WAYS INTO DISCOURSE

With this is mind, in the early 2000s I started to organise a series of small conferences around the topic of discourse analysis at the University of Valencia, where I work. On the three occasions I organised this conference, international and Spanish scholars were invited to participate. The lectures given were dynamic, interesting and there was stimulating interaction between speakers and audience. The events were, in sum, highly successful, especially if one is to judge by the number of students who attended them and by their involvement. The audience also showed the growing interest of students and scholars towards discourse analysis. Thus encouraged by colleagues and students, and after having witnessed the popularity of discourse analysis, the decision was made to compile the volume Ways Into Discourse. This volume takes as its starting premise that the diversity of this field is its greatest attraction and strength and that there are numerous ways to approach the analysis of discourse, all of them equally attractive, revealing and illuminating. There are, in sum, many different ways into discourse, of which this book illustrates but a few.