Discourse vs.

Text
Is it discourse analysis Or Text analysis?

Introduction
There has been some confusion in the
literature regarding the distinction between discourse analysis and text analysis.

It is a result of the confusion in the terms

discourse and text.

The Confusion
Some researchers label their analysis
discourse analysis, while others claim they are doing text analysis, but the difference is often inconsistent. Some claim to make clear distinctions between discourse and text, but a closer look reveals that their distinctions do not hold.

Examples: Widdowson (1973)

Text:
is made up of sentences. - A text is made up of sentences having the property of grammatical cohesion. -Text Analysis: deals with cohesion.

Discourse:
is the use of such sentences. - A discourse is made up of utterances having the property of coherence. - Discourse analysis: investigates coherence.

Problems with the distinctions:

It contradicts the known and wellestablished distinction between sentence and utterance in the literature.

Widdowson did not maintain this

distinction himself: In 1978 he argued that discourse is made up of sentences having the properties of cohesion & coherence!

Another distinction
Text: Text is defined in Discourse: Discourse is viewed
as a process.

terms of its being a physical product.

Meaning is not found

in text.

Meaning is derived

through the readers interaction with the text discourse.

Problems with such distinctions:

There is considerable overlap between the
findings of studies claiming to look at text as product and of those claiming to investigate discourse as process.

Thus, it is not necessary to maintain a

distinction between discourse analysis and text analysis on the basis of investigating a process as opposed investigating a product.

Others
Text: written Text analysis: Discourse: Spoken Discourse analysis:
analyzes spoken form.

investigates written form

Problems:
Many studies have used models originally
developed for studying spoken form to investigate written form (Tadros 1981), and vice versa (Hoey 1983).

Thus, such a distinction is not necessary.

Conclusion
Many researchers have come to this

conclusion: Discourse analysis includes all studies investigating the supra-sentential structure of any stretch of language, spoken or written.

What about text analysis?

The terms text / text analysis lead to
confusion. Therefore, the term text should be abandoned unless it is used to refer to the physical arrangement of linguistic signals on paper (Tadros, 1981).