• Discursively

    Date: 2009.10.16 | Category: Glossary, Unit SSK12 | Tags:

    Glossary
    Unit: SSK12
    Week: 7
    Date: 16 October 2009

    Word: discursive adj. discursively adv.
    Context: Discursively is in the Barbara Grant article: “The a priori Cartesian mind/body dualism is replaced by the discursively produced body/subject…”
    Definition: The Oxford Dictionary of English defines discursive as follows:

    1. digressing from subject to subject: students often write dull, second-hand, discursive prose. • (of a style of speech or writing) fluent and expansive: the short story is concentrated, whereas the novel is discursive.
    2. relating to discourse or modes of discourse: the attempt to transform utterances from one discursive context to another.
    3. (Philosophy, archaic) proceeding by argument or reasoning rather than by intuition.

    I believe Grant is using the last definition of discursive in her article.
    Word in Use: In the same sense as I believe the word is used by Grant, we can say, Descartes was discursive when he determined that he existed.

    Grant, Barbara. 1997. Disciplining students: the construction of student subjectivities. British Journal of Sociology of Education 18(1): 101-114.

    “discursive adjective” The Oxford Dictionary of English (revised edition). 2005. Ed. Catherine Soanes and Angus Stevenson. Oxford University Press, 2005. Oxford Reference Online. Oxford University Press. Murdoch University. <http://0-www.oxfordreference.com.prospero.murdoch.edu.au/views/ENTRY.html?subview=Main&entry=t140.e21471>
    (Accessed 16th October 2009 )