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Linguistics & Grammar vocabulary · Core Concepts

Discourse

Meaning in linguistics & grammar, with examples

/ˈdɪskɔːs/nounCommon term

In linguistics & grammar, discourse means: Language in use beyond the single sentence, such as conversations, lectures or newspaper articles, and the way these stretches of language are organized and connected.

In Turkish: söylem

How it is used

Discourse analysis studies how texts hang together (cohesion, coherence) and how they reflect social relations. Teachers call words like however, anyway and well discourse markers. In social theory, a discourse can mean a way of talking about a topic.

Example sentences

  1. Discourse markers like 'anyway' help listeners follow a conversation.

  2. Her thesis is a discourse analysis of how doctors and patients reach decisions together.

Common collocations

  • discourse analysis
  • discourse marker
  • academic discourse
  • spoken discourse
  • critical discourse analysis
  • pragmaticsThe study of how context affects meaning: how speakers mean more than they actually say, and how listeners work out intended meanings, politeness and hints.
  • contextThe situation, surrounding text and shared knowledge in which something is said or written, which help listeners and readers understand the intended meaning.
  • registerA variety of language used for a particular situation or purpose, from formal to informal, such as academic writing, legal language or chatting with friends.
  • corpusA large, organized collection of real written or spoken texts, stored on a computer and used to study how language is actually used; the plural is corpora.

More terms: Core Concepts

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