Discourse analysis
We can say that the term “discourse analysis” was introduced for the
first time in 1952 as a way of analysing speech and writing.
Discourse analysis was first introduced with two main purposes:
• analysing, examining the language beyond the level of the sentence
• relationship between linguistic and non-linguistic behaviour( it means
considering the relationship between language and social and cultural
context in which it is used).
Discourse analysis does not only considers the language or the grammar
but it considers how we use the language and in which environment it’s
used.
Ex. How people know certain situations, we analyse the situation we have
being in, we consider how to interpret what someone says.
Discourse analysis examins also the hidden meanings, what’s beyond a
sentence e.g. on an airplane if the airtraffic controller says that the
runway is full it means that is not possible to land the plane. This two
sentences have the same meaning; the pilot understands this because
he/she is a pilot so is working on a plane and he knows what it means if
someone says “ the runway is full” and we don’t need to say “you cannot
land the plane” because it’s obvious
For example if I say “close the window” it can mean different things
because if we are in winter it means that I am cold (so “close the window
because I’m cold) even if I don’t say it. Or, on the contrary, if it’s August
and we have air conditioning turned on I say “close the window because I
don’t want the fresh air to go out and the heat to come in” even if I don’t
say it we understand the actual meaning from the context so this is an
hidden meaning.
When we talk about discourse analysis we are also interested in how
people organise what they say in the sense of what they typically say
first, what they say next in a conversation or in a piece of acting because
discourse analysis focuses on both speech and acting, written texts and
