122048 PS Proseminar Linguistics 2 (2021W)

Discourse Analysis, sometimes also referred to as Discourse Studies, comprises multiple fields of linguistic enquiry, methodologies and empirical approaches. These range from strongly quantitative corpus-driven and corpus-based studies (Corpus Linguistics) to highly qualitative and theoretically engaged studies (Critical Discourse Analysis). While this heterogeneity has been criticized as a lack of coherence, as eclecticism or even as arbitrary, it has also inspired innovative and productive approaches - particularly in the combination of different methods (i.e. methodological triangulation). This course will engage with the heterogenous "toolbox of discourse analysis" (Foucault) and related critical debates, covering both well-established and recent approaches to analysing discourse.

In this course, students gain:
- an understanding of the theoretical foundations of discourse analysis and related debates,
- an awareness of the methodological diversity in discourse analysis,
- an understanding of several key methods and approaches, including their strengths and weaknesses,
- an insight into what it means to work empirically, i.e. to design a discourse study, collect data and analyse it,
- an understanding of methodological triangulation as research strategy.