Key Terms in Discourse Analysis

Description

This book offers a clearly written and comprehensive set of definitions of key terms in discourse analysis, a core area of all linguistics and language studies courses. Unlike many other areas of linguistics, Discourse analysis is a complex field to define, comprising a number of related but different theoretical and methodological frameworks. Discourse can mean many different things to different people. Students often find these multiple meanings to be confusing and this book attempts to spell out and reconcile the different approaches, to give a holistic picture of Discourse Analysis as a branch of several disciplines. As well as comprising a glossary of key terms, the book provides clear, illustrative examples, a section on key thinkers and their ideas, and key texts for further reading. This book is essential reading for students on linguistics, language studies and media and cultural studies courses who are engaging in discourse analysis. The Key Terms series offers undergraduate students clear, concise and accessible introductions to core topics. Each book includes a comprehensive overview of the key terms, concepts, thinkers and texts in the area covered and ends with a guide to further resources.

Paul Baker is Professor of English Language at Lancaster University, UK. Sibonile Ellece is a lecturer in English and Linguistics at the University of Botswana, Botswana.

Students embarking on any form of discourse analysis will be grateful to have such a thorough, wide-ranging and scholarly resource to guide them through the complexities of the terms and ideas associated with the field. Baker and Ellece's impressively comprehensive and rigorously cross-referenced glossary of key terms of discourse analysis engages with a wealth of diverse frameworks and thinkers, acknowledging the methodological and theoretical breadth of Discourse Analysis as an analytical approach. Each entry is distinguished by illustrative examples, mostly taken from naturally occurring instances of language use, which both enliven the explanation and ground the reader's understanding in working illustrations of the terms or phenomena under discussion. An invaluable resource and 'must own' text for any discourse analysis student or researcher. -- Bethan Benwell, Department of English Studies, University of Stirling, UK