The heterogeneity of discourse: expanding the field of discourse analysis

Abstract

This contribution aims to outline some limits of discourse analysis today. Discourse analysis may not privilege any specific kind of data, but, like modern linguistics since the beginning of the 20th century, most discourse analysts focus on a restricted area within the manifold manifestations of discourse. They take for granted that discourse must be modeled after conversational practices, and/or that the basic relevant unit of discourse analysis is the pair text/genre. This restriction can be explained by the historical context in which discursive approaches have emerged. However, it can be argued that such a standard is not relevant for a wide range of data, that discourse practices can be divided into various regimes, which correspond to various models of communication and must accordingly be analyzed with specific concepts and toolkits. This article discusses two main phenomena that call this standard into question: (1) the notion of genre on the Internet; (2) “textless sentences” and authorship. Indeed, these all imply another conception of discourse activity that deserves to be taken into account if we are to consider discourse activity in the full diversity of its manifestations.