L'analyse de discours. Essai de rétrospective théorique

Abstract

This article is based on the premise that research into discourse analysis that emerged in France during the 1970s has some permanent value in the students' individual and social development. But, there are many didactical problems: the internal complexity of the domain, the rich bibliography and the different orientations. The students in English have another representation of the focus that those in French. Therefore, we propose a synthetic panorama and a selected bibliography, which focus on the development of discourse analysis in France. A brief section summarizes the discussion on the senses of the polysemantic concept of discourse. Second, we enumerate the features of the "discourse" and we discuss some theories on the signification of discourse in relation with theories on the style and on the macrostructure. Third, we summarize the conception on the "discourse sequence" and we refer to discourse functionalities, such cognitive as social. The second part of the article aims to describe the originality of French discourse analysis, the new terminology and the perspectives.