Discourse vs. Text

Is it discourse analysis

Or Text analysis?

• There has been some confusion in the literature regarding the distinction between ‘discourse analysis’ and ‘text analysis’.

• It is a result of the confusion in the terms ‘discourse’ and ‘text’.

Introduction

The Confusion

• Some researchers label their analysis ‘discourse analysis’, while others claim they are doing ‘text analysis’, but the difference is often inconsistent.

• Some claim to make clear distinctions between ‘discourse’ and ‘text’, but a closer look reveals that their distinctions do not hold.

Examples:Widdowson (1973)

• Text:

is made up of sentences.

- A text is made up of sentences having the property of grammatical cohesion.

-Text Analysis: deals with cohesion.

• Discourse:

is the use of such sentences.

- A discourse is made up of utterances having the property of coherence.

- Discourse analysis: investigates coherence.

Problems with the distinctions:

• It contradicts the known and well-established distinction between ‘sentence’ and ‘utterance’ in the literature.

• Widdowson did not maintain this distinction himself: In 1978 he argued that ‘discourse’ is made up of sentences having the properties of cohesion & coherence!

Another distinction

• Text:• Text is defined in

terms of its being a physical product.

• Meaning is not found in text.

• Discourse:• Discourse is viewed

as a process.

• Meaning is derived through the reader’s interaction with the text discourse.

Problems with such distinctions:

• There is considerable overlap between the findings of studies claiming to look at text as ‘product’ and of those claiming to investigate discourse as ‘process’.

• Thus, it is not necessary to maintain a distinction between discourse analysis and text analysis on the basis of investigating a process as opposed investigating a product.

Others

• Text:• written

• Text analysis: investigates written form

• Discourse:• Spoken

• Discourse analysis: analyzes spoken form.