Discourse Analysis provides an essential and practical introduction for students studying modules on the analysis of language in use. It explores the ways in which language is used and organised in written and spoken texts to generate meanings and takes into account the social contexts of production, and the social roles and identities of those involved.
Investigating the ways in which language varies according to subject, social setting, and communicative purpose, this book examines various forms of speaking and writing, including casual conversation, speeches, parliamentary debate, computer-mediated communication, and mass media articles. It discusses topics including how we convey more than we actually say or write, the role of politeness and impoliteness in communication, and what makes texts cohesive and coherent. It also shows how particular aspects of discourse analysis can be assisted by corpus methods and tools.
Taking students through a step-by-step guide on how to do discourse analysis that includes the collection of data and presentation of results, the book also documents a text analysis project from start to finish. Featuring a range of examples and interactive activities, as well as additional online support material, this book is key reading for those studying discourse analysis modules.
Acknowledgements Figures Tables Activities QR codes IPA chart Chapter 1 Discourse: Language, context, and choice Introduction What is discourse? What is discourse analysis? The nuts and bolts of discourse Morphology Phonology Lexis Lexical creativity Graphology Syntax Semantics Discourse Text ‘Have you sheeted?’ – discussion Discourse communities Meaning potential Understanding context Expanding context (the role of background knowledge) Context and relevance Co-text Spoken and written discourse Discourse markers Standard English (or the issue of convention) Sociolinguistic Variables Conclusion Further Reading Resources References Chapter 2 Organising Discourse: Thematic and information structure Introduction Organising discourse Structure of the English clause Subject and Predicator Non-canonical Subjects Object Complement and Adjunct Passive clauses Summary of clause structure Thematic structure Theme and Rheme Theme in declarative clauses Subject as Theme Marked themes Theme in interrogative and imperative clauses Marked themes Theme in complex sentences Compound Themes Continuatives Conjunctions Conjunctive and modal adjuncts Vocatives Multiple elements Special Themes Clefting Pseuodo-clefts Fronted or preposed themes Passive clauses Information structure: Given and New What is Given-New information? Signalling Given-New information Given-New and Theme and Rheme Given injustice: the case of Derek Bentley Given-New in spoken English Stress and prominence Given-New and special Themes Conclusion Answers to the activities References Chapter 3 Organising Information in Discourse: Cohesion Introduction Coherence and Cohesion in discourse Reference Endophoric versus exophoric reference Endophoric reference: anaphora and cataphora Personal, demonstrative, and comparative reference Personal reference Demonstrative reference Comparative reference Ellipsis and Substitution Ellipsis Substitution Conjunction Temporal Additive Adversative Causal Coordinating conjunctions Conjunction summary Reiteration (lexical cohesion) Conclusion Answers to activities References Chapter 4 Analysing spoken discourse Introduction How spoken discourse is analysed Data used in this chapter Spoken Interactions Prosody in spoken discourse Pauses Intonation Other prosodic features Syntax Turns, turn-taking and turn transition Turns Turn taking Turn transition Functional analysis of turns Acts and actions Form and function Sequencing Adjacency pairs Support Acts Sequence expansion Sequence Coupling Pairs with three parts Preferred/dis-preferred responses Backchannels Overlapping talk Summary of transcription conventions Conclusion Further reading Resources Answers to activities References Chapter 5 Analysing meaning in discourse Introduction What do we mean by meaning? Conceptual meaning Signifier, signified and referent Connotative meaning Affective meaning Social meaning Reflected meaning Collocative meaning Working out meaning in discourse: co-text and context Entailment Presupposition Existential presuppositions Logical presupposition Lexical triggers Syntactic triggers Testing presuppositions Presupposition and propositions Presupposition and entailment Conclusion Further Reading Answers to Activities References Chapter 6 Meaning and context Introduction What is pragmatics? Implicature Cooperative principle Maxims Flouting maxims Flouting the maxims of Quantity Flouting the maxims of Quality Flouting the maxim of Relation Flouting the category of manner Violating maxims and opting out Violate Explicitly opt out Infringement of maxims Doing Implicatures in real discourse: Memes Context, culture, and implicature Conclusion Further reading References Chapter 7 Politeness Introduction Face Face threats and face-work Using politeness strategies to mitigate face-threatening acts On-record FTAs Off-record strategies The humble ‘hedge’ Non-linguistic considerations Power (P) Social distance (D) Ranking of imposition (R) A short analysis of football press conferences Conclusion Further reading: Answers to activities References Chapter 8 Metaphorical meanings in discourse: Metaphor and Metonymy Introduction What is a metaphor? The conceptual basis of metaphors The experiential basis of metaphors Novel metaphors Analysing the ‘hiving’ metaphor What do we map and why? Novel metaphors in song lyrics Extended metaphors Metaphors in political discourse Metonymy Within-domain mapping Metonymy or metaphor? Ubiquity of metonyms Metonymy and worldview ‘Karenymy’ Metaphors and Metonymies A ‘moo’ point Conclusion Further Reading Answers to activities References Chapter 9 Representing experience in discourse Introduction Sentences and clauses Telling and retelling Different ways of telling Another way of telling: Nominalisation Passives The transitivity model Representing ‘inner’ and ‘outer’ experience Material processes Circumstances Mental Processes Representing ‘states’ of being and ‘having’: Existential and Relational Processes Existential processes Relational processes Verbal Processes The discourse situation Case Study: A case of domestic violence To convict or not to convict? Analysing the initial crime report Analysing the summary report (MG3) of the domestic violence crime Relational processes in the MG3 account of the crime Analysing the police Gatekeeper’s contribution to the case Conclusion Further Reading Answers to activities References Chapter 10 Presenting other people’s speech, writing and thought Introduction What is discourse presentation? Discourse presentation and different voices Report, representation and presentation Different types of discourse presentation Direct Speech, Writing and Thought (DS/DW/DT) Indirect Speech, Writing and Thought (IS/IW/IT) Reporting clauses Free Indirect Speech, Writing and Thought (FIS/FIW/FIT) Presentation of Speech, Writing and Thought Acts (PSA/PWA/PTA) Presentation of Speech, Writing and Thought (PS/PW/PT) Summary Attribution of source of original Legitimation Faithfulness Conclusion Further reading Answers to activities References Chapter 11 Corpus linguistics and discourse analysis Introduction Corpus linguistics What is a corpus? What is corpus linguistics? Corpus linguistics and discourse analysis Sampling, representativeness and language variety Language variety Sampling Representativeness Corpus not always required! Using corpus methods to analyse corpora Word frequency analysis Word frequencies and language change across time Wordlists ranked by frequency Concordance analysis Sorted concordances Categorising results Making comparisons between corpora Choosing a suitable reference corpus Comparing LHRC against ICE-FLOB Keyness and keywords Statistical significance Effect size: measuring the scale of the difference Keyness What counts as a keyword? Using statistical cut-offs to decide Keywords in LHRC Intra-corpus comparison Collocation Calculating collocates Using statistical cut-offs to decide what counts as a collocate Statistically salient collocates of ‘was’ in LHRC N-grams N-grams in the LHRC Conclusion Further Reading Corpus tools Corpora Answers to Activities References Chapter 12 Doing a project in discourse analysis Introduction Thinking about discourse as the focus of a project Systematicity and the three ‘R’s’ of research Ethics Informed consent Observer paradox Anonymity Copyright Developing a research project Deductive and inductive research Hypotheses Objectives and research questions Defining terms Controlling variables Data Analysing your data Writing up your research – doing academic discourse Conclusion Further reading Answers to activities References Appendices Appendix 1 Sample statement declaring consent for a study Appendix 2 Information for participants Index
Patricia Canning is an assistant professor at Northumbria University, Newcastle (UK). Her recent publications include journal articles on the linguistic construction of domestic abuse police reports (2022; and with Nick Lynn, 2021). She is co-author of an independent report into what went wrong at the Champions League Final in Paris (2022) and has published research on the narrative evidence following the Hillsborough Football Stadium disaster (2018; 2021; 2023). She is author of Style in the Renaissance: Language and Control in Early Modern England (2011). Brian Walker is a visiting scholar in the School of Arts, English and Languages at Queen's University Belfast, Belfast (UK). His published research focuses on corpus stylistics and using corpus linguistic approaches in the analysis of discourse.
