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Discourse Analysis: Contextual Use Of Language

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1.4: An Introduction to Discourse Analysis:

Defining discourse depends on the subject area and the contextual use of language. Definition of discourse and discourse analysis depends on the epistemological stance of the theorist. It is used in different disciplines, in different ways, with different contents or the meanings of the concept. Discourse studies both the text and the context. Discourse analysis is essentially multidisciplinary. It involves linguistics, poetics, semiotics, psychology, sociology, anthropology, history, and communication research. Discourse analysts study language in use in relation to social, political and cultural aspects.
The term ‘Discourse’ is wide spread. Discourse is language and therefore discourse analysis …show more content…

We conclude from this that with the sentence we leave the domain of language as a system of signs and enter into another universe, that of language as an instrument of communication, whose expression is discourse.” (Benveniste, Problems in General Linguistics 110)
Emile Benveniste studies the language system. According to him a sentence plays a vital role in human speech. As written by Emile it is ‘the life’ of human speech in action. He is of the point that a sentence is a system of signs which helps the speaker or the hearer to enter into another universe. So in communication language is used as an instrument and its expression is discourse.
Emile …show more content…

He treats discourse as the general domain of all statements. This part of the definition gives broad idea and understanding of discourse. It means all utterances or texts which have meaning and which have some other effects in the real world, count as discourse. In the second part of the definition “as an individualizable group of statements” Foucault discusses about the particular structure within the discourse. Foucault’s definition of discourse contains layers of meanings as it also talks about the discourse of femininity, the discourse of imperialism and so on. In the third part of the definition Foucault is less interested in the actual utterances or texts that are produced than in the rules and structures which produce particular utterances and texts.
There are six tradition of discourse analysis in literature. They are: Conversation analysis, interactional sociolinguistics, discursive psychology, critical discourse analysis, Bakhtinian discourse analysis, and Foucauldian discourse

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