1980 | "Discourse may first of all primarily refer to spoken interaction, which will be analysed in terms of units of meaning, organized into a hierarchy employing some or all of the terms act, move, exchange, transaction and others. Secondly discourse may refer to a stretch of language, either spoken or written, analysis of which will consider aspects of sentence connection, or cohesion. ..... the third generally used meaning of the term, which is employed to cover the consideration of rhetorical functions or communicative purposes." | Robinson, Pauline (1980, p.20) |