Towards a semiotic definition of discourse and a basis for a typology of discourses

Abstract

This article engages with the widely used academic concept of discourse. The aim is threefold: first, to provide a comprehensive overview of how the notion of discourse is conceived based on (a) definitions in the academic literature, (b) dictionary definitions, and (c) corpus data; second, to define discourse as a set of related representations; and, third, to suggest a basis for a typology of discourses. Following Peirce, a representation is regarded as a relationship between a signifier, signified element, and interpretant. A basis for a typology is developed by considering various types of representations and ways they are related.