Discourse Analysis

Question 1

Discourse analysis

Answer 1

how we make sense of discourse and how we make discourse happen

Question 2

Discourse

Answer 2

natural spoken or written language in context, formed by sequences of utterances

Question 3

Text

Answer 3

a unit of the highest level, defined as a stretch of language

Question 4

Which devices do we use to interpret discourse?

Answer 4

cohesion, coherence, conversation analysis, co-operative principle, background knowledge

Question 5

Cohesion

Answer 5

grammatical and lexical relationships between parts of a sentence essential for its interpretation, used to describe the properties of text

Question 6

What is cohesion recognized and judged upon?

Answer 6

• use of lexical and grammatical devices
• formal linguistic features
• semantic relations within sentences and between sentences

Question 7

Cohesive tie

Answer 7

each instance of the use of cohesive devices

Question 8

Lexical cohesion (what it’s established by)

Answer 8

established by parallelism, recurrence, paraphrase and collocation

Question 9

Parallelism

Answer 9

use of parallel structures

Question 10

Recurrence

Answer 10

repeating content by means of synonyms, hyperonyms and related words

Question 11

Paraphrase

Answer 11

expressive content by descriptive means, sentences or phrases that convey the same meaning using different wording

Question 12

Collocation

Answer 12

the expectation of certain words in certain established contexts in other lexical form

Question 13

Referential cohesion

Answer 13

referencing something that was already mention in the text, achieved by referential means, such as personal and demonstrative units fe. hers, her, same us, better than

Question 14

Substitutive cohesion

Answer 14

substituting elements by nominal, verbal or clausal units fe. this one

Question 15

Elliptical cohesion

Answer 15

certain elements are omitted fe. Do you love milk? Yes, I do (love milk).

Question 16

Conjunctive cohesion

Answer 16

combining elements fe. I can very well. Under water too.

Question 17

Coherence

Answer 17

the order of statements related to one another, a coherent text is easy to understand and easy to make a visual representation of

Question 18

Conversation

Answer 18

fundamental means of conducting human affairs

Question 19

What are the functions of a conversation?

Answer 19

• exchange of information
• creating/maintaining relationships
• social interaction
• negotiation of status and social roles
• co-operation

Question 20

What are the 5 structures of a conversation?

Answer 20

1. Opening
2. Closing
3. Turn-taking mechanisms
4. Adjacency pairs
5. Back-channeling

Question 21

Opening

Answer 21

greetings, introduction, opening questions

Question 22

Closing

Answer 22

intonations to close the conversation usually with words like “well”, “so” etc.

Question 23

Turn-taking mechanism

Answer 23

intention to let the other person speak, signalled with a low voice, slowing down

Question 24

Adjacency pairs

Answer 24

utterances requiring immediate response

Question 25

Back-channelling

Answer 25

signals that show the speaker that their message is understood

Question 26

Co-operative principle

Answer 26

all speakers cooperate with each other to understand each other correctly

Question 27

What are the criteria for cooperative communictaion?

Answer 27

maxim of relevance/relation - all speakers’ statements related to the topic
maxim of truthfulness/quality - contribution should be truthful
maxim of quantity - talking time should be divided between speakers
maxim of clarity/manner - messages conveyed should not be obscure/ambiguous

Question 28

What is involved in background knowledge?

Answer 28

frames, scripts and schema

Question 29

Frames

Answer 29

data structures that represent stereotypical situations

Question 30

Scripts

Answer 30

contain information on event sequences, help explain that expectations play important role in understanding discourse, when we hear a description we expect certain events

Question 31

Schema

Answer 31

conventional knowledge structure within memory; mental representation of what e experience and how we interpret it