Discourse analysis examines language in use to understand its functions. There are two main views of language functions: transactional, which uses language to communicate information, and interactional, which uses language to establish and maintain social relationships. Language can be used for both communicating information and maintaining social interactions. Spoken and written language both have advantages and disadvantages - written language allows more organization while spoken uses paralinguistic cues. Discourse analysts study both spoken and written texts but can only transcribe what is said, not capture elements like intonation. Grammarians and discourse analysts differ in their views of language data and rules.

1. Linguistic forms and functions
The main objective that discourse analysis has is to analyze the language in use, for
that reason discourse analysts have to investigate what the language is used for.
Besides, two points of view have been adopted in order to describe the major
functions of the language. These two terms are named as transactional and
interactional views. The first one refers to use the language to communicate
information and the second one is to use the language to establish or maintain social
relationships.
Moreover, as it was mentioned before the language can be used to communicate
information or to maintain social interactions. Additionally, those functions can be
studied because they are connected with some productions that are been made with
the use of the spoken and written language. Furthermore, both written and spoken
language have their own similarities and differences. For example, when the
language is used in the written form it is structured, organized and well developed
because the writer can take time in the construction of a text. Nevertheless, the
spoken language has its own advantages, for instance; the speaker can use the
paralinguistic cues
Besides, the author states that there are two types of texts, these are spoken and
written. Both of them have advantages and disadvantages; however, they are
interpretations of what the speaker/writer wants to say. For instance, the discourse
analyst can only transcribe what the speaker says . It means that the intonation, the
intention, the rhythm, and so on are not taken into consideration, because the
transcription is only orthographic and it does not include the paralinguistic cues. On
the other hand, in written texts, the interpretation and reproduction has to be the
same that the original one, so what the author expresses is preserved authentically
in every copy.
Furthermore, the text connects the concept of sentence and writing saying that for
each one of them the same features are taken in consideration and for that reason
sentences are written. In addition, utterances are connected with speaking, because
both of them have the same characteristics, so the utterances are spoken. Moreover,
in the case of sentences the author states a distinction between “system-sentences”
and “text-sentences”.The first one only happens when the writer uses specific
language for a specific purpose. Nonetheless, “text-sentences” are used in the
ordinary use of the language. Those differences are for distinguish grammarians
against discourse analyst due to the different points of view that they have about
data, rules/regularities, product/process and context. . For example, while data for
grammarians is taken as isolation, as a single sentence that illustrate a particular
feature of the language being studied. For discourse analysts data is not a single
sentence, it is more descriptive and it includes information such as hesitations, slips
and non-standard forms.