Discourse Analysis (DA) or discourse studies

1.   Discourse is a continuous stretch of (especially spoken) language larger than a sentence, often constituting a coherent unit such as a sermon, argument, joke, or narrative.

2.   Discourse is  ways of constituting knowledge, together with the social practices, forms of subjectivity and power relations which inhere in such knowledges and relations between them. Discourses are more than ways of thinking and producing meaning. They constitute the 'nature' of the body, unconscious and conscious mind and emotional life of the subjects they seek to govern (Weedon, 1987, p. 108).

3.   Discourse is  a form of power that circulates in the social field and can attach to strategies of domination as well as those of resistance ( Diamond and Quinby, 1988, p. 185).

4.   Crystal (1992:25)  discourse is a continuous stretch of (especially spoken) language larger than a sentence, often constituting a coherent unit such as a sermon, argument, joke, or narrative.

5.   Frances Henry and Carol Tator

Discourse is the way in which language is used socially to convey broad historical meanings. It is  language identified by the social conditions of its use, by who is using it and under what conditions. Language can never be 'neutral' because it bridges our personal and social worlds.

6.   discourse analysis is one way to engage in a very important human task. The task is this: to think more deeply about the meanings we give people's words so as to make ourselves better, more humane people and the world a better, more humane place" (J. P. Gee, An Introduction to Discourse Analysis, 2005).  (blackred/Getty Images)

7.   Discourse is generally used to designate the forms of representation, codes, conventions and habits of language that produce specific fields of culturally and historically located meanings.

8.   The definition of analysis is the process of breaking down a something into its parts to learn what they do and how they relate to one another.

9.   Discourse analysis, as an approach to studying psychological phenomena, developed out of the ‘turn to language’ in social psychology in the 1970s and 1980s and the emergence of social constructionism.

10.  Discourse analysis is a broad and diverse field, including a variety of approaches to the study of language, which derive from different scientific disciplines and utilize various analytical practices

Source : (Wetherell, Taylor, & Yates, 2001ab).

11.  Discourse is the creation and organization of the segments of a language above as well as below the sentence. It is segments of language which may be bigger or smaller than a single sentence but the adduced meaning is always beyond the sentence. The term discourse applies to both spoken and written language, in fact to any sample of language used for any purpose.

12.  Discourse analysis involves the study of both text and context. (according to schiffrin)

Source : (Laura Alba-Juez, perspective on Discourse Analysis: Theory and practice, 2009:8)

13.  Discourse analysis is the study of how language is actually used and its effects on the speakers.

Source : (Lidia Tanaka, Gender, language, and Culture: A Study of Japanise Television

Interview Discourse, 2004:3)

14.  Analysis is the process of breaking a complex topic or substance into smaller parts in order to gain a better understanding of it

15.  Analysis is this process as a method of studying the nature of something or of determining its essential features and their relations:

the grammatical analysis of a sentence.

My conclusion