Defining discourse

[Michael Francis Morrison Iv]

> What is discourse? What definition(s) do you find useful, and what
> definitions seem unhelpful or off the mark? What frameworks or theories
> inform your definition?  Alternatively, do you feel that defining discourse
> is pointless, wrong-headed, detrimental (as Paul Bove suggests in his
> chapter on discourse in *Critical Terms for Literary Study,* Univ. of
> Chicago Press, 1995)? If so, what other approach would you advocate?

I'm not writing to answer, but to add a couple of other questions.  What
is critical discourse analysis?  What is the relationship between
discourse and sign (or discourse studies and semiotics/semiology)?
Discourse and text?  What levels of context are included in discourse?