ASSIGNMENT 4

Ika Kurniawati Khasanah / 2201409032
Rombel 03

DISCOURSE ANALYSIS

The term discourse is often made the same as text in language use. Commonly text is restricted to written form, while discourseis restricted to spoken one. However, actually they are just like that. In doing analysis of a text (Text Analysis), it needs linguistic analysis. The interpretation is based on linguistic evidence.  D’ Beaugrande and Dressler (1981) present a broader view of defining text as communicative event that must satisfy the seven following criteria: cohesion, coherence, intentionally, acceptability,informativity, situtionality, and intertextuality. However, Tischer et al. (2000) explain that the first two criteria (cohesion and cohorence) may be defined as text-internal, while the remaining criteria are text-external. Text Analysis are more concerned with the text-internal factors. Meanwhile, Discourse Analysis focuses its attention on the text-external ones, without disregarding the tex-internal one. Regarding to this view, discourse is more than a text.

According to Schiffrin, Discourse Analysis involves the study of both text and context. In other words, DA is how text relates to contexts of both situation and culture. DA is also how text represent ideology. Therefore, it can be said that discoure integrates the use of text and context in te use of language.

There are some definitions of Discourse Analysis since it is quite difficult to give an exact single definition of it. Discourse Analysis can be characterized as a way of approaching and thinking about a problem. Talking about DA, these are some definitions of DA provided by experts as follows:

            The study of discourse is the study of any aspect of language use. (Fasold, 1990: 65)

            The analysis of discourse is, necessarily, the analysis of language in use. As such, it cannot be restricted to the description of linguistic forms independent of the purposes or functions which these forms are designed to serve in human affairs. (Brown and Yule, 1983: 1)

            Discourse... refers to language in use, as a process which is socially situated. (Candlin, 1997: ix)

It can be concluded that Discourse Analysis may be defined as the study of language in use. As explained earlier, it considers the context of situation and the context of culture in which the language is used for communication. So, the context here may be participants’ knowledge and perception of paralanguage, other texts, the situation, the culture, the world in general and the role, intentions and relationships of participants.

These main theoritical and practical tenets of the following are identified within Discourse Analysis: Pracmatics, Conversation Analysis, Interactional Sociolinguistics, Ethnography of Communication, Variation Analysis and Narrative Analysis, Functional Sentence Perspective, Post-structural and Social Theory, Critical Discourse Analysis, and Mediated Discourse Analysis.