Pragmatics of Discourse

13. Phases in discourse

Theodossia-Soula Pavlidou

1. Introduction

The title ‘phases in discourse’ implies that within “one” discourse different stretches can be delineated, constituting identifiable parts that successively follow one another. At the same time, the title takes for granted that we can demarcate the transition from non-discourse (or, alternatively, non-communication, non-interaction, non-conversation, etc.) to discourse – in other words, it assumes that we can say when and how discourse starts and ends.38 Such are organizational problems relating to the units and structure of discourse, problems which both analysts of and, primarily, participants in discourse have to solve.

Discourse is commonly divided into three major phases, ...