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Discourse vs Language - What's the difference?

discourse | language |

In uncountable terms the difference between discourse and language

is that discourse is expression in words, either speech or writing while language is profanity.

In countable terms the difference between discourse and language

is that discourse is any rational expression, reason while language is a body of words, and set of methods of combining them (called a grammar), understood by a community and used as a form of communication.

As nouns the difference between discourse and language

is that discourse is verbal exchange, conversation while language is a body of words, and set of methods of combining them (called a grammar), understood by a community and used as a form of communication.

As verbs the difference between discourse and language

is that discourse is to engage in discussion or conversation; to converse while language is to communicate by language; to express in language.

discourse

Noun

  • (uncountable, archaic) Verbal exchange, conversation.
  • * 1847 , , (Jane Eyre), Chapter XVIII
  • Two or three of the gentlemen sat near him, and I caught at times scraps of their conversation across the room. At first I could not make much sense of what I heard; for the discourse of Louisa Eshton and Mary Ingram, who sat nearer to me, confused the fragmentary sentences that reached me at intervals.
  • (uncountable) Expression in words, either speech or writing.
  • * {{quote-magazine, date=2012-03
  • , author= , title=Pixels or Perish , volume=100, issue=2, page=106 , magazine= citation , passage=Drawings and pictures are more than mere ornaments in scientific discourse . Blackboard sketches, geological maps, diagrams of molecular structure, astronomical photographs, MRI images, the many varieties of statistical charts and graphs: These pictorial devices are indispensable tools for presenting evidence, for explaining a theory, for telling a story.}}
  • (countable) A formal lengthy exposition of some subject, either spoken or written.
  • The preacher gave us a long discourse on duty.
  • (countable) Any rational expression, reason.
  • * South
  • difficult, strange, and harsh to the discourses of natural reason
  • * Shakespeare
  • Sure he that made us with such large discourse , / Looking before and after, gave us not / That capability and godlike reason / To rust in us unused.
  • (social sciences, countable) An institutionalized way of thinking, a social boundary defining what can be said about a specific topic (after ).
  • * 2007 , Christine L. Marran, Poison Woman: Figuring Female Transgression in Modern Japanese Culture (page 137)
  • Furthermore, it should be recalled from the previous chapter that criminological discourse of the 1930s deemed every woman a potential criminal, implicitly including the domestic woman.
  • * 2008 , Jane Anna Gordon, Lewis Gordon, A Companion to African-American Studies (page 308)
  • But equally important to the emergence of uniquely African-American queer discourses is the refusal of African-American movements for liberation to address adequately issues of sexual orientation and gender identity.
  • (obsolete) Dealing; transaction.
  • * Beaumont and Fletcher
  • Good Captain Bessus, tell us the discourse / Betwixt Tigranes and our king, and how / We got the victory.

    Synonyms

    * (expression in words) communication, expression * (verbal exchange) debate, conversation, discussion, talk * (formal lengthy exposition of some subject) dissertation, lecture, sermon, study, treatise * (rational expression) ratiocination

    Derived terms

    * direct discourse * indirect discourse

    Verb

    (discours)
  • To engage in discussion or conversation; to converse.
  • To write or speak formally and at length.
  • (obsolete) To debate.
  • To exercise reason; to employ the mind in judging and inferring; to reason.
  • (Dryden)

    Synonyms

    * (engage in discussion or conversation) converse, talk * (write or speak formally and at length)

    Derived terms

    * discourser

    See also

    * essay

    language

    English

    Etymology 1

    (etyl) language, from (etyl) language, from .

    Noun

    {{examples-right, The English Wiktionary uses the English language' to define words from all of the world's ' languages .


    This person is saying "hello" in American sign language . }} (wikipedia language)
  • (lb) A body of words, and set of methods of combining them (called a grammar), understood by a community and used as a form of communication.
  • * 1867', ''Report on the Systems of Deaf-Mute Instruction pursued in Europe'', quoted in '''1983 in ''History of the College for the Deaf, 1857-1907 (ISBN 0913580856), page 240:
  • Hence the natural language' of the mute is, in schools of this class, suppressed as soon and as far as possible, and its existence as a ' language , capable of being made the reliable and precise vehicle for the widest range of thought, is ignored.
  • * {{quote-book, page=50, year=1900, author=(w)
  • , title= The History of the Caliph Vathek , passage=No language could express his rage and despair.}}
  • * 2000 , Geary Hobson, The Last of the Ofos (ISBN 0816519595), page 113:
  • Mr. Darko, generally acknowledged to be the last surviving member of the Ofo Tribe, was also the last remaining speaker of the tribe's language .
  • (lb) The ability to communicate using words.
  • (lb) The vocabulary and usage of a particular specialist field.
  • *
  • Thus, when he drew up instructions in lawyer language , he expressed the important words by an initial, a medial, or a final consonant, and made scratches for all the words between; his clerks, however, understood him very well.
  • The expression of thought (the communication of meaning) in a specified way.
  • * 2001 , Eugene C. Kennedy, ?Sara C. Charles, On Becoming a Counselor (ISBN 0824519132):
  • A tale about themselves [is] told by people with help from the universal languages of their eyes, their hands, and even their shirting feet.
  • A body of sounds, signs and signals by which animals communicate, and by which plants are sometimes also thought to communicate.
  • A computer language; a machine language.
  • * 2015 , Kent D. Lee, Foundations of Programming Languages (ISBN 3319133144), page 94:
  • In fact pointers are called references in these languages' to distinguish them from pointers in ' languages like C and C++.
  • (lb) Manner of expression.
  • * (rfdate) Cowper:
  • Their language simple, as their manners meek,
  • (lb) The particular words used in a speech or a passage of text.
  • (lb) Profanity.
  • *{{quote-book, page=500, year=1978, author=James Carroll
  • , title= Mortal Friends, isbn=0440157897 , passage="Where the hell is Horace?" ΒΆ "There he is. He's coming. You shouldn't use language ."}}
    Synonyms
    * (form of communication) tongue, speech (spoken language) * (vocabulary of a particular field) lingo (colloquial), jargon, terminology, phraseology, parlance * (computer language) computer language, programming language, machine language * (particular words used) phrasing, wording, terminology
    Derived terms
    * artificial language * auxiliary language * bad language * body language * computing language * constructed language * endangered language * extinct language * foreign language * formal language * foul language * international language * language barrier * language code * language cop * language death * language extinction * language family * language lab, language laboratory * language model * language of flowers * language planning * language police * language pollution * language processing * language school * language shift * language technology * language transfer * languaging * machine language * mathematical language * mind one's language * natural language * pattern language * programming language * private language * secular language * sign language * speak someone's language * standard language * vehicular language * vernacular language

    Verb

  • To communicate by language; to express in language.
  • * (rfdate) Fuller:
  • Others were languaged in such doubtful expressions that they have a double sense.

    See also

    * lexis, term, word * bilingual * linguistics * multilingual * trilingual

    Etymology 2

    Alteration of (m).

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • A languet, a flat plate in or below the flue pipe of an organ.
  • * 1896 , William Horatio Clarke, The Organist's Retrospect , page 79:
  • A flue-pipe is one in which the air passes through the throat, or flue, which is the narrow, longitudinal aperture between the lower lip and the tongue, or language'.

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