What is discourse

In linguistics, discourse refers usually to the study of speech patterns and the usage of language etc. To understand the speech patterns one need to be clear about the term 'discourse' and 'text'. Discourse, put simply, is structured collections of meaningful texts (Parker, 1992). A text is a part of the process of discourse. It is the product of any communication by writer/speaker. A text consists of cues for interpretation processes and traces of production processes. As Fairclough (1989) says this process includes in addition to the text the process of production, of which the text is a product, and the process of interpretation, for which the text is a resource.

In this essay, we will make a reflection about what is discourse analyzes and its many different definitions and approaches. Discourse is such a disputed concept that it may sound an attitude of hybris that a simple Ph.D. student write a text with such title. One day, in an academic event at USP, when we were beginning our graduation, we heard from the most brilliant Brazilian discourse analyst two things. This linguist and discourse analyst is Professor José Luis Fiorin, who also lived in a socialist country, in Romania, as a lecturer, like we lived in China, and ten years later after coming back from Romania, he published a book about the concept of enunciation, that, if it had been written in English, it would be one of the most important book of the world about the concept of enunciation. It was written based on Émile Benveniste theory of enunciation, Greimas's semiotics and Van Dijk theory of discourse. That is, he was able to transcend all the barriers and do a remarkable work. He also quoted examples from Brazilian literature in order to present the effects of the three categories of enunciation, doing an herculean job. Nevertheless, let us come back to his discourse at the event. He said that discourse is very difficult and that the bibliographic field is a complex area, because it has such a multitude of theories, with different names referring to the same phenomenon, which makes the student of this topic feel frequently lost. In this context, let us start this text by the dictionary definition of discourse. According to the Macmillan Dictionary, discourse is an uncountable name. Second, discourse is defined as "linguistics written or spoken language, especially when it is studied in order of how people use language". So, from the point of view of the lexicologist of this dictionary, discourse is part of linguistics and it is this area of linguistics that study the language in use. Here at USP, the linguists that work with the other levels of analyzes of the language usually say that discourse is the icing on the cake of linguistics.

Discourse in English Language Education, 2012

Discourse in English Language Education 'Discourse in English Language Education provides a solid introduction to the major concepts and issues in discourse analysis and its applications in language teaching and learning. Examples of realworld discourse in diverse international settings help to make the concepts and theories accessible. This text will be an important resource for advanced undergraduates and postgraduates in applied linguistics, language education, and TESOL. '

Discourse Studies, 2009

The paper describes the basics of dynamics between language and discourse. A large part of the work is centered on explaining the display of discourse in both speech and writing.

Working with Written Discourse, 2014

Discourse is language 'above the sentence'. 2. Discourse is language 'in use'. 3. Discourse is a form of social practice in which language plays a central role.

2001

This manual has been written as an introduction to discourse analysis for future linguistic field workers. We believe that the most effective way for most people to learn how discourse works in a particular language is by interacting with discourse principles while analyzing ...

Foucault presents possibly the best definition of discourse. He says, "Systems of thoughts composed of ideas, attitudes, and courses of action, beliefs and practices that systematically construct the subjects and the worlds of which they speak." Originally it has roots in the Latin language. The term assumes slightly different meanings in different contexts but in literature discourse means speech or writing normally longer than sentences which deals with a certain subject formally in the form of writing or speech. In other words, discourse is the presentation of language in its entirety while performing an intellectual inquiry in a particular area or field i.e. theological discourse or cultural discourse

A SUMMARY OF A SECOND CHAPTER FROM THE BOOK “DISCOURSE ANALYSIS FOR LANGUAGE TEACHERS” By McCarthy, M (1991) Analyzed and Summarized by AHMAD S. HALAHALA, 2024

This paper discusses on the familiar terms which are common in Language teaching such as clause, pronoun, adverbial, conjunction, and so on are used in the familiar way found in chapter two of the book Discourse Analysis for Language Teachers. An attempt was done to relate them to a probably less familiar set of terms such as theme, rheme, reference, anaphoric and so on, in order to make the link between grammar and discourse. The importance of grammar in language teaching shall not be undermined and thus on the contrary, this chapter takes as a basic premise that without a command of the rich and variable resources of the grammar offered by a language such as English, the construction of natural and sophisticated discourse is impossible.