Orgin Of Discourse Analysis

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02 Nov 2017

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Discourse Analysis

Sometimes, it is difficult to define Discourse Analysis because Discourse analysts have not agreed on specific definitions of this phenomenon. What we can do therefore is to review broad definitions some analysts have given DA. Thereafter we would consider principles and concepts of DA that are basic to the present study. Our argument in this respect is that stylistics analysis can benefit from different linguistic approaches which contribute to the interpretation and understanding of text. Among such scholars are Brown and Yule (1983:viii) who say that :

Discourse Analysis has come to be used with a wide range of meanings

which cover a wide range of activities. It is used to describe activities of

the intersection of disciplines as sociolinguistics, psycholinguistics,

philosophical linguistics and computational linguistics... the analysis of

discourse, is necessarily, the analysis of LANGUAGE IN USE.

Brown and Yule's definition of restricts DA to sociolinguistics because it does not give allowance to allied studies. To fill this gap, Stubbs (1983:1) says DA: 'attempts to study the organisation of language above sentence or above the clause and therefore to study larger linguistic units, such as conversational exchanges or written texts ... '. Stubbs' definition emphasizes unit of analysis above the sentence but limits DA to organization of language above the sentence or the clause . Schiffrin (1987:1-2) says DA is too vast and should not be restricted to a particular discipline. She argues that:

It should not really be surprising that discourse analysis is so

vast and diffuse like pragmatics and sociolinguistics. It has

its intellectual roots not only in linguistics, but in the social

science and philosophy.

On hindsight, Schffrin (1994:363) argues that approaches to DA includes study of text because it contributes to the communication content of written or spoken text. she goes further to say :

'In terms utterances, then, -written or spoken- 'text' is the linguistic content; the stable semantic meanings of words, expressions, and sentences are used'. Schiffrin's definition drives the phenomenon in another direction opens ways to further definitions of DA by scholars from different fields.

While, Fasold (1990) says discourse analysis is the study of any aspect of language use, Candlin, 1997) says discourse analysis deals with the study of language in use. To Slembbrouck (2005), DA is ambiguous and provides a wider definition:

The term discourse analysis is very ambiguous. I will use it ... to refer

mainly to the linguistic analysis of naturally occurring connected speech

or written discourse. Roughly speaking, it refers to attempts to study the

organisation of language above sentence or above clause, and therefore

to study larger linguistic units...such as written text. Slembbrouck (2005:1)

A fundamental characteristic feature of DA is its being multidisciplinary. It operates beyond Linguistics border into other fields such as Stylistics and others. Dijk (2002) emphasises the multidisciplinary capability of DA in these words:

... discourse analysis for me is essentially multidisciplinary, and involves

linguistics, poetics, semiotics, psychology, sociology, anthropology, history,

and communication research. What I find crucial though is that precisely

because of its multi-faceted nature, this multidisciplinary research should be

intergraded. (Dijk 2002:10)

We can infer from the above that text analysis is not purely about linguistic facts but also about literary and cultural aspects; attention should be given to language use and other aspects of the text. We can therefore conclude that discourse analysis as a research method is not restricted to linguistics but other fields such as literary criticism, communication studies, stylistics and other allied disciplines. Johnstone (2000), succinctly captures our view:

...I see discourse analysis as research method that can be (and is being)

used by scholars with a variety of academic and non-academic affiliations,

coming from a variety of disciplines, to answer a variety of questions.

(Johnstone, 2000:xi)

From various definitions given by different scholars, Two facts stand out. One there seems to be a general definition of DA , which is, the study of language in use. Two, what DA as research method analyzes is the text which could either be written or spoken. We can now proceed to look at the origin of DA.

Orgin of Discourse Analysis

To say with certainty when DA began would a tedious task because scholars at different periods and from various disciplines did studies that culminated in the birth of DA. However, we can trace its origin to the difference between referential and social functions of languages which is of importance to conversational analysts such as Durkhelm (1859) and Simnel (1898). They both held the view that discourse has remained one of the natural interfaces between linguistics and sociology. Dijk offers a more specific account of origin of Discourse Analysis. He says:

Its origins can be traced back to the study of language, public speech, and literature

more than 2000 years ago. One major historical source is undoubtedly classical rhetoric, the art of good speaking. Whereas the grammatica, the historical antecedent of linguistics, was concerned with the normative rules of correct language use, its sister discipline of rhetorica dealt with the precepts for the planning, organization, specific operations, and performance of public speech in political and legal settings. Its crucial concern, therefore, was persuasive effectiveness. In this sense, classical rhetoric both anticipates contemporary stylistics and structural analyses of discourse and contains intuitive cognitive and social psychological notions about memory organization and attitude change in communicative contexts. After some important revivals in the Middle Ages and the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, however, rhetoric lost much of its importance in the curricula of schools and in academic research.

He states further that:

The emergence of historical and comparative linguistics at the beginning of the nineteenth century and the birth of structural analysis of language at the beginning of the twentieth century ... and developments in several fields of the humanities and the social sciences eventually led to the emergence of discourse analysis.

We must report that around this period, many other schools of thought began to emerge. These new schools held a common belief that linguistic description should move beyond the sentence. They argued that there are other aspects of language that cannot be comprehended if its study is restricted to syntactic analysis of sentences of a text. With this common belief, the field of Linguistics witnessed emergence of new disciplines within itself. These include: Functionalism, Cognitive Linguistics, Pragmatics, Text Linguistics, Sociolinguistics and Discourse Analysis. These new disciplines have similar features which make them interrelated. Bernardez's, (1999) explanation of interrelatedness of the tenets of these disciplines are summarized by Alba-Juez, (1999:11) as follows:

(i) Language only exists in use and communication. It always fulfils certain functions in human interaction.

(ii) Language is not autonomous. It shares some characteristics with other social and cognitive phenomena.

(iii) Linguistics structures should be closely linked to the conditions of language use.

(iv) The description of language must account for the real facts of language. It should not postulate hidden entities only motivated by the needs of the formal system utilized.

(v) Language is natural and necessarily vague and inaccurate; therefore any prediction can only be probabilistic.

The above presupposes that using Discourse Analysis as research method would allow us to analyse our text from different disciplines that related to, and share the same principles with DA.

Notably, 1970s were significant in the development of DA. During the period, the first books that explicitly dealt with DA as an independent research methodology that could be applied in several disciplines were published. From then, DA began to focus on stylistic analysis. The work of Labov (1972) was notable in this regard. Also in this category were Mass and Wunderlich, (1972) and Sadock, 1974. These works added a new perspectives to the methodology of study of language.

As earlier stated, what DA, as research methodology does is to analyse text, It is appropriate therefore to define text within the context of Discourse Analysis and purview of the present study. We shall begin our definition of text from an elementary approach. he term text is sometimes loosely used. It accommodates any written material and the writings that form the main part of a magazine or newspapers other than pictures. Text is also used to refer to a book or other piece of writing that is connected with reading for information or entertainment purposes. Other forms of text include a speech, an article, an excerpt or extract from books magazines and newspapers. Our study favours these definitions because our corpora for analysis are taken from Yoruba newspapers. De Beaugrande and Dressler (1981), (as cited in Alba-Juez, (1999:6) define text as a communicative event that must satisfy certain criteria such as:

Informativity

Acceptability

Coherence

Cohesion

Intertexuality

Intentionality

Situationality

The above criteria help us in our analysis of headlines of the Yoruba newspapers as well as at the level of language use of Yoruba newspaper writers.



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