The Linguistic Society of America describes discourse analysis as “what speakers do in conversation.” They point out that discourse analysis is distinct from linguistic analysis–While the latter entails a careful focus on individual units of language and grammar, “discourse analysts study larger chunks of language as they flow together.” The society likewise points out that this may entail the study of “larger discourse context.” That is, to understand the full meaning of a sentence, it must be studied within its context, rather than as isolated units of grammar.
This type of analysis could certainly be enacted with Elizabeth Dyke’s manuscript recipe book. Consider the following recipe from page 49 of the manuscript for “A medison for To make one sleepe.”
In Discourse Analysis: The Questions Discourse Analysts Ask and How They Answer Them, Hansun Zhang Waring provides the following four questions. How might these be utilized in analyzing the recipe above?
- How is discourse structured?
- How are social actions accomplished in discourse?
- How are identities negotiated in discourse?
- How are ideologies constructed in discourse?
Works Cited and Additional Resources:
https://www.linguisticsociety.org/resource/discourse-analysis-what-speakers-do-conversation
Waring, Hansun Zhang. Discourse Analysis: The Questions Discourse Analysts Ask and How They Answer Them. Routledge, 2017.
Wodak, Ruth, and Michael Meyer. “Critical Discourse Analysis: History, Agenda, Theory, and Methodology.” From Methods for Critical Discourse Analysis, edited by Ruth Wodak and Michael Meyer, Sage, 2009, pp. 1-33.
Using Early Modern Recipes Today 