Discourse and discourse analysis: concepts and characteristic aspects in communicative linguistics

Abstract

Since the late 20th century and continuing into the first half of the 21st century the direction of linguistic research has been increasingly developed, significantly contributing to the current state of affairs in linguistics, theory and practice of translation, foreign language teaching methodology, and linguophilosophy. In recent decades, discourse analysis has been primarily concerned with the communicative aspects of language. Discourse analysis has become an increasingly prominent area in several humanities disciplines, including sociology, sociolinguistics, psychology, anthropology, linguistics, and linguophilosophy, as a linguistic phenomena. The communicative approach to language education, with its focus on practical communicative ability, necessitates the analysis of specific examples (written and spoken forms) to improve language learning methods, as well as to attract the available linguistic material. This study aims to identify key characteristic aspects of this modern direction, focusing on fundamental features of the concept of discourse. Because discourse is a common element across diverse fields in humanities, its examination through the frameworks of general information theory and communication theory is valuable, particularly in relation to its social functions.