Discourse Analysis

In very broad terms discourse analysis is a research method or, if you like, a way of approaching a problem using critical thinking.

Discourse analysis as a research method has been taken up in a variety of social science disciplines, including linguistics, anthropology, sociology, cognitive psychology, international relations communication studies and translation studies.

Even though each discipline applies its own assumptions, dimensions of analysis, and methodologies what unites all discourse analyses is their basis in texts. By text we do not meant only the written word in books or papers, but also TV, advertising, internet, music, etc.

Applied to Linguistics discourse analysis is the study of language in use.

Language can be analyzed not only as an abstract system but also more practically at the sentence level, i.e. paragraphs, essays, interviews, etc.

Linguists who analyze discourse look at how written, oral and visual texts are used in specific contexts to convey meaning and discourse analysis focuses on 'naturally occurring' language use, and not made up examples.

The term discourse analysis (DA) first came into general use following the publication in 1952 of a series of papers by American linguist Zellig Harris.