Discourse Studies: Theories and Methods

Johannes AngermullerUniversity of Warwick

Centre for Applied Linguistics (CAL)http://www.johannes-angermuller.net

What is Discourse Studies?

Discourse Studies as • an intellectual fad?• a method? • an orientation?• a field of research?Discourse Studies = Discourse theory + discourse analysis in a variety of fields and orientations

Overview

1 Introducing the topic and ourselves 2 Mapping Discourse Studies

a) Theoryb) Analysisc) Fieldsd) Orientations

3 Analysing discourse as a positioning practice

Introduction: Discourse Studies as a transdisciplinary field

Discourse as social production of meaning in interactive situations and large communitiesDiscourse Studies integrates theories and methods to account for discourse in the social sciencesKey features:• Discourse as constitutive of the social• Subjectivity as a discursive effect• Meaning-making practices in context• Institutional and societal relevance

Discourse theory in the SSH

1 Taking up the intellectual place once held by Marxism and psychoanalysis

2 Adversaries a) Causalist (“positivist”) strands in social

researchb) Universalism in letters and humanities

Three strands of discourse theory

1 Poststructuralism“Continental” tradition (Jacques Lacan, Louis Althusser, Michel Pêcheux, Michel Foucault, Jacques Derrida, Laclau/Mouffe, Judith Butler, Slavoj Žižek)Key features:– Decentring the subject, actor, author– “Undoing” structure, system, power– Deconstructive critique

Discourse theories II

2 Normative-deliberative strandsa) Jürgen Habermas: reaching agreement

in the public sphereb) Jean-François Lyotard: differendc) Luc Boltanski: actors as moral agents

3 Critical realisma) Bob Jessop: cultural political economyb) Norman Fairclough: Critical Discourse

Analysis (CDA)

Discourse theories III

4 Interactionism and pragmaticsa) George H. Mead: symbolic actionb) Harvey Sacks: conversation analysisc) John Austin: speech acts

The triangle of discourse theory

Discourse

Power

SubjectivityKnowledge

Discourse analysis

1 Discourse analysis as a methodological project: applying methods to analyse empirical material in order to study an object

a) Qualitative (interactionism) vs. quantitative (corpus analysis) methods

b) Semantics versus pragmatics

2 Alternative methodological projectsa) Content analysis (communication sciences)b) Hermeneutics (history)

Discourse analysis as a subdisciplinary field

Pragmatics as the interdisciplinary space of language & society studying uses of texts in contextsAdjacent fields:

a) Conversation analysisb) Sociolinguisticsc) Linguistic anthropologyd) Semioticse) Corpus analysisf) Sociology of languageg) Rhetorics

The triangle of discourse analysis

Discourse

Language

ContextPractice

The triangle of discourse theory

Discourse

Power

Practice

Subjectivity

Context

Knowledge

Language

Orientations

Four ideal-typical orientations1 Interdiscourse (‘French

poststructuralism’)2 Interaction (‘American pragmatism’)3 Language in use (‘English

pragmatics’)4 Understanding the meaningful whole

(‘German hermeneutics’)

Analysing discourse as a positioning practice

Poststructuralist theorya) Discourse as a space where order

needs to be constitutedb) Construction of subject positions as

existential challenge

Pragmatic methodologyc) Enunciative pragmaticsd) Utterances as smallest unitse) Indexical references to its many

‘speakers’

What is an utterance?

An utterance refers to a locutor... (1) is hot a it day (2) L (locutor): ‘it is a hot day’

...and enunciators via markers(3) it is not a hot day(3’) l: ‘it’s a hot day’(3’’) a: No, l is not right!

How are positions constructed in utterances?

George Osborne (03/11/14, Guardian):“I’m someone who wants to stay in the EU,” he said. “I think that’s right for Britain, but it has to be a reformed EU.”Nigel Farage (10/10/14, Guardian):“We want people who have trade and skills. But we do not want people with criminal records and we cannot afford to have people with life threatening diseases.”Nick Clegg (08/10/14, Guardian):“The Liberal Democrats will borrow less than Labour, but we’ll cut less than the Tories.”

How are positions constructed in utterances?

George Osborne (03/11/14, Guardian):(1) “I’m someone who wants to stay in the EU,” he said. (2) “I think that’s right for Britain, (3) but it has to be a reformed EU.”L (Osborne): for stayingP->A (?): “Staying means EU is good.”L (Osborne): for reform of EU

How are positions constructed in utterances?

Nigel Farage (10/10/14, Guardian):“We want people who have trade and skills. But we do not want people with criminal records and we cannot afford to have people with life threatening diseases.”L (Farage): for qualified immigrants.P->A1 (?): “We want all qualified Immigrants.”A2 (?): “We want criminal and sick immigrants.”L (Farage): No, A2.

How are positions constructed in utterances?

Nick Clegg (08/10/14, Guardian):“The Liberal Democrats will borrow less than Labour, but we’ll cut less than the Tories.”L (Clegg): for lowering debts.P->A (?): “Lower debts mean cuts.”L (Clegg): for fewer cuts.

How are positions constructed in utterances?

Ed Miliband (20/09/14, Guardian):“Constitutional change matters, but we know that something else matters even more: this country doesn't work for most working people.”L (Miliband): Scotland importantP->A (?): “Keeping Scotland in means giving up on all other questions.”L (Clegg): for working people

References and links

Angermuller, Johannes/Maingueneau, Dominique/Wodak, Ruth (eds) (2014): The Discourse Studies Reader. Main Currents in Theory and Analysis. Amsterdam, Philadelphia: John BenjaminsTexts and presentation:http://johannes-angermuller.net/english/teaching/aktuell.html