What is Discourse Analysis?

Discourse analysis is the study of spoken and written “texts” that seeks to understand each part of the discourse in light of the whole discourse as well as its social, cultural, and historical context. While there are many approaches to discourse analysis, this website takes a Systemic Functional Linguistic[1] approach. Discourse analysis treats a text not simply as a set of propositions or grammatically related clauses, but as a tool that the author is using to achieve a social outcome. 

Discourse analysis seeks to understand the relationships between language, discourse, and situational context by drawing upon the insights of linguistics, anthropology, sociology, philosophy, communication theory, social psychology, rhetoric, and artificial intelligence. As a result, discourse analysis studies the text needs on three levels: the field,[2] tenor,[3] and mode[4] of the discourse. The field is what is happening in the author’s and readers’ world, the tenor is who is involved and how they are relating to each other, and the mode is how the text is configured to achieve the author’s goals.

Studying the ideational metafunction reveals the field of discourse by observing the way authors use various discourse features to present their view of the situation under discussion. Studying the interpersonal metafunction reveals the tenor of discourse by discovering the way authors use discourse features to navigate their relationship with the readers. Studying the textual metafunction reveals the mode of discourse by observing the way authors use various discourse features to create coherent and cohesive texts that are able to achieve their goals. 

Discourse analysis takes into account both the semantic and pragmatic aspects of the text. How an author chooses to structure a discourse affects its meaning and reveals the author’s goals. It studies the discourse features of the text to form an objective interpretation that is based on verifiable data. As a result, discourse analysis has predictive and explanatory power that enables interpreters to compare texts and demonstrate how those texts use various discourse features in different ways to achieve their unique goals. 

[1] Systemic Functional Linguistics treats language as a system of choices and makes the function of language central. 

[2] Halliday defines the field of discourse as “what’s going on in the situation.” M. A. K. Halliday and M. I. M. Matthiessen, An Introduction to Functional Grammar, 4th ed. (New York: Routledge, 2014), 33.

[3] Halliday defines the tenor of the discourse as “who is taking part in the situation.” Halliday and Matthiessen, An Introduction to Functional Grammar, 33.

[4] Halliday defines the mode of discourse as “what role is being played by language and other semiotic systems in the situation.” Halliday and Matthiessen, An Introduction to Functional Grammar, 33–34.