Discourse Analysis

@seelrc.orgLenoreA.GrenobleDartmouthCollegeDiscourseAnalysisIntroduction.Discourseanalysisisthestudyoflanguageinuse.Itrestsonthebasicpremisethatlanguagecannotbeunderstoodwithoutreferencetothecontext,bothlinguisticandextra-linguistic,inwhichitisused.Itdrawsfromthefindingsandmethodologiesofawiderangeoffields,suchasanthropology,philosophy,sociology,socialandcognitivepsychology,andartificialintelligence.Itisitselfabroadfieldcomprisedofalargenumberoflinguisticsubfieldsandapproaches,includingspeechacttheory,conversationanalysis,pragmatics,andtheethnographyofspeaking.Atthesametime,thelinesbetweencertainlinguisticsubfields,inparticularpsycholinguistics,anthropologicallinguistics,andcognitivelinguisticsanddiscourseanalysisoverlap,andapproachestothestudyofdiscourseareinformedbythesesubfields,andinmanycasesfindingsareindependentlycorroborated.Asaveryinterdisciplinaryapproach,theboundariesofthisfieldarefuzzy.1Thefundamentalassumptionunderlyingallapproachestodiscourseanalysisisthatlanguagemustbestudiedasitisused,initscontextofproduction,andsotheobjectofanalysisisveryrarelyintheformofasentence.Instead,writtenorspokentexts,usuallylargerthanonesentenceoroneutterance,providethedata.Inotherwords,thediscourseanalystworkswithnaturallyoccurringcorpora,andwithsuchcorporacomeawidevarietyoffeaturessuchashesitations,non-standardforms,self-corrections,repetitions,incompleteclauses,words,andso—alllinguisticmaterialwhichwouldberelegatedtoperformancebyChomsky(1965)andsostandoutsidethescopeofanalysisformanyformallinguists.Butforthediscourseanalyst,such“performance”dataare©1999-2007TheSlavicandEastEuropeanLanguageResourceCenterGlossosistheregisteredtrademarkofDukeUniversity.Allrightsreserved.1Itisinteresting,inthislight,tocomparethecontentsofseveralstandardhandbooksofdiscourseanalysis.BrownandYule(1986)focusheavilyonpragmaticsandinformationstructure,whileSchiffrin(1994)includesseveralchaptersdirectlyrelatedtosociolinguisticmethodologies(i.e.chaptersoninteractionalsociolinguistics,ethnomethodologyandvariationanalysis).Mey(1993)hasthreechaptersonconversationanalysis(atopicwhichSchiffrinalsocovers)andachapteron“societalpragmatics.”LenoreGrenoble,DiscourseAnalysis2indeedrelevantandmayinfactbethefocusofresearch.Thefocusonactualinstancesoflanguageusealsomeansthattheanalysisdoesnotlookatlanguageonlyasanabstractsystem;thisisafundamentaldifferencebetweenformalworkonsyntaxversusdiscourseanalysis.Thispaperfirstprovidesanoverviewofdiscourseanalysisanditsgeneralgoals,includingadiscussionofthenotionofdiscourseitself.Itthensummarizessomekeytheoreticalframeworksindiscourseanalysis,theirfoundationsandmethodologies,andprovidessampleanalyses.2Certaintopicsaremorefruitfullyanalyzedinoneortheotherframeworks,andthisarticleaimstoidentifyissuesforfutureresearch.TheargumentspresentedhereillustratedprimarilybymyownRussiandata;muchmoreworkneedstobedonenotonlyonRussian,butonallSlaviclanguages.Discourseanalysisisanactiveanddynamicdiscipline,andSlavicdataareseriouslyunderrepresented,inparticularinWesternpublicationsnotaimedataSlavicaudience.Atthesametime,AmericanSlavists(withahandfulofnotableexceptions)arelargelyabsentfromthefieldofdiscourseanalysis.Furthermore,discourseanalysisisonefieldoflinguisticinquirywherethetraditionaldistinctionbetweenageneralandaSlaviclinguistbreaksdown:itisadisciplinewhichaimstoanalyzethetotalpictureofnaturalcommunication,examininghowalloflanguagecomestogetherinitslinguisticandextralinguisticcontext.Indiscourseanalysis,nopartoflanguageandthecommunicativesituationisofflimits:theanalystmaypotentiallyneedtotakeintoaccountphonetics,morphosyntax,syntax,semantics,pragmatics,andparalinguisticfeaturesinadditiontorealworldknowledge.Forthisreason,discourseanalystseitherworkontheirnativelanguage,oronalanguagetheyknowverywell.DiscourseAnalysis:AnOverview.Thetermdiscourseisusedinavarietyofwaysbydifferingscholars.Somelinguistsuseittosignalonlyspokenlanguageandrefertowrittenlanguageastext.3Mostdiscourseanalystsunderstanddiscoursetobeanactualinstanceoflanguageuse(seeJohnstone2002).OneofthefirsttousethetermwasZelligHarris,whoappearstohavedismisseditasaviablelinguisticunit.Hespecificallyruled2Alldata,unlessotherwisenoted,aretakenfrommyownfieldrecordingsinMoscowandSt.PetersburgandtranscribedbynativespeakersofRussian.ThisresearchhasbeenfundedbytheJohnSloaneDickeyCenterforInternationalUnderstandingandtheInternationalResearchandExchangesBoard(IREX).3ForadiscussionoftheuseofthisterminologyinRussian,seePetrova(2003).LenoreGrenoble,DiscourseAnalysis3outthekindofstudywhichdiscourseanalysisaimstodo,arguingthatdescriptivelinguisticsdoesnotconsider“stretches”oflanguageabovetheutterancelevel;that“anylongerdiscourseisdescribableasasuccessionofutterances,i.e.asuccessionofelementshavingthestatedinterrelations”(1951:12).Discourseanalysisisbasedontheopposingpremise,thattheinterrelationsbetweenutterancesarecritical,andthatthediscoursecannotbeunderstoodbyanalyzinglanguageattheutterancelevelalone.Ino