Introduction: Key topics in the study of Discourse Analysis
Many people would define discourse analysis as a sub‐field of linguistics, which is the scientific study of language.
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When we speak of discourse, we are always speaking of language that is in some way situated. Language Is always situated in at least four ways
Language is situated within relationships
Language is situated in history, that is, in relation to what happened before and what we expect to happen afterwards. Finally
Language is situated within the material world, and where we encounter it
Language is situated in relation to other language Utterances and texts always respond to or refer to other utterances and texts; that is, everything that we say or write is situated in a kind of network of discourse.
The context of these choices and the relationships between them Which form the basis for what we will be calling texture That quality that makes a particular set of words or sentences a text, rather than a random collection of linguistic items.
According To the linguist M.A.K. Halliday, Meaning is the most important thing that makes a text a text; it has to make sense. A Text is everything that is meaningful in a particular situation.
Different Patterns of texture are associated with different types of texts. The Study of the social functions of different kinds of texts is called genre analysis. A Genre is a recognizable communicative event characterized by a set of communicative purposes identified and mutually understood by members of the community in which it occurs
The Linguist Michael Halliday (1994) Pointed out that whenever we use language we are always doing three things at once. All Of these functions play a role in the way a text promotes a particular ideology or worldview.
Speech is not so different from writing. When People speak they also produce different kinds of genres (such As casual conversations, debates, lectures) and use different kinds of ‘social languages’. They Also promote particular versions of reality or ideologies. However, Speech is more interactive. Speech Tends to be more transient and spontaneous than writing
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We are joining sentences and ideas together in particular ways to form cohesive and coherent texts, which he called the textual function of language
We are creating, ratifying or negotiating our relationships with the people with whom we are communicating, which he called the interpersonal function of language
We are in some way representing the world: which he called the ideational function of language
Conversations Happen when multiple actions are put together to form activities: we chat, we debate, etc. We Must always negotiate ‘what We are doing’ and ‘who We are being’ with the people with whom we are interacting. We Call the methods we use to engage in these negotiations conversational strategies.
When We talk, along with conveying information about the topic about which we are talking, we always convey information about how close to or distant from the people with whom we are talking we think we are, along with information about whether we are social equals or whether one has more power than the other. The Strategies we use to do this are called face strategies.
The Focus of mediated discourse analysis is trying to understand the relationships between ‘what’s Going on’ and the discourse that is available in the situation to perform these ‘goings on’.
Corpus‐assisted Discourse analysis is unique in that it allows us to go beyond looking at a small number of texts or interactions to analyzing a large number of them and being able to compare them to other texts and conversations that are produced under similar or different circumstances.
Multimodal Discourse analysts see discourse as involving multiple modes which often work together. In A face-to-face conversation, for example, people do not just communicate with spoken language. They Also communicate though their gestures, gaze, facial expressions, posture, how close they stand from each other, and many other things.
Wahyu Dwi Satrio
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