ABSTRACT
The chapters in this book will help readers to understand how a wide range of researchers have analysed discourse in different ways, and how you, as a student of discourse analysis, might plan a research project of your own investigating some particular aspect or area of discourse. The authors introduce various approaches to, and methods of, researching discourse. This opening chapter is therefore aimed at setting the scene by providing an overview of what is generally involved in the analysis of discourse. I begin with a brief survey of some of the ways in which the term ‘discourse’ is used within the study of language and linguistics, before presenting four elements which are core to the enterprise of discourse analysis: (i) the data that comprise discourse; (ii) the producers of discourse; (iii) the reception of discourse; and (iv) the perspective of the analyst.
