Three Decades of Serbian Discourse Studies (1993–2023)

Abstract

This contribution aimed to provide an overview of recent developments in the field of Serbian discourse studies, covering a thirty-year period from 1993 to 2023. In addition to highlighting the main topics and areas of interest, the paper sought to compile an inventory of previous scholarly works and thereby lay the groundwork for further research in linguistics and closely related social sciences such as media studies, sociology, anthropology, etc. Following the establishment of a chronological and thematic framework, along with criteria for material selection, a qualitative analysis was conducted on a corpus of 354 items. The corpus was first categorized based on semantic criteria (i.e., the type of discourse analyzed), and then by formal criteria (type of publication, such as original research articles, books/manuals, doctoral dissertations, and master’s theses), in an effort to systematize and link prior findings. The material was drawn from Serbian philological journals, conference proceedings, digital libraries, and open-source databases, including those developed at Serbian university centres and the Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts (e.g., DAIS, Phaidra, COBISS, etc.). The analysis revealed that most works focused on Serbian media, advertising, and political discourse, while other types of discourse were represented to a much lesser extent. Finally, the study underscored the importance of a thorough interdisciplinary analysis of a broader range of extralinguistic factors that influence the use of particular linguistic expressions in specific types of discourse.