Discourse Analysis - An Introduction.pptx
- 2. Introduction * The earlier approaches to the study of language were formalistic. -Linguists focused on the study of the structure or form of language such as grammar, phonology, morphology rather than on its use or functions. -de Saussure:linguists should focus on the investigation of langue rather than parole.
- 3. * Functionalism is closely associated with the Prague School of linguistics. -Functional Linguists recognized the diversity of the functions of language and argued that the structure of language is largely determined by the functions it performs. -Discourse analysis is a functional approach to language study.
- 4. WHAT IS DISCOURSE ANALYSIS ? Discourse analysis study the ways sentences and utterances (speech) go together to make texts and interactions and how those texts and interactions fit into our social world. It should be noticed also that discourse analysis is not just the study of language, but a way of looking at language as well.
- 5. * Example: 'And only one for birthday presents, you know. There's glory for you!' 'I don't know what you mean by "glory",' Alice said. Humpty Dumpty smiled contemptuously. 'Of course you don't — till I tell you. I meant "there's a nice knock-down argument for you!"' 'But "glory" doesn't mean "a nice knock-down argument",' Alice objected. 'When I use a word,' Humpty Dumpty said, in rather a scornful tone, 'it means just what I choose it to mean — neither more nor less.’ 'The question is,' said Alice, 'whether you can make words mean so many different things.' 'The question is,' said Humpty Dumpty, 'which is to be master — that's all.' Through the Looking Glass, Lewis Carroll
- 6. This way of looking at language is based on four main assumptions: 1) Language is ambiguous. What things mean is never absolutely clear. 2) Language is always ‘in the world’. That is, what language means is always a matter of where and when it is used. 3) The way we use language is inseparable from who we are and The different social groups to which we belong. 4) Language is never used all by itself. It is always combined with other things such as our tone of voice, facial expressions and gestures when we speak, and the fonts, layout and graphics we use in written texts.
- 7. - different disciplines such as sociology, psychology, anthropology, sociology and linguistics among others engage in the study of discourse. - Linguistically, the term discourse has been described as language above or beyond the sentence which could be in spoken or written forms (Cutting, 2002; Yule, 2010)
- 8. Brown and Yule (2003: 1) define discourse simply as ‘language in use.’ - This definition suggests that language takes many forms, which are shaped by the context in which they are used. - Context in this sense refers to the topic, participants, purpose/function, activity type, time and place in which language is used.
- 9. - Leeuwen (2005) for example describes discourse as the use of language and all other semiotic modes such as gesture, facial expression and other forms of visual communication deployed for perception and expression of reality. - Discourse according to Hamilton and Schiffrin (2015) refer to a broad conglomeration of linguistic and non-linguistic social practices and ideological assumptions that together construct or reinforce power or identity among others.
- 10. What is Discourse Analysis? * Discourse analysis involves studying and analyzing the uses of language (Brown & Yule, 1983). * Discourse analysis is the study of different patterns that people’s utterances follow when they take part in different domains of social life (Jorgensen and Philips, 2002). * McCarthy (1991) explains discourse analysis to be concerned with the study of language and the contexts in which it is used. * Gee (1999) notes that discourse analysis consider how language, both spoken and written, enacts social and cultural perspectives and identities.
- 11. Approaches to Discourse Analysis: 1) The formal linguistic discourse analysis: It involves a structured analysis of text in order to find general underlying rules of linguistic or communicative function behind the text. 2) Conversation discourse analysis: The study of "talk-in-interaction“ and genre analysis (the study of recurrent patterns, or genres of language that share similar structure and context-such as case report or scientific article). 3) Critical discourse analysis: It is used by researchers in cultural studies, sociology, and philosophy to encompass an even wider sphere that includes all of the social practices, individuals, and institutions that make it possible or legitimate to understand phenomena in a particular way, and to make certain statements about what is "true".
- 12. Discourse and ideology. Ideology: It is a specific set of beliefs and assumptions that people have about things like what is good and bad, what is right and wrong, and what is normal and abnormal. How text promote ideology? We Will focus on four things: 1)The ways authors create ’versions Of reality’ based on their choice of words and how they combine words together. 2) The ways authors construct certain kinds of relationships between themselves and their readers. 3)The ways authors appropriate the words of other people and how they represent those words. 4)The ways authors of texts draw upon and reinforce the larger systems of belief and knowledge that govern what counts as right or wrong, good or bad, and normal or abnormal in a particular society.
- 13. Who Doing What The Linguist Michael Halliday(1994) Pointed out that whenever we use language we are always doing three things at once: 1) We are in some way representing the world, called ideational function of language. 2) We are creating, ratifying or negotiating our relationships with the people with whom we are communicating, called the interpersonal function of language. 3) We are joining sentences and ideas together in particular ways to form cohesive and coherent texts, called the textual function of language. All Of these functions play a role in the way a text promotes a particular ideology or worldview.