The Definition of Discourse
The definition of discourse can be viewed from at least four perspectives: its use in general society, its etymology, its position within linguistic units, and its relation to the concept of language. In general usage, the word "discourse" means "an initial idea that is not yet fully developed and is deliberately brought up for discussion" or "conversation or dialogue" (Ayatrohaedi 2002:12). This meaning is evident in expressions such as "this is just discourse," "this plan is still in the discourse stage," or "this program needs to be discussed," often used by officials or politicians.
From an etymological standpoint, the word "discourse" originates from the Sanskrit word "vacana", meaning 'reading.' It entered Old Javanese and Modern Javanese as "wacana" or "wacana", meaning 'speech, word, utterance.' In Modern Javanese, it was later adopted into Indonesian as "wacana", meaning 'speech, conversation, lecture' (Poerwadarminta 1976: 1144). As its use expanded, the meaning of "wacana" also broadened. In the Fourth Edition of the "Kamus Besar Bahasa Indonesia" (Great Dictionary of the Indonesian Language), "wacana" is defined as follows:
1. verbal communication; conversation; 2. a complete utterance that forms a cohesive whole; 3. the most complete linguistic unit, realized in the form of essays or complete reports, such as novels, books, articles, speeches, or sermons; 4. the ability or procedure to think systematically; the ability or process of reasoning; 5. the exchange of ideas verbally (Sugono 2008: 1552). (Spelling adjusted by the author).
In Indonesian, the word "wacana" is used as a translation for the English word "discourse." Etymologically, the word "discourse" comes from the Latin "discursus", meaning 'running back and forth.' It is derived from the verb "discurrere", which is a combination of "dis" and "currere" (to run, walk quickly) (Webster 1983: 522). Therefore, in Indonesia, some people also use the word "diskursus" as an adaptation of the Latin "discursus".
In terms of its position within linguistic units, discourse is understood as a linguistic unit that exists above the sentence level (Stubbs 1983: 10 and Mchoul 1994: 940). There are at least ten linguistic units recognized in linguistics: (i) discourse, (ii) paragraph, (iii) sentence, (iv) clause, (v) phrase, (vi) word, (vii) morpheme, (viii) syllable, (ix) phoneme, (x) sound. Among these, discourse is positioned above the sentence level. Additionally, discourse is understood as "the most complete linguistic unit, in grammatical hierarchy, being the largest or highest grammatical unit. Discourse is realized in the form of a complete essay (novel, book, encyclopedia series, etc.), paragraph, sentence, or word that conveys a complete message" (Kridalaksana 1993: 231).
In terms of the concept of language, discourse is defined as "language in use" (Brown and Yule 1983: 1). "Language in use" refers to language used in verbal communication, which means language used in context. Therefore, discourse consists of two main elements: language and context. The language element is also referred to as the text. Thus, borrowing the terminology of Halliday and Hasan (1992), discourse is a linguistic unit consisting of text and context. Text does not only refer to written language, as is commonly understood, but also to spoken language. In this case, the text consists of linguistic units. Context refers to the external elements that surround the text.
Based on the definition of discourse from these four perspectives, discourse can be understood as the largest or highest linguistic unit, formed by text and context. As the highest linguistic unit, discourse can take the form of sentence clusters, paragraphs or sections, discourse segments (chapters, subchapters, episodes), and complete discourses (novels, poems, song lyrics, sermons, announcements, advertisements, news, dialogues).
