Applied Linguistics
Presented by : Ayesha Khan
Presented to : Dr Samina Sarwat
Discourse Analysis
Define
A discourse is a set of meanings by which a group of people
communicate about particular topics. Discourse explained as a verbal
or text language.
The Longman Dictionary of Language Teaching and Applied
Linguistics defines discourse as a general term for a language that
produces as the result of an act of communication.
Discourse analysis is the analysis of language in its social context.
Common Features
Discourse is more than just language use
The analysis of discourse is the analysis of language in use
Language as an instrument of communication, whose expression is
discourse.
Example
I am not feeling well. ( Linguistic meaning) locutionary
I want to take rest now. ( Intention) illocutionary
Sir you may take the class next week. (Effect ) Perlocutionary
Origin of DA
The term discourse analysis was first introduced by Zellig Harris in
1952.
Harris had two main interest
The examination of language beyond the level of the sentence.
The relationship between linguistic and non linguistic behaviour.
Spoken Discourse
Spoken discourse is an interactive speech between two or more
people, which is a broad-based language phenomenon in daily life.
Spoken language was seen as formless and ungrammatical and
written language as highly structured and organized. Beattie (1983)
wrote: ‘Spontaneous speech is unlike written text. It contains many
mistakes, sentences are unusually brief.
Example
Spoken language as found in conversation, interview, commentaries
and speeches.
Written Discourse
Written discourse is to share ideas. Sometimes, discourse writers
have additional goals, like informing, persuading, or evoking empathy
in their readers.
Academic texts are usually written in a detached and formal style.
These are genres of written discourse biographies, autobiographies,
eulogies, lectures, short stories, essays.
Types Of Discourse
Narration
Description
Exposition
Argumentation
Approaches to Discourse Analysis
Social : Conversational Analysis
Conversation analysis is concerned with the detailed organization of
everyday interaction;. Conversation Analysis mainly focus on
[Link] conversation analysis the basic unit of speech is turn
taking. It focuses on large-scale categories of class, gender, age
groups and so on.
Turn Taking
A turn is each occasion that a speaker speaks and a turn ends when
another speaker takes a turn. This is based on social interaction in
the first place rather than on any phonological, lexico-grammatical or
semantic considerations.
Sociolinguistic Approaches
Anthropological linguistics and sociolinguistics are concerned with
studying not the isolated sentence but how language creates
effective communication in the contexts of everyday life.
Ethnography
Ethnographic approaches to conversation have been led by Hymes
and are concerned with ‘the situation and uses, the patterns and
functions, of speaking as an activity in its own right’.
Variation Theory
Discourse and Text
Mitchell ( 1957 ) was one of the first researchers to examine the
discourse structure of texts.
A text is necessarily non-interactive while discourse is necessarily
interactive. Therefore, a text does not necessarily indicate an agent
whereas the agent is a crucial element in a discourse. This is the
main difference between text and discourse
