ELI5: Explain Like I'm 5

discourse analysis

Discourse analysis is when you study how people communicate, including the words they use and how they structure their conversations. Basically, it's a way of studying how people speak to each other. For example, if someone talks about a certain topic in a certain way, the way they talk about it may say something about them or their beliefs. It helps us understand what people mean when they talk about different things and how language shapes our understanding of the world.