1、,Introduction to Linguistics,Lecture 7Discourse Analysis,Overview,Discourse Discourse Analysis Coherence Cohesion Summary,Discourse,What? A stretch of meaningful, authentic language data. A text. Something whole. Where? In speech or writing Why? Technical and scientific advances, audio/video-recorde
2、rs, computers, concordancing, and a concern with real life rather than abstract idealised language used by no one,What is Discourse Analysis,A linguistic or psychological investigation of the characteristics of texts (Emmitt and Pollock 1997, p.107) also called text linguistics,Discourse/Text types
3、or genres,We can to a large extent recognise these intuitively and have mental schemata/definite expectations which greatly assist processing Look at the various Images. What written text types are these? What features distinguish them? How about oral types: an aside, joke, anecdote, talk, lecture,
4、speech, oration?,Coherence,Since these texts are whole they have coherence. Coherence is a macro feature. Coherence concerns the global unity of the text and the factors which render it meaningful and unified (Cook 1989, p.4) and evoke the feeling that the text hangs together and makes sense (McCart
5、hy 1991, p.26),Coherence,Not perhaps an inherent property of a spoken or written text but a mental entity which is present when the listener or reader is able to form roughly the same text representation as the text originator. (Gernsbacher and Givon 1995, Preface vii),How do we process discourse?,W
6、e start to do this top-down not bottom-up using our existing knowledge of text type and of the world. What would you expect to see/hear in a TV weather forecast? Our expectations and awareness make understanding much easier.,Coherence,As the example of short conversations in Pragmatics showed:We mus
7、t look beyond the formal rules operating within (and across) sentences, and consider the people who use the language and the world in which it happens. (Cook 1989, p.13),How can we analyse discourse?,There are six key concepts that help us to assess whether a text has coherence genre context top-lev
8、el structure organisational structure audience / reader purpose,Genre,Genre may be a factual e.g. a report or expressive/imaginative e.g. a novel Which of the images provided examples of these?,Written genre,Written genre may be divided into 4 typesnarrative telling a story procedural giving instruc
9、tions expository setting out an argument explanatory giving reasonsWhich can you see on the images?,Spoken genre,Spoken genre may be roughly divided into two types observation/comment recount (cf. Narrative but often more personal, disorganised, informal) Listen and identify the following spoken tex
10、t types. http:/ http:/ is it to be found e.g. (written) in a newspaper, an academic journal, a comic ; (spoken) at a ceremony, in a party .,Top-level structure,Shows how the text is pre-organised in the mind of the writer/speaker A coat hanger for ideas reflecting pre-utterance psycholinguistic acti
11、vity. A tree trunk supporting branches/leaves,Top level structures,Four possible structures comparisons cause and effect problems and solutions lists and descriptionsWhich ones can you note on the images?,Uses,Comparisons - common in argumentative speech/writing, also advertisements Cause and effect
12、 - common in narrative and expository factual texts Problems and solutions - in non-fictional scientific/social-scientific texts Lists and descriptions - chronological ordering, also text simplification e.g. note-taking. In expository, informative texts.,Organisational Structure,The second type of s
13、tructure is more familiar and concern the organisational structure on the paper. Each has a characteristic structure How about an email, a memo, a newspaper report? This structure can also be seen functionally e.g. a narrative has situation, events, problem, solution, evaluation,Audience and Purpose
14、,All real-life writing has an audience or intended reader. What you write/say and how you write/say it will depend on who the writing/speech is for, your relationship with them and the knowledge you share with them You also write (or speak) for a purpose or reason, e.g. to inform, persuade, encourag
15、e etc. These are called functions. Vital for teaching!,Coherence and Cohesion,In our seminar we shall look again at coherence, which is a macro level feature We will also look in detail at cohesion, which is a micro level one,Cohesion,Cohesion concerns the range of surface devices or building blocks
16、 of discourse (Nunan 1993, p.59) which create formal links across stretches of language data so threading the text together, e.g. referencing words such as pronouns (he, it), connectors (however, because), verb harmony etc.,Coherence and Cohesion,However, the presence of cohesive devices is neither
17、a necessary nor sufficient condition for the creation or identification of coherent discourse (Widdowson, 1979),Discourse: Key features,Not interested in individual sentences Interested in the meaning of language in use Interested in appropriacy, who can say what to whom Interested in cultural setti
18、ngs Interested in differences between spoken and written codes,Bibliography,Cook, G. (1989). Discourse. Oxford: Oxford University Press Coulthard, M. (1985). An introduction to discourse analysis. London: Longman. Emmitt, M. & Pollock, J. (1997). Language and Learning: An Introduction for Teaching 2
19、nd Language. Melbourne: Oxford University Press. Gee, J.P. (2005). An introduction to discourse analysis: theory and method. New York: Routledge. Gernsbacher, M.A.& Givon, T. (1995). Coherence Lies in Spontaneous Text. Amsterdam: Benjiamins. McCarthy, M. (1991). Discourse analysis for language teach
20、ers. New York: Cambridge University Press. Nunan, D. (1993). Introducing Discourse Analysis. London: Penguin English. Paltridge, B. (2006). Discourse analysis: An introduction. Bodmin, Cornwall: MPG Books Ltd. Widdowson, H. G. (1979). Directions in the Teaching of Discourse. London: Oxford University Press.,
