ABSTRACT
This chapter offers a practical starting point for analysing discourse. It shows the importance of context in any discourse analysis. The chapter illustrates some of the different emphases that particular subject areas may have. A discourse analyst doesn't have to be a language expert, but an analysis that doesn't include a consideration of any language that is present in a piece of communication is likely to be overlooking some potential meanings. A focus on the nature of signs is the particular concern of the field of Semiotics, where the location and appearance of a piece of communication are seen as an integral part of its meaning. Semiotics is a large analytical field in its own right, and owes its development to a number of different figures, including a Swiss linguist. Stylistics and studies of Rhetoric focus on how language is organised and patterned. Linguistics covers many varied aspects of language use, including ideas about formality.
