Blackwell Reference Online

Extract

One tends to simplistically think that the speaker is in the center of place, and the place passively receives the effect from the speaker. But this view is contrary to how the place of talk functions. The speaker is the one influenced by place; place is acting and the speaker is receiving. The place influences, and in fact defines, the speaker. Speaker does not merely speak “in” the place; the speaker is defined “by” the place. Mio 1948: 21, my translation Discourse analysis is usually defined in two related ways. First, discourse analysis examines linguistic phenomena of real-life communication beyond the sentence level. Second, discourse analysis views functions of language as primary rather than its form. These two aspects are emphasized in two different books (both bearing the title Discourse Analysis and published in 1983). Stubbs (1983: 1) aligns with the first position by saying that discourse analysis refers “mainly to the linguistic analysis of naturally occurring connected spoken or written discourse” and it “attempts to study the organization of language above the sentence or above the clause.” G. Brown and Yule (1983: 1) take the second position, stating that discourse analysis is “the analysis of language in use,” and “it cannot be restricted to the description of linguistic forms independent of the purposes or functions which those forms are designed to serve in ... log in or subscribe to read full text