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Discourse
It is a general term for examples of language use, i.e. language which has
been produced as the result of an act of communication. Whereas
grammar refers to the rules a language uses to form grammatical units
such as CLAUSE, PHRASE, and SENTENCE, discourse normally refers
to larger units of language such as paragraphs, conversations, and
interviews. Sometimes the study of both written and spoken discourse is
known as DISCOURSE ANALYSIS; some researchers however use
discourse analysis to refer to the study of spoken discourse and TEXT
LINGUISTICS to refer to the study of written discourse.
Context
It is what occurs before and/or after a word, a phrase or even a longer
UTTERANCE or a TEXT. The context often helps in understanding the
particular meaning of the word, phrase, etc. For example, the word loud
in loud music is usually understood as meaning noisy whereas in a tie
with a loud pattern it is understood as unpleasantly colourful. The
context may also be the broader social situation in which a linguistic item
is used. For example, in ordinary usage, spinster refers to an older
unmarried woman but in a legal context it refers to any unmarried
woman.
Text linguistics
It is a branch of linguistics which studies spoken or written TEXTs, e.g. a
descriptive passage, a scene in a play, a conversation. It is concerned, for
instance, with the way the parts of a text are organized and related to one
another in order to form a meaningful whole.
which the components of the surface text (the actual words we hear or
see) are mutually connected within a sequence (de Beaugrande &
Dressler 1981:3). Coherence on the other hand concerns the ways in
which the components of the textual world, i.e. the concepts and relations
which underlie the surface text are mutually accessible and relevant
(1981:3-7).
Informativity concerns the extent to which the occurrences of the text are
expected vs. unexpected or known vs. unknown/uncertain.
Intertextuality concerns the factors which make the utilisation of one text
dependent upon knowledge of one or more previously encountered texts.