Teachers College, Columbia University Working Papers in Applied Linguistics & TESOL, Vol. 17, No.
2, 41-43
Book Review
Discourse Analysis: The Questions Discourse Analysts Ask and How They Answer Them
Hansun Zhang Waring. New York: Routledge. 2017. Pp. xiv + 226.
To say that discourse analysis is a chameleon in the social sciences would not be an
overstatement; it is a research method, a perspective, and a subject in its own right. It is
employed and studied by scholars in a wide range of disciplines, including linguistics, applied
linguistics, sociology, anthropology, psychology, education, and many more. The multi- and
inter-disciplinary nature of discourse analysis, however, is both the reason for its appeal and a
source of confusion for beginning analysts. Discourse Analysis: The Questions Analysts Ask and
How They Answer Them sets out to identify core inquiries that discourse analysts aspire to
answer. Inspired by years of teaching Discourse Analysis at the graduate level, Waring’s goal is
to “introduce [the] vastness and diversity [of discourse analysis] to beginning students of
discourse” by presenting “the kinds of questions discourse analysts ask and how they answer
them” (p. 3-4). This book, then, seeks to help readers cultivate a principled understanding of
what it means to do discourse analysis.
The book is organized into five parts. Part I, “Overview of Discourse Analysis,” begins
with a definition of discourse and discourse analysis. It then introduces the principles of the
main analytic approaches such as Interactional Sociolinguistics and Critical Discourse Analysis,
as well as the transcription notations for each approach. Part I also outlines the four overarching
themes around which the book is organized: Discourse and Structure, Discourse and Social
Action, Discourse and Identity, and Discourse and Ideology. Each of the remaining four parts,
Part II to V, addresses one of the above themes; each part features one chapter on classic work,
which establishes the theoretical groundings and key analytic concepts and tools, followed by a
chapter on empirical endeavors, which offers influential, representative studies illustrating how
quality discourse analytic work is accomplished. To guide the reader, at the start of each chapter,
the author provides an overview of the chapter and articulates the central analytic concern where
the discussion of the chapter is anchored. At the end of each chapter, a list of key terms,
summary of key points, and references are included.
Part II of the book (Chapters 2 and 3), “Discourse and Structure,” directs readers’
attention to discourse units and their relations. In Chapter 2, the author surveys seminal work on
the structures of spoken discourse, written discourse, and non-verbal conduct. Some of the
classics on talk covered in the chapter include elements of narrative structure, building blocks of
conversation such as adjacency pairs and turn-taking, and the initiation-response-feedback
pattern in classroom interaction. Classics on the structure of text, on the other hand, include van
Dijk’s Macrostructure, Halliday and Hasan’s notion of cohesion, and Mann and Thompson’s
rhetorical structures. Landmark studies on gaze, gesture, and body movement are also
introduced. Chapter 3 showcases investigations of the function of grammar in structuring
narratives, the structure of text types or genres, and the structural properties of gaze and gestures.
It is interesting to note that genre analysis, as an approach to analyzing written discourse, is
introduced in the chapter on empirical endeavors, and would have been more fitting had it been
grouped under the chapter on classics.
Part III (Chapters 4 and 5), “Discourse and Social Action,” discusses how social actions
are accomplished in discourse. Chapter 4 begins by introducing two philosophies underpinning
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Teachers College, Columbia University Working Papers in Applied Linguistics & TESOL, Vol. 17, No. 2, 41-43
Book Review
the view of language as social actions: Wittgenstein’s Language Games and Austin and Searle’s
Speech Act Theory. The chapter then moves on to introduce Gricean implicatures, Gumperz’s
contextualization cue, and Bateson’s framing. Chapter 5 considers two major approaches in
doing empirical work exploring social action: one that starts with understanding a specific
conduct (e.g., repetition or discourse markers), and another with understanding how a particular
action is enacted (e.g., balancing work and play, non-granting of requests). A wide range of
settings, from institutional talk to everyday conversation between family and friends, are covered
in the chapter.
Part IV (Chapters 6 and 7), “Discourse and Identity,” explores how identities are
constructed and negotiated in discourse. In Chapter 6, the author points out that identities can be
categorized into three broad types: universal identities, social identities, and interactional
identities. Goffman’s face-work and Brown and Levinson’s politeness theory are related to
universal identities as they are relevant to all contexts. Social identities, which are tied to social
roles, groups, and institutional positions, can be understood through the lens of Sack’s
membership categorization, Erickson and Shultz’s performed social identity and co-membership,
as well as Ochs’ social act and stance. Interactional identities, on the other hand, as the author
argues, are more locally situated, and can be examined using Goffmanian concepts or positioning
theory proposed by Davies and Harré (1990). Chapter 7 demonstrates how key concepts and
frameworks discussed in Chapter 6 can be applied to bring to light the discursive construction of
a broad range of identities such as “an urban father” and “a novice teacher.”
In Part V (Chapters 8 and 9), “Discourse and Ideology,” the author moves on to explicate
how ideologies are constructed in discourse. Chapter 8 first touches upon the relationship
between language and thought by reviewing linguistic relativism proposed by Sapir and Whorf
and cognitive metaphor by Lakoff and Johnson. Three major theoretical frameworks examining
ideologies, conceptualized by Fairclough, van Dijk, and Gee respectively, are then explained in
detail. Given that ideology is widely considered a challenging concept to grasp, the initial
definition of ideology that the author provides, despite being purposefully general, appears to be
somewhat oversimplified; a more nuanced definition would be more helpful for students, the
target readers of the book. In Chapter 9, the subsequent chapter featuring empirical findings,
sample studies exploring gender and racial ideology are provided to illustrate how discourse
analysts systematically tackle such issues. Even when tackling an elusive concept such as
ideology, as the author rightly underscores, discourse analysts still endeavor to ground their
analysis of ideology in the data they examine.
Overall, the strengths of the book under review are threefold. Firstly, it is an invaluable
pedagogical tool and resource. Definitions of key concepts are boxed so that they stand out and
are therefore easy to find. To engage the reader with the concept at hand, the chapters are
punctuated with short tasks, some of which invite the reader to analyze data through the lens of a
specific concept, while others encourage critical reflection on the topic of discussion and careful
consideration of methods and approaches. At the end of each chapter on empirical endeavors, the
author offers a thoughtful and insightful discussion synthesizing and comparing across theories,
methods, and approaches. In addition, she provides a list of study questions to guide newcomers
who wish to engage in empirical undertakings through the process of discourse analytic inquiry,
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Teachers College, Columbia University Working Papers in Applied Linguistics & TESOL, Vol. 17, No. 2, 41-43
Book Review
which further adds to the pedagogical value of the book. From a pedagogical perspective, there
are considerable efforts to make book suitable for introductory courses on the subject.
The second strength is the author’s unique approach to organizing the content of the
book. While some books organize the content by discourse analytic approaches and frameworks
(cf. Philip and Hardy, 2002), others by topics or by order of procedures when doing a study (cf.
Gee, 2011; Johnstone, 2002), the book under review organizes the content around four general
questions of greatest interests to the field, which, as the author argues, can “sidestep the potential
pitfall of a method-driven orientation that may at times constrain rather than inspire” (p. 4).
Indeed, having a strong research question and knowing how to address the question adequately is
an indispensable skill to succeed in the field. However, as the author herself acknowledges, one
caveat is that some of the seminal writings are in fact empirical studies, so it is no easy matter to
draw a clean line between the two categories. It should also be pointed out that the author’s goal
is to present illustrative studies in the chapters on empirical endeavors, which inevitably results
in a need to prioritize breadth over depth.
Lastly, what makes this book an excellent introductory text is the quality of the
explanation, which will be illuminating to beginners and refreshing to experts. Waring uses
plenty of analogies (e.g., traffic lights as the baseline orderliness of people’s behavior in
everyday interaction), everyday examples (e.g., signs she saw in her office and on trips), and data
collected from her everyday life (e.g., conversations with coworkers and samples of her
daughter’s writing) to illustrate and clarify abstract concepts. As such, the book also provides a
whimsical glimpse into a discourse analyst’s mind—how a skillful analyst can draw on everyday
life for interesting data and useful illustrations of concepts.
The book makes a unique contribution by providing a compelling overview of state-of-
the-art concepts and central analytic concerns in discourse analysis. It does succeed, in a
systematic and engaging way, in presenting key questions discourse analysts ask and how they
answer them in their analytic undertaking. The book is well-organized, comprehensive, and
accessible; it will be of great use to newcomers to the field as well as students and teachers of
discourse analysis.
CAROL HOI YEE LO
Teachers College, Columbia University
REFERENCES
Davies, B., & Harré, R. (1999). Positioning: The discursive production of selves. In R. Harré &
L. van Langehove (Eds.), Positioning theory. Oxford: Blackwell.
Gee, J. P. (2011). An introduction to discourse analysis: theory and method. New York:
Routledge.
Johnstone, B. (2008). Discourse analysis. Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishing.
Philips, N., & Hardy, C. (2002). Discourse analysis: investigating processes of social
construction. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.
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