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  • The handbook of discourse analysis ed. by Deborah Schiffrin, Deborah Tannen, Heidi E. Hamilton
  • Mary Bucholtz
The handbook of discourse analysis. Ed. by Deborah Schiffrin, Deborah Tannen, and Heidi E. Hamilton. Oxford: Blackwell, 2001. Pp. xx, 851. ISBN 0631205950. $124.95 (Hb).

Part of Blackwell’s series of reference works in linguistics, The handbook of discourse analysis offers an expansive view of a vast field. Two things are immediately striking to the reader: first, that discourse analysis is not a single area of research; and second, that the editors have had to make some hard choices about which aspects of discourse analysis to emphasize and which to exclude. Discourse has become increasingly recognized within linguistics as central to the structure, use, [End Page 862] and development of language; at the same time, scholars in other fields have increasingly turned to discourse analysis as a valuable tool for answering questions about various spheres of communicative activity. To indulge in a bit of hyperbole, we are all discourse analysts now—or at least we are all more aware than ever before of the vital importance of discourse in the workings of language.

It is commendable that the editors, who themselves share a functionalist, socially grounded approach to qualitative discourse analysis, have made an effort to include formalist, cognitive, computational, and quantitative perspectives on discourse as well. To be sure, the bulk of the volume is concerned with generally social/functional issues, in keeping with the majority of work in the field. But the attempt to incorporate a wide array of discourse-analytic frameworks enriches the volume, bringing together viewpoints that rarely share the pages of the same text.

Perhaps the greatest virtue of the book is the inclusion of data and sample analyses in most of the chapters. The concrete demonstrations of how analysis proceeds within different approaches will make the volume useful for newcomers to the field seeking not only the findings of various studies but also models for how such work is actually carried out. At its best, this technique showcases specific methodologies, although in some chapters the details of analysis overshadow the larger methodological or theoretical point.

The organization of the volume is necessarily rather loose; its four-part structure comprises (i) the interface between discourse and other linguistic levels, (ii) theory and practice, (iii) a double section on discourse in social and cultural context, and (iv) discourse analysis in other disciplines. I do not entirely follow this structure in my discussion below but group the papers by other themes identifiable in the volume. Indeed, those who use the volume in classes will find that it is broad and flexible enough in conception to permit a variety of arrangements of readings depending on students’ needs. Given the level of background demanded by a number of chapters, however, the volume will be most useful to graduate students beginning their own research and to scholars seeking current information about areas of discourse analysis other than their own specialization.

Within linguistics, discourse analysis is commonly (but not uncontestedly) defined simply as the study of language above the level of the sentence, and several chapters begin by identifying linguistic structures relevant to discourse. Once such structures are identified, some contributors link them to specific communicative functions (Elizabeth Couper-Kuhlen on the interactional consequences of intonational onset, range, and timing; Deborah Schiffrin on the discourse-organizing functions of discourse markers) or propose generalizations about the relationship between syntactic structure and discourse function (Gregory Ward and Betty Birner). Others offer ways of modeling such structures formally and/or computationally (Livia Polanyi’s linguistic discourse model of discourse units, structures, and meanings; Bonnie Webber’s discussion of the role of computers in modeling cognitive aspects of discourse). Polanyi’s chapter also attempts to convince formalists of the importance of discourse and functionalists of the importance of formalism, opening a dialogue between radically different approaches that would have been welcome in other chapters as well.

Conversely, other authors start from the functions of discourse and then seek out the structures that fulfill these functions. For many of these contributors, the organization of...

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