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Summary of Discourse Analysis by Brian P
Summary of Discourse Analysis by Brian P
CHAPTER 1
WHAT IS DISCOURSE ANALYSIS
By shamimnazish@hotmail.com
CHAPTER - 3
DISCOURSE AND PRAGMATICS
1. Central Idea of the Chapter. Chapter 3, Discourse and
Pragmatics, clarifies the relationship between language and
context. This section shows that both pragmatics
and discourse analysis share an interest in the relationship
between language and
context and how language is used to perform different speech
acts. The chapter begins by defining pragmatics i.e. the study of
meaning in relation to the context in which the discourse is
being produced.
2. Language, Context and Discourse. Use of Language in
context is very important in discourse analysis. Same
language carries different meaning in different context. For
example, the word duck in normal English language is only the
bird. The same word duck while being used in cricket would
mean zero score. So, what determines the meanings of
discourse is the use of discourse in context. However, there are
other factors which also play very important role like physical,
social contexts and the mental world and roles of people involved
in the interactions.
3. Speech Acts and Discourse. Austin argued that there are
three kinds of acts which occur with everything we say. These are
locutionary act, the illocutionary act and perlocutionary act.
The locutionary act refers to the dictionary meaning of words,
the illocutionary act refers to the speakers intended meanings
and the perlocutionary act refers to the way discourse is
perceived by others.
4. The Co-operative Principle and discourse. Grice based
his co-operative principle on four sub-principles. These are
maxims of quality, quantity, relation and manner. Quality
means, people should only say what they believe to be true and
accurate without any addition to the meaning from them.
Quantity means that the message being conveyed by the
discourse should be comprehensive and holistic without any
loopholes and confusions in it. Relation refers to the fact that our
discourse needs to be in harmony to the context and should
have relevance to the surroundings. If not so, the entire message
may not be communicated in its true letter and spirit. Manner
says that we should be clear in what way to say it and what
exactly to say so that the listeners / readers understand the
message the best intended way.
5. Flouting the Co-operative Principle. The co-operative
principle helps the producers of discourse convey their
information effectively. This principle is followed to a great extent
but the intentions behind the production of discourse do
matter. The speakers/writers follow the cooperative principle to
convey what they intend to convey, rather than following the
principle in its true letter and spirit. For example, the principle of
quality wants the producers of discourse to say what they
want to be true. But actually what they say is what they want
their listeners / readers to believe. This violation of the co-
operative principle is best done in the diplomatic circle of the
world.
6. Cross - Cultural Pragmatics and Discourse. In the global
world of today the cross-cultural pragmatics is very important.
When people say something, it carries different meanings in
different culture. This is called cross-cultural pragmatics. For
example, once when I was teaching my Saudi students two years
back, I wanted them to finish their assignment quickly. I snapped
my fingers to tell them to be quick. (as we normally do in our
country to tell someone to work quickly) Snapping my fingers
made my students feel offended because the act of snapping
fingers is done to call dogs in Saudi Arabia. There are two key
notions in the area of cross-cultural pragmatics i-e
pragmalinguistics (the study of more linguistic end of
pragmatics) and sociolinguistics (sociopragmatics refers to
specific local conditions of language use).
7. Conversational Implicature and Discourse. According to
Thomas, an implicature is generated intentionally by the speaker
to make a listener do something which he may fail to
understand. For example the sentence there is some chalk on
the floor intends the listener to pick up the chalks. However, a
listener in this case may not be able to understand that the
speaker wants him to pick up the chalks. Inference, on the other
hand, is produced by the hearer on the basis of certain evidence
and may not in face be the same as what speakers intends.
8. Politeness, Face and Discourse. Politeness and face are
two important factors for discourse analysis. Lakoff (1973)
introduced three maxims of politeness. These are dont impose,
give options and make your hearer feel good. If our listeners
are meant to understand the intended meaning effectively and
comprehensively the we must maintain the three maxims to
convey the message.
9. Face and Politeness across Cultures. Face and
politeness varies from culture to culture. For example in the
Saudi culture it is not customary to look at somebodys face while
talking / listening. On the other hand, if we talk/listen to someone
in Pakistan without looking at his face it is thought to be
impolite. Also in some cultures bedroom is private and cannot be
entered while in others there is no problem in strangers entry into
bedrooms.
10. Politeness and Gender. Politeness varies depending on
the context and culture like women are more polite than men.
Sometime polite words like Yar! (in Pakistani/Urdu culture)
to a strange lady will be an odd one as compared to known friend
etc. Therefore, it is important to use polite words at right place.
11. Face-Threatening Acts. Some acts threaten a persons
face. They are called face-threatening acts. When you interact
with some person and in reaction, the individual does not respond
and showing you cold shoulder, in this context, your face is going
to be threatened. For example, in Pakistani culture, if someone
says Asalamolikum to another person and in response the other
person does not say Waalikunassalam, the first person will be
offended and annoyed. The act of the later will be a face
threatening act.
CHAPTER-5
DISCOURSE AND CONVERSATION
1. Central Idea of the Chapter Conversation analysis is an
important component of discourse analysis. It is an approach
of spoken source that looks at the way in which people manage
their everyday conversational interaction. Paltridge gives a
transcribed extract to clarify the particular transcription
conventions that
are used as part of conversation analysis where intonation,
prolongation of
sounds, and stress matter. For example, underlining and the use
of capitals
implies loud talk and word stress.
2. Transcription Conventions. Specific transcriptional
conventions are used in conversation analysis. The rise and fall
of pitch / intonation, the length of sentences, and the pauses
indicated in the transcription all contribute to the analysis of the
transcriptions.
3. Sequence and Structure in Conversation. Aspects of
conversational interactions that have been examined from this
perspective include conversational openings, closings, turn
taking, sequence of related utterances and preferences for
particular combination of utterances. Adjacency pairs are a
fundamental unit of conversational organization and a key way in
which meanings are communicated and interpreted in
conversation. These pairs put the conversation in the sequence
and treat the sentences spoken by each of the speakers as
consequential to each others utterances. Adjacency pairs
across cultures their stage and convention is fundamental to the
analysis to the spoken discourse.
4. Preference Organization. The basic rule for adjacency
pairs is to allow and give time to the other participant. Thus
having gained sufficient time to take turns and respond to the
other participant of the conversation, the speakers complete the
entire body of the conversation rendering it all as a complete body
of discourse ready for analysis.
5. Feedback. Feedback means the ways in which listeners
show by saying mmm and yeah or through body position
and the use of eye contact. The functions response items such
as mmm, yeah and OK are also influenced by the
intonation, place and timing of the utterances. So, the feedback
on the speakers performance is what encourages the speaker to
continue or to head towards the culmination of the conversation.
The feedback also speaks of the face threatening act or
politeness in conversation on part of the listener.
6. Repair. As the term simply signifies that the speaker
corrects / repairs blemishes he commits in the conversation.
He does it either himself or with the help of another person. The
act of repair also concentrates on what exactly the listener of the
conversation has understood of the discourse.
7. Gender and Conversation Analysis. Discourse analysts
have also investigated the construction of gender reality by
speakers in their discourse/conversation. For example
excessive use of Child-care vocabulary discloses the
speakers as being a female and beyond that a mother exactly.
The researchers have examined the social construction of social
reality, and have examined the social construction of gender from
a conversation analysis perspective.
8. Conversation Analysis and Second Language
Conversation Introduction of Discourse analysis, as an
academic subject, is not traced back in centuries rather in only a
few decades. Initially the subject remained limited to the
attention of the native speakers later the attention shifted to
the second language speakers as well. The non-native talk will,
in future, contribute a lot in the development of teaching methods
and techniques. Though psychological analysis is not the
mandate of discourse analysis but attention, somehow or the
other, will be drawn to this this aspect to promote the second
language acquisition.
9. Criticism of Conversation Analysis The major criticism
on conversation analysis is that, when we analyze data from the
conversation analysis perspective, we are working as spectators
not participants in the interaction. It is thus, not really possible
for us to know how the participants view the conversation unless
we ask them. This is, to my mind a misplaced criticism as the
entire conversational analysis is not only the transcript analysis.
Rather in the modern era the video recording facility will
revolutionize the conversational analysis because the availability
of real time footages will make it possible to contextually analyze
the decontextualized conversations.
CHAPTER - 6
DISCOURSE GRAMMAR
1. Central Idea of the Chapter In Discourse Grammar,
Paltridge throws light on the idea that grammar discussions are
no longer limited to sentences but extend to include discourse as
well. Expounded by Hughes and McCarthy (1998) making
a strong connection among form, function, and context. In the
initial phase of the development of the new subject of discourse
analysis, it was thought to be the analysis of language just
beyond sentence. However, the passage of time moved the
discussions from sentence based perspectives to grammar, a
discourse based perspective. This chapter highlights those
aspects of grammar that help the discourse analysis of a text.
2. Grammar from a Discourse Perspective Different linguistic
items such as it, this and that show different interpretation from
a discourse analysis point of view. For example, the use of the
word it would mean a reference to a non-living thing already
mentioned before in a discourse. This grammatical term will be
very different and would mean something else compared to the
use of the word he later in the chapter.
a. Grammar and Discourse from a Contextual
Perspective Hilles ( 2005) describes the process of
examining grammar and discourse from a
contextual perspective. The first stage in this process
is to make a decision as to what aspect of language
to investigate, in next stage, to look at as many
sources as possible from reference grammar and the
final stage is to test the hypotheses that have been
formed by the native speakers if they would make the
same choices that the research suggests they would
make.
b. Comparing Discourse and Sentence-Based
Grammars Huges and McCarthy (1998) make a
helpful comparison between Discourse and sentence-
based grammars. A discourse-based Grammar, makes
a strong connection between form, function and context
and also aims to place appropriateness.
c. Cataphoric Reference Cataphoric reference is the
reference to something that is mentioned later in the
discourse. It describes an item forward. For example,
in the sentence I said this many times before and
let me repeat it again today the meaning of this and
it is not specified and it has to come later in the
chapter. This reference to something that has to come
yet, is called cataphoric reference.
d. Exophoric reference This type of reference looks
outside for the things it refers to. David Crystals
Dictionary of Linguistics and Phonetics defines it as
A term used by some linguists to refer to the
process of a linguistic Unit referring directly to the
EXTRALINGUISTIC SITUATION accompanying an
utterance.
e. Homophoric Reference. Homophoric reference is
where the identity of the item can be retrieved by
reference to cultural knowledge, in general, rather than
the specific context of the text.
f. Comparative and Bridging Reference Comparative
reference The identity of the presumed item is
retrieved not because, it has already been
mentioned (will be mentioned) in the text.
3. Lexical Cohesion It refers to the relationship in meaning
between lexical items in a text and the particular content words
and the relationship between them.
a. Repetition Repetition refers to words that are
repeated in a text. This includes words which are
inflected for tense or number and words which are
derived.
b. Synonymy. Synonymy refers to words which are
similar in meaning such as date and go out.
c. Antonymy. Antonymy describes opposite or
contrastive meaning such as Shy and Forward.
d. Hyponymy and Meronymy. A word with a particular
meaning that is included in the meaning of the more
general word for example dog and cat are the
hyponym of animal. Meronymy is where lexical items
are in a whole to part relationship with each other.
4. Collocation. Collocation is the association between
vocabulary items which have a tendency to co-occur, such as
combinations of adjectives and nouns as in table and chair,
hair dye real-estate agent, the right direction etc.
5. Conjunction. Conjunction refers to words, such as and
however that joins phrases, clauses or sections of a text in such
a way that they express a logical semantic relationship
between them.
6. Substitution and Ellipsis Substitute form is used
for another language item, phrase or group. For example Try
reading this book. That ones not very good. Here, ones is
substitution for book. In ellipsis some essential element is omitted
from the text and can be recovered by referring to a preceding
element in the text.
7. Theme and Rheme Theme is the starting point of a
clause; that is, what the clause is about. The rest of the clause is
the rheme. Genre is a term in widespread use to indicate an
approach to communication which emphasizes social function
and purpose.
8. Thematic Progression The notion of theme and rheme
are also employed in the examination of thematic
progression, or method of development of texts.
a. Constant Theme One theme of thematic progression
is theme reiteration or constant theme.
b. Linear Theme Another common pattern of
thematic progression is when the subject matter in the
rheme of one clause is taken up in the theme of a
following clause.
c. Split Rheme Texts may, equally, include other kinds
of progression such as multiple-theme or split rheme
patterns. In multiple theme / split rheme progression, a
rheme may include a number of different pieces of
information, each of which may be taken up as the
theme in a number of subsequent clauses.
9. Focusing on Cohesion in Student Texts The work
of Halliday and Hasan (1976) influenced scholars and
researchers by the early 1980s. The two terms were distinguished
then. Before their work, both the words were used
interchangeably. Cohesion is now understood to be a textual
quality, attained through the use of grammatical and lexical
elements that enable readers to perceive semantic relationships
within and between sentences. Coherence refers to the overall
consistency of a discourse, its purpose, voice, content, style,
form, and so on--and is in part determined by readers'
perceptions of texts, dependent not only on linguistic and
contextual information in the texts but also on readers' abilities to
draw upon other kinds of knowledge, such as cultural and
intertextual knowledge.
CHAPTER - 7
CORPUSES APPROACHES TO DISCOURSE ANALYSIS
CHAPTER NO 8
CRITICAL DISCOURSE ANALYSIS
CHAPTER NO 9
DOING DISCOURSE ANALYSIS
1. Central Idea of Chapter This chapter considers the issues
that need attention before embarking upon a discourse
analysis project. The discussion revolves around the question of
how to bring quality in a research project:-
1. Developing a Discourse Analysis Project. Many issues
need to be considered while planning and carrying out a
discourse analysis project. The most important is research
question. It is a key to any good research project. Cameron
2001 has suggested that one important characteristic of a
good research project is that it has a good idea. These criterion
include a well-focused idea about spoken and written discourse,
an understanding of how discourse analytic techniques can be
used to answer the research questions you are asking and so on.
2. Choosing a Research Topic Cameron says good ideas for
research dont just spring up from the researchers
imagination, they are suggested by previous research.
3. Focusing a Research Topic Stevens and Asmar suggest,
wiser heads know that a good research project is, marrow and
deep.
4. Turning the Topic into a Research Question At
this stage of research it is tried to change the selected topic
into a research question. What she focuses that, we should
strike the balance between a value of the question and your
ability to develop a discourse analysis project you are capable of
carrying out i.e. the project you have the back ground,
expertise, resources and access to data that are needed for
the project.
5. Kinds of Discourse Analysis Projects. The author
underlines many kinds of discourse analysis projects which are as
under:
a. Replication of Previous discourse Studies.
b. Using Different Discourse Data but the same
Methodology.
c. Analyzing Existing Data From a Discourse Analysis
Perspective
d. Analyzing Discourse Data From A Different Perspective