Discourse competence

What it is and how to teach it

 What is discourse?
● The concept of discourse is related with that of text,
written or spoken.
● Text is the (functional) unit of language, and can vary
from a written excerpt to image, toy or a movie.
● It defines language in context and for a purpose, by
and large as communication
● Study language is to study discourse, as language
structure is motivated by the speaker (knowledge,
attitude, beliefs; power; roles; history) and intention
● Examples of discourse?
 Context of situation
● The field of discourse – experiential meaning
This is the meaning that the social actions and the engagements of the
participants are giving to the understanding of the text.

● The tenor of discourse – interpersonal meaning

This is the meaning that the roles of and relationships among
participants give to the understanding of the text. These
relationships may be permanent or temporary. The contribution to
meaning by social statuses of the participants also fall within this
feature.

● The mode of discourse – logical meaning

This is the meaning that the language, written or spoken, gives to the
understanding of the text. This includes the symbolic organization
of the text, as well as its intended function within the context.
Text types
 Textness
● Text linguistics is the study of how texts function in
human interaction.
Text is “communicative occurrence which meets seven
standards of textuality” (Beaugrande and Dressler)
● Cohesion, Coherence, Intentionality, Causality
(enablement, reason, purpose, time), Acceptability,
Informativity, Situationality and Intertextuality, without
any of which the text will not be communicative.
● Non-communicative texts are treated as non-texts
Where do you situate discourse?
 How can we analyse it?
● This method does not really analyze a text when it
comes to its structure and syntax, but the meaning
behind these sentences; hence, the approach is often
described as going “beyond the sentence.” Not only is
discourse analysis a useful method in the field of
linguistics, but is also applied in other areas such as
social studies, psychology, and anthropology.
 How can we analyse it?
● Find out about the author
● Research background of the situation/ topic, historical
(lack of) arguments

● Look for the communicative function behind the text

● Analyse frequency terms, key words, argumentation,
fallacies, (ideologic/ hate) bias
 Discourse analysis
● focuses on any text (topics and subjects) that can provoke
any kind of discourse, a response of any sort, e.g., medical
journals, newspaper articles, a president’s speech, casual
conversation.

● Focuses on structure/ pattern in order to examine why such

patterns are chosen by the speaker, e.g., in a politician’s
speech, why politically-correct terms (“economically-
disadvantaged” vs. “poor”) OR a pause is in between
sentences (meaning).

● Gives a fundamental part to the context of the text and the

environment where it was placed in the interpretation.
 Why?
● The aim and the end result of a discourse analysis may
not always be to give specific answers to a problem.

● By exploring a subject, it gives a newer and wider

perspective on the issue and exposes the little
implications that are hidden behind the words.

● It then leaves the readers to decide on how to respond

to the analysis and ultimately make their own discourse.
In a nutshell, discourse analysis does not answer, but
interprets.
References

Beaugrande, R. & Dressler W. U. (1981) Introduction to text linguistics, London:

Longman

Halliday, M.A.K. and Hasan, R. (1976) "'Cohesion in English London: Longman

Halliday MAK and R Hasan. (1985) Language, Context, and Text: Aspects of
Language in a Social-Semiotic Perspective. Geelong: Deakin University

Robert de Beaugrande homepage at http://www.beaugrande.com

Discourse Studies SAGE Journal at http://dis.sagepub.com

Discourse Analysis at http://www.linguisticsociety.org/resource/discourse-analysis-

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