Word Help

[bcholmes]

"Discursive"

In pomo circles, I was pretty sure that the term "discursive" describes questions that bring critical assumptions into focus or questions which cause radical rethinking of a set of assumptions.

Am I crazy? Anyone else familiar with that usage? (m-w.com and dictionary.com both give me very different definitions).

Comments

[nex0s.livejournal.com]

that's how i remember it... lemme check the OED...

hrm:
 1. Running hither and thither; passing irregularly from one locality to another. rare in lit. sense.
  
2. fig. Passing rapidly or irregularly from one subject to another; rambling, digressive; extending over or dealing with a wide range of subjects.  

3. Passing from premisses to conclusions; proceeding by reasoning or argument; ratiocinative. (Cf. DISCOURSE v. 2.) Often opp. to intuitive.
   B. as n. A subject of ‘discourse’ or reasoning (as distinguished from a subject of perception). Obs. rare.


n.

dis·cur·sive

[(Anonymous)]

Main Entry: dis·cur·sive
Pronunciation: dis-'k&r-siv
Function: adjective
Etymology: Medieval Latin discursivus, from Latin discursus, past participle of discurrere to run about -- more at DISCOURSE
1 a : moving from topic to topic without order : RAMBLING b : proceeding coherently from topic to topic
2 : marked by analytical reasoning
- dis·cur·sive·ly adverb
- dis·cur·sive·ness noun

Meriam-webster online

[hellsop.livejournal.com]

1&2 together, and 3, are the groups of definitions I'm finding as well. Given the origin that all the references I can find show (Latin discursus), definition 3 is kind of puzzling, yet it's *likely* the original meaning of the usage that BC's talking about. It's pretty easy to go from "analytic" to "well-thought" to "perceptive" in casual usage among a group.

[supergee.livejournal.com]

Wikipedia has nothing on it.

[skylark-10.livejournal.com]

a pomohomo myself, i use the word in the sense of looping conversation paths, as suggested by the "rambling" in the definitions provided here.

[lisiblac.livejournal.com]

I have often seen 'discursive' used as an adjectival form of 'discourse.' Whether that was its correct usage before deconstructivists *needed* an adjectival form for 'discourse', I don't know. Sounds like you need to write a Derridian paper on the topic: "Discourse on the discourse." :)