DISCOURSE ANALYSIS

1. "Discourse: a continuous stretch of (especially spoken) language larger than a sentence, often constituting a coherent unit such as a sermon, argument, joke, or narrative" (Crystal 1992:25) (Alexander Tauschel, Basic Concepts of Discourse Analysis, 2004: 3)

2. "Discourse the discipline devoted to the investigation of the relationship between form and function in verbal communication"(According to Jan Renkema)  (Introduction to Discourse Studies, 2004)

3.  "Discourse is the way in which language is used socially to convey broad historical meanings. It is language identified by the social conditions of its use, by who is using it and under what conditions. Language can never be 'neutral' because it bridges our personal and social worlds."
(Frances Henry and Carol Tator, Discourses of Domination. University of Toronto Press, 2002)

4.  Discourse more ideologically as "practices which systematically form the objects of which they speak".(Foucault 1972: 49) (Paul Baker and Sibonile Ellece, Key Terms in Discourse Analysis. Continuum, 2011)

5. "Discourse can also be used to refer to particular contexts of language use, and in this sense it becomes similar to concepts like genre or text type. For example, we can conceptualize political discourse (the sort of language used in political contexts) or media discourse (language used in the media). In addition, some writers have conceived of discourse as related to particular topics, such as an environmental discourse or colonial discourse (which may occur in many different genres).  

6.Discourse is generally used to designate the forms of representation, codes, conventions and habits of language that produce specific fields of culturally and historically located meanings. (According tp Michel Foucault) ('The Order of Discourse', 1971; The Archaeology of Krlowledge, 1972)

7. "Discourse' is sometimes used in contrast with 'text,' where 'text' refers to actual written or spoken data, and 'discourse' refers to the whole act of communication involving production and comprehension, not necessarily entirely verbal. . . . The study of discourse, then, can involve matters like context, background information or knowledge shared between a speaker and hearer."
(Meriel Bloor and Thomas Bloor, The Practice of Critical Discourse Analysis: an Introduction. Routledge, 2013)  

8."The term discourse is also used to refer to meanings at the more macro level. This approach does not study the individual words spoken by people but the language used to describe aspects of the world, and has tended to be taken by those using a sociological perspective."
(Jane Ogden, Health and the Construction of the Individual. Psychology Press, 2002)

 9.  Analysis is a careful study of something to learn about its parts, what they do, and how they are related to each other (http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/analysis)

10. Discourse Analysis is a method of analysing the structure of texts or utterances longer than one sentence, taking into account both their linguistic content and their sociolinguistic context (https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/discourse_analysis)

11. Analysis is a systematic examination and evaluation of data or information by breaking it into its component parts to uncover their interrelationship. Opposite of synthesis. (http://www.businessdictionary.com/definition/analysis.html )

12. "Discourse analysisis concerned with language use as a social phenomenon and therefore necessarily goes beyondonespeaker oronenewspaper article to find features which have a more generalized relevance. This is a potentially confusing point because the publication of research findings is generally presented through examples and the analyst may choose a single example or case to exemplify the features to be discussed, but those features are only of interest as a social, not individual, phenomenon."(Stephanie Taylor,What is Discourse Analysis?Bloomsbury, 2013)

13."[Discourse analysis] is not only about method; it is also a perspective on the nature of language and its relationship to the central issues of the social sciences. More specifically, we see discourse analysis as a related collection of approaches to discourse, approaches that entail not only practices of data collection and analysis, but also a set of metatheoretical and theoretical assumptions and a body of research claimsand studies."(Linda Wood and Rolf Kroger,Doing Discourse Analysis. Sage, 2000)

14.Discourse analysis is a primarily linguistic study examining the use of language by its native population whose major concern is investigating language functions along with its forms, produced both orally and in writing (http://www.anglozof.com/linguistics/discourse.htm)

15.Analysisis the process of breaking acomplex topicor substance into smaller parts in order to gainabetterunderstanding. of it. (https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Analysis?_e_pi_=7%2CPAGE_ID10%2C9606647066)

So, My conclusion Discourse analysis is study about language and analyze language in vocal,written and sign.