LINGUIST List 26.2000
Tue Apr 14 2015
Review: Discourse; Ling Theories; Pragmatics; Socioling: Angermuller, Maingueneau, Wodak (2014)
Editor for this issue: Sara Couture <saralinguistlist.org>
Date: 17-Dec-2014
From: Sibo Chen <siboc
sfu.ca>
Subject: The Discourse Studies Reader
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EDITOR: Johannes Angermuller
EDITOR: Dominique Maingueneau
EDITOR: Ruth Wodak
TITLE: The Discourse Studies Reader
SUBTITLE: Main currents in theory and analysis
PUBLISHER: John Benjamins
YEAR: 2014
REVIEWER: Sibo Chen, Simon Fraser University
Review's Editor: Helen Aristar-Dry
SUMMARY
Discourse Studies (hereafter as “DS”) is a fast-growing field studying the social production of meaning. In recent years, the swift development of DS has attracted researchers across the entire spectrum of the humanities and social sciences. Today, as a truly interdisciplinary field, DS is at the crossroads of language and society. Such an interdisciplinary tendency, however, has also created a unique gap within the existing DS literature: despite the proliferation of new publications on DS in the market, few of them are able to offer comprehensive coverage of the major approaches within DS due to the increasing complexity of the field. Therefore, it is encouraging to see the publication of “The Discourse Studies Reader”, which offers a timely solution to the problem.
Edited by Johannes Angermuller, Dominique Maingueneau, and Ruth Wodak, “The Discourse Studies Reader” includes excerpts of 40 readings from some of the most influential discourse researchers in Europe and North America, covering the main theoretical strands within DS, from its early theoretical inspirations to its latest developments in critical scholarship (i.e. Critical Discourse Analysis). This book is divided into seven sections: (1) ‘Theoretical Inspirations: Structuralism versus Pragmatics’, (2) ‘From Structuralism to Poststructuralism’, (3) ‘Enunciative Pragmatics’, (4) ‘Interactionism’, (5) ‘Sociopragmatics’, (6) ‘Historical Knowledge’, and (7) ‘Critical Approaches’.
Introduction
The Introduction discusses the social nature of discourse and offers a brief historical review of DS. As a polymorphous notion, the term “discourse” has been used in two distinctive ways in DS literature: a socio-historical understanding and a pragmatic understanding. The common denominator of the two strands, according to the editors, is that both approaches consider meaning as a product of social practice and assert that the understanding of language can be only accomplished in specific contexts. The editors further argue that the field of DS should be understood as an integration of both discourse theory and discourse analysis. Discourse theory mainly deals with the symbolic construction of society, whereas discourse analysis mainly refers to studies on language in use in the Anglo-American pragmatics tradition. Despite the above distinction, however, it would be problematic to divide DS into theoretical and analytical camps since the two approaches are interdependent with each other. For the editors, the aim of this reader is two-fold: to present the main currents in DS, as well as to bridge the gap between the two strands within DS. The Introduction ends with a quick overview of the 40 selections and the organizing principles of these texts.
Section One: ‘Theoretical Inspirations: Structuralism versus Pragmatics’
The first section introduces theoretical precursors whose profound thoughts on language have laid the foundation of DS. The section starts with three pioneers of structuralism: Ferdinand de Saussure, Mikhail Bakhtin, and Zellig S. Harris. For Saussure, the meaning of a sign is determined by its value in a semiotic system. Bakhtin’s discussion of polyphonic discourse in the novel, by contrast, originates the dialogic conception of language and culture. The excerpt by Harris here comes from his influential 1952 article on distributionalism, which takes linguistic scrutiny beyond the levels of words and sentences. The section then switches its attention to four pioneers of pragmatics: George Herbert Mead, Ludwig Wittgenstein, John L. Austin, and H. Paul Grice. Mead, unlike other theorists in this section, was a social philosopher and psychologist specializing in social action theory. In contrast to structuralism, Mead insists that meaning-making activities of individuals emerge from their daily interactions. The selected work of Wittgenstein here comes from his second phase, in which he introduces the term “language game” to highlight the notion that the source of meaning is ordinary speech. The next excerpt from Austin offers a glimpse of his influential speech-action theory, which has inspired a variety of theoretical strands in pragmatics. The section ends with H. Paul Grice’s discussion of the intentionality of communication and its complex cognitive process, which offers a cognitive explanation of the speech-context interaction.
Section Two: ‘From Structuralism to Poststructuralism’
The second section presents excerpts from various authors engaged in the international debate on structuralism. Altogether, the intellectual contributions from both structuralism and post-structuralism have delineated the contour of contemporary DS. The section’s excerpts are selected from seven scholars: Jacques Lacan, Louis Althusser, Michel Pêcheux, Michel Foucault, Stuart Hall, Ernesto Laclau, and Judith Butler. Best known as the pioneer of psychoanalysis, Lacan regards language as a medium of the subject. The excerpt here demonstrates his view on the universal relations between subject, signifier and the object of desire. Compared with Lacan’s wild conceptualization, Althusser’s theorization concerns discourse’s determinant role in the creation of the subject and ideology. His excerpt here focuses on how subjectivity is created through language use. In line with Althusser, Pêcheux considers the subject as a discursive effect, and the excerpt here illustrates his views on the close connections between language, ideology, and discourse. For many discourse researchers following the socio-historical tradition, Michel Foucault represents the project of discourse theory. The selected excerpt by Foucault here is translated into English for the first time; in it Foucault provides a succinct summary of his ideas on discourse around 1970. The remaining part of Section Two is dedicated to three prominent scholars who have developed the discourse project in their respective fields. The excerpt by Hall describes his famous “encoding/decoding” model of communication, which, from a discursive perspective, highlights the relative autonomy of information receivers. Laclau’s excerpt mainly deals with how hegemony is achieved through discursive practices. The final text by Butler represents her recent work on discursive construction of political identities.
Section Three: ‘Enunciative Pragmatics’
The third section overviews enunciative pragmatics, a contemporary strand of discourse pragmatics mainly developed by linguists in the French-speaking world. The focus of enunciative pragmatics is analytical perspectives on discourse; that is, how the world is enunciated via discursive practices. The section includes excerpts from five scholars: Êmile Benveniste, Dominque Maingueneau, Jacqueline Authier-Revuz, Oswald Ducrot, and Johannes Angermuller. The beginning text by Benveniste summarizes his arguments on a pragmatic understanding of language and the process of enunciation as an appropriation operated by parole toward langue. The excerpt by Maingueneau considers enunciation from the perspective of discourse genres. Specifically, Maingueneau promotes the concept of “enunciation scene” that defines the frames of enunciation activities. Authier-Revuz’s text deals with the heterogeneity of enunciation activities. According to Authier-Revuz, a discourse is not strictly controlled by the intention of its producer(s): it is also restricted by “interdiscourse”, a discursive entity affiliated with ideology. The theoretical focus of Ducrot is the polyphonic aspect of enunciation. The polyphonic theory of enunciation decentralizes the enunciator as the center of the enunciation activity. The section ends with Angermuller’s writing on subjectivity within enunciation, in which he approaches discourse as a positioning practice toward texts.
Section Four: ‘Interactionism’
The fourth section focuses on symbolic interactionism, a school of thought mainly inspired by micro-sociology in North America. From an interactionist point of view, social reality is created via symbolic negotiations of countless everyday situations and discourse has played an important role in this process. As such, interactive discourse analysis emphasizes studying the sense and meaning making mechanisms in daily contexts. The section includes excerpts from six scholars: Harvey Sacks, Erving Goffman, John Gumperz, Anron V. Cicourel, James Paul Gee, and Jonathan Potters. As one of the foundational figures of conversation analysis, Sacks focuses his research mainly on verbal interactions in clearly defined and brief genres such as telephone calls. The excerpt here provides a brief introduction to the rule-governed nature of our daily conversations. Compared with Sacks, Goffman considers interactions as rituals and his excerpt here offers a broad conceptualization of presupposition, which not only refers to a speech’s logical assumptions, but also its commonly shared background knowledge. The excerpt by Gumperz is dedicated to the topic of intercultural encounters. For Gumperz, cultures differ in the communicative resources offered to their members and as a result, cultural background presents a critical analytical perspective for the study of interactive conventions. The excerpt by Cicourel provides an example of his recent work on language and cognition, which emphasizes the value of discourse in child development and childcare. Gee’s entry in the section introduces his conceptualization of discourse and discourse analysis. Gee argues that the study of meaning must consider language as an integration of saying (presentation), doing (practice), and being (identity). The final excerpt by Potter summarizes his definition of discursive psychology, arguing that traditional concepts of socio-cognition should be re-formulated from a social-constructivist and discursive perspective.
Section Five: ‘Sociopragmatics’
The fifth section discusses sociopragmatics, an approach focusing on the constraints on discourse imposed by the context. To be specific, the contextual constraints discussed here mainly refer to (1) the resources/rules of the linguistic system and (2) the institutional settings of discursive practice. The section’s excerpts are selected from the following authors: M. A. K. Halliday, Theo van Leeuwen, Konrad Ehlich, Patrick Charaudeau, Ruth Amossy, and John Swales. The section starts with an excerpt from Halliday, in which he proposes a sociosemiotic theory of language and discusses key notions such as text, situation, and register within this framework. Using a selected article from a conservative English newspaper, van Leeuwen’s text highlights the various discursive resources in English for depicting social actors. The short text by Ehlich aims to clarify the definitions of two terms: “text” and “discourse”. According to Ehlich, the theoretical confusions imposed by these overlapping terms suggest: “it would be worth searching for a unified concept of language that is able to offer a basis for an integral analysis of the various areas of linguistic phenomena” (p. 285). The excerpt by Charaudeau deals with the relationship between discursive strategies and contextual constraints. Charaudeau clarifies three levels of constraints (i.e. situational, discursive, and formal) and argues that the subject of a discourse needs to posit his/her own existence through discursive strategies that are in line with these constraints. Amossy’s approach to discourse is anchored in the argumentative nature of language. In her selected text, Amossy defends a broad conception of argumentation, in which argumentation counts as an intrinsic feature of discursive practice. The section ends with Swale’s discussion of genre and discourse community.
Section Six: ‘Historical Knowledge’
The sixth section on historical knowledge reviews the historical tradition in German and French discourse studies. In general, the historical approach to discourse emphasizes the fact that meanings are produced under certain historical conditions. The section starts with Régine Rohin’s reflections on how discourse theories can be applied to historiography. Then, the excerpt by Reinhart Koselleck introduces his conceptual history approach, which, utilizing discourse analysis, tracks the evolution of key concepts (e.g. citizen, criticism, party, etc.) in early modern history. Similarly, the excerpt by Dietrich Busse and Wolfgang Teubert demonstrates their historical semantics, which presents a language-oriented history of words and concepts. The section’s final text comes from Thomas Luckmann, in which he reviews how institutional settings influence the formation of communicative genres from a historical perspective.
Section Seven: ‘Critical Approaches’
The final section is dedicated to critical approaches, which refer to the various methods following critical theories under the general umbrella term “critical discourse analysis” (CDA). The common assumption shared by many critical discourse analysts is that discourse analysis cannot be separated from ethical or societal injustice. The section starts with two theoretical texts on the relation between discourse and critical thinking. The excerpt by Jürgen Habermas explores the normative aspect of discourse; that is, “real” discourse in daily life is inevitably constrained by relations of power and domination. By comparison, the excerpt by Han Blommaert and Jef Verschueren deals with the discursive construction of otherness and how discourse analysis can offer a valuable entry point into ideology. The section then introduces the work of three leading CDA proponents: Norman Fairclough, Teun van Dijk, and Ruth Wodak. The piece by Fairclough discusses his theoretical contour of CDA as a problem-driven field with ethical commitment. The text by van Dijk, on the other hand, approaches CDA from a socio-cognitive perspective, arguing that the interaction between discourse and society requires the mediation of a socio-cognitive interface. Wodak’s ending text illustrates her discourse-historical approach by showing a detailed analysis of Austrian populist right-wing rhetoric and its underlying anti-Semitism.
EVALUATION
Despite the proliferation of new publications on DS, there can be little doubt that this volume still makes an important contribution to the field since just in one book, it manages to offer a comprehensive coverage of a vast range of work by some of the most influential researchers in DS. Compared with other handbooks on DS (e.g. Gee and Handford, 2013; Jaworski and Coupland, 2014), this volume has a stronger theoretical orientation. As shown in the selected excerpts, the editors have paid special attention to the various epistemic traditions of previous DS literature and how these traditions, despite their differences, have together drawn the contour of current DS research. Another important feature of this reader is the breadth of the selected texts. Some theorists (e.g. Stuart Hall and Ernesto Laclau) included in the volume are not discourse scholars per se. Nevertheless, their theories have been particularly influential for discourse researchers outside the traditional disciplinary boundary of linguistics. Such a well-rounded view of DS would benefit readers and bridge the gap between the existing strands within DS. Finally, the short introduction before each excerpt offers an essential elaboration of the selected theorist’s approach toward DS, which also makes the book an ideal resource book to learn the history of DS itself.
Unfortunately, this volume also has some minor limitations, which might be addressed in future editions. First, the volume could be criticised for the lack of consistency of some excerpts. Restricted by the length of publication, it is almost impossible to comprehensively discuss some prolific theorists (e.g. Michel Foucault and Jürgen Habermas) in several pages. As a result, readers may want to explore the individual theorists after finishing the volume. Another issue is the lack of explanation of key terms. Due to the theoretical breadth and depth of the selected texts, many excerpts in the volume suffer from the absence of explanations of key terms. As a result, this volume is not for everyone: a certain level of background knowledge of DS is required to fully comprehend the theoretical issues addressed in some excerpts.
Despite the issues outlined above, overall the volume is an ideal reading for graduate students and early career researchers who are looking forward to broadening their theoretical understandings of DS.
REFERENCES
Gee, J. P., and Handford, M. (2013). The Routledge handbook of discourse analysis. New York; London: Routledge.
Jaworski, A., and Coupland, N. (2014). The discourse reader (3rd ed.). New York; London: Routledge.
ABOUT THE REVIEWER
Sibo Chen is a PHD student in the School of Communication, Simon Fraser University. He received his MA in Applied Linguistics from the Department of Linguistics, University of Victoria, Canada. His major research interests are language and communication, critical discourse analysis, and genre theories.
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