Understanding Discourse Analysis

Understanding Discourse Analysis provides students with an accessible and well-illustrated introduction to discourse analysis. Explaining the main terminology and frameworks and presenting key findings of discourse studies, this book:

• Explores the development of discourse analysis
• Covers four key approaches to analysing discourse
• Uses authentic spoken or written texts in all examples
• Features data from the Wellington Language in the Workplace Project database
• Includes examples from a wide range of languages from around the world, such as Chilean Spanish, Korean and Serbo-Croatian

Written by an active researcher, this textbook is a fascinating and engaging introduction to discourse analysis and is ideal for students studying this topic for the first time.

1. Definitions
1.1.1 What is discourse?
1.1.2 What is discourse analysis?


2. What are some of the dimensions of discourse that may be explored?
1.2.1 Vocabulary
1.2.2 Syntax
1.2.3 Turn-taking
1.2.4 Summary
1.3 What are some of the things we do when we communicate?
1.3.1 What are some transactional or practical goals?
1.3.2 What about relational goals?
1.4 Language and identity
1.5 Outline of the rest of the book
Chapter summary
Further reading
Exercises
Notes on exercises
2 The foundations of Discourse Analysis
Introduction
2.1 The birth of discourse analysis
2.2 Speech Act Theory
2.2.1 What is Speech Act Theory?
2.2.2 Searle's taxonomy of speech acts
2.2.3 Why is Speech Act Theory useful?
2.3 Grice's cooperative principle, implicature and conversational maxims
2.3.1 Grice's cooperative principle and implicature
2.3.2 Grice's maxims of conversation
2.3.3 Why was Grice's work important?
2.4 Hymes' Ethnography of Communication, SPEAKING model
2.4.1 Hymes and the Ethnography of Communication
2.4.2 The SPEAKING model
2.4.3 The importance of Hymes' work
2.5 Leech's politeness theory
2.5.1 Leech's approach to politeness
2.5.2 Leech's maxims
2.5.3 The importance of Leech's work
2.6 Brown and Levinson's politeness theory
2.6.1 Brown and Levinson's approach to politeness
2.6.2 Key concept: Face
2.6.3 Threats to face
2.6.4 Politeness strategies
2.6.5 The importance of Brown and Levinson's theory
Chapter summary
Further reading
Exercises
Notes on exercises
Part II. Some key approaches to analysing discourse
3 Corpus Approaches to Discourse Analysis
Introduction
3.1 The origins and development of Corpus Approaches to Discourse Analysis
3.2 Introducing Corpus Approaches to Discourse Analysis
3.2.1 Some basic terms and concepts
3.2.2 Utilising corpora in discourse analysis research
3.3 Exploring words and phrases
3.3.1 Basic searches and exploring frequencies
3.3.2 Keywords and exploring distinctiveness
3.3.3 The use of phrases and formulaic language
3.3.4 Collocations and exploring words that frequently occur close to each other
3.3.5 Concordance lines and exploring the immediate discourse context further
3.3.6 Summary
3.4 Beyond words and phrases
3.5 Why take a Corpus Approach to Discourse Analysis?
Chapter summary
Further reading
Exercises
Notes on exercises
4 Conversation Analysis
Introduction
4.1 The origins and development of Conversation Analysis
4.2 What are some key concepts in Conversation Analysis?
4.2.1 Action and sequence
4.2.2 Turn-taking
4.2.3 Adjacency pairs
4.2.4 Sequence organisation
4.2.5 Preference
4.2.6 Repair
4.2.7 Summary
4.3 Beyond 'conversation': Institutional settings
4.3.1 Medical settings
4.3.2 Legal settings
4.3.3 Media settings
4.3.4 Summary
4.4 New mediums of communication
Chapter summary
Further reading
Exercises
Notes on exercises
5 Interactional Sociolinguistics
Introduction
5.1 The origins and development of Interactional Sociolinguistics
5.2 What are some key concepts in Interactional Sociolinguistics?
5.2.1 Contextualisation cues
5.2.2 Conversational inference
5.2.3 Framing
5.2.4 Norms and conversational style
5.2.5 Indexicality and stance
5.2.6 Summary
5.3 Some key topics in Interactional Sociolinguistics
5.3.1 The use of discourse strategies
5.3.2 The construction of routine encounters
5.3.3 The discursive creation of relationships
5.3.4 Identity
5.3.5 Summary
Chapter summary
Further reading
Exercises
Notes on exercises
6 Critical Discourse Studies
Introduction
6.1 The origins and development of Critical Discourse Studies
6.2 What are some key concepts in Critical Discourse Studies?
6.2.1 Power
6.2.2 Ideologies
6.2.3 What about the critical aspect of Critical Discourse Studies?
6.2.4 History
6.2.5 Summary
6.3 Key domains in Critical Discourse Studies
6.3.1 Political discourse
6.3.2 Media discourse
6.3.3 Summary
6.4 Types of analysis and methodologies in Critical Discourse Studies
6.4.1 Corpus linguistics and Critical Discourse Studies
6.4.2 Multimodal analysis in Critical Discourse Studies
Chapter summary
Further reading
Exercises
Notes on exercises
Part III. Conclusions and applications
7 Key approaches and applications
Introduction
7.1 Comparison of approaches
7.1.1 Types of data explored
7.1.2 Analytic approaches and methods
7.1.3 Issues explored
7.1.4 Summary
7.2 Applications of Discourse Analysis
7.2.1 Applied Conversation Analysis
7.2.2 Applications within Interactional Sociolinguistics
7.2.3 Applications and Critical Discourse Studies
7.2.4 Applying discourse analysis
Chapter summary
Further reading
Index
References