STYLISTIC AND DISCOURSE ANALYSIS

Definition of Discourse Analysis

➢ It is a way of analyzing connected speech and writing.
➢ It is concerned with the study of the relationship between the language and the context in which
it is used.
➢ It is the analysis of language in use.
➢ It is the study of language at use in the world not just to sat things but to do things.
➢ It is a language used relative to social, political, and cultural formation.
➢ It is sometimes defined as the analysis of language "beyond the sentence".

Zellig Harris

Definition of Discourse
➢ Anything beyond the sentence.
➢ Language in use a broader range of social practice.
➢ Anything you say that is thinkable and sayable.

The Relationship Between Language and Context

For example, an air traffic controller says to a pilot... The runway is full at the moment this most likely
means it is not possible to land the plane.
... an explanation why the plane is landing but not an instruction to not land the plane.

Contexts - are not objective conditions but rather subjective constructs updated by participants with each
other as members of groups or communities.\

Context of Situation and Context of Culture

In order to understand the meaning of what a person says or writes we used to know something about
the situational and cultural context in which it is located. That is, if you don't know what the people
involved in a text are doing and don't understand their culture, then you can't make sense of their text.

Cultural ways of Speaking and Writing

➤ Different cultures have different ways of doing things through language. These are for example,
particular ways of buying and selling things in different cultures. How I buy my lunch at a takeaway shop
in an English-speaking country is different from how I might do this in Japan In English speaking country
there is a greater ritual use of PLEASE and THANKS on the customer than in Japan. The person at the cash
register in Japan will say much more than the customer of this situation who may indeed say nothing. This
does not mean that the Japanese customer is being rude. It also means that there are culturally different
ways of doing things with language in different situation.

Discourse as the Social Construction of Reality

➢ The view of discourse as the social construction of reality see texts as a communicative units which
are embedded in social and cultural practices. The text we write and speak both shape and are
shaped by these practices. Discourse, then, is shaped by the world as well as shaping the world.
Discourse is shaped by language as well as shaping the language
➢ It is shaped by the people who use the language as well as shaping the language that people use.
Discourse is shaped as well, by the discourse that has preceded it. Discourse is also shaped by the
medium in which it occurs as well as it shapes the possibilities for that medium.

Discourse and Socially Situated Identities

➢ When we speak or write we use more than just language to display who we are, and how we want
people see us. The way we dress, the gestures we use, and the way we act and interact also
(display) influence how we display SOCIAL IDENTITY. Other included are the ways we think, the
attitudes we display, and the things we value, feel, and believe. Gee argues, the ways we make
visible things and recognizable who we are and what we are doing always involve more than just
language.

(Action speaks louder than words)

➢ It involves acting, interacting, and thinking in certain ways.

➢ This doesn't only involve new one speaks but how one should dress, how she can use body
language.
➢ Discourse also involves characteristic ways of acting, interacting, and feeling and characteristic
ways of showing emotion, gesturing, dressing, and posturing.

Discourse and Performance

➢ Performativity - this is the word of English philosopher Austin. It is based on the view that in
SAYING something we Do it.
➢ That is we bring states of affairs into being Es a result of what we say and what we do
➢ Example:
I promise... I now pronounce you husband and wife. Once I have said a promise I have
committed myself to doing something. Once a priest or marriage celebrant says, I now pronounce
you husband and wife the couple have become husband and wife.
Discourse, like the performance of gendered identities, are socially constructed rather
than natural. People are who they are because of the way they talk not because of who they
already are. Thus, it is in the doing that the identity is produced.

Discourse and Society

A discourse community is a group of people who share same kind of activity. Members of
discourse community have particular ways of communicating with each other. They generally have shared
goals and may have shared values and (goals) beliefs. A person is after a member. of more than anl dis
cause community. Someone may be a university student, a member of community Volunteer organization
and a member of church group: for example. The ways in which they communicate in each of these groups
and the values and beliefs that are most prominent in each of these groups may vary. There may be
discourse communities within discourse communities. Academic department for example, may differ in
the ways that they do things and the beliefs and values that they hold as wided may other parts of the
community.

A telephone call center is an example of discourse community. Cameron found that the telephone
operator in that call center she examined were trained to communicate with customers on the phone in
very particular ways. They were trained to communicate with customers on the phone in very particular
ways. They were trained to answer the phone with a smile in their voice. They were asked to pay attention
to the pitch of their voice to convey sense of confidence and sincerity in what they said. They were
required to talk neither too loudly nor too quietly.

Discourse communities may consist of close-knit networks and members such as writers of
poetry, and their readers, groups of members such as advertising, producers, consumers, and
contributors. Discourse community may also be made up of several overlapping groups of people.

Devitt proposed three types of language users:

1. Communities all groups of people who share substantial amounts of time together in common
endeavors, such as people who mark in same office.
2. Collectives are groups of people that form around a single repeated interest w/o the frequency or
intensity of contact of a community such as people who are member of a bee - helping group or voluntary
members of a community telephone service.
3. Networks are groups of people that are not as tightly knit such as speed communities with connection
being made by another person connections made thru email messages sent and revived by people who
may never have met each other but are participating in one discourse.

Discourse and Gender

Gender is not just a natural and inevitable consequence of one's biological sex. It is ratan 'part of
the routine, ongoing work of everyday, mundane, social interaction' that is the product of social practice.

Identity is equally, conveyed through writing as well through speech.

Gender is 'not something a person "has" but something a person does. Gender is not a result of
what people are but a result of among other things, the way they talk, and what they do. Gender doesn't
just exist, but is continually produced, reproduced, and indeed changed through people's performance of
gendered acts, as they project their own claimed gendered identities, and in various ways support or
challenge system of gender relations and privilege.

Gender identity then is a complex construction. All levels of language and discourse as well as
aspects of nonverbal and other kinds of behavior are involved in doing gender.

A person then will have multiplicity of identities or personal w/c may be at play at all times at
different levels of prominence.

People, further, do perform gender differently in different contexts and do sometimes behave in
ways we would normally associate with the other gender.

Gender is something that is socially constructed.

Discourse and Identity
A person may have a number of identities, each of which is more important at different points in
time. They may have an identity as a woman, an identity as a mother, an identity as someones partner,
and an identity as an office worker. The Ways they w they use in which people display then identities
includes language and the way they Interact with/people. Identities are not natural however. They are
constructed, in large part thru the use of discourse.
Identity further is something that is not fixed and remains the same throughout a person's life. It
is something that is constructed and reconstructed as people interact with each other. Part of having a
certain identity is that it is recognized by other people. Identity thus is a two-way construction.
Identity can also be temporary. (People can produce identity).
Identity can be established online thru the use of language.
Identity is a negotiated experience "in which me define who we are by the way we experience
ourselves. Identities and not fixed but are constantly being reconstructed and negotiated thru the ways
we do and ways of belonging to a group. Our identities are developed and are based on shared sets of
values, culture and ideologies w/c underlie our use of spoken and written discourse.

Discourse and Ideology

Ideology is the study of doctrine or thought that guides an individual, social movement institution,
or group. The values and ideologies which underlie text tend to be 'hidden' rather than overtly stated.
There are a number of ways in which ideology might be explored in a text. The analysis may start by
looking at textual features in the text and move from there to explanation and interpretation of the
analysis.
This may include tracing underlying ideologies from the linguistic features of the text, unpacking
particular biases and ideological presuppositions underlying the text and relating the text to other texts,
and to anus experiences and beliefs.

Ideology can be explained in a text in several ways.

1. Framing this is how the content of the text is presented and the sort of angle or perspective the writer
or speaker, is taking.
2. Forgrounding this is what concepts and issues are emphasized as well as what concepts or issues are
played down or back- grounded in the text.

Terms related to Ideology

1. Text-the main body of matter in a written, work the actual word of the speaker or author
2. Context-the meaning of the text.
3. Presupposition - to suppose or assume beforehand; to require an antecedent condition.

SUMMARY

➢ Discourse analysis, then, considers the relationships he tureen language and the social and
cultural contexts in which it is used. It considers what people mean by what they say, hew they
 wart out what people mean, and the way language presents different views of the world and
different understandings. This includes an examination of how discourse is shaped by
relationships between participants and the effects discourse has upon social identities and
relations.
➢ Discourse analysis takes us into what Riggenbach calls the bigger picture of language description
that is often left ant of more micro-level descriptions of language use. It takes us into the social
and cultural settings of language use to help us understand particular language choices. That is, it
takes us beyond description to explanation and help us understand the rules of the rules of the
game that language users draw on in their everyday spoken and written interactions. There are
many ways in which one could approach discourse analysis.