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discursively

discursively

8.5
In a way that moves from topic to topic when someone speaks or writes
  • adverb
  • /dɪsˈkɜːrsɪvli/
translation icon : de manera disgresiva
  • In Canon 7, Shenoute discursively constructs the building as a symbol and exemplar of ascetic purity.
  • discursively constructed identity
  • discursively in ways
  • discursively constructed

Examples

  • During the meeting, she presented her ideas discursively, hopping from one topic to another in an unstructured way.

  • The professor spoke discursively, shifting from the history of art to modern technology without a clear transition.

  • To speak off the record is to have the opportunity to speak without being discursively responsible for the truthfulness of one's words.

    Academic text (2001)
  • The text goes on to perform what the opening has asserted discursively.

    Academic text (2000)
  • However, there is a discursively informed undercurrent that runs throughout the liaison.

    Academic text (1997)
  • One of the reasons why ancestors have supernatural authority is that they serve discursively to "authorize" people's talk about important topics.

    Academic text (1990)
  • Historian Nyan Shah traces the process through which the knowledge and institutions of public health discursively constructed San Francisco Chinatown.

    Academic text (2003)
  • The subjugation of the Palestinian people historically, geographically, and discursively to Israeli representations of the conflict is evident.

    Academic text (1991)
  • Importantly, masculinity is discursively constructed and patrolled through performative repetition.

    Academic text (2017)
  • Discursively, people, landscape, and elephants all pertained to a single nature/society nexus.

    Academic text (2018)

Synonyms

ramblingly
vsdiscursively
8.2

Talking or writing that moves between ideas without clear order

moves specifically between topics rather than just wandering aimlessly
digressively
vsdiscursively
  • Formal
7.9

In a way that moves away from the main topic

moves from topic to topic rather than a single temporary departure
verbosely
vsdiscursively
7.3

In a way that uses more words than needed

changes subjects often rather than just being long or wordy

Antonyms

To do something in a planned, regular way

70 3.7

You think clearly and sensibly to reach a reasonable answer

How Rambling

digressively
  • Formal
7.9
discursively
8.5
coherently
6 7.0
concisely
6 4.4

Surface Forms

discursively positive
discursiverly comparative
discursivestly superlative

Morphology

discursively = discursive (transparent) = discursive + ly

The adverb is formed by the regular suffix '-ly' from the adjective 'discursive', a predictable derivation for learners who know the adjective.

Etymology

Discursively comes from the Latin parts dis- 'apart' and currere 'to run', and you can see the same root in current and course. So to speak discursively is like 'running' from one idea to another, moving around topics without a clear order.