METALANGUAGE : Discourse

Question 1

Inference

Answer 1

Something that has been deduced or concluded given the context
e.g Guests at a dinner party ask for seconds so you can infer they like the food

Question 2

Logical Ordering

Answer 2

The arrangement of things/arguments that make sense

e.g if writing about a character’s sadness you aren’t going to suddenly talk about the inflation of Indian currency

Question 3

Formatting

Answer 3

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Question 4

Consistency

Answer 4

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Question 5

Conventions

Answer 5

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Question 6

Clefting

Answer 6

Clefting involves placing a sequence of words within a structure beginning with ‘It is/was’.
e.g: from ‘She bought A PAIR OF GLOVES WITH SILK EMBROIDERY’ to ‘It was A PAIR OF GLOVES WITH SILK EMBRIODERY that she bought’

Question 7

Front Focus

Answer 7

The situation in which information is presented at the beginning of a sentence to given it greater prominence
e.g. “Powerful you have become Dooku, the dark side I sense in you” -Yoda

Question 8

End Focus

Answer 8

The situation in which new information is presented at the end of a sentence
e.g. Your books are on the shelf

Question 9

Anaphoric Reference

Answer 9

Occurs when the writer refers back to someone or something earlier to avoid repetition
e.g ‘I went out with Jon on Sunday. SHE looked awful’ (‘She’ refers to Jo; no need to repeat her name)

Question 10

Cataphoric Reference

Answer 10

A reference forward in the discourse; something is introduced before it is identified
e.g “Here he comes, our award-winning host…its John Doe!” (the “he” in front refers to John, who is identified later in the sentence)

Question 11

Deixis

Answer 11

Refers to words or phrases that cannot be understood without context. Words are deictic if their semantic meaning is fixed but their denotational meaning varies depending on time and/or place
e.g Pronouns (‘I’, ‘you’…), ‘here’, ‘there’

Question 12

Repetition

Answer 12

A language device in which lexemes or phrases are used multiple times
e.g “If you compare fly-fishing with ice fishing, you will find that fly-fishing is more exciting than ice fishing.” - Stephen Wilburs

Question 13

Synonymy

Answer 13

The state of words being synonymous with each other (closely related)
e.g the adjectives ‘big’ and ‘large’, or the verbs ‘to buy’ and ‘to purchase’

Question 14

Antonymy

Answer 14

The state of words being antonymous with each other (practical/near opposites)
e.g the adjectives ‘big’ and ‘small’, or the verbs ‘to buy’ and ‘to sell’

Question 15

Hyponymy

Answer 15

A stylistic device where a more specific lexeme is used rather than the more general lexeme
e.g ‘basil’ and ‘oregano’ are hyponyms of herb

Question 16

Collocation

Answer 16

Words that regularly occur together

e.g ‘black and white’, ‘boys and girls’

Question 17

Ellipsis

Answer 17

The omission of information from discourse because it is already understood. Used to help with cohesion
e.g “So…what happened?”, “…sure.”

Question 18

Substitution

Answer 18

A word is replaced by another more general, shorter lexeme

e.g “Which ice-cream would you like?” “I’d like the pink one” (where “one” is used instead of repeating “ice-cream)

Question 19

Adverbials

Answer 19

Word/s that give more information about the verb (such as manner, time, place, frequency or degree)
e.g Danny speaks FLUENTLY. (telling more about the verb)
Lana ate breakfast YESTERDAY MORNING. (telling when the verb’s action occurred)

Question 20

Spoken Discourse: Pauses

Answer 20

Occur when a speaker breathes in during a turn at talking or when they need time to think, and can be used for dramatic effect

Question 21

Spoken Discourse: False Starts

Answer 21

Occurs when a speaker, having already started on an utterance, hesitates or changes their mind about what they want to say

Question 22

Spoken Discourse: Repetition

Answer 22

A linguistic device in which phrases or lexemes are used multiple times, usually in order to emphasize an important point, draw parallels between two ideas or to ensure that the audience has understood a point

Question 23

Spoken Discourse: Repairs

Answer 23

A linguistic device in which the interlocutor clarifies or fixes a phrase which they believe wasn’t told or expressed in a fitting manner (‘finding the right word’/correcting yourself), usually marked by editing phrase ‘I mean’
e.g “I’m heading off to Sue’s– I mean Mary’s house tonight” (catching and correcting yourself)
“I need to renew my whatchamacallit– my prescription today” (finding the right word and using it)

Question 24

Spoken Discourse: Openings

Answer 24

Things done to ‘open’ a dialogue/discourse

e.g “Hey”, “Hi”, “What happened?”, etc.. (the start of conversation)

Question 25

Spoken Discourse: Closings

Answer 25

The ending remarks that ‘close’ a discourse

e.g “See you later”, “Bye”, “It’s been a pleasure”, etc.. (the end of a conversation)

Question 26

Spoken Discourse: Adjacency Pairs

Answer 26

Taking turns in a spoken interaction that have a close relationship
e.g “Hi”–“Hey, how are you?”

Question 27

Spoken Discourse: Overlapping Speech

Answer 27

When one interlocutor speaks/talks over the top of another, at the same time
e.g Tessa: “I’m sure you’ll do well”
Andy: “[Yeah]”
Gazza: “[Sure]”

Question 28

Spoken Discourse: Interrogative Tags

Answer 28

A question created by adding an element to the end of a statement
e.g “It sure is bright, isn’t it?”

Question 29

Spoken Discourse: Discourse Particles

Answer 29

Words and expressions that have discourse functions such as to do with focus and change of topic, and conversational functions to do with turn-taking- may also play a role in expressing social relationships, personal attitudes and opinions & conveying subtle nuances of meaning
e.g ‘well, yeah-no, like, I mean, you know’

Question 30

Cohesion

Answer 30

A property of unity in texts that shows clear connections and relationships between ideas
e.g ‘Most people want to be happy. However, they often have difficulty achieving this.’ ‘They’ refers back to most people, ‘this’ refers to being happy and ‘however’ relates the clause that follows back to the preceding sentence

Question 31

SP Strategies: Topic Management

Answer 31

How a topic is discussed, elaborated and changed in a conversation
e.g by using interrogatives, declarative and exclamations the interlocutors ‘manage’ what is discussed

Question 32

SP Strategies: Turn-taking

Answer 32

Refers to accepted norms of taking turns in conversation

e.g Not interrupting or talking over someone else

Question 33

SP Strategies: Holding the Floor

Answer 33

Refers to the control of a conversation by an interlocutor-

e.g the person who is speaking ‘holds the floor’ and the listeners normally do not interrupt or ignore

Question 34

Discourse Analysis

Answer 34

The study of connected sentences

Question 35

Overlaps: Backchannelling/Minimal Response

Answer 35

A short response by the audience in a spoken interaction to indicate that they are listening
e.g “ooh”, “hmm”, “yeah”, “right”

Question 36

Overlaps: Interruptive

Answer 36

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Question 37

Overlaps: Collaborative

Answer 37

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