Discourse analysis studies the meaning behind written or spoken text, examining structure and context to determine why patterns are chosen. It offers a new perspective on problems and has been used since the 1950s in linguistics, social studies, psychology, and anthropology.
Discourse analysis is a method for studying and analyzing a text, whether written or spoken. This method doesn’t actually analyze a text when it comes to its structure and syntax, but the meaning behind these sentences; thus, the approach is often described as going ‘beyond the sentence’. Not only is discourse analysis a useful method in the field of linguistics, but it is also applied in other fields such as social studies, psychology and anthropology.
As the word “speech” suggests, the speech analysis method focuses on any text that can elicit any type of speech, a response of any type. In this way, it broadens the range of topics and subjects an analyst can use, such as medical journals, newspaper articles, and even a president’s speech or casual conversation. Take, for example, the medical journal: while the writer conveys his message through the book, the reader, in turn, responds by understanding the words or ignoring them. In this way, discourse analysis looks beyond the text by discovering what response, or discourse, the written word may elicit and why.
It can also examine the structure and pattern of a text, but only to examine why those patterns are chosen by the speaker. As in a politician’s speech, an analyst can focus on why politically correct terms like “economically disadvantaged” replace the word “poor.” Even small nuances like the length of a pause between sentences can convey meaning or an illicit response. In this way, an analysis like this also takes into consideration the context of the text and the environment in which it was placed.
The purpose and end result of a discourse analysis may not always be to give specific answers to a problem. By exploring a topic, it offers a new and broader perspective on the problem and exposes the small implications that hide behind the words. He then leaves it up to the readers to decide how to respond to the analysis and ultimately make their point. Simply put, discourse analysis does not answer, but interprets.
The discourse analysis method has been used since the 1950s. It has become useful in the study of language as a tool for social interaction. A prominent French theorist, Michel Foucault, even used the method to determine how people use speech to achieve “power.”
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