Linguistics Discourse Analysis
Discourse analysis in the field of linguistics is distinguished from discourse analysis in the humanities and social sciences. In linguistics, discourse analysis is concerned with the application of language rather than the formal elements of language. Discourse can be understood as language in action, such as how it takes place during a conversation.
-
Context
-
Linguistic discourse analysis considers the context in which discourse takes place and the ways various social environments affect language. Depending on the social context, varying linguistic conventions are considered appropriate. Discourse analysts consider how these contexts determine the way language is used.
Conversation
-
Discourse analysts are interested in the rules of conversation. When people converse, they are referred to as "interlocutors." Linguists are interested in how interlocutors progress through a conversation, taking turns as they speak and using certain sounds or intonations to indicate what they are thinking or to invite the other interlocutor to speak.
-
Textual Linguistics
-
Some discourse analysts focus on how texts operate. These analysts are concerned with issues such as the forms and genres of different texts; the texts' coherence and cohesion; the author and audience; and how texts function in larger social situations.
Language Games
-
Discourse analysts are interested in how the rules that govern language can alter. They draw heavily on the works of the German philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein, who pointed out that the meaning of a word is governed by how it is being used rather than by any kind of stable semantic meaning, and that as people communicate, they make up new rules for how to appropriately use language and revise or reject old ones.
Speech Acts
-
Speech acts are linguistic utterances that effect actions when spoken in a given situation. They were originally proposed by philosopher J. L. Austen. A common example of a speech act is when a priest says, "I now pronounce you man and wife" in a marriage ceremony and thereby enacts a marriage contract. Likewise, when I say the words "I promise" and mean them, I am enacting an agreement and I am at least informally bound to it.
-
