PRINCIPAL SUMMARY of Discourse Analysis by LAB
Main authors Ideas
Interactional
Sociolinguistics
Based on relationships
between language,
culture and society and
has its roots in
Anthropology, Sociology
and Linguistics.
It´s multidisciplinary.
Language, context and
the interaction of self
and other.
Discourse is a social
interaction.
Situational meaning
-Brown and Levison´s
Politeness (On/Off
record)
Conversational
Analysis
-originated in Sociology
-interaction is structurally
organized (patterns)
-CA explores sequential
structures of social
activities
Variation Analysis
-based solely on
Linguistics
Ideas
John Gumperz -Essay: Discourse Strategies
-real time processes in face to
face interactions
-cognition and language are
affected by social and cultural
forces
-contextualization cues: any
feature of language that
contributes to signaling
contextual
presuppositions:(intonation,
prosodic choices, conversational code
switching, lexical or syntactic choices,
accent, style switching and
facial/gestural signs). They function
indexically but are not lexical
based. Problems arise when
people don´t recognize them…..
Harold Ethnomethodology:
Garfinkel knowledge is neither
autonomous nor
decontextualized, avoids
idealization, categories
continuously adjusted
William Labov - Orderly heterogeneity
-probability theory
-materialistic approach
-constraint: overall structure
restrains its parts
-vernacular: variety acquired in pre-
adolescent years, spoken when not
paying attention to they way they
speak.
Observer´s Paradox: how to observe
vernacular if they only use it w/
people of own variety? Use
sociolinguistic interviews where they
narrative personal events.
Irving -physical co presence
Goffman -interaction order (setting,
form, conduct)
-FACE (positive social value a
person has claimed for himself by the
line other s assume he has taken
through a particular
context),FRAME (way which social
actors organize their experiences in
terms of recognizable activities-
people use them to structure
experience), FOOTING (shifting
alignments in relation to the events at
hand: figure, principal, author,
animator).
-Theory of Politeness is
based on Goffman´s idea of
face.
-Adjacent pairs and turn taking
(TPR)
-preference organization
(preferred and dispreferred of
response)
repair (self or other initiated)
pre-sequences (summons, pre-
invitation, pre-closing, pre-
request
overall organization (opening,
main body, closing and topic
slots).
Insertion sequence (question
within a question)
-backchannels (well, um, yeah)
they show the listener is paying
attention.
- Concerned with the variation
and changes observed along
different speech communities
(group of people that share the
same norms and expectations
regarding the use of language).
-focus on different types of
analysis
-differences among text types
Narrative Analysis Labov and -based on VA -Based on narrative clauses
Waletzky -studied Afro-American (temporally ordered)
vernacular: -Structure of a narrative:
Vernacular: variety acquired abstract-orientation-complicating
in pre-adolescence and only used action-evaluation-resolution-coda
when not paying attention to -reportability
their language -Narratives are important in
constructing identity.

Functional -Danes -analyses in function of the Communicative dynamism:

Sentence (Communicative info they contain rates levels of contribution to
Perspective dynamism) -thematic structure (theme, development of the
communication. (theme and
-language as social -Mathesius rheme). Themes can be rheme) Firbas
interaction -Firbas absolute (not connected Themes (Speaker orientated,
-based on the (Functional syntactically to the clause) their point of departure) can be
Linguistic School of Sentence or dislocated (right or left) experiential (subject, verb,
complement….=topic) or non
Prague Perspective) or multiple. experiential (interpersonal:
-speakers have a Thematizing: linear vocatives, markers of attention
communicative organization of sentences and stance) or textual:
purpose and texts (staging, more connectors)
general) Information structure:
End focus: Info focus goes from Given
New (obligatory)and Given
to New. Focus usually falls on last
lexical item of clause (optional, retrievable by
hearer)
Post Structuralist -Foucault -shares some ideas -reality is
Theory (discourse and power. w/Structuralism but stands fragmented/diverse/culture
-The world of material
Discourse cannot be studied specific. Local contextualization is
objectively) against “absolutism” and important.
objects and social space -Bakhtin (language
are discursive in nature their “totalizing” ideas. -symbolic capital: you have
is dialogic.
-The meaning of texts
Heteroglossic and
-there is nothing outside power if you control discourse
vary according to the the text (all meaning is Habitus: individual differences
speech genres)
reader´s identity relating to practical linguistic
-Relativism underlies all/ -Bourdieu textual and intertextual). competence. Players who put
truth/rationality crisis (symbolic capital, Texts exist in relation to
habitus and bodily language to use. Learn through
-reality is mediated by
ideology and cultural hexis) others. trail and error.
codes Heteroglossia: collection of Bodily hexis: linguistic practices
all forms of social speech or are deeply rooted to bodily
dispositions. Language is a body
rhetorical modes used technique that expresses our
daily. Many voices are social relationship to the world.
usually seen in texts (and
not just the obvious ones)
Centripetal/Centrifugal
Genres: connect and push
forward the history of
society and language
Social Theory -Foucault SEE Post Structuralism
-Bakhtin
-Bourdieu
Critical Discourse
Analysis -Fairclough
-from UK and Australia (discourse is 3
- analysis of text or dimensional)
discourse (not
decontextualized
sentences)
-multidisciplinary
-based on Halliday´s
systemic/functional gram.
-grammar is an ideological
instrument to classify and
categorize what happens
in the world, based on
Sapir/Whorf hypothesis
Positive Discourse
Analysis
-a recent approach to AD
-needs to develop
methodology and tools
for analysis
-it has strong foundations
(grounded in Systemic
Functional Linguistics and
based on positive values
and intentions)
Mediated Scollon
Discourse Analysis
-focuses on social
action
-texts have social
consequences
-Van Dijk social dominance: power,
dominance, hegemony,
ideology, gender, race and
discrimination.
-Access to specific forms of discourse
(political, media, science) is itself a
power resource
-Power influences people´s minds and
therefore indirectly their actions.
-The groups that control most
influential discourse, have the chance
to control minds and actions of others
-macrolevel (power and dominance)
and microlevel (discourse,
communication, verbal interaction)
Social power=control
Hegemony: when a group abuses
their power
-need to concentrate on
the positive aspects of
power (not negative)
-focus on community (how
people get together and
make room for themselves
in the world, redistributing
power, w/o struggling
against it)
Mediated action: basic unit for
analysis, focus on the acting of
social actors. It´s a sum of the
social actors, the action and the
means they are using.
Site of engagement: social space
where mediated action takes
place
Mediational means: material
means (body dress, movement)
through which mediated action is
carried out.
Practice: mediated action is only
interpretable through practice
Nexus of Practice: different types
of practice (discursive or non) are
interrelated and linked to form
nexus of practice. (all the
practices involved together)
Focuses on
-power
-domination
-social inequality
Ideology: social systems
and mental representations
(which are the basis of
social cognition). Link
between society and
discourse.
Power belongs to some and
not to others (depends on socio-
economic status, gender, ethnic
identity…..)
Power elites have special
access to discourse and
therefore symbolic power
-want constructive
discourse research
-they want to engage in
“heartening accounts of
progress” not in repression.
(what is done well)
Principle of social action:
discourse is not perceived as a
system of representation, thought
or values, but as a matter of social
actions.
Giosemiotics: meaning of all
language is based on the material,
concrete and physical placement
of that language in the world.
(Indexicality). Language depends
on when and where it is (signs
and symbols).
Icons, indexes, symbols.
Social actor: moves in physical
world
Interaction order: set of social
relationships we take up and
maintain with those in our
presence.
Visual semiotics: visual frame of
social action. How placement of
visual symbols affect meaning.
Place semiotics: action takes
place in the universe. Semiotic
spaces (where we find signs) and
non semiotic places (signs
forbidden) are taken into account.