Discourse Studies: Theories and Methods Johannes Angermuller University of Warwick Centre for...
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Transcript of Discourse Studies: Theories and Methods Johannes Angermuller University of Warwick Centre for...
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
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
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