitations of politeness