Discourse Initially discourse (L. discursus, "running to and from") simply meant any communication that involved debate or argument. The term is today used mainly in semantics and discourse analysis. In semantics, discourses are linguistic units composed of several sentences; in other words, conversations, arguments, or speeches.

Sourced Quotes

• A discourse is "a language or system of representation that has developed socially in order to make and circulate a coherent set of meanings about an important topic area."
  • John Fiske (1987). Television Culture. New York: Methuen. ISBN 0415039347.

• We can no longer maintain any distinction between music and discourse about music, between the supposed object of analysis and the terms of analysis.
  • Bruce Horner (1999). Discourse. Key Terms in Popular Music and Culture. Malden, Massachusetts. ISBN 0631212639.

• It is of the nature of idea to be communicated: written, spoken, done. The idea is like grass. It craves light, likes crowds, thrives on crossbreeding, grows better for being stepped on.
  • Ursula K. Le Guin, The Dispossessed (1974), Ch. 3

Unsourced Quotes

• Good as is discourse, silence is better and shames it.
  • Ralph Waldo Emerson