Discourse Analysis and Corpus Linguistics

  • Discourse and Discourse Analysis:

    • Major focus of research in humanities, social sciences, and information sciences.
    • Divergent definitions lead to varied uses of terms 'discourse' and 'discourse analysis'.
    • Schiffrin, Tannen, and Hamilton (2001) categorize discourse analysis into:
    1. Language use.
    2. Linguistic structure ‘beyond the sentence’.
    3. Social practices and ideological assumptions related to communication.

  • Approaches to Discourse Analysis:

    • Language use: Examines structural variations (e.g., passive vs active voice) based on context.
    • Structure beyond the sentence: Investigates organization of extended text sequences.
    • Socio-cultural aspects: Focuses on community actions and contextual factors relevant to discourse.

  • Corpus Linguistics:

    • Describes linguistic forms in context (e.g., collocations) as a form of discourse analysis.
    • Predominantly quantitative, contrasting with qualitative textual analyses.
    • Studies often compare distributional patterns across texts without focusing on individual text structures.

  • Challenges in Research:

    • Merging corpus methods with structural discourse analysis remains a significant challenge.
    • Need for understanding discourse organization patterns while analyzing linguistic form in context.

  • Methods in Discourse Studies:

    • Pragmatics, speech act theory, functional linguistics, and variationist research are vital in studying language use.
    • Systematic linguistic function descriptions aid in understanding discourse variation across contexts.

  • Text Structure Analysis:

    • Investigate higher-level structures (e.g., paragraphs vs. sentences) for understanding coherent texts.
    • Cohesion and coherence studies help identify how texts are constructed meaningfully.
    • Discourse markers signal structure and transitions in texts; devices include repetition, linking adverbials, etc.

  • Register and Genre:

    • Register refers to language varieties linked to functions or situations of use, while genre relates to culturally recognized text types.
    • Differences affect linguistic features and structure used depending on genre or register.

  • Research Design:

    • Creating specialized corpora ensures relevant representation for the discourse being studied (e.g., research articles, media texts).
    • Aim for representative genre samples to analyze discourse structures effectively.

  • Analysis Techniques:

    • Top-down vs. Bottom-up approaches:
    • Top-down: Develops analytical frameworks first, focusing on communicative functions.
    • Bottom-up: Segments texts first without predefined categories, deriving categories from linguistic data.

  • Examples of Analysis:

    • Move analysis (top-down) identifies segments based on their communicative function.
    • Vocabulary-Based Discourse Units (bottom-up) employs computational techniques to identify discourse units automatically.