Discourse meaning of the word

In linguistics, discourse refers to a unit of language longer than a single sentence. The word discourse is derived from the latin prefix dis- meaning «away» and the root word currere meaning «to run». Discourse, therefore, translates to «run away» and refers to the way that conversations flow. To study discourse is to analyze the use of spoken or written language in a social context.

Discourse studies look at the form and function of language in conversation beyond its small grammatical pieces such as phonemes and morphemes. This field of study, which Dutch linguist Teun van Dijk is largely responsible for developing, is interested in how larger units of language—including lexemes, syntax, and context—contribute meaning to conversations.

Definitions and Examples of Discourse

«Discourse in context may consist of only one or two words as in stop or no smoking. Alternatively, a piece of discourse can be hundreds of thousands of words in length, as some novels are. A typical piece of discourse is somewhere between these two extremes,» (Hinkel and Fotos 2001).

«Discourse is the way in which language is used socially to convey broad historical meanings. It is language identified by the social conditions of its use, by who is using it and under what conditions. Language can never be ‘neutral’ because it bridges our personal and social worlds,» (Henry and Tator 2002).

Contexts and Topics of Discourse

The study of discourse is entirely context-dependent because conversation involves situational knowledge beyond just the words spoken. Often times, meaning cannot be extrapolated from an exchange merely from its verbal utterances because there are many semantic factors involved in authentic communication.

«The study of discourse…can involve matters like context, background information or knowledge shared between a speaker and hearer,» (Bloor and Bloor 2013).

Subcategories of Discourse

«Discourse can…be used to refer to particular contexts of language use, and in this sense, it becomes similar to concepts like genre or text type. For example, we can conceptualize political discourse (the sort of language used in political contexts) or media discourse (language used in the media).

In addition, some writers have conceived of discourse as related to particular topics, such as an environmental discourse or colonial discourse…Such labels sometimes suggest a particular attitude towards a topic (e.g. people engaging in environmental discourse would generally be expected to be concerned with protecting the environment rather than wasting resources). Related to this, Foucault…defines discourse more ideologically as ‘practices which systematically form the objects of which they speak’,» (Baker and Ellece 2013).

Discourse in Social Sciences

«Within social science…discourse is mainly used to describe verbal reports of individuals. In particular, discourse is analyzed by those who are interested in language and talk and what people are doing with their speech. This approach [studies] the language used to describe aspects of the world and has tended to be taken by those using a sociological perspective,» (Ogden 2002).

Common Ground

Discourse is a joint activity requiring active participation from two or more people, and as such is dependent on the lives and knowledge of two or more people as well as the situation of the communication itself. Herbert Clark applied the concept of common ground to his discourse studies as a way of accounting for the various agreements that take place in successful communication.

«Discourse is more than a message between sender and receiver. In fact, sender and receiver are metaphors that obfuscate what is really going on in communication. Specific illocutions have to be linked to the message depending on the situation in which discourse takes place…Clark compares language in use with a business transaction, paddling together in a canoe, playing cards or performing music in an orchestra.

A central notion in Clark’s study is common ground. The joint activity is undertaken to accumulate the common ground of the participants. With common ground is meant the sum of the joint and mutual knowledge, beliefs and suppositions of the participants,» (Renkema 2004).

Sources

• Baker, Paul, and Sibonile Ellece. Key Terms in Discourse Analysis. 1st ed., Bloomsbury Academic, 2013.
• Bloor, Meriel, and Thomas Bloor. Practice of Critical Discourse Analysis: An Introduction. Routledge, 2013.
• Henry, Frances, and Carol Tator. Discourses of Domination: Racial Bias in the Canadian English-Language Press. University of Toronto, 2002.
• Hinkel, Eli, and Sandra Fotos, editors. New Perspectives on Grammar Teaching in Second Language Classrooms. Lawrence Erlbaum, 2001.
• Ogden, Jane. Health and the Construction of the Individual. Routledge, 2002.
• Renkema, Jan. Introduction to Discourse Studies. John Benjamins, 2004.
• Van Dijk, Teun Adrianus. Handbook of Discourse Analysis. Academic, 1985.

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Discourse is a generalization of the notion of a conversation to any form of communication.^[1] Discourse is a major topic in social theory, with work spanning fields such as sociology, anthropology, continental philosophy, and discourse analysis. Following pioneering work by Michel Foucault, these fields view discourse as a system of thought, knowledge, or communication that constructs our experience of the world. Since control of discourse amounts to control of how the world is perceived, social theory often studies discourse as a window into power. Within theoretical linguistics, discourse is understood more narrowly as linguistic information exchange and was one of the major motivations for the framework of dynamic semantics, in which expressions’ denotations are equated with their ability to update a discourse context.

[edit]

In the humanities and social sciences, discourse describes a formal way of thinking that can be expressed through language. Discourse is a social boundary that defines what statements can be said about a topic. Many definitions of discourse are largely derived from the work of French philosopher Michel Foucault. In sociology, discourse is defined as «any practice (found in a wide range of forms) by which individuals imbue reality with meaning».^[2]

Political science sees discourse as closely linked to politics^[3][4] and policy making.^[5] Likewise, different theories among various disciplines understand discourse as linked to power and state, insofar as the control of discourses is understood as a hold on reality itself (e.g. if a state controls the media, they control the «truth»). In essence, discourse is inescapable, since any use of language will have an effect on individual perspectives. In other words, the chosen discourse provides the vocabulary, expressions, or style needed to communicate. For example, two notably distinct discourses can be used about various guerrilla movements, describing them either as «freedom fighters» or «terrorists».

In psychology, discourses are embedded in different rhetorical genres and meta-genres that constrain and enable them—language talking about language. This is exemplified in the APA’s Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, which tells of the terms that have to be used in speaking about mental health, thereby mediating meanings and dictating practices of professionals in psychology and psychiatry.^[6]

Modernism[edit]

Modernist theorists were focused on achieving progress and believed in the existence of natural and social laws which could be used universally to develop knowledge and thus a better understanding of society.^[7] Such theorists would be preoccupied with obtaining the «truth» and «reality», seeking to develop theories which contained certainty and predictability.^[8] Modernist theorists therefore understood discourse to be functional.^[9] Discourse and language transformations are ascribed to progress or the need to develop new or more «accurate» words to describe new discoveries, understandings, or areas of interest.^[9] In modernist theory, language and discourse are dissociated from power and ideology and instead conceptualized as «natural» products of common sense usage or progress.^[9] Modernism further gave rise to the liberal discourses of rights, equality, freedom, and justice; however, this rhetoric masked substantive inequality and failed to account for differences, according to Regnier.^[10]

Structuralism (Saussure & Lacan)[edit]

Structuralist theorists, such as Ferdinand de Saussure and Jacques Lacan, argue that all human actions and social formations are related to language and can be understood as systems of related elements.^[11] This means that the «individual elements of a system only have significance when considered in relation to the structure as a whole, and that structures are to be understood as self-contained, self-regulated, and self-transforming entities».^[11]: 17 In other words, it is the structure itself that determines the significance, meaning and function of the individual elements of a system. Structuralism has made an important contribution to our understanding of language and social systems.^[12] Saussure’s theory of language highlights the decisive role of meaning and signification in structuring human life more generally.^[11]

Poststructuralism (Foucault)[edit]

Following the perceived limitations of the modern era, emerged postmodern theory.^[7] Postmodern theorists rejected modernist claims that there was one theoretical approach that explained all aspects of society.^[8] Rather, postmodernist theorists were interested in examining the variety of experiences of individuals and groups and emphasized differences over similarities and common experiences.^[9]

In contrast to modernist theory, postmodern theory is more fluid, allowing for individual differences as it rejects the notion of social laws. Such theorists shifted away from truth-seeking, and instead sought answers for how truths are produced and sustained. Postmodernists contended that truth and knowledge are plural, contextual, and historically produced through discourses. Postmodern researchers therefore embarked on analyzing discourses such as texts, language, policies, and practices.^[9]

Foucault[edit]

In the works of the philosopher Michel Foucault, a discourse is “an entity of sequences, of signs, in that they are enouncements (énoncés).”^[13] The enouncement (l’énoncé, “the statement”) is a linguistic construct that allows the writer and the speaker to assign meaning to words and to communicate repeatable semantic relations to, between, and among the statements, objects, or subjects of the discourse.^[13] There exist internal relations among the signs (semiotic sequences) that are between and among the statements, objects, or subjects of the discourse. The term discursive formation identifies and describes written and spoken statements with semantic relations that produce discourses. As a researcher, Foucault applied the discursive formation to analyses of large bodies of knowledge, e.g. political economy and natural history.^[14]

In The Archaeology of Knowledge (1969), a treatise about the methodology and historiography of systems of thought (“epistemes”) and of knowledge (“discursive formations”), Michel Foucault developed the concepts of discourse. The sociologist Iara Lessa summarizes Foucault’s definition of discourse as «systems of thoughts composed of ideas, attitudes, courses of action, beliefs, and practices that systematically construct the subjects and the worlds of which they speak.»^[15] Foucault traces the role of discourse in the legitimation of society’s power to construct contemporary truths, to maintain said truths, and to determine what relations of power exist among the constructed truths; therefore discourse is a communications medium through which power relations produce men and women who can speak.^[9]

The inter-relation between power and knowledge renders every human relationship into a power negotiation,^[16] because power is always present and so produces and constrains the truth.^[9] Power is exercised through rules of exclusion (discourses) that determine what subjects people can discuss; when, where, and how a person may speak; and determines which persons are allowed speak.^[13] That knowledge is both the creator of power and the creation of power, Foucault coined the term power-knowledge to show that an object becomes a «node within a network» of meanings. In The Archaeology of Knowledge, Foucault’s example is a book’s function as a node within a network meanings. The book does not exist as an individual object, but exists as part of a structure of knowledge that is «a system of references to other books, other texts, other sentences.» In the critique of power–knowledge, Foucault identified Neo-liberalism as a discourse of political economy which is conceptually related to governmentality, the organized practices (mentalities, rationalities, techniques) with which people are governed.^[17][18]

Interdiscourse studies the external semantic relations among discourses, because a discourse exists in relation to other discourses, e.g. books of history; thus do academic researchers debate and determine “What is a discourse?” and “What is not a discourse?” in accordance with the denotations and connotations (meanings) used in their academic disciplines.^[14]

Discourse analysis[edit]

In discourse analysis, discourse is a conceptual generalization of conversation within each modality and context of communication. In this sense, the term is studied in corpus linguistics, the study of language expressed in corpora (samples) of «real world» text.

Moreover, because a discourse is a body of text meant to communicate specific data, information, and knowledge, there exist internal relations in the content of a given discourse, as well as external relations among discourses. As such, a discourse does not exist per se (in itself), but is related to other discourses, by way of inter-discursive practices.

In Francois Rastier’s approach to semantics, discourse is understood as meaning the totality of codified language (i.e., vocabulary) used in a given field of intellectual enquiry and of social practice, such as legal discourse, medical discourse, religious discourse, etc.^[19] In this sense, along with that of Foucault’s in the previous section, the analysis of a discourse examines and determines the connections among language and structure and agency.

Formal semantics and pragmatics[edit]

In formal semantics and pragmatics, discourse is often viewed as the process of refining the information in a common ground. In some theories of semantics such as discourse representation theory, sentences’ denotations themselves are equated with functions which update a common ground.^{[20][21][22][23]}

See also[edit]

References[edit]

Further reading[edit]

• Foucault, Michel (1972) [1969]. Archaeology of Knowledge. New York: Pantheon Books. ISBN 978-0-415-28752-4.
• — (1977). Discipline and Punish. New York: Pantheon Books. ISBN 978-0-394-49942-0.
• — (1980). «Two Lectures,» in Power/Knowledge: Selected Interviews, edited by C. Gordon. New York; Pantheon Books.
• — (2003). Society Must Be Defended. New York: Picador. ISBN 978-0-312-42266-0.
• McHoul, Alec; Grace, Wendy (1993). A Foucault Primer: Discourse, Power, and the Subject. Melbourne: Melbourne University Press. ISBN 978-0-8147-5480-1.
• Motion, J.; Leitch, S. (2007). «A Toolbox for Public Relations: The Oeuvre of Michel Foucault». Public Relations Review. 33 (3): 263–268. doi:10.1016/j.pubrev.2007.05.004. hdl:1959.3/76588.
• R. Mullaly, Robert (1997). Structural Social Work: Ideology, Theory, and Practice (2nd ed.). New York City: Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-7710-6673-3.
• Howard, Harry. (2017). «Discourse 2.» Brain and Language, Tulane University. [PowerPoint slides].
• Norton, Bonny (1997). «Language, identity, and the ownership of English». TESOL Quarterly. 31 (3): 409–429. doi:10.2307/3587831. JSTOR 3587831.
• Sunderland, J. (2004). Gendered Discourses. New York City: Palgrave Macmillan.

External links[edit]

• DiscourseNet, an international association for discourse studies.
• Beyond open access: open discourse, the next great equalizer, Retrovirology 2006, 3:55
• Discourse (Lun) in the Chinese tradition

English[edit]

Etymology[edit]

From Middle English discours, borrowed from Middle French discours (“conversation, speech”), from Latin discursus (“the act of running about”), from Latin discurrō (“run about”), from dis- (“apart”) + currō (“run”). Spelling modified by influence of Middle French cours (“course”). Doublet of discursus.

Pronunciation[edit]

• (mainly noun) IPA^(key): /ˈdɪskɔː(ɹ)s/
• (mainly verb) IPA^(key): /dɪsˈkɔː(ɹ)s/
• (rhotic, without the horse–hoarse merger) IPA^(key): /ˈdɪsko(ː)ɹs/, /dɪsˈko(ː)ɹs/
• (non-rhotic, without the horse–hoarse merger) IPA^(key): /ˈdɪskoəs/, /dɪsˈkoəs/
• Rhymes: (mainly verb) -ɔː(ɹ)s

Noun[edit]

discourse (countable and uncountable, plural discourses)

1. (uncountable, archaic) Verbal exchange, conversation.

   • c. 1587–1588, [Christopher Marlowe], Tamburlaine the Great. […] The First Part […], part 1, 2nd edition, London: […] [R. Robinson for] Richard Iones, […], published 1592, →OCLC; reprinted as Tamburlaine the Great (A Scolar Press Facsimile), Menston, Yorkshire; London: Scolar Press, 1973, →ISBN, Act III, scene ii:

     UUho when he ſhal embrace you in his arms
     UUil tell how many thouſand men he ſlew.
     And when you looke for amorous diſcourſe,
     Will rattle foorth his facts of war and blood: […]

   • Template:RQ:Charlotte Brontë Jane Eyre
2. (uncountable) Expression in words, either speech or writing.

   • 2012 March 1, Brian Hayes, “Pixels or Perish”, in American Scientist‎^[1], volume 100, number 2, page 106:

     Drawings and pictures are more than mere ornaments in scientific discourse. Blackboard sketches, geological maps, diagrams of molecular structure, astronomical photographs, MRI images, the many varieties of statistical charts and graphs: These pictorial devices are indispensable tools for presenting evidence, for explaining a theory, for telling a story.

3. (countable) A formal lengthy exposition of some subject, either spoken or written.

   The preacher gave us a long discourse on duty.

4. (countable) Any rational expression, reason.
   • 1692, Robert South, A Discourse Concerning The General Resurrection On Acts xxiv. 15

     difficult, strange, and harsh to the discourses of natural reason

   • c. 1599–1602 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Hamlet, Prince of Denmarke”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act IV, scene iv]:

     Sure he that made us with such large discourse, / Looking before and after, gave us not / That capability and godlike reason / To rust in us unused.

5. (social sciences, countable) An institutionalized way of thinking, a social boundary defining what can be said about a specific topic (after Michel Foucault).

   • 2007, Christine L. Marran, Poison Woman: Figuring Female Transgression in Modern Japanese Culture, page 137:

     Furthermore, it should be recalled from the previous chapter that criminological discourse of the 1930s deemed every woman a potential criminal, implicitly including the domestic woman.

   • 2008, Jane Anna Gordon, Lewis Gordon, A Companion to African-American Studies (page 308)

     But equally important to the emergence of uniquely African-American queer discourses is the refusal of African-American movements for liberation to address adequately issues of sexual orientation and gender identity.

   • 2019 July 3, Jess Schwalb, “Red Line Rebellion”, in Jewish Currents‎^[2]:

     Brown University’s Friday Night Jews (FNJ) […] began as an informal Shabbat dinner gathering in 2016, as a space for Jewish students who were feeling fed up with Hillel’s limitations regarding Israel/Palestine discourse, after the Brown/RISD Hillel rescinded sponsorship of a film screening by the Israeli nonprofit Zochrot, an organization that educates Jewish Israelis about the Nakba.

6. (obsolete) Dealing; transaction.

   • 1612 January 5 (first performance, Gregorian calendar; published 1619)​, Francis Beaumont; John Fletcher, “A King, and No King”, in Comedies and Tragedies […], London: […] Humphrey Robinson, […], and for Humphrey Moseley […], published 1679, →OCLC, Act II, scene i:

     Good Captain Bessus, tell us the discourse / Betwixt Tigranes and our king, and how / We got the victory.

Synonyms[edit]

• (expression in words): communication, expression
• (verbal exchange): debate, conversation, discussion, talk
• (formal lengthy exposition of some subject): dissertation, lecture, sermon, study, treatise
• (rational expression): ratiocination
• (views of a society): norm, Overton window

Derived terms[edit]

[edit]

• course
• discursive

Translations[edit]

Verb[edit]

discourse (third-person singular simple present discourses, present participle discoursing, simple past and past participle discoursed)

1. (intransitive) To engage in discussion or conversation; to converse.
2. (intransitive) To write or speak formally and at length.
3. (obsolete, transitive) To debate.
4. To exercise reason; to employ the mind in judging and inferring; to reason.
5. (obsolete, transitive) To produce or emit (musical sounds).

   • c. 1599–1602 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Hamlet, Prince of Denmarke”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act III, scene ii]:

     Hamlet. […] Will you play upon this pipe? […] It is as easy as lying. Govern these ventages with your fingers and thumbs, give it breath with your mouth, and it will discourse most eloquent music.

   • 1911, James George Frazer, The Golden Bough: A Study in Magic and Religion, Volume II, Part II, Chapter V, p. 233, [3]

     Music discoursed on that melodious instrument, a Jew’s harp, keeps the elfin women away from the hunter, because the tongue of the instrument is of steel.

   • 1915, Ralph Henry Barbour, The Secret Play, New York: D. Appleton & Co., Chapter XXIII, p. 300 [4]

     Dahl’s Silver Cornet Band, augmented for the occasion to the grand total of fourteen pieces, discoursed sweet—well, discoursed music; let us not be too particular as to the quality of it.

Synonyms[edit]

• (engage in discussion or conversation): converse, talk

Derived terms[edit]

• discourser

Translations[edit]

See also[edit]

• essay

Anagrams[edit]

• discoures, ruscoside

The title discourse furnishes a central theme to which those following stand in relation. ❋ Gaius Glenn Atkins (1912)

Critically, the crux of the entire process in the development of these works was for Ravi the concept of Sannidhi which in traditional Indian aesthetic discourse translates as ‘proximity’ or ‘close by’ or ‘in the presence’. ❋ Unknown (2010)

Her book, which first appeared in French in 2008, combines three strands: a study of events; a detailed account of the social, economic, religious, cultural, political and administrative context of 12th-century Syria and Egypt; and an unrelenting investigation of what she calls the «discourse.» ❋ Christopher Tyerman (2011)

All that comes from debasing the discourse is a spoiled public forum. ❋ Unknown (2010)

How it shapes our discourse is a worthy topic for consideration. ❋ SVGL (2009)

By the way, using a script exotic to a discourse is a gratuitous and low form of argument. ❋ Unknown (2005)

I am the bread of life — Henceforth the discourse is all in the first person, «I,» «Me,» which occur in one form or other, as Stier reckons, thirty-five times. he that cometh to me — to obtain what the soul craves, and as the only all-sufficient and ordained source of supply. hunger … thirst — shall have conscious and abiding satisfaction. ❋ Unknown (1871)

Like Foucault, Kittler diagnosed the present through what he called discourse analysis — the excavation of the underlying structure of human practices. ❋ Stuart Jeffries (2011)

Severing political discussion from decision and action, however, focuses the locus of Habermasian politics strictly on discussion and what he calls a discourse theory of democracy. ❋ Unknown (2009)

McD reminds me of cruelly ridiculing your spouse at a cocktail party just for a cheap laugh; tells all around you reams abut your character and integrity; what a putz; and — whose payroll is he on? ours? guess loyality is relative; sell out your country and troops and call it «discourse» or «free speech» or «constructive criticism» so you can sleep at night. libs will surely be our collective death; ❋ Unknown (2006)

If you ask me, one of the most disturbing trends in American public discourse is the incredibly provincialism and solipsism of a lot of our policy debate. ❋ Unknown (2009)

The tone of most Internet discourse is historically libertarian, and Republicans did pretty well online for many years. ❋ Unknown (2009)

This level of discourse is “high school stoner speculation” stupid. ❋ Unknown (2009)

The discourse is how we find out what happened; the way the story gets told. ❋ Rebecca Tushnet (2009)

Still, though, we have ever-increasing access to information already, and the national discourse is decomposing before our eyes. ❋ Tom Toles (2010)

I am confident that I should not be trying to appear ‘English’ and hence, any directness or lack of tentativeness typical of Greek discourse, is certain to have crept into the way I use English. ❋ Unknown (2010)

But academic discourse is such a particular thing. ❋ Unknown (2009)

For me — and I think for a lot of people — the moment that «sanity» left the building in American discourse came in late 2002 and early 2003, when it became clear that Dick Cheney, George W. Bush, Paul Halfwits, and their minions were dead set on invading Iraq. ❋ Will Bunch (2010)

Human rights discourse is an essentially individualistic framework, whereas most cultures of the global South (or third world) are formed on a communitarian value system. ❋ Unknown (2009)

Their discourse was widely varied; they discussed [everything] from [Chaucer] to [ice fishing]. ❋ Danny_Luv17 (2008)

[Eagleton] is invoking an ethical obligation on the part of the intellectual to speak for, but also to, those whose consciousness is [lagging] behind whatever Hegelian discourse of [utopian] progress is being espoused.
I had a discourse with your mom last night. ❋ Bigtrick (2006)

You gotta be [Extremely Online] to [keep up with] the [discourse] ❋ Klaudunski (2021)

[Can’t wait] for the new [discourse] this [saturday] ❋ Commissar_nik (2021)

«No students what is the [discourse] of this [piece] of [text]» . . . . . . . . WTF! ❋ Wadup (2005)

[nerd]: [modern] discourses
[steve]: your fucking gay ❋ Taller Than You Kk Ty (2009)

I pointed out that murder was already illegal and that making it moreso with a special [gun murder] [statute] was a bit silly. [Reasoned discourse] broke out, and my comment vanished from the blog. ❋ GCynic (2012)

Hym «Sooo… The public [discourse] being democratized if bad (because why should a [golden god] have to acknowledge a peasant? He should be doing what everyone else is doing. And everyone else should be doing what I tell them. Then everything would be better for everyone.) but identity being democratized is good? That’s how people end up getting [lobotomized] or thrown in an oven. ..» ❋ Hym Iam (2022)

White lesbians [gatekeeping] [dyke], a word originated by black lesbians by not allowing bisexual people to say it is an example of [slur discourse]. ❋ Ihatepinkmonkeys (2021)

[Anne] runs a discourse account called ‘fairy.course’ on instagram. Anne has never [touched] a single [blade of grass] in her life. ❋ Boobie Fan 69 (2021)