Topic outline

  • General

  • Introduction

    The notion of text

    Features of text organization

  • The notion of context

    Text context of situation

    Halliday and Hasan’s approach to text

    Beaugrande and Dressler’s approach to text

  • Discourse Analysis

     What is discourse analysis?

     Who does discourse analysis and why?

     Ways and means of discourse analysis

    • Trappes-Lomax, H. (2004). Discourse Analysis. In Davies, A. & Elder, C. (Eds.), The Handbook of Applied Linguistics (pp. 133-164). Blackwell Publishing.

  • Approaches to Discourse Analysis

    Written discourse and spoken discourse

    Approaches to discourse analysis

    • McCarthy, M., Matthiessen, C. & Slade, D. (2002). Discourse Analysis. In Schmidt, N. (Ed.), An Introduction to Applied Linguistics (pp. 53-68). New York: Arnold. 

  • Cohesion and coherence

    Features of cohesion

    Features of coherence

  • Textual analysis based on Halliday and Hasan’s taxonomy

    -       Reference

    -       Ellipsis

    -       Substitution

    -       Conjunction

    -       Lexical cohesion

  • Practice

    Analysing texts in terms of cohesion and coherence

    • Critical discourse analysis

      Studies on critical discourse analysis


      • van Dijk, T. A. (2015). What is Critical Discourse Analysis? In Shiffrin, D., Tannen, D. & Hamilton, H. E. (Eds.), The Handbook of Discourse Analysis (pp. 352-371). Blackwell Publishers. 

    • Midterm Exam

      • Discourse and Media Studies

        Textual analysis of news

        Practice: Textual analysis of a news article

      • Discourse and gender

        Studies on discourse and gender

        • Kendall, S. & Tannen, D. (2001). Discourse and Gender. In Shiffrin, D., Tannen, D. & Hamilton, H. E. (Eds.), The Handbook of Discourse Analysis (pp. 548-567). Blackwell Publishers.

      • Discourse in educational settings

        Studies on discourse in educational settings

        • Temple Adger, C. (2001). Discourse in Educational Settings. In Shiffrin, D., Tannen, D. & Hamilton, H. E. (Eds.), The Handbook of Discourse Analysis (pp. 503-517). Blackwell Publishers.

      • Discourse and narrative analysis

        Studies on discourse and narrative analysis

        • Johnstone, B. (2001). Discourse Analysis and Narrative. In Shiffrin, D., Tannen, D. & Hamilton, H. E. (Eds.), The Handbook of Discourse Analysis (pp. 635-649). Blackwell Publishers.

      • Discourse analysis in the legal context

        Studies on discourse analysis in the legal context

        • Shuy, R. W. (2001). Discourse in the Legal Context. In Shiffrin, D., Tannen, D. & Hamilton, H. E. (Eds.), The Handbook of Discourse Analysis (pp. 437-452). Blackwell Publishers.