ABSTRACT
This chapter offers some definitions of discourse and text, and explains why there are different definitions of these terms. The term 'discourse' comes from Latin 'discursus', meaning 'to run to and fro'. Sometimes the term 'discourse' can suggest a specific form – that of speech. In the field of Linguistics, 'discourse analysis' has historically focused on stretches of spoken language, while 'text' has tended to refer to written material. Social Science disciplines see social life itself as having 'textuality'. The idea of text is taken as an analogy by which phenomena in the social world might be interpreted. The emphasis on the textual nature of life – whether academic or social – is one that can be applied to objects in the world. Discourses are ways of being in the world, or forms of life which integrate words, acts, values, beliefs, attitudes, social identities, as well as gestures, glances, body positions and clothes.
