Discourse (from Latin discursus, "running to and from") denotes written and

spoken communications such as:

In semantics and discourse analysis: Discourse is a conceptual generalization

of conversation within each modality and context of communication.

The totality of codified language (vocabulary) used in a given field of intellectual enquiry and
of social practice, such as legal discourse, medical discourse, religious discourse, et cetera. [1]

In the work of Michel Foucault, and that of the social theoreticians he

inspired: discourse describes "an entity of sequences, of signs, in that they are enouncements
(noncs)", statements in conversation.[2]

As discourse, an enouncement (statement) is not a unit of semiotic signs, but an abstract construct
that allows the semiotic signs to assign meaning, and so communicate specific, repeatable
communications to, between, and among objects, subjects, and statements. [2] Therefore, a discourse
is composed of semiotic sequences (relations among signs that communicate meaning) between
and among objects, subjects, and statements.
The term "discursive formation" (French: formation discursive) conceptually describes the regular
communications (written and spoken) that produce such discourses, such conversations. As a
philosopher, Michel Foucault applied the discursive formation in the analyses of large bodies of
knowledge, such as political economy and natural history.[3][4]
In the first sense-usage (semantics and discourse analysis), the term discourse is studied in corpus
linguistics, the study of language expressed in corpora (samples) of "real world" text. In the second
sense (the codified language of a field of enquiry) and in the third sense (a statement, un nonc),
the analysis of a discourse examines and determines the connections
among language and structure and agency.
Moreover, because a discourse is a body of text meant to communicate specific data, information,
and knowledge, there exist internal relations in the content of a given discourse; likewise, there exist
external relations among discourses. As such, a discourse does not exist per se (in itself), but is
related to other discourses, by way of inter-discursivity; therefore, in the course of intellectual
enquiry, the discourse among researchers features the questions and answers of What
is ...? and What is not. ..., conducted according to the meanings (denotation and connotation) of the
concepts (statements) used in the given field of enquiry, such as anthropology, ethnography,
and sociology; cultural studies and literary theory; the philosophy of science and feminism.
Contents
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1The humanities

2Modernism

3Structuralism

4Postmodernism

5See also

6Notes

7References

8External links

The humanities[edit]
In the humanities and in the social sciences, the term discourse describes a formal way of thinking
that can be expressed through language; the discourse is a social boundary that defines what
statements can be said about a topic.
Discourse affects the person's perspective; it is impossible to avoid discourse. For example, two
notably distinct discourses can be used about various guerrilla movements describing them either as
"freedom fighters" or "terrorists". In other words, the chosen discourse provides the vocabulary,
expressions and perhaps also the style needed to communicate.
Discourses are embedded in different rhetorical genres and metagenres that constrain and enable
them. That is language talking about language, for instance the American Psychiatric
Association's DSMIV manual tells which terms have to be used in talking about mental health,
thereby mediating meanings and dictating practices of the professionals of psychology and
psychiatry.[5]
Discourse is closely linked to different theories of power and state, at least as long as defining
discourses is seen to mean defining reality itself. This conception of discourse is largely derived from
the work of French philosopher Michel Foucault.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Discourse