Discourse vs.

Text
Is it discourse analysis
Or Text analysis?
 Introduction

There has been some confusion in the

literature regarding the distinction
between discourse analysis and text
analysis.

It is a result of the confusion in the terms

discourse and text.
 The Confusion

Some researchers label their analysis

discourse analysis, while others claim
they are doing text analysis, but the
difference is often inconsistent.
Some claim to make clear distinctions
between discourse and text, but a closer
look reveals that their distinctions do not
hold.
Examples:
Widdowson (1973)
Text: Discourse:
is made up of is the use of such
sentences. sentences.
- A text is made up of - A discourse is made
sentences having the up of utterances
property of having the property of
grammatical coherence.
cohesion. - Discourse analysis:
-Text Analysis: deals investigates
with cohesion. coherence.
Problems with the distinctions:
It contradicts the known and well-
established distinction between sentence
and utterance in the literature.

Widdowson did not maintain this

distinction himself: In 1978 he argued that
discourse is made up of sentences having
the properties of cohesion & coherence!
 Another distinction
Text: Discourse:
Text is defined in Discourse is viewed
terms of its being a as a process.
physical product.
Meaning is derived
Meaning is not found through the readers
in text. interaction with the
text discourse.
Problems with such distinctions:
There is considerable overlap between the
findings of studies claiming to look at text as
product and of those claiming to investigate
discourse as process.

Thus, it is not necessary to maintain a

distinction between discourse analysis and text
analysis on the basis of investigating a process
as opposed investigating a product.
Others
Text: Discourse:
written Spoken
Text analysis: Discourse analysis:
investigates written analyzes spoken form.
form
Problems:

Many studies have used models originally

developed for studying spoken form to
investigate written form (Tadros 1981),
and vice versa (Hoey 1983).

Thus, such a distinction is not necessary.

Conclusion

Many researchers have come to this

conclusion:
Discourse analysis includes all studies
investigating the supra-sentential structure
of any stretch of language, spoken or
written.
What about text analysis?

The terms text / text analysis lead to

confusion.
Therefore, the term text should be
abandoned unless it is used to refer to the
physical arrangement of linguistic signals
on paper (Tadros, 1981).