DISCOURSE

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DISCOURSE.
1. A general, often formal term for a talk, conversation, dialogue, lecture, sermon, or treatise, such as John Dryden's Discourse concerning the Original and Progress of Satire (1693).

2. An occasional term for LANGUAGE and USAGE generally: all human discourse; philosophical discourse.

3. In LINGUISTICS, a unit or piece of connected speech or writing that is longer than a conventional sentence. The analytical study of such sketches of language is known as discourse analysis. See PRAGMATICS, RHETORIC, TEXT.

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