Introduction to Discourse Studies

This module will familiarise you with different theories in discourse studies and will provide practical skills and methods for analysing spoken, written and multimodal texts of different genres. It will involve hands-on practical work with texts which will help you acquire sufficient technical knowledge of linguistic description. More specifically, in this module we will approach discourse in two principal ways: on the one hand, we will regard discourse as structured use of language consisting of more than one sentence. The analysis of discourse in this sense will involve looking at the ways in which words, phrases and sentences hang together and make sense in context. On the other hand, we will consider discourse as language use as social practice that is influenced by, and influences, discourse practice and the wider social context. For example, we will speak of media discourse or political discourse and ask questions about their linguistic characteristics. We will also relate the texts that instantiate these discourses to the context of their production, distribution and reception, as well as to their wider social context.