Disourse (was (no subject)

[Celso Alvarez Caccamo]

Susan Elaine Antlitz wrote:

> But is discourse just the sum of the "language" we all operate within, or
> is it intrinsically dialogic?  Then again, don't we "dialogue" with our own
> societies, sub-societies, and cultures just by participating in them-  Do
> our actions count as "responses" that either challenge or confirm this
> type of "life discourse?"
>
> Maybe I am attempting to be too broad and inclusive here, but I guess it
> might spark some good thoughts.

Isn't that more or less what Ricoeur says? [Ricoeur,
Paul. 1971. The model of the text: Meaningful action
considered as a text. Social Research 38(3)].

I don't know if mine will be "good thoughts" (perhaps I'm
a little off-the-track), but, to me one problem with
conceiving all action as 'discourse' or 'text' is how
operational this very broad view can be. Yes, social life
is organized interactionally and dynamically ("dialogically"
may be excessive), and within this dynamism we daily produce
(and our images are daily produced by) a number of discourses.
But we also do other things, which are much harder to reduce
to "discourse", like exchanging little pieces of metal for a
baguette while smiling just enough. So, to me, one of the
things that may characterize discourse vis a vis other types
of action is that discursive forms can be assigned
propositional contents by which we 'mean to mean' things.

And since we're still quite far from understanding how and
what we mean when we mean to mean ;-) propositionally, a broad
perspective about action as discourse may reveal some general
semiotic procedures, but, in its generality, it may miss a large
part of the picture. After all, signalling systems (language,
gesturing, proxemics) are medium-specific, and this
specificity must have some sort of functionality.

-celso
--
Celso Alvarez-Caccamo              Tel. +34 981 167000 ext. 1888
Linguistica Geral, Faculdade de Filologia     FAX +34 981 167151
Universidade da Corunha                          lxalvarz at udc.es
15071 A Corunha, Galiza (Espanha)   http://www.udc.es/dep/lx/cac