Approaches to Discourse (Blackwell Textbooks in Linguistics) (Paperback)

~ 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 --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

Product Description

Approaches to Discourse 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 each approach through extensive applications to a variety of concrete social and linguistic problems facing discourse analysts. Exercises pose problems to which each approach can be applied.In the second edition of Approaches to Discourse, Schiffrin updates and revises the content, organization and exercises throughout the book. In Part 1, she broadens the discussion of discourse analysis through more definitions, new examples, synopsis of approaches not included in the book, and discussion of data. In Part 2, she adds simpler demonstrations of the approaches, clarifies sample analyses, presents recent trends (in a new section in each chapter called "New Developments"), and revises exercises. She also makes crucial additions and revisions to the chapters on ethnography and variation, and adds a chapter on Critical Discourse Analysis. In Part 3, she condenses the comparative chapters, adds a chapter on the integration of various approaches to discourse analysis, and discusses discourse analysis both inside and outside of linguistics.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 512 pages
• Publisher: Blackwell Publishers; 2nd edition edition (January 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0631226915
• ISBN-13: 978-0631226918
• Average Customer Review: 2.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #8,815,200 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

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

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

This review is from: Approaches to Discourse: Language as Social Interaction (Blackwell Textbooks in Linguistics) (Paperback)

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.

0 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

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

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.

1 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

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

By	lingwist - See all my reviews

This review is from: Approaches to Discourse: Language as Social Interaction (Blackwell Textbooks in Linguistics) (Paperback)

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.