ALX5370

Discourse analysis

This unit is about discourse, that is, spoken or written texts that consist of at least two sequential sentences, and usually many more. For the time being, we will use the terms discourse and text interchangeably. The sequence of sentences that constitute a text typically have at least one coherent theme. The notions of 'coherence' and 'theme' need to be investigated, but to get started, we rely on a common sense interpretation. In principle, any text at all is grist to our mill: conversations at the bus-stop or on the telephone, political discussions, formal lectures, office memos, plays by Shakespeare, this text you are reading. The subject matter is vast, and we shall have to be selective, both in the choice of data, and in the detail with which we can examine it. We will not be studying literary or stylistic merit; we are not concerned with the esthetics of texts. Our purpose is to review discourse structure, and theories of discourse structure, to explicate (ie explain and analyse) what the speaker or writer presupposes and then actually does in order to make their words meaningful to their audience and thus to get their message, or story, across.

Back to the 1999 Distance Education Handbook