Discourse Analysis

The analysis of written text, spoken language, or signed language to reveal the discourses within it or the linguistic and rhetorical devices involved in its construction. This is a broad term for an analysis technique that is used by social scientists in a variety of disciplines such as linguistics, anthro pology, social psychology, cognitive psychology, sociology, international relations, communication studies, and translation studies. Given this variety, it is not uncommon to find a diversity of interests among dis course analysts, such as gestures, sounds, turn taking, and relations between discourse and power. Definitions of what is a discourse also abound. A simple definition is that a discourse can be a verbal exchange between people, or it can be the system set of images and meta phors used to construct an object or idea. Thus, there is a wide variety of opinions among scholars as to what a “discourse” is and what “discourse analysis” entails. Some notable discourse analysts include Harvey Sachs, Emmanuel Schegloff, Gail Jefferson, and Michel Foucault.

One of the most common uses of discourse analysis is by postmodernist and poststructuralist theorists. The postmodern and poststructuralist view of a discourse largely rests on a connection to power and knowledge. These theorists question how the discourse is produced, how it functions, who controls the discourse, what its social effects are, and what is allowed or not allowed in the discourse. Some key authors who wrote methodological texts about using discourse analysis include Malcolm Coulthard, Norm Fairclough, and James Paul Gee. For more information, see Bove (1990), Burr (2003), Butler (1992), Childs and Williams (1997), Crotty (1998), Foucault (1978), and St. Pierre (2000).