Definitions of discourse

Although discourse analysis is an increasingly popular and important area of study, it still remains a vast and somewhat vague field. The goal of this book is to clarify the theories and methods of discourse analysis in such a way that it can continue to deal with a wide range of problems and phenomena of multidisciplinary interest, but can do so in a more systematic and coherent way. Discourse analysis is important not only on its own, but also for what can tell us about language, society, and culture. The core of the book is a detailed description, application, and comparison of six different approaches to discourse analysis: speech act theory, interactional sociolinguistics, ethnography of communication, pragmatics, conversational analysis, and variation analysis. Although these approaches originated in different disciplines, they all attempt to answer some of the same questions: How do organize language into units that are larger than sentences? How do we use language to convey information about the world, ourselves, and our social relationships? In the first part of the book the author provides an overview of the different approaches, and outlines the plan of the book. The chapter we are concerned with, discusses difficulties in defining discourse; difficulties that are related to the currency of two different paradigms within linguistics.