Approaches to Discourse: Language as Social Interaction (Blackwell Textbooks in Linguistics) (Paperback)

by Deborah Schiffrin (Author) "Discourse analysis is widely recognized as one of the most vast, but also one of the least defined, areas in linguistics (e.g. Stubbs 1983: 12;..." (more)
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Editorial Reviews

Review
"Deborah Schiffrin has written a rigorous yet accessible description and comparison of various approaches to the analysis of discourse." Pragmatics

Product Description
This is a guide to the various frameworks, concepts, and methods available for the analysis of discourse within linguistics. It compares six dominant approaches to discourse analysis: speech act theory, pragmatics, ethnomethodology, interactional sociolinguistics, ethnography of communication, and variation theory. The author not only considers each approach from several standpoints but she also illustrates them through extensive applications to a variety of concrete social and linguistic problems facing discourse analysts.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 480 pages
• Publisher: Wiley-Blackwell (March 30, 1994)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0631166238
• ISBN-13: 978-0631166238
• Product Dimensions: 9.5 x 7.1 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.8 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 2.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #190,535 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1.0 out of 5 stars Useful only to those well-versed in discourse analysis, September 1, 2008

By	david gulliver (Phoenix, Arizona United States) - See all my reviews

This book is written in abstruse academese and is a closed loop: terms are defined in the jargon of the field. To an expert in the field, useful, to a novice, incomprehensible. The writing style is dull, opaque, verbose, and redundant. (She constantly says, "put another way" and the 'other way' is as incomprehensible as the first way). Also, she misrepresents formal grammar.

4.0 out of 5 stars A Usxeful Contribution to the Field, July 16, 2008

By	Bob "Riverside" (England) - See all my reviews

I am writing this ostensibly in order to counter the unsubstantiated views of the previous reviewer. I have used this book to teach undergraduates about the range and relevance of the various methods used in analysing discourse - spoken and written. Deborah Schiffrin has provided a very useful addition to the study of discourse for students who might feel overwhelmed by the various - often mutually exclusive - approaches.

The book starts with a well presented look at different definitions of Discourse - essential if we are to establish the relevance of competing methods.

Part 2 of this textbook offers us 6 chapters covering 6 different methods - from the purist CA approach to Pragmatics - 1. Speech Act Theory; 2. Interactional Sociolingusitics; 3. The Ethnography of Communication; 4. Pragmatics; 5. Conversation Analysis; 6. Variation Analysis.

As a springboard into the field of Critical Discourse Analysis, there is a lot to gain in terms of establishing the underlying principles of descriptive analysis in Schiffrin's work. Despite this being fairly old now by academic standards, I would certainly recommend the addition of this textbook to the reading lists of first year, and possibly second year undergraduates who are studying Text and Discourse Analysis.

1 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Pretty Awful, January 17, 2007

By	lingwist - See all my reviews

Every chapter is worst than the last in this terribly written book. We can only hope that the new edition will be better, but I seriously doubt it as the author is a hack.