Discourse

Definition of discourse - Papaja

•A particular unit of language (above the sentence), or discourse in structure; •A particular focus on language use, discourse as a function

Discourse as a structure

•Problem: you can have a unit which looks like a sentence but doesn’t mean anything, but on the other hand the units in which people speak do not always look like sentences

Functions of discourse

1. phatic function (opens a contact), 2. Emotive function (conveys the need of the speaker), 3. Conative function (asks something of the addressee) 4. Referential function (makes reference to the world outside the language)