9. Pragmatics of Discourse

Abstract

Discourse is language as it occurs, in any form or context, beyond the speech act. It may be written or spoken, monological or dialogical, but there is always a communicative aim or purpose. The present volume provides systematic orientation in the vast field of studying discourse from a pragmatic perspective. It first gives an overview of a range of approaches developed for the analysis of discourse, including, among others, conversation analysis, genre analysis, functional discourse grammar and corpus-driven approaches. The focus is furthermore on functional units in discourse, such as discourse markers, speech act sequences, interactional moves and phases, and also silence. Finally, the volume examines different types of discourse (e.g. narratives, service encounters, press releases) in various discourse domains (e.g. medical contexts, the media, education). Each article surveys the current state of the art of the respective topic area while also presenting new research findings.