difference between discourse anaylsis and conversational analysis

noor · #1 (**permalink**) 02-Jan-2007, 08:36

Dear Sirs:

Through all studying years,a question crossed my mind and still it is there.This question is:" why do we have "discourse analysis" and " conversation anaylsis"?! "" . I have tried alot to know why but in vain ; becouse I never can I find why orginaly lingists separate "discourse" apart from "conversation"!! I find no differences.. so please can one here show me what is the sory of those four terms: "discourse","conversation","discourse analysis", "conversational analysis"? I will be so grateful.

Note: I need an explanation not web sites becouse I have tried lots of sites.

Thanks a lot

Tdol · #2 (**permalink**) 02-Jan-2007, 09:24

Discourse analysis could be an analysis of any text, so it would include written texts, lectures, etc, while conversation analysis is a subset, looking at two or more people talking. Discourse analysis looks at how we construct meaning throughout a text, so it looks at a wider picture than the sentence, which differentiates it from a lot of grammatical analysis, which tends to concentrate on smaller units like phrases and sentences.

noor · #3 (**permalink**) 02-Jan-2007, 09:53

Thanks alot.. Dear Tdol if you mean that discourse is mainly concerned with text analysis.so it can al so be called text analysis. isnt that right?meanwhile "CA" is only concerned with spoken interctons or conversation.. so then it also can be called "interactional analysis" ..is that right?
Note: I have heared that discourse can be written or spoken.. so when it is spoken what is the difference between it "DA" and "CA"?
really Iam so confused with all these terms..i feel lost

Casiopea · #4 (**permalink**) 02-Jan-2007, 11:13

The term discourse analysis is very ambiguous.

Roughly speaking, it refers to attempts to study the organisation of language above the sentence or above the clause, and therefore to study larger linguistic units, such as conversational exchanges or written texts. It follows that discourse analysis is also concerned with language use in social contexts, and in particular with interaction or dialogue between speakers.

Discourse analysis does not presuppose a bias towards the study of either spoken or written language. In fact,...

Read more here

All the best.