What's the difference between discourse and pointless?

Discourse


Definition:

  • (n.) The power of the mind to reason or infer by running, as it were, from one fact or reason to another, and deriving a conclusion; an exercise or act of this power; reasoning; range of reasoning faculty.
  • (n.) Conversation; talk.
  • (n.) The art and manner of speaking and conversing.
  • (n.) Consecutive speech, either written or unwritten, on a given line of thought; speech; treatise; dissertation; sermon, etc.; as, the preacher gave us a long discourse on duty.
  • (n.) Dealing; transaction.
  • (v. i.) To exercise reason; to employ the mind in judging and inferring; to reason.
  • (v. i.) To express one's self in oral discourse; to expose one's views; to talk in a continuous or formal manner; to hold forth; to speak; to converse.
  • (v. i.) To relate something; to tell.
  • (v. i.) To treat of something in writing and formally.
  • (v. t.) To treat of; to expose or set forth in language.
  • (v. t.) To utter or give forth; to speak.
  • (v. t.) To talk to; to confer with.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) Patients' and therapists' discourses can be analysed from tape recordings or from their responses to open-ended questions.
  • (2) Facebook Twitter Pinterest Bill Shorten backs prospect of Indigenous treaty to ‘move beyond constitutional recognition’ At a press conference, Turnbull rebuked Shorten for his lack of “discipline” on Q&A, which is, after all, the home of reasoned and reasonable political discourse.
  • (3) This is understandable: marital rape has not been a part of India’s discourse.
  • (4) We still have at our disposal the rational interpretive skills that are the legacy of humanistic education, not as a sentimental piety enjoining us to return to traditional values or the classics but as the active practice of worldly secular rational discourse.
  • (5) Derived patterns of discourse between female adults and preschool children confirmed expectations that most discourse is based upon three fundamental speech act pairings: question--answer, statement--reply, and directive--acknowledgement.
  • (6) In light of the AIDS epidemic and the necessity for safe-sex practices, the topic of caution and prevention is an emerging and critical discourse for the sexual encounter.
  • (7) He might begin with a call for an end to all foreign wars, segue to demand the legalisation of drugs, throw in a defence of WikiLeaks and end with a detailed economic discourse on why the Federal Reserve must be abolished and replaced by the gold standard.
  • (8) Three-quarters of the sample was impaired on at least one of four discourse tests (knowing the alternate meanings of ambiguous words in context; getting the point of figurative or metaphoric expressions; bridging the inferential gaps between events in stereotyped social situations; and producing speech acts that express the apparent intentions of others).
  • (9) I support the boycott discourse, but in order to develop this discourse, we need highly developed political consciousness.
  • (10) Other significant differences in discourse occurred between the two groups, but these varied from task to task.
  • (11) He was not in the mood for elaboration, with abundant short answers and uptight reactions to the topics that were suggested for discourse.
  • (12) I quoted Cooke because, as he himself suggests, what he wrote is a pure distillation of a widely held view in US political discourse.
  • (13) That’s the danger of replacing the political discourse with a purely moralistic approach: politics allow for nuances and mistakes; morality doesn’t.
  • (14) Discourse passages and consonant nonsense syllables, presented in quiet and in noise, were used as the test conditions.
  • (15) And the discourse of those that are committing these crimes – they are not hiding these crimes, they are saying it very openly, very publicly, very systematically … and it’s not just rhetoric – the action they take is to implement the rhetoric.
  • (16) Powell told the Association of Teachers and Lecturers’ annual conference in Liverpool on Monday: “I think my approach to these issues in parliament is going to be about making and winning the argument rather than a sort of ‘yah-boo’ traditional political discourse, because I don’t think that is going to enable us to develop that broader alliance.
  • (17) Manic patients produced thought disorders that revealed both prominent combinatory thinking and intrusions of irrelevant ideas into the stream of discourse, usually with flippancy and humor.
  • (18) There are rationalisations but very little actual discourse on the subject of banning assault weapons.
  • (19) Each lesson focuses on a different viseme which is practiced using the 'discourse tracking' method.
  • (20) Preliminary data from our single-case studies suggest discourse patterns similar to those reported for adults with frontal lobe injuries.

Pointless


Definition:

  • (a.) Having no point; blunt; wanting keenness; obtuse; as, a pointless sword; a pointless remark.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) The citizenship debate is tawdry, conflated and ultimately pointless | Richard Ackland Read more On Wednesday, the prime minister criticised lawyers for backing terrorists.
  • (2) It’s the same story over and over.” Children’s author Philip Ardagh , who told the room he once worked as an “unprofessional librarian” in Lewisham, said: “Closing down a library is like filing off the end of a swordfish’s nose: pointless.” 'Speak up before there's nothing left': authors rally for National Libraries Day Read more “Today proves that support for public libraries comes from all walks of life and it’s not rocket science to work out why.
  • (3) But now the document turns crazily surreal, like the pointless war itself.
  • (4) And David Ngog was a pointless signing too – one which puzzled us all.
  • (5) "It is pointless to think sovereign bond rates could be brought down for an extended period of time by outside interventions," said Draghi.
  • (6) They aren't pointless; apart from any craft they may teach, they can also offer connections and contacts – a "way in" – which is the modern essential of anyone trying to start a career.
  • (7) An Australian family that lost three children and a grandfather in the downing of Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 has published an emotional tribute calling for an end to the “pointless war” in eastern Ukraine.
  • (8) People are criticising what we are doing as pointless and saying we won’t achieve anything, but history has shown us that is not the case,” student leader Joshua Wong told the crowd last week.
  • (9) It is pointless to go back over the missed opportunities, but an essential part of the design of this regional conference is that it should be able to be supported by Russia and China as well as the US.
  • (10) Hoodies don't vote, they've realised it's pointless, that whoever gets elected will just be a different shade of the "we don't give a toss about you" party.
  • (11) Bojórquez, the editor, says that for the moment the risks are manageable within his commitment to the idea that journalism is pointless unless it informs.
  • (12) The others are either infuriatingly vague (“An NHS with time to care”) or pointlessly catch-all (“A country where the next generation can do better than the last”).
  • (13) Especially when there’s no funeral to go to, just an endless stream of pointless review meetings.
  • (14) "If this doesn't bring down mortgage rates for 95% loans then the whole thing is completely pointless," he said.
  • (15) To express guarded optimism about the Greek deal is not to condone the provocative arrogance of former Greek finance minister Yanis Varoufakis or the pointless vindictiveness of the German finance minister, Wolfgang Schäuble .
  • (16) The PCC came under fire last week from the editor of the Guardian, Alan Rusbridger, who branded its report on phone hacking at the News of the World "worse than pointless".
  • (17) 3 Don’t be afraid to talk about corruption Poverty overseas is often associated with corruption: 67% of the British public think that government corruption makes donating to reduce poverty “pointless” (up from 48% in 2008), according to research from Jennifer and David Hudson.
  • (18) But it's a pointless endeavour if the fundraising activity contributes to and compounds the culture in which our breasts are only relevant if they're being admired by someone else's eyes.
  • (19) Quibbling over whether fashion is more or less important than art is just as pointless as questioning whether or not it is art.
  • (20) Why should Paris or Berlin waste political capital - they have suspicious voters too - on concessions to Britain when it may all be pointless?