Manahij tahlil al-khitab lada al-‘ulama’ al-qudama’ wa al-gharbiyyin: Dirasah wasfiyyah

[Discourse analysis approaches among classical and Western scholars: A descriptive study]

Abstract

This study explores how discourse-analysis methodology has developed from two distinct perspectives: the classical tradition followed by early scholars, and the modern framework shaped by Western thinkers in different knowledge contexts. In the Arab intellectual tradition, discourse analysis was rooted in the disciplines of rhetoric, grammar, and Islamic legal theory, focusing on the structure of texts, their rhetorical techniques, and their communicative aims. By contrast, in modern Western thought, discourse-analysis approaches have evolved from structural linguistics through psychoanalytic theory and semiotics to contemporary critical methods, such as critical discourse analysis, political discourse analysis, and media discourse analysis. These modern methods go beyond just the linguistic form of a text: they examine its social and political architecture, and how it relates to power, ideology, and cultural representation. The goal of this research is to compare these two schools of discourse analysis and to highlight where they overlap and where they diverge. Furthermore, the study investigates the potential for integrating both approaches to gain a richer, more nuanced understanding of contemporary discourses in religious, media, and political settings.