LSA Fields of Linguistics - Discourse Analysis Discourse Analysis by Deborah Tannen of Georgetown University Discourse analysis is sometimes defined as the analysis of language 'beyond the sentence'.
Discourse analysts study larger chunks of language as they flow together.
Some discourse analysts consider the larger discourse context in order to understand how it affects the meaning of the sentence. For example, Charles Fillmore points out that two sentences taken together as a single discourse can have meanings different from each one taken separately. If you regard each sign independently, they seem quite reasonable. But taking them together as a single discourse makes you go back and revise your interpretation of the first sentence after you've read the second. Discourse and Frames 'Reframing' is a way to talk about going back and re-interpreting the meaning of the first sentence.