Novinda Pitoyo

“assignment 4”

♠DISCOURSE ANALYSIS♠

The scope of linguistic analysis itself soon broadened to include semantic studies, text linguistics, discourse analysis and all kinds of language studies that placed language in a social context and claimed, therefore, that language was a social phenomenon, an instrument of communication.

 Discourse Analysis is a term used to describe a range of research approaches that focus on the use of language.

 There are many different types of discourse analysis such as

v  conversation analysis,

v  discursive psychology,

v  critical discourse analysis, and

v  Foucauldian discourse analysis.

 A discourse is a set of meanings through which a group of people communicate about a particular topic. Discourse can be defined in a narrow or a broad sense and a narrow definition of discourse might refer only to spoken or written language. However, discourse analysis more often draws on a broader definition to include the shared ways in which people make sense of things within a given culture or context, including both language and language-based practices (i.e. the ways in which things are accomplished).

 Most forms of discourse analysis assume that discourse does not just describe an external reality, but rather that it is constructive of the world as we experience it.

 For example, if the main way in which we discuss dependant drinking relates to ‘the disease of alcoholism’, we are participating in the construction through language of a world in which ‘alcoholics’ deserve medical support and sympathy and are treated by doctors in buildings called hospitals.

On the other hand, if dependent drinkers are described in terms such as ‘feckless’, we are engaging with a moral discourse about drinking in which the problem of heavy drinking may appropriately be dealt with through moral education and enforcement.

 People cannot begin to think and speak about things in ways that are outside of the discourses available to us and therefore we are all seen as being subject to discourse. Within each discourse, there are certain subject positions available.

 Some (but not all) forms of discourse analysis have an explicit focus on the relationship between discourse and power, as dominant discourses define what is seen as truth within a given context.

Some examples of types of discourse analysis:

• Conversation analysis focuses on a fine grained analysis of the ways in which language is used, for example how people reply to a spoken invitations or the uses of a specific word or phrase. Some conversation analysis uses quantitative techniques. Conversation analysis does not usually pay attention to factors outside the text unless such factors are evident in the text – for example, if they are referred to by the speakers.

• Discursive psychology applies the notion of discourse to psychological topics such as memory and attitudes.

• Critical discourse analysis considers the social power implications of particular discourses with an explicit aim of challenging power imbalances.

• Foucauldian discourse analysis draws on the ideas of Foucault, often considering the development and changes of discourses over time. Foucauldian discourse analysis is generally concerned with the webs of power relationships that are enacted and constructed through discourse.