Substantial thanks are due to van Dijk for assembling
his two-volume “Discourse studies” collection,
which introduces this multi-disciplinary field to a wide
readership. In this first volume, which focuses on theory
and method, linguists, semioticians, communication theorists,
and social and cognitive psychologists from the Netherlands,
Austria, Germany, the UK, the US, and Australia have contributed
to van Dijk's project of promoting dialog and collaboration
in the development of discourse studies as an emerging
field. Each chapter offers a useful introduction to the
literature in its area and an exposition of theoretical
perspectives, usually illustrated by one or more examples
of text analysis. The volume is a treasure for newcomers
to discourse studies, or to discourse analysis methodologies;
in addition, it challenges specialists to connect their
work more fully with approaches from other perspectives.