Discourse Analysis

1. Discourse Analysis A discourse is behavioral unit. It is a set of utterances which constitute a

recognizable speech event e.g. a conversation, a joke, a sermon, an interview etc. In its historical and
etymological perspective the term is used in different perspectives e.g. Verbal communication. All this
fine talk. Direct / indirect speech. To chat. In order to narrow down the range of possible meanings, the
modern linguists have given different views or definitions. Example: Discourse is written as well as
spoken: every utterance assuming the a speaker and a hearer as discourse. (Benvenisle, 1971: 208-9) An
individualizable group of statements and sometimes as a regulated practice that counts for a number of
statements. (Foucault, 1972: 80) The specification with the term is that ‘discourse must be used with its
social purpose’ this is the main specification of discourse. The brief difference between discourse and
text, I think, will facilitate to better understand the term Discourse.

2. Difference between Discourse and Text Discourse Analysis focuses on the structure of naturally
spoken language as found in conversation interviews, commentaries and speeches. Text analysis focuses
on the structure of written language, as found in such text as essays, notices, road signs and chapters.
(Crystal. 1987) Some scholars talk about ‘spoken or written discourse’ other about ‘spoken or written
text’ (Crystal. 1987) It means discourse and text can be used almost synonymously. But a distinction is
always there and that in discourse has some social purpose while text fulfills the function of
communication of some meaning only. As suggested by Michel Stubbs (1983) who treats text and
discourse as more or less synonymous. Hawthorn (1992) says text may be non-interactive where as a
discourse is interactive. Means to say text is non-interactive that’s it only fulfils the function of
conveying some meaning. But discourse is always involved in two ways responses in some formal or
informal conversation and dialogues etc. Hawthorn (1992) further says ‘discourse is a linguistic
communication seen as a transaction between speaker and hearer. While text is also a linguistics
communication (either spoken or written) seen simply as a message coded in its auditory or visual
medium’

3. To conclude we can say discourse and text have something in common as both use the medium of
language whether in sign language. Both have some meaning that they try to convey. But text has a
limited scope as compare with discourse. In other words we can say discourse is somewhat broad
category in the system of language. And text deals with the written from of language. Discourse has
different form as Discourse of Advertising, Discourse of Racism, Discourse of Medical etc. But text has no
such forms. Discourse can be found with in text. And not vice versa. Text has its maximum interpretation
in its ownself but discourse has a lot of things above the language level. Discourse analysis Discourse
analysis is an attempt to discover linguistic regularities in discourse using grammatical, phonological and
semantic criteria e.g. cohesion, anaphora, inter sentence connectivity etc. It is an effort to interpreter
what the writer or speaker intended to convey with in a sensitive social context. Example: Father: Is that
your coat on the floor again? Son: yes (goes on reading) Here in the above example Discourse Analysis
says that the answer of the son is not clear one. It shows the exploitation of ambiguity about father’s
command to pick up his coat. Rather the son deals his father’s command as a simple content question
which can be answered in yes /no.
4. Discourse Analysis is a process in which the reader and listener’s
mind is working up on the linguistic features of the utterance to grasp
the intended meaning of the writer or speaker. Even if the utterances
or sentences are ungrammatical the Discourse Analysis makes us grasp
the intended meaning. Example: My natal was in a small town, very
close to Riyadh capital of Saudi Arabia. The distance between my town
and Riadh 7 miles exactly. The name of this Almasani that means in
English factories. It takes its name from the people carrer. In childhood
I remember the people live. It was very simple most the people was
farmer. The above paragraph is full of grammatical mistakes since by
Discourse Analysis of this text we can grasp mostly what are the
informations the writer wants to communicate. Discourse concerns
with communication so Discourse Analysis gives us the interpretation of
the communicated commodity. Devices for Discourse Analysis We use
different tools for Discourse Analysis. Some of them are as under:
(i)Cohesion Cohesion refers to the ties and connections which exist
within texts that link different parts of sentences or larger unit of
discourse.

5. Cohesive Devices (a)Anaphoric Relation Interpretation of text from

some previously expressed idea entity. Example: He did that there.
Every word has some anaphoric reference with which interpretation
could not be made. (b) Cataphoric Relation It means referring forward.
It refers the identity what is being expressed and what is to be
expressed. Example: Here is the 9, O Clock news. By using these
relation and links we can better interpret and analyzed discourse.
(2)Coherence The language users try to come to an interpretation in
the scenario of knowledge of the world they posses. Coherence is not
something which exists in the language but something which exists in
people. By using coherence the reader arums semantic unity the
paragraph