Looking only at sentence grammar misses how language does social work. Discourse analysis is the study of language in use beyond the sentence, focusing on how texts and talks are structured and what they accomplish in context.

Approaches range from close sequential analysis of conversation to critical examination of ideology in media and politics. Analysts attend to cohesion, genre, framing, participant roles, and intertextuality. Data may include recordings, documents, online interaction, or multimodal materials.

Applied discourse analysis informs education, healthcare communication, and conflict resolution. Methods vary, but a shared commitment is to situate linguistic form within action and situation. Findings often reveal patterns that participants themselves take for granted.

• Study of language use beyond isolated sentences
• Examines structure, function, and social meaning
• Draws on diverse methods and data types
• Applied in institutional and media contexts