Han 1 Flashcards
I. What is discourse analysis?
Discourse analysis is concerned with meaning in use, in other words by the meaning which is
produced by speakers/writers and understood by listeners/readers in everyday lif
A structural definition of discourse defines it as
a unit of language above the level of the sentence. This approach looks for constituents which have particular relationships with each other and that can occur in a restricted number of arrangements. The problem with this approach is that the units in which people speak do not look like sentences and are often not grammatically correct
- A functional approach to discourse claims that language has multiple functions. The task of discourse analysis using this approach is to analyse the functions of language, the way that language is used (meaning as use), what we do with language when we use it. In other words discourse analysis views discourse as a social phenomenon rather than a purely linguistic one.
Discourse analysis influences and is influenced by a number of other disciplines. It is highly practical and is used in all areas of communication (especially institutional areas such as medicine, law and education) and with all forms of talk – speech and written texts, everyday language, specialised language, formal and informal language. Discourse analysis also examines how language is used to sustain social institutions and manipulate opinion; how it is used in the expression of ideology and the exercise of power. Discourse analysis can also be used to develop awareness of linguistic features in the interpretation of literary texts.
Discourse refers to both written texts and oral texts. It is important to identify whether a text
is written or oral. There are also some texts which have both written and oral characteristics at the same time. Internet chat for example is essentially a written form of speech. On the other hand a
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university lecture may be a spoken form of writing. So it is important to analyse the spoken and written characteristics of discourse.
To sum up, discourse analysis examines spoken communication (talk/speech/spoken texts/spoken messages) between speaker(s) and listener(s) and written communication (texts/messages) between reader(s) and writer(s). It stresses the need to see language as a dynamic, social interactive phenomenon. Meaning is conveyed not by single sentences but by more complex exchanges, in which the participants’ beliefs and expectations, the knowledge they share about each other and about the world, and the situation in which they interact, play a crucial part.
II. What is meant by the relationship between form and function?
Consider the following example of a fragment of verbal communication:
(1) A: Say, there’s a good movie playing tonight. B: Actually, I have to study.
A: Too bad.
B: Yes, I’m sorry.
A: Well, I guess I don’t need to ask you if you want me to pick you up.
A’s first utterance is in the form of a statement that there is a good movie playing that night.
The function of this statement is that of an invitation to B. B knows that A’s statement is meant to be an invitation. B could have replied by simply saying “That’s nice” but B responds with a statement in turn expressing a need to study that evening. Thus, B’s response counts as a refusal of the invitation. In this fragment the form statement has the function of an invitation (first utterance of A) and a refusal thereof (first utterance of B).
Form is concerned with syntactic structure up to the sentence level, i.e. the arrangement of morphemes and words into the larger units of group, clause, and finally, sentence. Form is also concerned with the syntagmatic relationship between words within clauses and sentences. For example, “I’m taller than you” is different from “You’re taller than I am”. Inverting “I” and ‘you’
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around the comparative adjective changes the propositional meaning of the sentence. Function, however, is concerned with the utterance’s purpose, i.e. what the utterance is meant to achieve. For example:
Father: Get the tools down off the shelf. Son: You’re taller than I am!
The son uttered “You’re taller than I am” for the purpose of refusing to comply with a command. This is a very different function of than that of:
A: Which of us is taller? B: You’re taller than I am.
…where, “You’re taller than I am”, functions to provide information to a question. Nothing about the form, that is the syntactic structure of the utterance itself, or the syntagmatic relation between the words within it, allowed us to predict its function.
Another example is a passage from a statement concerning a newly built office complex and the same passage in a slightly different form:
(2) A. The new office complex is situated in the old city center. The architectural firm of Wilkinson and Sons designed it.
B. The new office complex is situated in the old city center. It was designed by the architectural firm of Wilkinson and Sons.
In the above example, the second sentence in (2A) is in the active voice “The firm designed the new office” whereas in (2B) a passive variant is used “The new office was designed by the firm.” The difference in function between these two sentences is that in the active form the accent is on the firm that provided the design; however, in the passive form the office complex is elaborated on.
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When different forms are used for getting across approximately the same content, they often lead to differences in function.
Thus, the aim of discourse studies is to provide an explanatory description of the intricate relations between forms of discourse elements and their functions in communication.
Exercise 1
A: Could you pass the salt?
B: Of course. (B continues eating without passing the salt.)
