A communicative conception of discourse

Abstract

This article sets out to define an approach to discourse that takes into account the characteristics of the phenomenon of social communication. First, the article examines different conceptions of discourse analysis such as `cognitive', `representational' and `communicational'. These distinctions are made using various criteria: definitions of the subject of analysis, the nature of the speaker, the corpus of data resulting from the discourse. This is followed by an examination of the types of competence that have to be satisfied by speakers if they are to produce a speech act: for example, `situational', `discursive', `semantic' and `semiolinguistic competence'. The article then analyses how speakers stage their discourse, i.e. their consideration of the constraints of the communicative situation and their use of `discursive strategies'. The article concludes by demonstrating the necessity of relating the `communicative situation' to the `positioning' of the speaker.

Keywords

captation communication contract communicative situation credibility discursive competence discursive strategies legitimation semantic competence semiolinguistic competence situational competence

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Bakhtine, M. (1978) Esthétique et théorie du roman (French translation) . Paris: Gallimard.

Benveniste, E. (1966) Problèmes de linguistique générale. Paris: Gallimard.

Bourdieu, P. (1979) La distinction. Critique sociale du jugement. Paris: Editions de Minuit.

Branca-Rosoff, S. , Colinot, A. , Guilhaumou, J. and Mazière, F. (1995) `Questions d'histoire et de sens', Langages 117: 54—66.

Charaudeau, P. (1986) `L'interview médiatique: qui raconte sa vie?', Cahiers de sémiotique textuelle 8—9, pp. 129—37, University of Paris X.

Charaudeau, P. (1991) `Contrats de communication et ritualisation des débats télévisés', in La Télévision: Les débats culturels. “Apostrophe” . Paris: Didier Erudition.

Charaudeau, P. (1995) `Rôles sociaux et rôles langagiers ', in Modèle de l'interaction verbale, pp. 79—96. Aix-en-Provence : University of Provence.

Charaudeau, P. (1997) Le discours d'information médiatique. Paris: Nathan-Ina.

Charaudeau, P. (2000) `Problématique discursive de l'émotion: A propos des effets de pathémisation à la télévision', in Ch. Plantin (ed.) Les émotions dans les interactions. Lyon: Presses Universitaires de Lyon.

10.

Genette, G. (1982) Palimpsestes. Paris: Seuil.

11.

Maingueneau, D. (1984) Genèses du Discours. Liège: Mardaga.

12.

Maingueneau, D. (1995) `Introduction ', in Les analyses du discours en France, Langages 117: 5—11.

13.

Maingueneau, D. and Cossutta, F. (1995) `L'analyse des discours constituants', Langages 117: 112—25.

14.

Sperber, D. and Wilson, D. (1989) La pertinence. Paris: Minuit.