This section of the C-CS site concerns the analysis of texts. The analyses are rhetorical because they examine the "effects" of texts (discourses) on their audiences. They are oriented toward communication because they focus on the communication matrix. They are also oriented toward cognitive linguistics because they focus on the cognitive abilities employed in signification (making meaning). Finally, they are discourse analyses because they borrow analytical tools from discourse analysts.
The first unit, "What is a Discourse?," offers a working definition of the concept "discourse" and describes various aspects of discourses—type, purpose, linguistic structure, cognitive structure, and embedded relations.
"Discourse Analysis" describes the types of analytical tools required by different types of discourses—conversations, narratives, reports, arguments, expert, and mediated.
"Frame Analysis" describes the linguistic frames that structure discourses and their cognitive counterparts.
"Paradigmatic Frame Analysis" describes the dynamic structure of discourses from the authors' and audiences' points of view.
In "Discursive Positioning Analysis" Rom Harre's influential socio-psychological view of the way persons are "positioned" by discourses and the consequences of being positioned is outlined.
"Narrative Discourse Analysis" distinguishes between chronologies and stories and looks at the difference in analyzing them.
In "Life-Story Discourse Analysis" Dan McAdams' influential psychological view of the way stories construct identities is outlined. The use of discourse analysis in psychology is broadened to a view of understanding the persons we encounter in everyday life by looking carefully at the stories they tell (explicitly or implicitly) about themselves.
"Configural Discourse Analysis" shows how particular configurations of human behavior are part of one's cultural identity. A mode of comparative analysis is outlined to examine such configurations as they appear in various media.
The broadest contrast between discourses are narrative and non-narrative. Having examined narrative discourses in the preceding entries, "Non-Narrative Discourse Analysis" looks at the difference between the two main types of discourse.
"News-Story Discourse Analysis" shows how discursive types can be combined.
"Editorializing Discourse Analysis" takes up the argument structures of various types of discourse in the context of journalism.
Each entry in this section of C-CS is linked to a sample illustration of the concepts discussed and/or a sample analysis of the discourse type under discussion.
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