Stylistics and Discourse Analysis

Course Coordinator: Dennis Chau, BA, MPhil (CUHK)

Course Developer: Dr Michael Courtney, Cambridge International Education Services

Aims
This course introduces the basic concepts in the fields of stylistics and discourse analysis, and will help students develop a practical and principled approach to the analysis of both written and spoken language.

Contents
The course moves sequentially through four main areas, with an emphasis on text analysis in the first half of the course:

• Sentence-level analysis of text and the analysis of larger units of written language
• The concept of discourse and the important dimension of spoken language analysis (conversation analysis)
• The concepts, models and tools for both text and conversation analysis
• Critical examination of the following important areas of theory and development in modern approaches to discourse analysis and stylistics:
  − Discourse and power (critical discourse analysis)
  − Discourse and culture
  − Discourse and change in the modern technological era

Learning support
There will be regular two-hour tutorials and supplementary lectures.

Assessment
There will be four assignments and a final examination. Students are required to submit assignments via the Online Learning Environment (OLE).

Set book(s)
Gee, J P (2014) An Introduction to Discourse Analysis: Theory and Method, 4th edn, London & New York: Routledge.