Discourse

Discourse is a generalized idea of communication. Every field of study looks at it from a different angle. For instance, linguistics sees discourse as an “information exchange by language means“. And here, we can see three elements: the speaker, the listener/audience, and the discourse (what is being communicated) itself.

We can see that discourse will have a goal. What the speaker is trying to accomplish by the discourse act. For example: communicate information to the listener/audience or persuade him/her/them.

To achieve the goal, the speaker has to accomplish different discourse tasks. Such as: introduce the issue/topic to be talked about, show logical connections, etc.