In post forms and functions, we emphasised that the discourse analyst necessarly takes a pragmatic approach to the study of language in use. Such an approach bring into consideration a number of issues which do not generally receive much attention in the formal linguist description of sentential syntax and semantic. We noted, for example, that the discourse analyst has to take account of the context in which a piece of discourse occurs. Some of the most obvious linguistic element which requirecontextual information for their interpretation are the deictic forms such as here, now, I , you, this and that. In order to interpret these element in a piece of discourse, it is necessary to know who the speaker and hearer are, and the time and place of the production of the discourse. In this categories we shall discuss these and other aspects of contextual description which are required in the analysis of discourse.
There are, howewer, other ways in which the discourse analyst's approach to linguistic data differs from that of the formal linguist and leads to a specialised use of certain terms, Because the analysis is investigating the use of language in context by a speaker, he is more concerned with relationship between the speaker and the utterance, on the particular occasion of use, than with the potential relationship of one setence to another, regardless of their use. That is, in using terms such as reference, presuposition, implicature and inference, the discourse analyst is describing what speakers and hearers are doing, and not the relationship which exists between on sentence of propotion and another.
