Margaret Wetherell and colleagues (e.g., in Discourse Theory and Practice, 2001) outline distinct discourse analytical traditions that are commonly drawn upon in social psychology and related disciplines. These include:
✅ 1. Discursive Psychology
A tradition rooted in conversation analysis and ethnomethodology.
Developed notably by Jonathan Potter and Margaret Wetherell.
Focuses on how psychological themes (e.g., identity, emotion, cognition) are constructed in discourse.
Language is treated not as a mirror of internal states but as a performative social action.
✅ 2. Bakhtinian Research
Based on the work of Mikhail Bakhtin.
Focuses on dialogism, heteroglossia, and polyphony—the multiplicity of voices and meanings in texts and conversations.
Emphasizes how meaning is always socially and historically situated.
✅ 4. Foucauldian Discourse Analysis
Inspired by Michel Foucault’s work.
Focuses on how discourse shapes knowledge, power, and subjectivity.
Concerned with institutional practices, regimes of truth, and the construction of social norms through language.
❌ 3. Saussurian Research – NOT a distinct discourse analytical tradition
While Ferdinand de Saussure is a foundational figure in structuralist linguistics and semiotics, his approach is:
Concerned with the structure of language as a system (langue vs. parole).
Focuses on signs and how meaning arises from binary oppositions in language.
Not directly concerned with social action, power, or subjectivity in discourse, which are the hallmarks of discourse analysis.
Although Saussure's work influenced later linguistic and discourse theory (especially structuralism and semiotics), it does not constitute a discourse analytical research tradition as defined by Wetherell et al.
Year-wise PYQs
