Discourse and Discourse Analysis

Discourse Analysis

In this course Dr Sean Sutherland (University of Westminster) explores discourse analysis. In the first lecture, we provide an introduction to the terms discourse and discourse analysis. In the second lecture, we think about different types of discourse, including written, spoken, multimodal and signed. In the third lecture, we explore the concepts of coherence and cohesion, before turning in the fourth lecture to think about some sociological aspects of discourse analysis, focusing in particular on the question of why some people react negatively to ‘non-standards’ uses of language, e.g. slang, non-standard grammar, etc. In the fifth lecture we provide some pointers for analysing any genre of text, from newspaper articles to recipes, before turning in the sixth lecture to think specifically about critical discourse analysis: how does the way we use language contribute to how power is distributed in society?

Discourse and Discourse Analysis

In this lecture we provide an introduction to the terms discourse and discourse analysis, focusing in particular on: (i) the potential different meanings of the sentence “I am hungry”; (ii) the concepts of context and co-text; and (iii) the concepts of context of place and context of time, and the potential for both to influence what a text means.