Discourse Analysis Flashcards
Discourse Analysis
Study of how language is used in texts/conversations to convey meaning and reflect social and cultural context
Discourse definition
the unit of language above the level of the sentence, language-in-action
Discourse
language in use
Central Aspects (CA) Above sentence level
meaning beyond
CA: language in action
indirect speech act (meaning depends on context)
language in action: saying things
giving and receiving information
language in action: doing things
promising, ordering, greeting
language in action: being things
speaking as an expert
CA: context
to understand how people think
CA: world views
represents a specific perspective on an event/person
Intertextuality
Implementing a tex tin another one
Manifest intertextuality
explicit in quotes, paraphrases, copying, and irony
(I’ll be coming - she said she would be coming)
Interdiscursivity
Implicit by referring to established ways of speaking about certain topics (echoes not an actual text but a text type) combining two different speech acts
Genre and variation in genre’s
relates to recognising structure in discourse
Genre
Type of written or spoken discourse (seen as sources for meaning rather than systems of rules
Malleability
genres change over time (e.g. in response to technological changes, or. dependent on the people involved)
Prototypicality
a text can be a typical example of a genre or less typical one, but still be an example of that particular here
Labov’s Study on Martha’s Vineyard
Labov observed how the variation of specific variables
e.g PRICE variable, correlated with social variables. Some people on the island tended to use different variants compared to people living on the mainland
Social Variables
Age, geographical region, workplace, attitude
By using specific variants associated with social variables, people signal their belonging to certain social groups
Why would a sociolinguist say there is no such thing as proper English?
A sociolinguist would reject the idea of one ‘proper’ or ‘correct’ language because languages change and language users make choices depending on the context, What is perceived to be ‘correct depends on ascribed prestige and not the language itself
Standard English
A supra-regional variety of English, a set of norms that a valued more than other varieties in public life. Both written and spoken. Especially in its spoken for, it can comprise feature of local accents
