The concept of "discourse" is a pivotal position in all the research and studies that fall in the area of analysis of texts; where the presence of the people emerged seminar in linguistics, philosophy, and literature made it a key pillar in the decisions, and addresses taken to the different disciplines. Scholars manage with the human language in the way of communicative made it the basis of the speech and its objective analysis.
The way we perceive language is the foundation of our social construction an individual or group relationships, and studies in sociolinguistics have tried to explain this relationship between the use of language and the importance of perceptions. A particular discourse, spoken or written, can stem from different sources
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Discourse analysis has been taken up in a collection of social science disciplines, including anthropology, linguistics, social work, cognitive psychology, human geography, sociology, social psychology, international relations, translation studies, and communication studies. Each subject has its own hypothesis, importance of analysis and approaches. Politics is a conflict for influence in order to put social ideas into practice, certain political and economic. In this process, the language plays a central role, for every political activity is prepared, accompanied, influenced and played by language. Brown & Yule (1983, p. 1) suggest that discourse analysis is related with the “the analysis of language in use”. Discourse analysis means the investigation of the relationship between the contexts and language in which it is used. It includes looking for both form and function of the language, and includs the investigation of both spoken effects and written texts. Discourse analysis has been taken up in a collection of social science disciplines, including anthropology, linguistics, social work, cognitive psychology, human geography, sociology, social psychology, international relations, translation studies, and communication studies. Each subject has its own hypothesis, importance of analysis and …show more content…
In this process, the language plays a central role, for most political activity is prepared, accompanied, influenced and played by language. As pervasive studies of experiencing, discourses refer to expressing oneself using words. Discourses can be used for asserting power and knowledge, and for resistance and critique. The speaker expresses his/her ideological content in texts as does the linguistic form of the text. Schaffner (1996) says the political discourse, as a sub-bransh of discourse in general, can be based on two criteria: functional and thematic. Political discourse is a result of politics and it is historically and culturally
According to Swale’s (1990), a discourse community is a group of people who communicate with each other and share a common goal to which they will help one another achieve using specific mechanisms and lexis (p. 217). The six characteristics used in the identification process are as
A discourse community has an agreed set of common public goals. It is a group of individuals that have a specific way of interacting and communicating with one another. It is also used as a means to maintain and extend a group’s knowledge, as well as initiate new members into the group. Specific kinds of languages are used as a form of social behavior. Such discourse communities vary in size, purpose and importance.
To examine various discourses, it is crucial that the idea of discourse and the way in which discourses operate is clear. A discourse is a language, or more precisely, a way of representation and expression. These "ways of talking, thinking, or representing a particular subject or topic produce meaningful knowledge about the subject" (Hall 205). Therefore, the importance of discourses lies in this "meaningful knowledge," which reflects a group’s ideolo...
Literature Review In “The Concept of Discourse Community,” Swales begins by introducing the discourse community. Speech communities share information and knowledge regarding speech. Swales described six main characteristics of a discourse community. It is important to understand these six characteristics because they are used to describe any discourse community that you are analyzing. In Erik Borg’s “Discourse Community” peer review journal, there are some similarities as well as key differences from Swales work.
What is a discourse community? According to John Swales, a linguistics professor at the University of Michigan, “A discourse community has a broadly agreed set of common public goals” (220). These common goals could be that of set rules or mission statements. In Addition, “A discourse community has mechanisms of intercommunication among its members” (221). This means that these communities have their own general, yet specialized way, of communicating. He also states that, “A discourse community uses its participatory mechanisms primarily to provide information and feedback” (221). He states that the use of emails, text, newsletters are in place to communicate information and feedback. Swale’s mentions the development of lexis for communication purposes in a discourse, a type of specialized language. Overall, a discourse community is a community that has its own structure and communication that is different from any other discourse. Within my discourse community of patient transport, one must be a patient transporter to understand the procedures.
Swales, Gee and Porter all give their understanding of how they believe a discourse community operates and contributes to society. It can be seen as a type of language used to connect between particular groups and integrate social identities into the world (Gee 484). The building of a discourse community starts with creating a type of communication plan. It is necessary that all members connect and confer alike in order to maintain a set of documented decisions and actions. A discourse community connects people to a lifestyle and provides a form of order that stretches the interconnections of words, writings, values, attitudes, and beliefs (Swales 220). Those interconnecting contacts though sometimes conflict with select purposes of other discourses, leading to confusion or even anarchy. When this occurs, awareness and a choice of acceptance or doubt sets into place (Porter 400). For a discourse community to continue all doubt and awareness have to be tracked and suppressed. The discourse community needs to insure that its values are well convinced and received by its members and potential new members, in order to remain accepted in a
A discourse community is a group of people with relatively the same goals and interest to achieve a specific goal. Discourse communities gain there members by qualification, shared objectives, training, or persuading others to join their discourse community. In order for a group to be a discourse community, they must have their own languages, text, rules, and ethics that will make the discourse community run more efficiently. They will also have a form of intercommunication among the group to keep everyone involved or informed with upcoming events or just important news. Discourse communities will have a type of mechanism to provide feedback to help improve the group. The participatory mechanisms provide feedback from inside and outside of
The Rhetoric in any piece of writing is always used to convey the unique opinion of the author on the subject matter. As such the writing of any author is directly
CDA adopts an interdisciplinary approach, different methodologies, and varying perspectives for the analysis of data which is predominantly obtained from social topics such as “racism, identity, social change” (Wodak: 2006). Power relationships between the dominant and the dominated social class are the foci of CDA, and considers language use or discourse as a defining characteristic in understanding varied social patterns that emerge as a result of the discursive practices, naturalization of ideology, and orders of discourse. It blends the historical context with the contemporary contexts to interpret the element of social change. CDA believes in the practice, application, and availability of results to the experts so that select discursive and social practices could be both interpreted and transformed.
233). LE theory is not confined to statements on language (Blommaert, 2007), and as a result, LE research does not assume a linguistic reason for change but investigates the marked feature or features within a specific social realm and the interactions that take shape within specific social relations, interactional histories and institutional regimes, within the wider social world (Rampton, 2007). Even though, early LE researchers (Gumperz, 1972; Hymes, 1972) developed their ‘ethnography of communication’ in a reaction to the study of language hegemonies of Chomsky (Blommaert, 2007, p. 682), LE does not neglect linguistics
Her approach is capable of identifying and describing the underlying mechanisms that contribute to those disorders in discourse which are embedded in a particular context, at a specific moment, and inevitably affect communication. Wodak’s work on the discourse of anti-Semitism in 1990 led to the development of an approach she termed the Discourse-Historical Method. The term historical occupies a unique place in this approach. It denotes an attempt to systematically integrate all available background information in the analysis and interpretation of the many layers of a written or spoken text. As a result, the study of Wodak and her colleagues’ showed that the context of the discourse had a significant impact on the structure, function, and context of the utterances. This method is based on the belief that language “manifests social processes and interaction” and generates those processes as well (Wodak & Ludwig, 1999, p. 12). This method analyses language from a three-fold perspective: first, the assumption that discourse involves power and ideologies. “No interaction exists where power relations do not prevail and where values and norms do not have a relevant role” (p. 12). Secondly, “discourse … is always historical, that is, it is connected synchronically and diachronically with other communicative events which are happening at the same time or which have happened before” (p. 12). The third feature
What language we use, how we use it, and why we use it are all essential in others perceptions of us. If a man’s first comment to somebody is “Hey Baby, how you doing?” with a gloating tone and boastful...
Language is a means of human communication whether verbally or nonverbally. In everyday life we use language to express our thoughts, feelings ,attitudes,etc.A great amount of social interactions takes place every day over the telephone ,by online chats, face –to face interaction or at workplaces .We use language of different forms for different functions as in to inform, question , and sometimes to strengthen social relationships or just to keep the social wheels turning smoothly. Moreover, understanding one's own language and even other cultures’ language is important to arrive at a successful and effective communication with others . The study of language can be undertaken in various ways .Semantics and pragmatics are two branches of linguistics which are concerned with the study of meaning.
The book An Intorduction of Sociolinguistics is an outstanding introductary book in the field of sociolinguistics. It encompasses a wide range of language issues. In chapter 13, Wardhaugh provides a good insight to the relationship between language and gender. He explains gender differences of language-in-use with concise examples. Wardhaugh riases questions about sexist language and guides readers to look closer at how people use language differently because of their own gender in daily life. According to the Whorfian hypothesis, which indicates that the way people use language reflects their thoughts, different genders adapt different communication strategies.