Discourse analysis

Beyond any contextual uses of the expression, the phrase Discourse analysis arises as a separate term between 1960 and 1970 as a consequence of the discovery, provided by semiotics, of the communicative dimension of culture, which concerns not only linguistics but also sociology, cognitive and social psychology, history, poetics, rhetoric, scientific discourse, philosophy, religious discourse and the various information sciences, and even the most remote disciplines, such as architecture, urban planning and design. Heir to the rich tradition of research at CSIC on the interdisciplinary strategies of semiotics and pragmatics (New Rhetoric), this line of investigation undertakes for the quadrennium 2010-2014 the elaboration of a magnum encyclopedia entitled Spanish Dictionary of International Literary Terms {http://www.ile.csic.es/detli/} which collects and systematizes in six thousand terms an enormous volume of research from the perspective of this field. It is this “perspective” which gives the project perfect coherence, not the sheer number of entries, which may suggest to the inexpert reader mere prolixity. This is an encyclopedic dictionary which will comprise, within the sphere of the Spanish language, its literature and its culture, a program of investigation parallel to those realized by the Princeton Encyclopedia of Poetry and Poetics {http://press.princeton.edu/} or the International Dictionary of Literary Terms/ Dictionnaire International des Termes Littéraires {http://www.flsh.unilim.fr/ditl/}. Our project, which collaborates with both, is also sponsored by the International Union of Academies/Union Académique Internationale (n. 63). {http://www.uai-iua.org/english/projects/proj_9_en.asp}. Within the main program, various researchers maintain their own lines of investigation, either continuously or to address concrete requirements of our academic environment. This is the case with Dramatology (J. L. García Barrientos), the genre “Travel literature” (L. Alburquerque) or the field of Metacriticism of contemporary culture (M. A. Garrido Gallardo). Although autonomously, the organigram CCHS inserts within this research line the work completed by the sub-specialty El español, lengua de la ciencia directed by Ignacio Ahumada Lara, which contributes an important ETL [http://www.cindoc.csic.es/investigacion/invetigacion1.html]. Without belittling its high scientific output, this field of research also maintains a training program for researchers through its Course of High Specialization in Hispanic Philology http://gestion.fundacioncarolina.es/candidato/becas/ficha/ficha.asp?Id_P...} currently in its tenth session, and the chair “Dámaso Alonso” in cooperation with American universities. In addition, this chair supports a network of researchers, graduates of the CAE, which at present is composed of one hundred members in universities and research centers in 30 countries. Furthermore, in collaboration with the Department of Culture of the Foundation “Obra Pía de los Pizarro” {http://www.fundacionpizarro.es/}, this field of research organizes the annual International Conference, entitled “Spanish and its Cultures” {http://www.fundacionpizarro.es/Convocatorias/convocatoria.pdf}, which will convene its third session in May, 2010.