Series Editor: Professor Ken Hyland, Institute of Education, University
of London Discourse is one of the most significant concepts of contemporary thinking in the humanities and social sciences as it concerns the ways language mediates and shapes our interactions with each other and with the social, political and cultural formations of our society. The Continuum Discourse Series aims to capture the fast-developing interest in discourse to provide students, new and experienced tea chers and researchers in applied linguistics, ELT and English language with an essential bookshelf. Each book deals with a core topic in discourse studies to give an in-depth, structured and readable intro duction to an aspect of the way language in used in real life. Other titles in the series (forthcoming): M etadiscourse: Exploring Interaction in Writing Ken Hyland Using Corpora in D iscourse Analysis Paul Baker Spoken D iscourse: An Introduction Helen de Silva Joyce and Diana Slade H istorical Discourse: The Language o f Tim e, Cause and Evaluation Caroline Coffin M edia Discourse Joanna Thornborrow P rofessional Discourse Britt-Louise Gunnarsson An Introduction to Critical D iscourse A nalysis Carmen Rosa Caldas-Coulthard and Malcolm Coulthard