Approaches to Discourse: Language as Social Interaction

Citation

Schiffrin, D. (1994). Approaches to Discourse: Language as Social Interaction. Blackwell. Blackwell Textbooks in Linguistics.

Chapter Summary

The book is a comparative guide of about 480 pages to the frameworks, concepts and methods used to analyse discourse within linguistics. Schiffrin sets out to describe and compare six approaches: speech act theory, interactional sociolinguistics, the ethnography of communication, pragmatics, conversation analysis and variation analysis. In the opening chapter she says that her aim is not to reduce the vastness of discourse analysis but to clarify the scope of the field, treating its diversity as a sign of development. The publisher adds that each approach is considered from several standpoints and illustrated through applications to concrete social and linguistic problems. It has three parts: a framing part, six approach chapters and a comparative conclusion.

Part I, The Scope of Discourse Analysis (Chapters 1–2)

• Chapter 1: Overview. The chapter introduces the aims of the book, presents "core" examples from the different approaches, and gives a plan of the book.
• Chapter 2: Definitions of Discourse. The chapter contrasts formalist and functionalist paradigms and sets out three working definitions: discourse as language above the sentence, as language use, and as utterances. It ends with a summary of the definitions, issues and discourse analysis.

Part II, Approaches to Discourse Analysis (Chapters 3–8)

Each chapter in this part follows a similar pattern: an introduction, a definition of the approach, a sample analysis, an assessment of the approach as a way of studying discourse, and exercises.

• Chapter 3: Speech Act Theory. The sample analysis covers questions, requests and offers.
• Chapter 4: Interactional Sociolinguistics. The sample analysis is of "speaking for another".
• Chapter 5: The Ethnography of Communication. The sample analysis treats questions as speech acts in speech events, and the chapter closes with an ethnographic approach to discourse.
• Chapter 6: Pragmatics. The chapter covers referring terms and pragmatic processes in discourse, with a sample analysis of referring sequences in narrative, and then a Gricean view of discourse.
• Chapter 7: Conversation Analysis. The sample analysis is of the construction "there + BE + ITEM".
• Chapter 8: Variation Analysis. The sample analysis treats the "list" as text.

Part III, Conclusion (Chapters 9–12)

• Chapter 9: Structure and Function. The chapter discusses structure and function in discourse analysis and compares the approaches, moving from utterance to discourse.
• Chapter 10: Text and Context. The chapter asks what context is and what text is.
• Chapter 11: Discourse and Communication. The chapter covers aspects of communication and the relation of discourse analysis to models of communication.
• Chapter 12: Conclusion: Language as Social Interaction. The chapter lists the differences among the approaches as starting points, states principles of discourse analysis built on the view of language as social interaction, and considers the borders with other disciplines.

Appendices

Three appendices follow: Collecting Data, Transcription Conventions and Sample Data.

Key Concepts

Part I

• Formalist and functionalist paradigms: the two broad orientations to language against which definitions of discourse are set.
• Discourse as language above the sentence, language use and utterances: the three definitions examined in Chapter 2.

Part II

• Speech acts: actions such as questions, requests and offers performed in speaking.
• Interactional sociolinguistics and ethnography of communication: approaches to talk as a socially and culturally situated activity, including speech events.
• Pragmatics: the study of how reference and meaning depend on context, including the Gricean tradition.
• Conversation analysis: the study of the sequential organisation of talk.
• Variation analysis: the study of linguistic variation, extended here to the structure of a text.

Part III

• Text and context: the relation between a stretch of discourse and its setting.
• Discourse and communication: models of communication against which approaches to discourse are set.

Critical Analysis

Strengths

• Comparison done systematically. Each of the six approach chapters has the same internal structure of definition, sample analysis and assessment, and a concluding part, so the approaches can be set side by side.
• Worked analyses. Each approach is applied to a concrete problem, from questions and requests to the "there + BE + ITEM" construction, so the reader sees a method in use.
• Exercises and data advice. Chapters 3 to 8 end with exercises, and the appendices give guidance on collecting data, the transcription conventions and sample data.
• A clear organising question. Chapters 9 to 12 return to structure and function, text and context, and discourse and communication, so that the differences among approaches become the subject of analysis in their own right.

Limitations

• Date. The book was published in 1994, and it predates later work such as multimodal and corpus-based approaches to discourse.
• Six approaches only. The book compares the six chosen frameworks, and does not treat other approaches that later textbooks introduce.
• Linguistic perspective. The treatment is from within linguistics, as the publisher states, so approaches rooted mainly in other disciplines are outside its frame.
• Length and density. About 480 pages, with extended sample analyses, make it a book to be read slowly rather than skimmed.

Where It Fits in the Course

This is the comparative theory book in the discourse-analysis list. Brian Paltridge's Discourse Analysis: An Introduction, Barbara Johnstone and Jennifer Andrus's Discourse Analysis and Rodney Jones's Discourse Analysis: A Resource Book for Students are textbooks that introduce the field through strands and tasks, and are better first reads. James Paul Gee's An Introduction to Discourse Analysis: Theory and Method treats language as a way of building identities and social worlds through a small set of tools. Norman Fairclough's Critical Discourse Analysis is a collection of papers by one analyst on ideology, power and social change. Schiffrin sits between them: it gives the traditions of linguistic analysis on which many of those books draw, and is useful when the question is which framework suits which kind of data.

How to Use This Book

The book suits advanced undergraduates and graduate students in linguistics who have already taken an introduction to discourse analysis or pragmatics and have seen transcribed conversation.

A practical reading plan:

• Core: Chapters 1 and 2 for the scope and definitions, then the approach chapters most relevant to a project, and Chapters 9 to 12 for the comparison.
• Selective: read one approach chapter at a time. Chapter 7 suits a project on conversation; Chapter 3 or 6 suits work on meaning and use; Chapter 8 suits work on variation.
• For method: the appendices on data collection and transcription conventions can be read at the start of a project.
• Alongside: try the exercises on a short recording of your own, and set the book against a recent textbook to see which developments it predates.