ABSTRACT
These definitions seem very distant from each other. The first makes discourse seem entirely unexceptional and neutral, while Foucault’s phrase ‘regulated practice’hints at issues of power and conflict. Stubbs points us to the local instance (because discourse is any instance of language involving more than just a sentence), while Foucault entertains huge generalities (e.g. ‘the general domain of all statements’). In this chapter, which adopts a more functional approach, we want to show that discourse does indeed require us to look at language in both its local and its global dimensions, and that both definitions above are therefore relevant. Local instances of language-in-use are rich in socio-cultural significance; large-scale norms, values and ideologies are inscribed in discourse patterns. The most incisive approaches to discourse are those that combine the detailed analysis of language, in particular instances of its use, with the analysis of social structure and cultural practice.
