Exploring Language and Linguistics

PREVIEW

In the last four decades, the focus of linguistic studies has changed from the description of formal properties of language as a code to the description of how people communicate through semiotic systems. This chapter will introduce some of the most important developments in language studies that contributed to a new approach to the analysis of interaction called discourse analysis. Key notions about communication will be presented so that the concepts of text, genre and discourse can be discussed. Since all discourse is multimodal, in other words, we communicate our meanings through different semiotic modes, some of the differences between these modes will be addressed, especially between the oral and written modes. Another important topic in the area of discourse analysis is the question of how interactants exchange meanings. We will be discussing therefore how participants and roles are realized linguistically.

INTRODUCTION

This chapter introduces you to important aspects of recent research in the areas of discourse analysis and suggests practical applications to the interpretation and production of texts. The main purpose of this chapter is to consider the relationship between language, other semiotic signs, and society. You will be introduced to theories of discourse analysis and spend time doing textual analysis. This chapter will enable you to develop a critical understanding of some key concepts involved in discourse analysis and to understand how language reflects, mediates and creates our everyday reality. The first objective of the chapter is, then, to make you aware of communicative processes. The second objective is to review some different approaches to communication, written and oral. We will also be mentioning the important issue of how we communicate through other means that do not involve the linguistic expression.

The final aim is that by being exposed to current approaches to the analysis of interaction, you should improve your own production, both oral and written, and become more aware of what is involved when we use our linguistic resources to communicate our meanings.

How do we communicate?

Language is only one of the ways we communicate meanings in our daily lives. We use the resources of our bodies and the environment we are placed in at the moment of communication to send a message to somebody else.