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DISCOURSE ANALYSIS AND ITS TYPES

INTRODUCTION

There is several import linguistics who have attempt to analyze the meaning ofDiscourse Analysis, and they have given important information to work in this

field. Beaugrandes says that the Discourse analysis is the study of language in

use; meanwhile Schiffrin claims that DA involves the study of both text and

context; Slembrouk says that DA is a complex due to its ambiguity and he

gives a definition that refers to the study of the organization of language above

the sentence of above the clause, that is to say that DA refers to the use of

language in social context.

Therefore we are going to assume the following definition of Discourse

analysis, which is an approach that analyze discourse (linguistic units largerthan a sentence that could be spoken or written), including especially the

relationship between linguistic expressions and the context in which they

occur, and its relationship between the speaker or writer and auditor o reader.

DA is related with the social and cultural aspects which are involved in a

language. Therefore the goal of the discourse analyst, is to explore the

relationship between discourse and reality, interpret a hidden meaning, and

mediate it between the past and present1.

Discourse analysis has different types of schools of thought, which have

common characteristics they do not focus on language like an abstract

system. Istead, they all tend to be interested in what happens when people

uselanguage, based on what they have said, heard or seen before, as well as

they do things with language, such express feelings, entertain others,

exchange information, and so on. This is the main reason why the discipline

has been called Discourse Analysis rather than language analysis.2

1 Bondarouk, Tatyana. Rul, Huub, University. Discoursse Analysis: making Complex Methodology Simple.

Pag.52Juez. Laura Alba. Persepectives on Discourse Analysis: Theory and practice. Cambridge Scholars Publishing.

20009. ISBN (10): 1-4438-0597-1,ISBN (13): 978-1-4438-0597-1. Pag.15

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CRITICAL DISCOURSE ANALYSIS

Society is changing very fast in terms of technological advance, relationship

between development and underdeveloped countries, gender relationship,

agreement about the care of the environment, new ethical dilemmas,

terrorism, and other aspects which have contributed to the change of the

world.

Hence the linguistics has explored new fields to analyse the social, politic,

cultural, economic relations, through the Critical Discourse Analisys.

Critical Discourse Analysis is an analytical approach which helps to identify the

relationship of power exists in the society.It starts from social issues and

problems which face people in their social lives, issues which are taken up

within sociology, political, science and/or cultural studies

3

.

For Teun A. Van Dijk, Critical discourse analysis (CDA) is a type of discourseanalytical research that primarily studies the way social power abuse,dominance, and inequality are enacted, reproduced, and resisted by text and

3McHHow,Alec. Rapley, Mark. How to Analyze Talk in Institutional Settings: A Casebook of Methods.

British Library inPublication Data. 2009 ISBN 0-8264-5464-X. Pag 26

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talk in the social and political context. With such dissident research, criticaldiscourse analysts take explicit position, and thus want to understand, expose,and ultimately resist social inequality4

The CDA can be studied in two levels: micro level, which refers to the verbal

interaction, communication and discourse; macrolevel: dominance, power and

inequality. For instance, a sexism speech in the constitutional Assembly is a

discourse at the microlevel of social interaction when the Assembly members

are debating about the theme, but when it is enacted in legislation belong to

the macrolevel.

Another aspect related with CDA is the power as a control; there are different

types of forms of power carried out depending on the resources that are

employed (money, status, fame, knowledge). This power may be evidenced in

Military Force, due the coercive power; infringement of the rights of women,

because of violent men, also with people, who have the knowledge and theyare good public speakers, can convince and persuade others to exercise power

over them, like Hitler did with the Germans.

Other form of power is related with controlling peoples mind, CDA also

focuses on how discourse structures influence mental representations. At the

global level of discourse, topics may influence what people see as the most

important.

CONVERSATIONAL ANALYSIS

The process of social interaction between people is studied by ConversationalAnalysis, focused mainly on talk, and the nonverbal aspects. Conversation

analysis (CA) studies the methods participants orient to when they organize

social action through talk. It investigates rules and practices from an

interactional perspective and studies them by examining recordings of real-life

interactions5

The main representatives of this theory are the sociologists Erving Goffman,

who studied the cultural rules and rituals in face to face interaction, and

Harold Garfinkel with his investigations into the situated and normative

character of shared understanding in everyday courses of action.

CA use videos and audio recording to analyze the interaction of people in a

natural manners, it could be turn talking, sequence structure, and also medical

and clinical interaction, lessons, or new interviews. Additionally, CA studies the

4IBIDEM

5H Mazeland, University of Groningen, Groningen, The Netherlands. Conversation Analysis. 2006. Pag. 153

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interaction between relatives, and members of an institution, through ordinary

conversation.

To be accurate in the analysis of CA, it used the transcription notation to keepthe details which help to retain the features of prosody and turn talking.

CA Preferred and dispreferred second pair parts, and its Analysis of thediscourse connectors, turn-taking and the patterned nature of adjacency pairsand hesitations. Other aspect is related with the feedback, due the attentionsignals in verbal or non-verbal form is really important because the speakerwants to know if the listener is paying attention to the conversation.

The theory of Conversation Analysis is focussed on:

a. The function actions, which consists in the function of the interactionin a social action and its communicative effect.

b. The importance of context, It is important not only the details andthe different manners to establish a communication process, with a

variety of linguistic forms to share our ideas, but also the person who

you are talking to, and in which context the communication takes place,

due to Changes in context can change the meaning of a given turn at

talk6

c. Recipient uptake, Conversation Analysis researchers recognize that a

receivers response gives meaning to a senders utterance7

6Logue D avid M. Stivers Tanya. Squawk in interaction: a primer of conversation analysis for students of

animal communication. 2012. Behaviour 149 (2012) 1283-12987IBIDEM