discourse analysis

n. (Linguistics) study of relations and structures in discourse (speech), field of linguistics that studies the regulations that characterize the units of connected speech and analyzes language use rather than grammatical units

Discourse analysis (DA), or discourse studies, is a general term for a number of approaches to analyzing written, spoken or signed language use.The objects of discourse analysis—discourse, writing, , conversation, communicative event, etc.—are variously defined in terms of coherent sequences of sentences, propositions, speech acts or turns-at-talk. Contrary to much of traditional linguistics, discourse analysts not only study language use 'beyond the sentence boundary', but also prefer to analyze 'naturally occurring' language use, and not invented examples.
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inquiry that leads us to reflect critically and creatively on our common ways of life.