Discourse analysis

Discourse can be defined in three ways:
1. Language beyond the level of a sentence
2. Language behaviors linked to social
practices
3. Language as a system of thought.
Discourse analysis is usually defined as the
analysis of language 'beyond the
sentence'. And the analysis of discourse is
typically concerned with the study of language
in text and conversation

Basic ideas in Discourse
analysis


Text analysis ( writing)
structure of a discourse
speech events



Conversation analysis (speaking)
Turn-taking
The cooperative principle
Background knowledge

Basics of text analysis


Cohesion
 Coherence
 Speech events

Basics of conversation analysis


Turn-taking
 The cooperative principle
 Hedges
 Implicatures
 Background knowledge
 Schemas and scripts

Cohesion
cohesion is the grammatical and/or lexical relationships
between the different elements of a text.
Example:
My father once bought a Lincoln convertible. He did it by saving
every penny he could. That car would be worth a fortune
nowadays. However, he sold it to help pay for my college
education. Sometimes I think I‟d rather have the convertible.
Cohesive ties ( In reference):
Father- he- he- he;
“A” Lincoln convertible- that car- it- “the” convertible

My father once bought a Lincoln convertible. He did it by
saving every penny he could. That car would be worth a
fortune nowadays. However, he sold it to help pay for my
college education. Sometimes I think I‟d rather have the
convertible.

Cohesive ties ( in semantics):
[money]: bought- saving- penny- worth- fortunesold- pay
[time]: once- nowadays- sometimes

My father once bought a Lincoln convertible. He did it
by saving every penny he could. That car would be
worth a fortune nowadays. However, he sold it to help
[ay for my college education. Sometimes I think I‟d
rather have the convertible.

Cohesive ties (in grammar):
Tense: bought- did- could- would- sold
Cohesive devices for textual relation:
however

Example:
My father bought a Lincoln convertible. The
car driven by the police was red. That color
doesn‟t suit her. She consists of three letters.
However, a letter isn‟t as fast as a telephone
call.
 Many cohesive devices, but a text very
hard to interpret.


Here we don‟t see any coherence but
there is a cohesion.

Cohesive (with many cohesive ties)

Coherent (easy to interpret)

Coherence
Coherence is the relationships which link the
meanings of utterances in a discourse or of the
sentences in a text.
Example:
HER: That‟s the telephone
HIM: I‟m in the bath
HER: O.K.


There are certainly no cohesive ties within this
fragment of discourse. Here we see coherence
but no cohesion.

Cohesion and coherence


Cohesion helps to create coherence.
 Cohesion does not entail coherence
 Coherence can be made with/out
cohesive ties/ devises.

Conversation knowledge


To interpret the conversation above, we need to
possess knowledge of the followings:

Speech event includes interactions such as a
conversation at a party or ordering a meal. Any
speech event comprises several components.
debate, lecture, interview, game, daily routine, etc.
 Interlocutors ( the speaker & the hearer): the social
distance, interpersonal status, age, gender, etc.
 Topic of a conversation
 Setting wherein a conv occurs or frame
 Culturally specific factors


The basic structure of a conversation:
Turn(s)
 The speaker and the hearer take TURNs
talking.
one person speaks at one time, and the
other listens, and then they switch places.
Example:
A: Hello.
B: Hi
A: How are u?
B: Fine.


Overlaps: when interlocutors speak at the
same time; both take the turn
Example:
A: Didn‟t you [ know whB:
[ But he must‟ve been there by two
A: Yes but you knew where he was going


Repair

overlap

How do the interlocutors know when to
take the turn?
 TRP ( Turn Relevance Place)
1. The end of a phrase, clause, or
sentence
2. A falling in intonation
3. A perceivable pause, usually 0.2
seconds


Mum: Hello
Son: Oh hello how are u?
Mum: Very well and u?
Son: Thanks
Mum: That‟s good
(0.5)
Mum: We had torrential rain today ( A new
topic initiated)

To keep the turn and imply to the other
that the current speaker has more to say.
 Example:
X: well that film really was… [wasn‟t what he
was good at
Y:
[ when diX: I mean his other …. em his later films were
much more …. er really more in the
romantic style and that was more what
what he was … you know … em beast at
doing
Y: so when did he make that one.


The cooperative principle









Assumption: interlocutors are cooperative in
constructing a conversation.
“Gricean Maxims”, for supporting the principle.
The Quantity maxim: Make ur contribution as
informative as is required, but not more, or
less, than is required.
The Quality maxim: Do not say that which u
believe to be false or for which u lack
adequate evidence
The relation maxim: Be relevant.
The Manner maxim: Be clear, brief and orderly

Example:
During a lunch break, one woman asks another
how she likes the sandwich she is eating and
receives the following answer.
Oh a sandwich is a sandwich
In logical terms, this reply appears to have no
communicative value since it states sth obvious &
doesn‟t seem to be informative at all. But if the
woman is being cooperative and adhering to the
quantity maxim about being “as informative as is
required”, then the listener must assume that her
friend is communicating sth.

Given the opportunity to evaluate the sandwich,
her friend has responded without an explicit
evaluation, thereby implying that she has no
opinion, good or bad, to express. That is, her
friend has essentially communicated that the
sandwich isn‟t worth talking about.

Hedges can be defined as words or phrases
used to indicate that we are not really sure
that what we are saying is sufficiently correct
or complete.
We can use sort of or kind of as hedges in
the accuracy of our statements, as in
descriptions such as:
His hair was kind of long
The book cover is sort of yellow ( rather than
It is yellow.)

IMPLICATURES
Implicature is an additional meaning conveyed
by a speaker adhering to the cooperative
principle.
Example:
Carol: Are u coming to the party tonight?
Lara: I‟ve got an exam tomorrow.
Here Lara‟s statement is not an answer to
Carol‟s Q. Lara doesn‟t say Yes or No. But
Carol will immediately interpret that the answer
means No.
It seems to depend, at least partially, on the
assumption that Lara is being relevant &
informative, adhering to the maxims of

Background knowledge
Background knowledge is an information that
is not in a text, but is used from memory by a
reader to understand the text.
Example:
John was in his way to school last Friday.
He was really worried about the math
lesson.

Last week he had been unable to control
the class.

It was unfair of the math teacher to leave him in
charge.

After all, it is not a normal part of a janitor‟s
duties.

This example provide us with some insight into
the ways in which we „build‟ interpretations of
what we read by using a lot more information
than is presented in the words on the page. That
is, we actually create what the text is about,
based on our expectations of what normally
happens.

Schemas and scripts
Schema is a conventional knowledge which exists in
memory.
If u hear s.o. describe what happened during a visit to a
supermarket, u don‟t have to be told what is normally
found in a supermarket. U already have a „supermarket
schema‟ (food displayed on shelves, arranged in aisles,
shopping carts and baskets, check-out counter and etc)
as part of your background knowledge.
Examples: school, classroom, supermarket, bus,
department store, airport and etc.

Script
Script is essentially a dynamic schema in which
conventional actions take place.
Example:
Trying not to be out of the office for long, Suzy
went into the nearest place, sat down and
ordered an avocado sandwich. It was quite
crowded, but the service was fast, so she left a
good tip.

Examples: taking the train, traveling on an
airplane, eating at a restaurant, talking
to s.o. on the phone.

Clearly. Our understanding of what we read is
not only based on what we see on the page
(language structures), but also on other things
that we have in mind(knowledge structure).

sociology

sociolinguistics

Conversational analysis
Ethnography

Interactional sociolinguistics
Variation theory
Speech act theory

Philosophy

Linguistics

Pragmatics
Birmingham school
structural-functional systemic functional linguistics
socio semiotic SFL
Critical D.A

Artificial intelligence

The term genre is used highly in Ethnography
of speaking, Systemic Functional Linguistics
and Critical Discourse Analysis. In Ethnography
of speaking, genre refers to one component in
the complex communicative context of
interactions. In SFL, used to describe how
people use L to achieve culturally recognized
goals. In CDA genre is defined as „a socially
ratified way of using L in connection with a
particular type of social activity. E.g. Interview,
narrative exposition)‟ (Fairclough 1995a: 14)

Ethnographic approaches to conversation
have been led by Hymes and are concerned
with the „situation and uses, the patterns and
functions of speaking as an activity in its own
right‟. Or concerned with understanding the
social context of linguistics interactions. In
seeking to account for “who says what to
whom, when, where, why and how.” (Hymes
1972b)
He developed a schema for analyzing context
that has the „speech event‟ in which L occurs
as its prime unit of analysis.

The term “speech event” refers to “
activities that are directly governed by
rules or norms for the use of speech”
(Hymes 1972b: 56) speech events include
interactions such as a conversation at a
party , or ordering a meal, etc. Any
speech event comprises several
components and these are listed in Hymes
grid.

It was developed by Labov (1972) and has
made a major contribution to the analysis of
discourse. Labov and waletzky argue that
fundamental narrative structures are evident in
spoken narratives of personal experience. He
argued that the overall structure of a fully
formed narrative of personal experience
involves 6 stages :
 Abstract (summary of story, with its point)
 Orientation (in respect of place, time & situation)
 Complication (temporal sequence of events)
 Evaluation (narrator‟s attitude towards narrative)
 Resolution (protagonist‟s approach to crisis)
 Coda (point about narrative as a whole)

Example:
Speaker A is the interviewer and speaker B responds with the narrative.
A: What was the most imp fight that you remember, one that sticks in ur
mind?
Abstract ( the introductory part)
B: Well, one I think was with a girl.
Orientation ( who, when , what, where?)
Like I was a kid, u know, and she was the baddest girl in the neighborhood.
If u didn‟t bring her candy to school, she would punch u in the mouth; and
u had to kiss her when she‟d tell u. this girl was only about 12 years old,
man, but she was a killer. She didn‟t take no junk; she whupped all her
brothers.
Complication ( then what happened?)
And I came to school one day and I didn‟t have no money. My ma
wouldn‟t give me no money. So I go to school and this girl says "where's the
candy?‟ I said: I don‟t have it.” She says, powww!
Evaluation ( so what? Or the point or reason the narrative is being told)
so I says to myself, There‟s gonna be times my mother won‟t give me
money because ( we‟re) a poor family. And I can‟t take this all, u know,
every time she don‟t give me any money.” so I say, “Well, I just gotta fight
this girl. She‟s gonna hafta whup me. I hope she don‟t whup me.”
Resolution ( conclusion)
And I hit the girl: Powww! And I put sth on it. I win the fight.
Coda ( relevance of the narrative to everyday life)
That was one of the most important.

In the early 1970s, Sinclair and Coulthard
tape-recorded mother-tongue classes.
The classes were traditional, teacherfronted lessons where knowledge was
typically transmitted by the pupils
answering the teacher‟s display Q.
engaging in some sort of activity or just
listening to the teacher talking.

The central concern of SFL is how people
use L with each other to accomplish
everyday social life and how social worlds
are, in turn created in and through L.
The SFL orientation to spoken discourse is
similar to that of CA, in that both are
concerned to describe the relationship
between L and its social context.

Critical discourse analysis (CDA) is a type of
discourse analytical research that primarily
studies the way social power abuse,
dominance, and inequality are enacted,
reproduced, and resisted by text and talk in
the social and political context. With such
dissident research, critical discourse analysts
take explicit position, and thus want to
understand, expose, and ultimately resist
social inequality.

Genres in CDA are seen as social actions
occurring within particular social and historical
contexts.
As Miller stated, similarities in form and function are
seen deriving from the similarity in the social action
undertaken, therefore, Texts are looked at the
textual regularities they display and what class,
gender and ethnic bias they incorporate, what
social practices they reflect.
This new conception of genre in CDA sees genres
as both social and textual categories which are
dynamic and changing.
Genres are not only arise out of the social context
but also they shape the social context.

Corpus linguistics sprang from a desire to be
more objective about language and to
free description from subjective intuition.
Corpus linguists believe that external
evidence, looking at language use, is a
better source for description than internal
evidence, or native speaker intuition.

Corpus linguistics may be performed in
two ways:
1.
2.

Quantitative approach
Qualitative approach

Discourse analysis

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Discourse analysis