
[Middle English discours, process of reasoning, from Medieval Latin discursus, from Latin, a running about, from past participle of discurrere, to run about : dis-, apart; see dis- + currere, to run.]
discourser dis·cours'er n.| discount, discontent, discomfit, discomfort | |
| discover, invent, discreet, discrete, discriminating, discriminatory |
noun
verb
Definition: dialogue
Antonyms: monologue
n
Definition: dialogue; dissertation
Antonyms: quiet, silence
v
Definition: discuss, speak about
Antonyms: be quiet
A specific assembly of categorizations, concepts, and ideas that is produced, reproduced, performed, and transformed in a particular set of practices. Discourses must be embedded within institutions and subjects, regulated with reference to a particular ‘regime of truth’, and situated within particular assemblages of knowledge and power, yet be open to dispute. They are concerned with meaning and context as well as content and the practices of many authors, using many, and varied types of, sources. They help us to understand how people interpret and create reality, and to be aware of ‘how what is said fits into a network that has its own history and conditions of existence’ (
discourse, any extended use of speech or writing; or a formal exposition or dissertation. In linguistics, discourse is the name given to units of language longer than a single sentence; discourse analysis is thestudy of cohesion and other relationships between sentences in written or spoken discourse. In modern cultural theory, especially in the post‐structuralism associated with the French historian Michel Foucault, the term has been used to denote any coherent body of statements that produces a self‐confirming account of reality by defining an object of attention and generating concepts with which to analyse it (e.g. medical discourse, legal discourse, aesthetic discourse). The specific discourse in which a statement is made will govern the kinds of connections that can be made between ideas, and will involve certain assumptions about the kind of person (s) addressed. By extension, as a free‐standing noun (‘discourse’ as such), the term denotes language inactual use within its social and ideological context and in institutionalized representations of the world called discursive practices. In general, the increased use of this term in modern cultural theory arises from dissatisfaction with the rather fixed and abstract term ‘language’ (see langue); by contrast, ‘discourse’ better indicates the specific contexts and relationships involved in historically produced uses of language. see discours for a further sense. See also episteme, rhetoric. For a fuller account, consult Sara Mills, Discourse (1997).
(Latin, discursus, a running from one place to another) A continuous stretch of language containing more than one sentence: conversations, narratives, arguments, speeches. Discourse analysis is the social and linguistic description of norms governing such productions, and may include (in critical linguistics) focus upon the social and political determinants of the form discourse takes; for instance, the hidden presuppositions that the persons addressed are of a certain class, race, or gender.
The context, environment, and conditions within which a defined knowledge is produced and made accessible to others. Discourse is not simply the content of what is said or shown (a printed text, lecture, museum display, TV programme, and so on), it also includes the conceptual, social, and historical conditions behind the statements made. Discourse brings in people, buildings, institutions, rules, values, desires, concepts, machines, instruments, and anything else that could have played a part in the construction of knowledge. The idea of discourse also carries with it the notion of inclusion and exclusion; statements are arranged according to systems whereby some people are admitted, others excluded, and contributions from some people are endorsed as legitimate candidates for assessment, while others are judged as not worthy of comment.

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Discourse (from Latin discursus, meaning "running to and from") generally refers to "written or spoken communication".[1] The following are three more specific definitions:
Discourse in the first sense is studied in corpus linguistics. Analysis of discourse in the second and third senses is carried out within a variety of traditions that investigate the relations between language, structure and agency, including sociology, feminist studies, anthropology, ethnography, cultural studies, literary theory, and the philosophy of science. Within these fields, the notion of "discourse" is itself subject to discourse, that is, debated on the basis of specialized knowledge. Discourse can be observed in multimodal/multimedia forms of communication including the use of spoken, written and signed language in contexts spanning from oral history to instant message conversations to textbooks.
Discourses being corpuses of texts or communication have internal relations to themselves as well as external to other discourses. Thus, a discourse is not locally isolated, rather interdiscourse and interdiscursivity takes part in the constitution of a discourse.
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In the humanities and sometimes the social sciences, 'discourse' refers to a formalized way of thinking that can be manifested through language, a social boundary defining what can be said about a specific topic, or, as Judith Butler puts it, "the limits of acceptable speech"—or possible truth.
Discourses are seen to affect our views on all things; it is not possible to avoid discourse. For example, two notably distinct discourses can be used about various guerrilla movements describing them either as "freedom fighters" or "terrorists". In other words, the chosen discourse provides the vocabulary, expressions and perhaps also the style needed to communicate.
Discourses are embedded in different rhetorical genres and metagenres that constrain and enable them. That is language talking about language, for instance the American Psychiatric Association's DSMIV manual tells which terms have to be used in talking about mental health, thereby mediating meanings and dictating practices of the professionals of psychology and psychiatry.[5]
Discourse is closely linked to different theories of power and state, at least as long as defining discourses is seen to mean defining reality itself. This conception of discourse is largely derived from the work of French philosopher Michel Foucault (see below).
Modern theorists were focused on achieving progress and believed in the existence of natural and social laws which could be used universally to develop knowledge and thus a better understanding of society.[6] Modernist theorists were preoccupied with obtaining the truth and reality and sought to develop theories which contained certainty and predictability.[7] Modernist theorists therefore viewed discourse as being relative to talking or way of talking and understood discourse to be functional.[8] Discourse and language transformations are ascribed to progress or the need to develop new or more “accurate” words to describe new discoveries, understandings, or areas of interest.[8] In modern times, language and discourse are dissociated from power and ideology and instead conceptualized as “natural” products of common sense usage or progress.[8] Modernism further gave rise to the liberal discourses of rights, equality, freedom, and justice; however, this rhetoric masked substantive inequality and failed to account for differences, according to Regnier.[9]
Structuralist theorists, such as Ferdinand de Saussure and Jacques Lacan, argue that all human actions and social formations are related to language and can be understood as systems of related elements.[10] This means that the “…individual elements of a system only have significance when considered in relation to the structure as a whole, and that structures are to be understood as self-contained, self-regulated, and self-transforming entities.” [11] In other words, it is the structure itself that determines the significance, meaning and function of the individual elements of a system. Structuralism has made an important contribution to our understanding of language and social systems. Saussure’s theory of language highlights the decisive role of meaning and signification in structuring human life more generally.[10]
Following the perceived limitations of the modern era, emerged postmodern theory.[6] Postmodern theorists rejected modernist claims that there was one theoretical approach that explained all aspects of society.[7] Rather, postmodernist theorists were interested in examining the variety of experience of individuals and groups and emphasized differences over similarities and common experiences.[8]
In contrast to modern theory, postmodern theory is more fluid and allows for individual differences as it rejected the notion of social laws. Postmodern theorists shifted away from truth seeking and instead sought answers for how truths are produced and sustained. Postmodernists contended that truth and knowledge is plural, contextual, and historically produced through discourses. Postmodern researchers therefore embarked on analyzing discourses such as texts, language, policies and practices.[8]
French social theorist Michel Foucault developed a notion of discourse in his early work, especially the Archaeology of knowledge (1972). In Discursive Struggles Within Social Welfare: Restaging Teen Motherhood,[12] Iara Lessa summarizes Foucault's definition of discourse as “systems of thoughts composed of ideas, attitudes, courses of action, beliefs and practices that systematically construct the subjects and the worlds of which they speak." Foucault traces the role of discourses in wider social processes of legitimating and power, emphasizing the construction of current truths, how they are maintained and what power relations they carry with them.” Foucault later theorized that discourse is a medium through which power relations produce speaking subjects.[8] Foucault (1977, 1980) argued that power and knowledge are inter-related and therefore every human relationship is a struggle and negotiation of power. Foucault further stated that power is always present and can both produce and constrain the truth.[8] Discourse according to Foucault (1977, 1980, 2003) is related to power as it operates by rules of exclusion. Discourse therefore is controlled by objects, what can be spoken of; ritual, where and how one may speak; and the privileged, who may speak.[13] Coining the phrases power-knowledge Foucault (1980) stated knowledge was both the creator of power and creation of power. An object becomes a "node within a network." In his work, The Archaeology of Knowledge, Foucault uses the example of a book to illustrate a node within a network. A book is not made up of individual words on a page, each of which has meaning, but rather "is caught up in a system of references to other books, other texts, other sentences." The meaning of that book is connected to a larger, over-arching web of knowledge and ideas to which it relates.
Feminists have explored the complex relationships that exist among power, ideology, language and discourse.[14] Feminist theory talks about "doing gender" and/or "performing gender".[15] It is suggested that gender is a property, not of persons themselves but of the behaviours to which members of a society ascribe a gendering meaning. “Being a man/woman involves appropriating gendered behaviours and making them part of the self that an individual presents to others. Repeated over time, these behaviours may be internalized as "me"—that is, gender does not feel like a performance or an accomplishment to the actor, it just feels like her or his "natural" way of behaving."[16] Feminist theorists have attempted to recover the subject and "subjectivity." Chris Weedon, one of the best known scholars working in the feminist poststructuralist tradition, has sought to integrate individual experience and social power in a theory of subjectivity.[17] Weedon defines subjectivity as "the conscious and unconscious thoughts and emotions of the individual, her sense of herself, and her ways of understanding her relation to the world.[17] Judith Butler, also another well known post structuralist feminist scholar, explains that the performativity of gender offers an important contribution to the conceptual understanding of processes of subversion. She argues that subversion occurs through the enactment of an identity that is repeated in directions that go back and forth which then results in the displacement of the original goals of dominant forms of power.[18]
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Dansk (Danish)
n. - samtale, diskussion, afhandling, foredrag, diskurs, prædiken
v. intr. - samtale, diskutere, fremstille udførligt
v. tr. - fremføre
Nederlands (Dutch)
gesprek, verhandeling, beraad, rede, converseren, een verhandeling schrijven
Français (French)
n. - discours, dissertation, traité
v. intr. - discourir sur, traiter de
v. tr. - discourir sur, traiter de, s'entretenir avec (arch)
Deutsch (German)
n. - Diskurs, Vortrag, Abhandlung
v. - Abhandlungen halten
Ελληνική (Greek)
n. - λόγος, πραγματεία, διατριβή, ομιλία, διάλεξη
v. - πραγματεύομαι, αναπτύσσω (θέμα)
Italiano (Italian)
discorso, dissertazione
Português (Portuguese)
n. - discurso (m)
v. - discursar, discorrer, explicar
Русский (Russian)
речь, беседа
Español (Spanish)
n. - discurso, disertación, conversación
v. intr. - disertar, conversar, tratar
v. tr. - pronunciar
Svenska (Swedish)
n. - föredrag, predikan, diskurs
v. - tala, avhandla
中文(简体)(Chinese (Simplified))
谈话, 进道, 演讲, 谈论, 演说, 发出, 演奏出
中文(繁體)(Chinese (Traditional))
n. - 談話, 進道, 演講
v. intr. - 談論, 演說
v. tr. - 發出, 演奏出
한국어 (Korean)
n. - 강연, 화법, 논설
v. intr. - 강연하다, 논술하다
v. tr. - 논술되다
日本語 (Japanese)
n. - 講演, 論説, 会談, 話法, 談話
v. - 講演する
العربيه (Arabic)
(الاسم) معالجه طويله ومهمه لموضوع بالكتابه أو المخاطبه, محاضرة (فعل) يعالج موضوعا بالكتابه أو المخاطبه المطوله, يحاضر في شئ
עברית (Hebrew)
n. - דיון, שיחה, נאום, הרצאה
v. intr. - הרצה, שוחח
v. tr. - הרצה
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