Phasal Analysis introduces students to discourse and textual analyses through Gregory and Malcolm’s communication linguistics and its descriptive methodology: phasal analysis. Once readers have mastered five preliminary forms of analyses, the book teaches how to combine and correlate your findings in order to capture the spontaneous and dynamic evolution of the text: how to compile, contextualize and communicate the intricacies of language analysis.

Students new to textual analysis will appreciate the clarity of the definitions and explanations in the book and the on-line exercise and answer key that goes with each chapter and form of analysis. Advanced students of discourse analysis will appreciate the suggestions for recording, contextualizing, summarizing and interpreting their findings. Phasal analysis has proven invaluable in several areas of linguistic application: forensic linguistics, register and genre studies, narrative and discourse structure and stylistics. The framework can be used in all types of textual and discourse analysis. It gives an in-depth understanding of how language works and adjusts to reflect the constant fluctuations of the interlocutors' relationships in the communicative situation and culture.

"Karen Malcolm’s Phasal Analysis provides an explicit how-to manual for linguistic discourse analysis, rich in worked examples, by a founder of one of its key methods and an important contributor to Communication Linguistics. An essential tool for analyzing verbal data in all fields." Professor Jay Lemke, School of Education, University of Michigan, USA