The Wanderings of the Linguistic Turn in Anglophone Historical Writing (original) (raw)

2002

Contents Preface vii 1. The field of discourse analysis 1 2. Laclau and Mouffe's discourse theory 24 3. Critical discourse analysis 60 4. Discursive psychology 96 5. Across the approaches 138 6. Critical social constructionist research 175 References 213 Index 223

Discourse Analysis (Co-Authored with Jake Nightlinger)

International Encyclopedia of Linguistic Anthropology, 2021

Discourse analysis (DA) refers to methods used to analyze the content, sociopolitical significance, and interactional effects of semiotic practices for the purpose of systematically showing how these practices shape social processes (Wortham and Reyes 2015, 1). While DA is used in a wide range of fields, this entry explores DA in linguistic anthropology and the related field of sociolinguistics. These fields root the analysis of discourse in the study of specific sign events, while also attending to the ways that these events presuppose, reflect upon, and create historical, political, economic, and cultural processes that move beyond discrete moments of interaction (Silverstein and Urban 1996; Wortham and Reyes 2015). Such sociocultural studies of discourse are rooted in a dialogical approach to language, which posits that the meaning and significance of discourse rests not only in its denotational content, but also in its interactional text: how people articulate those words, to whom, to what effect, when, and why (see Jakobson, Roman). The practice of DA in such studies involves the deconstruction of contextually linked events into their component parts to draw conclusions on the types of social action achieved through the use of signs, which signal how speakers evaluate and situate themselves among other participants and subjects. In conducting DA, scholars typically begin unpacking discrete events of interaction, and then track the use of signs across multiple events to claim that specific social actions have been accomplished, through this determining the relevant context (see Context and Contextualization; Language and Power).

Approahces to Discourse Analysis

Advances in Discourse Studies brings together contributions from top scholars in the fi eld, investigating the historical and theoretical relationships between new advances in discourse studies and pointing towards new directions for the future of the discipline. Covering areas such as conversation analysis, corpus-based discourse analysis and genre analysis, this book provides a unique survey of the most recent advances in methodology and approach to discourse analysis.