ABSTRACT
The first chapter provides an overview of the development of discourse analysis as a cross-discipline tracing its roots to Greco-Roman writings on rhetoric and grammar and the allied areas of semiotics, narratology, sociolinguistics, pragmatics, etc. Its growth has not been linear but has been concomitant with the emergence of other disciplines in linguistics and other areas. The chapter also explains the various meanings of discourse and how the definition of each theorist provides a fresh perspective hitherto not visible, indicating that a comprehensive definition needs to integrate the critical and psychological dimensions to language. It ends with the scope and applicability of discourse analysis not just in linguistics but also in literature and social sciences at large.
