Genre and Field in Critical Discourse Analysis: A Synopsis

Abstract

This paper relates the concepts of genre and field, as developed in the context of systemic-functional linguistics, to the broader concepts of discourse and discursive practice. Generic structure is described in terms of the sequencing of speech acts, and as realizing the activity sequences which form the core of discursive practices. Field structure is reinterpreted as the recontextualization of social practice and as realizing discourses, that is, context-specific knowledge constructions about social practices. The theory is extended to the multimodal text, the text which uses more than one semiotic, e.g. verbal text and images. It is applied in a critical analysis of the discursive practices constituted by a certain kind of professional guidance writing in the press, and of discourses about `going to school for the first time'.