Robert-Alain de Beaugrande (1946 – June 2008) was an American text linguist and discourse analyst, one of the leading figures of the Continental tradition in the discipline. He was one of the developers of the Vienna School of Textlinguistik (Department of Linguistics at the University of Vienna), and published the seminal ''Introduction to Text Linguistics'' in 1981, with

Wolfgang U. Dressler Wolfgang U. Dressler (born 22 December 1939) is a polyglot Austrian professor of linguistics at the University of Vienna. Dressler is a scholar who has contributed to various fields of linguistics, especially phonology, morphology, text linguisti ...

. He was also a major figure in the consolidation of

critical discourse analysis Critical discourse analysis (CDA) is an interdisciplinary approach to the study of discourse that views language as a form of social practice. CDA combines critique of discourse and explanation of how it figures within and contributes to the exi ...

. De Beaugrande had an MA in German and English Language and Literature by the Free University of Berlin, in 1971, and a PhD in Comparative Literature and Linguistics by the

University of California The University of California (UC) is a public land-grant research university system in the U.S. state of California. The system is composed of the campuses at Berkeley, Davis, Irvine, Los Angeles, Merced, Riverside, San Diego, San Francisco, ...

, Irvine, in 1976. He served as professor of English in the University of Florida from 1978 to 1991, of English Linguistics at the

University of Vienna The University of Vienna (german: Universität Wien) is a public research university located in Vienna, Austria. It was founded by Duke Rudolph IV in 1365 and is the oldest university in the German-speaking world. With its long and rich histor ...

from 1991 to 1997, Professor of English Language at the

University of Botswana The University of Botswana, popularly known as UB, was established in 1982 as the first institution of higher education in Botswana. The university has three campuses: one in the capital city Gaborone, one in Francistown, and another in Maun. T ...

Gaborone Gaborone ( , , ) is the capital and largest city of Botswana with a population of 246,325 based on the 2022 census, about 10% of the total population of Botswana. Its agglomeration is home to 421,907 inhabitants at the 2011 census. Gaboron ...

, Professor of English and English Linguistics at the

University of Florida The University of Florida (Florida or UF) is a public land-grant research university in Gainesville, Florida. It is a senior member of the State University System of Florida, traces its origins to 1853, and has operated continuously on its ...

at Gainesville, and later as visiting professor in several universities in

Asia Asia (, ) is one of the world's most notable geographical regions, which is either considered a continent in its own right or a subcontinent of Eurasia, which shares the continental landmass of Afro-Eurasia with Africa. Asia covers an area ...

, the

Middle East The Middle East ( ar, الشرق الأوسط, ISO 233: ) is a geopolitical region commonly encompassing Arabian Peninsula, Arabia (including the Arabian Peninsula and Bahrain), Anatolia, Asia Minor (Asian part of Turkey except Hatay Pro ...

, and

Latin America Latin America or * french: Amérique Latine, link=no * ht, Amerik Latin, link=no * pt, América Latina, link=no, name=a, sometimes referred to as LatAm is a large cultural region in the Americas where Romance languages — languages derived f ...

Selected works

* ''Text, Discourse and Process: Toward a Multidisciplinary Science of Texts''. Norwood, N.J.: Ablex, 1980 * ''Introduction to Text Linguistics'' (with Wolfgang Dressler). London: Longman, 1981. * ''Text Production''. Norwood, N.J.: Ablex, 1984 * ''Critical Discourse: A Survey of Contemporary Literary Theorists''. Norwood, N.J.: Ablex, 1988 * ''New Foundations for a Science of Text and Discourse''. Greenwich, CT: Ablex, 1997 * ''A New Introduction to the Study of Text and Discourse''. Uploaded to personal website June 2004.

External links

Home page
(archived, containing many of his original works) Linguists 1946 births 2008 deaths University of Botswana faculty Free University of Berlin alumni University of California, Irvine alumni University of Florida faculty Academic staff of the University of Vienna Linguists from the United States {{US-linguist-stub