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Text, Context, Pretext: Critical Isssues in Discourse Analysis. Language in Society.
This fascinating examination of the relations between grammar, text and discourse is designed to provoke genuinely critical discussion on key issues in discourse analysis which are not always clearly identified and explored. The enquiry into discourse analysis that Zellig Harris initiated 50 years ago raised a number of problematic issues that have remained unresolved ever since. What these are all centrally concerned with is the relationship between the analysis of the formal properties of text and the significance that is assigned to them in discourse interpretation. Widdowson explores this relationship and introduces the notion of pretext as an additional factor in the general interpretative process. He also focuses attention specifically on the work of critical discourse analysis (CDA) in the light of the issues discussed. The result is a stimulating volume that makes explicit the distinctions between the key concepts of text and discourse, and between context, co-text and pretext. It shows how these are related and can provide a theoretical frame of reference for the critical evaluation of current issues in discourse analysis.
- GenresLinguistics
197 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 1, 2004
2 people are currently reading
53 people want to read
About the author
H.G. Widdowson
48 books26 followersProfessor Henry Widdowson is an internationally acclaimed authority in applied linguistics and language teaching. His many books, articles, and lectures have been seminal in establishing both the field of applied linguistics and its mode of enquiry.
For many years he was the Applied Linguistics adviser to Oxford University Press. He was the co-editor of Language Teaching: A Scheme for Teacher Education and the series editor of Oxford Introductions to Language Study and the author of Linguistics in the same series. He is series adviser of Oxford Bookworms Collection.
His latest work, Defining Issues in English Language Teaching, appears in the Oxford Applied Linguistics series alongside several other of his titles, including Teaching Language as Communication, Practical Stylistics, Learning Purpose and Language Use, and Explorations in Applied Linguistics 1 and 2.
Professor Henry Widdowson is Emeritus Professor of Education, University of London, and has also been Professor of Applied Linguistics at Essex University and Professor of English Linguistics at the University of Vienna.
'[Widdowson is] a theorist of language and language teaching. His extensive writings have addressed the most significant areas in the field.'
'Widdowson consistently defends clear-thinking and clear presentation of ideas. For international ESOL, he has probably been the most influential philosopher of the late twentieth century.'
Christopher Brumfit, Routledge Encyclopedia of Language Teaching and Learning
For many years he was the Applied Linguistics adviser to Oxford University Press. He was the co-editor of Language Teaching: A Scheme for Teacher Education and the series editor of Oxford Introductions to Language Study and the author of Linguistics in the same series. He is series adviser of Oxford Bookworms Collection.
His latest work, Defining Issues in English Language Teaching, appears in the Oxford Applied Linguistics series alongside several other of his titles, including Teaching Language as Communication, Practical Stylistics, Learning Purpose and Language Use, and Explorations in Applied Linguistics 1 and 2.
Professor Henry Widdowson is Emeritus Professor of Education, University of London, and has also been Professor of Applied Linguistics at Essex University and Professor of English Linguistics at the University of Vienna.
'[Widdowson is] a theorist of language and language teaching. His extensive writings have addressed the most significant areas in the field.'
'Widdowson consistently defends clear-thinking and clear presentation of ideas. For international ESOL, he has probably been the most influential philosopher of the late twentieth century.'
Christopher Brumfit, Routledge Encyclopedia of Language Teaching and Learning
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
August 14, 2018
The style of the writer was not my favorite one. The content was so heavy and vague and hard to understand! But the aim was useful and perfect for helping the linguistic and academic world.
January 1, 2013
This is a beautifully written and published book about the foundations of discourse analysis as the study of what texts are taken to mean. Widdowson provides a broad critical history of discourse analysis, arguing that the interpretation of texts involves consideration of not only the words themselves but also their context and the 'pretext' or purpose with which readers approach them. This leads on to a thorough examination of Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA), a movement within linguistics that students tend to find attractive, because it purports to lay bare hidden biases and prejudices in texts. Finally, linguistics seems to them to have some social value. However, Widdowson, although sympathetic to CDA's own pretexts, uses his elegant prose to deny that CDA has any pretensions to scholarly respectability, dismissing it as no more scientific than rivalling 'readings' of literary works. At times, the author's irony descends into acid sarcasm, but generally I can only praise such a sustained and thoughtful argument.
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November 26, 2015i wanto to read this book, seriously
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews