Discourse Analysis Flashcards
Discourse analysis
how we make sense of discourse and how we make discourse happen
Discourse
natural spoken or written language in context, formed by sequences of utterances
Text
a unit of the highest level, defined as a stretch of language
Which devices do we use to interpret discourse?
cohesion, coherence, conversation analysis, co-operative principle, background knowledge
Cohesion
grammatical and lexical relationships between parts of a sentence essential for its interpretation, used to describe the properties of text
What is cohesion recognized and judged upon?
- use of lexical and grammatical devices
- formal linguistic features
- semantic relations within sentences and between sentences
Cohesive tie
each instance of the use of cohesive devices
Lexical cohesion (what it’s established by)
established by parallelism, recurrence, paraphrase and collocation
Parallelism
use of parallel structures
Recurrence
repeating content by means of synonyms, hyperonyms and related words
Paraphrase
expressive content by descriptive means, sentences or phrases that convey the same meaning using different wording
Collocation
the expectation of certain words in certain established contexts in other lexical form
Referential cohesion
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
Substitutive cohesion
substituting elements by nominal, verbal or clausal units fe. this one
Elliptical cohesion
certain elements are omitted fe. Do you love milk? Yes, I do (love milk).
Conjunctive cohesion
combining elements fe. I can very well. Under water too.
Coherence
the order of statements related to one another, a coherent text is easy to understand and easy to make a visual representation of
Conversation
fundamental means of conducting human affairs
What are the functions of a conversation?
- exchange of information
- creating/maintaining relationships
- social interaction
- negotiation of status and social roles
- co-operation
What are the 5 structures of a conversation?
- Opening
- Closing
- Turn-taking mechanisms
- Adjacency pairs
- Back-channeling
Opening
greetings, introduction, opening questions
Closing
intonations to close the conversation usually with words like “well”, “so” etc.
Turn-taking mechanism
intention to let the other person speak, signalled with a low voice, slowing down
Adjacency pairs
utterances requiring immediate response
Back-channelling
signals that show the speaker that their message is understood
Co-operative principle
all speakers cooperate with each other to understand each other correctly
What are the criteria for cooperative communictaion?
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
What is involved in background knowledge?
frames, scripts and schema
Frames
data structures that represent stereotypical situations
Scripts
contain information on event sequences, help explain that expectations play important role in understanding discourse, when we hear a description we expect certain events
Schema
conventional knowledge structure within memory; mental representation of what e experience and how we interpret it
