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DISCOURSE ANALYSIS & ETHNOGRAPHY OF SPEAKING

INTRODUCTION
Discourse Analysis can be defined as language beyond the level of a sentence, language
behaviours linked to social practices and language as a system of thought. Discourse Analysis
(DA) is a modern discipline of the social sciences that covers a wide variety of different
sociolinguistic approaches. Besides, it comprises the aspects of linguistics such as
morphology, phonetics, phonology, pragmatics, semantics and syntax. Based on this
assignment, the tasks that will be carried out are sentence analysis based on advertisements
referring to one particular product. The first task that will be carried out in this assignment is
analysing the sentences based on Ethnography of speaking. Ethnography of speaking is
more commonly known as Ethnography of communication (EC). It is a method of discourse
analysis in linguistics, which draws on the anthropological field of ethnography. The term
anthropology refers to the scientific study of the origin, the behaviour and the physical,
social and cultural development of humans. The ethnography of communication was found
by Dell Hymes (1974) whereby the famous S.P.E.A.K.I.N.G model was developed. The
second task is to apply the speech act theory on the sentences. Speech act theory refers to
certain utterances that bring about change in the existing state of sentences. This theory holds
the meaning of linguistic expressions that can be explained in terms of rules governing
various speech acts. There are three major types of speech act which are the locution,
illocution and perlocution. The product that has been chosen to be analysed is the Samsung
Galaxy SIII mobile. Samsung Galaxy S III is a multi-touch, slate-format smartphone running
the Android operating system. It is designed, developed and marketed by the South Korean
company Samsung Electronics. It is also one of the fast selling mobile in the world compared
to other mobile in the market.









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OBJECTIVES OF STUDY
The first objective of study is to analyse the intended meaning of sentences, where by
applying the speech act theory it enables us to understand the hidden meaning of a particular
sentence as to what it is trying to convey to us. Every sentence has entirely different
meanings which are directed to the consumers or people in order to attract them in purchasing
a product. Besides, every sentence has a number of intended meanings which are conveyed to
the people, where everyone has a different way of viewing the particular product. Therefore,
by analysing the intended meaning of the sentences it will give us clear evidence as to what
are the perspectives of consumers in viewing a product.
The second objective is to study the usage of the different types of word choices that are
being used in the advertisement to convey a specific meaning to the listener. The type of
words that are chosen reflects the intended meaning of the entire sentence where people
might interpret the sentence into many different meanings as the word is ambiguous. At time,
certain words might provide a direct meaning but sometimes, the words which are in the
sentence has an intended meaning where the word choice determines the type of meaning that
is to be conveyed to people.
The third objective is to gain more knowledge in the field of discourse analysis where we are
able to analyse the sentence in different perspectives. In the field of linguistics it is
inadequate to analyse a sentence in terms of morphology, syntax, semantics and pragmatics,
but is also necessary to have the knowledge on how to find out the intended meaning of a
particular sentence based on the word choice. An advantage of learning this field is it
enhances our knowledge in this field and broadens our view in looking at sentences in
different perspective.









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FINDINGS
The plan below shows the sales of Samsung Galaxy S III.

Source: Wikipedia















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1.0 Analysis on Ethnography of SPEAKING

Advertisements



Ethnography
of SPEAKING
Advertisement 1
Source: Google

The next big thing is
already here.

Advertisement 2
Source: Billboard

Designed for you.
Advertisement 2
Source:Social
network (Facebook)
Designed for
humans, inspired by
nature.

Type of reader


Business class
society

Middle class society

University students



Age group

28 37 years old

25 35 years old

23 26 years old


S
(Setting / scene)
Internet
Source: Google
search engine

By the street
Internet
Source: Social
Networking website
(Facebook)
P
(Participants)

Internet users

Road users

Social networking
users

E
(Ends)
To promote the latest
mobile in market
To inform people
about the latest
invention of mobile
To inform people
that the mobile has
features that are
related to nature
A
(Act sequence)

Informal

Formal

Formal

K
(Key)

Excitement

Solemn

Joyful

I
(Instrumentalities)

Informal

Formal

Formal

N
(Norms)

Social

Social

Respect

G
(Genre)

Declarative

Declarative

Declarative








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2.0 Analysis on Speech Act Theory.

Advertisement 1
Source: Internet (Google Search Engine)
Tagline: The next big thing is already here

Locutionary: The next big thing is already here
Illocutionary: The new mobile is available in market.
Perlocution: There is a new invention of mobile, with unique features.


Advertisement 2
Source: Billboard
Tagline: Designed for you

Locutionary: Designed for you
Illocutionary: The new mobile is specially designed for people
Perlocution: The mobile is designed for someone special


Advertisement 3
Source: Social networking website (Facebook)
Tagline: Designed for humans, inspired by nature

Locutionary: Designed for humans, inspired by nature
Illocutionary: The mobile has features pertaining nature which is designed for people
Perlocution: The mobile is suitable for different environment of usage.






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DISCUSSION

Ethnography of speaking is an approach to the study of discourse analysis which focuses on
particular ways of seeing and experiencing the world and how these are reflected in particular
ways of speaking. The ethnography of communication is a method of discourse analysis in
linguistics which draws on the anthropological field of ethnography. The term anthropology
refers to the study of human science, which is a combination of humanities, natural sciences
and social sciences. The approaches which are related to this aspect are the linguistic
resources people which are not the traditional aspect of grammar but it is also the socially
situated uses and meanings of words, their relations and sequential forms of expression. The
second approach is the various media used in determining the comparative analysis such as
how the message from the billboard is different from the message portrait online. The third
aspect is the verbal and non-verbal signs are used in conveying the message to people.
The first aspect is the setting and scene aspect where setting refers to the time and place of a
speech act. Scene refers to the abstract psychological setting or the cultural definition of an
occasion. In a tagline, certain word choice may serve to define a scene, but on the other hand
other word choices maybe quite inappropriate in certain circumstances. Based on the
findings, the settings for the three advertisements are from different sources such as the from
the Google search engine (Internet), billboard and social networking website (Facebook).
These three are obtained from three different sources as to analyse how each of these
advertisements tagline contribute to peoples perspective based on the respective setting.
The second aspect is the participant aspect where it tells us who are participating members
for the advertisements. It is obvious that naturally only two parties can be involved in these
aspects which are the speaker and the audience. Linguists have come out with clear examples
indicating that speakers can be distinguished as the addressees and the audience as the
listeners or hearers. For the three advertisements the speaker naturally is the manufacturer of
the product which is the Samsung Company, but the audience in this case differs based on the
setting of the advertisement. The participants in this case will be the internet users, road users
and the social networking users.
The third aspect of this model is the ends which are closely related to the purposes, goals and
outcomes. It basically refers to the personally goals of the particular advertisement. Each




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advertisement has its own goal in attracting people in purchasing the product. In this case the
goal for the advertisements are such as to promote the latest mobile in market, to inform
people about the latest invention of mobile and to inform people that the mobile has features
that are related to nature. Based on the goals of the advertisements, it can be said that even
though the product is the same, but the goals which are directed to people are different.
The fourth aspect will be the act sequence which is the form and order of an event. It also
refers to the precise words used, how they are used and the relationship of what is said is
connected to the one another. Based on the specimen, the tagline is The next big thing is
already here. According to the tagline, it can be said that the already word choice is
connecting the previous word, but the word already is the same meaning as here.
Therefore, the entire tagline is considered informal as the word choice already is
considered informal. It could be simple put in a sentence which sound like The next big
thing is here. The other tagline which symbolizes formal way of sequence will be Designed
for you and Designed for humans, inspired by nature. These two taglines are well
connected to each other and there arent any informal word choices presented.
The fifth aspect of this model will be the key which refers to the tone, manner or spirit in
which a particular message is conveyed such as excitement, anger, solemn or sarcastic. The
specimen are analysed and it was found that the tone of excitement, solemn and joyful is
present in the tagline of the specimen. The tagline Designed for you does not show any
excitement in terms of tone, manner and spirit. It can be said that the tagline is indeed more
direct towards people and it does not have any unique word choice which attracts people.
This particular tagline can be compared with the other specimens tagline which shows
excitement and joy such as The next big thing is already here and Designed for humans,
inspired by nature.
The next aspect which is analysed is the aspect of instrumentalities. It refers to the forms and
style of speech. It also involves the formal register and careful grammatical standard forms
and involves the colloquial form which is the informal words which are used in the sentence.
Based on the specimen, The next big thing is already here this particular sentence consists
of two words which show that the sentence is colloquial. The words are thing and
already, this is because these words are normally used in a conversation, but it is
incomprehensive to use these words in conveying a message to people. The tagline which is




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considered formal based on the specimen will be Designed for you and Designed for
humans, inspired by nature. In these two taglines, it can be seen that the words choices are
comprehensive and it suits the purpose of the message.
Norms are the social rules governing the event and the participants reaction and action. It
usually interpreted as serious commitment and causes strong emotion in both participants.
Based on the specimens, it has been analysed that the interaction mode based on the tagline
The next big thing is already here and Designed for you refers to the social interaction.
The sentences are likely to be socializing with the participants. The next tagline, Designed
for humans, inspired by nature is likely to have an interaction in a state of respect where, the
word choices which are used in this sentence are likely to respect people but on the other its
a way of conveying information.
The final aspect will be the genre which refers to a type of utterance such as poems, proverbs,
myth, sermons and many more. Most of these utterances are used in literature aspects, but
when it comes to analysing the tagline there are five major utterances are used to determine
the sentence, which are the declarative, imperative, exclamatory, interrogative and assertive.
Upon analysing the tagline it has come to a conclusion that the taglines are declarative which
is providing information to the audience.
Speech act is a technical term in linguistics and the philosophy of language. Speech act
theory uses technical terms for these layers of intention and interpretation. There are three
technical terms which are the locutionary act, illocutionary act and the perlocutionary act.
Locutionary act is the performance of the utterance which refers to the actual utterance
comprising syntactic and semantic aspects of any meaningful utterance. Illocutionary act is
inner meaning of the speaker on what the speaker is actually trying to convey to the people.
Perlocutionary act refers to the inner meaning of the listener as to how the listeners receive
the message. People have different way of perceiving and interpreting a message, therefore it
shows how the message is being viewed by the people.
Based on the first specimen, contains the tagline The next big thing is already here. The
locutionary acts are the exact words which are used by the speaker. The illocutionary act is
the new mobile is already available in the market. The speaker is trying to convey that, the
mobile is already out in the market, where it is ready for purchasing. The perlocutionary act is
there is a new invention of mobile with unique features. This based on the perspective of the




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audience or listener, where audience perceive that there are some unique features of this
mobile as the word choice big thing refers to something extraordinary.
The second specimen contains the tagline Designed for you. The locutionary act will
remain the same. The illocutionary act is the new mobile is specially designed by people,
based on the speakers point of view. Meanwhile, the perlocutionary act will be the mobile is
designed for someone specially. This is because, when the audience perceive the message,
audience tend to think that the sentence is referring to a particular person even though there is
no specific name mentioned in the sentence. Therefore in every audiences point of view it
might be that this particular mobile is for someone.
The final specimen contains the tagline Designed for humans, inspired by nature. The
locutionary act remains the same meanwhile, the illocutionary act will be the mobile has
features pertaining nature which is designed for people. This is because; the speaker is trying
to convey the message saying that the creation of the mobile is inspired by the element of
nature. The perlocutionary act will be the mobile is suitable for different environment of
usage, such as it can be used in many occasions with the appropriate functions. For an
instance, it can be used in a party where it holds functions such as the usage of camera to
capture and record video.
















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CONCLUSION

To sum up it can be said that, Discourse Analysis is a not about learning a subject in terms of
morphology, syntax, pragmatics and semantics, but it teaches us how to analyse sentences
which has intended meaning. Besides, based on the analysis that has been conducted the
experience that we have gained was, we were able to make sense on how should a sentence
be interpreted to know its intended meaning and to which group of people is the
advertisement is being directed to. It is important for us to understand the SPEAKING
model in order to understand and analyse the different types elements that are used in the
sentence.



















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REFERENCES

Samsung Galaxy S 111. (2013, April 27). Retrieved from Wikipedia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samsung_Galaxy_S_III

Cook, G. (2006). Language Teaching Discourse. New York: Oxford University Press.

Elham Zand-Vakili, A. F. (2012). The Analysis of Speech Events and Hymes SPEAKING. New Media
and Mass Communication, 18.

Pousada, D. (2004). Retrieved from http://aliciapousada.weebly.com/:
http://aliciapousada.weebly.com/uploads/1/0/0/2/10020146/the_ethnography_of_commu
nication.pdf

University, P. (n.d.). Dell Hymes's SPEAKING Model. Retrieved from Foundations of Sociolinguistics:
An Ethnographic Approach: http://www1.appstate.edu/~mcgowant/hymes.htm

Wikipedia. (n.d.). Retrieved from Speech Act: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Speech_act