In the
humanities and
social sciences, discourse describes a formal way of thinking that can be expressed through language. Discourse is a social boundary that defines what statements can be said about a topic. Many definitions of discourse are primarily derived from the work of French philosopher
Michel Foucault. In
sociology,
discourse is defined as "any practice (found in a wide range of forms) by which individuals imbue reality with meaning".
Political science sees discourse as closely linked to politics and policy making. Likewise, different theories among various disciplines understand discourse as linked to
power and
state, insofar as the control of
discourses is understood as a hold on reality itself (e.g. if a state controls the media, they control the "truth"). In essence,
discourse is inescapable, since any use of language will have an effect on individual perspectives. In other words, the chosen discourse provides the vocabulary, expressions, or
style needed to communicate. For example, two notably distinct discourses can be used about various
guerrilla movements, describing them either as "
freedom fighters" or "
terrorists". In
psychology, discourses are embedded in different rhetorical genres and meta-genres that constrain and enable them—language talking about language. This is exemplified in the
APA's
Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, which tells of the terms that have to be used in speaking about mental health, thereby mediating meanings and dictating practices of professionals in psychology and psychiatry.
Modernism Modernist theorists focused on achieving progress and believed in natural and social laws that could be used universally to develop knowledge and, thus, a better understanding of society. Such theorists would be preoccupied with obtaining the "truth" and "reality", seeking to develop theories which contained certainty and predictability. Modernist theorists therefore understood discourse to be functional. Discourse and language transformations are ascribed to progress or the need to develop new or more "accurate" words to describe discoveries, understandings, or areas of interest.
Structuralism (Saussure and Lacan) 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. This means that the "individual elements of a system only have significance when considered about the structure as a whole, and that structures are to be understood as self-contained, self-regulated, and self-transforming entities".
Saussure's theory of language highlights the decisive role of meaning and signification in structuring human life more generally. The enouncement (
l’énoncé, "the statement") is a linguistic construct that allows the writer and the speaker to assign meaning to words and to communicate repeatable semantic relations to, between, and among the statements, objects, or subjects of the discourse. In
The Archaeology of Knowledge (1969), a treatise about the
methodology and
historiography of systems of thought ("epistemes") and knowledge ("discursive formations"),
Michel Foucault developed the concepts of discourse. The sociologist 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 discourse in the
legitimation of society's
power to construct contemporary truths, to maintain said truths, and to determine what relations of power exist among the constructed truths; therefore discourse is a communications medium through which power relations produce men and women who can speak. because power is always present and so produces and constrains the truth.
Interdiscourse studies the external semantic relations among discourses, as discourses exist in relation to other discourses. == Discourse analysis ==