9. Linguistic chapter 11 Flashcards
What is discourse defined as?
Discourse is defined as “language beyond the sentence” so the discourse is concerned with the study of language in text and conversation. We understand headlines like “Trains collide, two die” and know that what happened in the first part was the reason to what happened in the second part or “No shoes, no service” meaning if you are wearing no shoes you will receive no service”. We have to create complex discourse interpretations of fragmentary linguistic messages.
What is interpreting discourse?
We can cope with texts that appear to break a lot of the English rules, yet we build an interpretation.
“The distant between my town….Most people was farmer….peopls carrer.”
This example illustrates a simple point about the way we react to language that contains ungrammatical forms. Rather than rejecting the text as ungrammatical, we try to make sense of it by arriving at a reasonable interpretation of what the writer intended to convey. The effort to interpret are key elements investigated in the study of discourse.
What is cohesion?
Cohesion is to identify connections/references to the same people and things throughout a text. “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.”
People; My father—He—he–he–My–my–I–I
Things; A lincoln convertible–-That car–it–-the convertible
Money; bought–saving every penny–worth a fortune–sold–pay
Time; once–nowadays–sometimes
Tenses; past (bought)–past (did)– past (could)–past (sold)–present (think)
When does cohesion not work?
By itself cohesion is not sufficient to make sense of what we read, we can create a text that has a lot of cohesive ties but is difficult to interpret. “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”. It becomes clear that our experience in our interpretation of normal texts is not simply based on connections between words, there must be another factor that helps us distinguish connected texts that make sense from those that do not.
What is coherence?
The key concept of coherence means “everything fitting together well” . Coherence is something that exists in people because it is people who “make sense” of what they read and hear.
Our interpretation is in line with our experience of the way the world is, therefore it is hard to make “involving a red car, a woman and a letter” into a coherent interpretation. We can still understand “odd” texts. “Woman robs bank with sandwich” we try to build a coherent interpretation. Is she just carrying a sandwich? Eating the sandwich in bites? Or is she pretending the sandwich is a gun? If you decide on the pretend gun then your coherent-creating mind is in good working order. Language-users have a lot of knowledge of how conversation works. We know and understands stuff without them being directly said.
What is conversation analysis?
English conversation can be described as an activity in which people take turns at speaking. One person speaks at a time and there tends to be avoidance of silence between speaking turns. If one participant tries to talk at the same time one of them usually stops. For the most part participants wait until one speaker indicates that he or she has finished by completion point by asking a question or by pausing at the end of a completed phrase or sentence. Other participants can indicate that they want to take the speaking turn by making short sounds or using body shifts or facial expressions to signal that they have something to say. A small square bracket [ is used to indicate a place where simultaneous or overlapping speech occurs.
What is turn taking?
There are different expectations of conversational style and different strategies of participation in conversation.
One strategy is designed to avoid having normal completion points occur. We all use this strategy in situations where we have to work out what we are trying to say while actually saying it. If the normal expectation is that completion points are marked by the end of a sentence or a pause then keep the turn by not pausing and run on by connectors; and, then, so, but. And place your pauses where the message is clearly incomplete and fill the pauses with hesitation such as; er, em, uh, ah.
What are adjacency pairs?
Adjacency Pairs
When someone says (Hi or Hello) we usually respond with a similar greeting. This type of almost automatic sequence is called an adjacency pair which consists of a first part and a second part, as found in greeting, question-answer Q⁻A thanking and leave-thanking. Down below illustrate basic pattern but not all first parts are immediately followed by a second part.
–Good morning———–Good morning
–Where’s Mary?———She’s at work already
–Okay, talk to you later—–Bye
–Thanks for your help yesterday——–Oh,
you’re welcome
What are insertion sequences?
The sequence Q2- A2 comes between the first question Q1-A1 this is called insertion sequence. That is when an adjacency pair comes between the first and second part of another pair.
Do you want some milk? Q1
Is it soy milk? Q2
Of course A2
Okay, thanks A1
What are complex insertion sequences?
In some situations a complex structure can come from the effect of insertion sequences. Often in service encounters. In the middle of an interaction Q3-A3 is an adjacency pair together while insertion sequences delay the occurrence of the second part for each of the other parts.
Can I order pizza to go? Q1
What kind would you like? Q2
Do you have any special deals? Q3
Well you can get two veggie supremes for the price of one. A3
Okay, I´d like that deal. A2
Sure thing, We´ll have that ready for you in no time. A1
What is self-initiated self repair & other-initiated repair?
The most common type of repair involves speakers correcting themselves, it is called self-initiated self-repair. “You write the months of the year on the vertical line- no, sorry, the horizontal line.”
When another speaker indicates the need for correction it is described as other-initiated where the listender produces an expression that indicates a problem leading the speaker to self-repair.
Speaker; I didn’t know you had to be twenty-one to sell beer.
Listener; To sell beer?
Speaker; To buy beer.
What is self-initiated other repair & other-initiated other repair?
Self-initiated- other repair
A speaker can also signal a need to repair by showing uncertainty about some part of an utterance, inviting the other speaker to help, in self-initiated-other repair.
1. She was in lots of films- Dorothy, is that right? Dorothy Day?
2. I think her name was Doris.
Other initiated- other repair
The other initiated- other repair is very direct and in some situations, may sound impolite.
1. She said that Cathy and Rob got married
2. Engaged. They´re waiting to get married next year.
What is background knowledge?
Speakers must be able to rely on shared background knowledge of current topics in conversation. Investigating how we use our background knowledge to arrive at interpretations of what we hear and read.
“John was on his way to school last Friday. He was really worried about the math lesson”
We interpret that John is a schoolboy and since this information is not directly stated it must be an interference. Another interference is that John is Walking or on a bus. These interferences are derived from conventional knowledge in our culture about “going to school” and no one would suggest that John is swimming or on a boat though both are physically possible interpretations and we quickly abandon them if they do not fit in with some subsequent information.
“Last week he had been unable to control the class”
Now we decide that John must be a teacher, not very happy and probably driving to school.
“It was unfair of the math teacher to leave him in charge”
Suddenly John reverts to a schoolboy and the interference that he is a teacher is quickly abandoned.
“After all, it is not normal part of a janitor´s duties”
Now the final sentence of the text contains a surprise by which all becomes clear.
This type of text and manner, one sentence at a time, is rather artificial and the exercise provides us with insight into the way we build interpretations.
What are schemas? & What are scripts?
We actually create what the text is about based on expectations of what normally happens. To describe this phenomena, researchers often use the concept of a “schema” or a “script”.
A schema is a general term for a conventional knowledge structure that exists in memory. We use conventional knowledge of what a school classroom is like or a classroom schema. We have many schemas that are used in the interpretation of what we experience and what we hear or read about. If you hear someone describe what happened during a visit to a supermarket, you don’t have to be told what is in a supermarket (shelves, carts, products).
In many ways similar to a schema is a script. Instead of the set of typical fixed features in a schema a script has a series of conventional actions that take place. You have a script for “Going to the dentist/going to the movies/eating at a restaurant” which we activate to make sense of this text. “Suzy went into the nearest place, sat down and ordered an avocado sandwich, it was quite crowded but the service was good.”
A schema is a general framework or category that organizes and interprets information. A cognitive script is a schema that is more specific.
Our understanding of what we read doesn’t come directly from what words and sentences are on the page but the interpretations we create in our minds, of what we read.
