Introduction

[Michelle Kells]

The metaphor of shuttling for "discourse" conveys a process and a product, a
text and textuality. It is atomistic  and holistic. I imagine a loom carrying
the weft thread to and fro (fibers of phones and allophones; strands of
morhemes, lexemes; an entire fabric of semantic values and tonal qualities). A
very dynamic act that creates a residue of action. I threw out this metaphor in
an act of spontaneity, like a casting a knot on a knitting needle, to see the
patterns that might emerge out of response. I sweeping general,
all-encompassing definition of discourse is not possible. Metaphor is
"palpable" to me as a text analyst and compositionist. This is my "first
principle." I think we need to articulate our first principles before we can
derive definitions of anything. Michelle Kells