ABSTRACT

DEFINITION OF DISCOURSE ANALYSIS

Discourse analysis (DA)

 A broad field of study that draws some of its theories and methods of analysis from
disciplines such as linguistics, sociology, philosophy and psychology.
 has provided models and methods of engaging issues that emanate from disciplines such as
education, cultural studies, communication.
 ‘Discourse analysis’ was first used by the sentence linguist Zellig Harris in his 1952 article
entitled ‘Discourse analysis’.
 According to him, discourse analysis is a method for the analysis of connected speech or
writing, for continuing descriptive linguistics beyond the limit of simple sentence at a time
(Harris 1952).
 Discourse analysis evolved from works in different disciplines in the 1960s and early 1970s,
including linguistics, semiotics, anthropology, psychology and sociology.
 Some of the scholars and the works that either gave birth to or helped in the development of
discourse analysis include the following: J.L Austin whose How to do things with words
(1962) introduced the popular social theory, speech act theory.
 John Searle (1969) developed and improved on the work of Austin.
 The linguistics philosopher, M.A.K Halliday greatly influenced the linguistics properties of
discourse (e.g. Halliday 1961), and in the 1970s he provided sifficient framework for the
consideration of the functional approach to language (e.g. Halliday 1973).
 H.P Grice (1975) and Halliday (1978) were also influential in the study of language as social
action reflected in the formulation of conversational maxims and the emergence of social
semiotics.
 The work of Sinclair and Coulthard (1975) also developed a model for the description of
teacher-pupil talk.

GENRE ANALYSIS

 Genre refers to categories of texts that share the same features: they are organized and
worded in a similar way for the same audience and with the same purpose. Poems, news
articles and lab reports are all different genres of writing. Genres are not limited to written
texts.
5 Main Literary Genres
1. Poetry - A poem is a piece of literature that makes use of rhythmic qualities of language,
such as phonaesthetics, sound symbolism, and meter to convey meaning.
Subgenres - Epic, Narrative, Lyric, Dramatic
2. Fiction - There are several purposes for fiction, including entertaining, inspiring,
informing, and persuading the audience. Fiction writers create stories using their
imagination.
Subgenres - Mystery, Historical Fiction, Realism, Magical Realism, Fantasy,
Romance, Science Fiction, Dystopian, Horror, Fable, Mythology
3. Non-Fiction - Nonfiction writing aims to inform or inspire the audience by using actual
events, people, places, or facts.
Subgenres - Autobiography, Biography, Essay
4. Drama - Dramas are representations of fiction that involve dialogue and performance.
Dramatic literature includes epic poetry, lyric poetry, and novels.
Subgenres - Tragedy, Comedy, Musical, Melodrama
5. Prose - Prose is a literary genre with no formal metrical structure. Instead of relying on
rhythmic structure, as in traditional poetry, it relies on a natural flow of speech and
ordinary grammatical structure.

● Genre analysis is a way of examining a type or style of writing in order to better

understand the conventions, expectations, purpose, and target audience for that genre. It
explores both the structure and communicative purpose of genre and the way these texts
function in the groups of people who use them.

● Genre analysis: A tool used to create genre awareness and understand the conventions of
new writing situations and contexts. This allows you to make effective communication
choices and approach your audience and rhetorical situation appropriately.

● Tone: What was the overall tone of voice in the samples of that genre (piece of writing)

● Diction: What was the overall type of writing in the three samples of that genre (piece of
writing)? Formal or informal?

● Content: What types(s) of information is shared in those pieces of writing?

● Style / Format (the way it looks): Do the pieces of communication contain long or short
sentences? Bulleted list? Paragraphs? Abbreviations? Does punctuation and grammar
matter? How detailed do you need to be in that type of writing style? Single-spaced or
double-spaced? Are pictures included? If so, why? How long does it need to be / should
be? What kind of organizational requirements are there?
 ● Expected Medium of Genre: Where did the pieces appear? Were they online?
Where? Were they in a printed, physical context? If so, what?

● Audience: What audience is this piece of writing trying to reach?

● Purpose: What is the goal of the piece of writing? What is its purpose? Example:
the goal of the piece that is written, i.e., a newspaper entry is meant to inform
and/or persuade, and a movie script is meant to entertain.

COHERENCE

● Came from the Latin word COHAERERE which means "to stick together".
● A very general principle of interpretation of language in context- fewer formal
linguistic features
● Relationships deal with text as a whole, based on primarily semantic relationships.
● Coherence can be thought of as how meaning and sequences of ideas relate to each
other. Typical example would be general > particular; statement > example; problem >
solution; question > answer; claim > counterclaim.
● The ways a text makes sense to reader and writer through relevance and acceptability
of its configuration of concepts, ideas, and theories. Coherence is semantic structure
which helps to unite several sentences into a holistic text. (considering as a whole)
● In a narrow sense, coherence is the connection brought by reader's/listener's
knowledge that helps his or her to understand any given discourse.
● For example: Tome: May I have some more?
Helen: Yes, of course anytime you want you want more you just go ahead.

COHESION

● Cohesion in discourse analysis refers to how all the elements of a text or work are
linked together and work together to create meaning for the reader of the text. By
examining the cohesion within a text, a reader can grasp the underlying structure and
meaning of the work.
 ● Cohesion refers to the way we use vocabulary and grammatical structures to make
connections between the ideas within a text. It provides flow and sequence to your work
and helps make your paragraphs clear for the reader.
cohesive (adj)
- united and working together
- fitting together well

For example, "Which dress are you going to wear?" – "I will wear my green frock," uses
the synonyms "dress" and "frock" for lexical cohesion.

● Collocation uses related words that typically go together or tend to repeat the same
meaning. An example is the phrase "once upon a time". This is lexical cohesion.

Good cohesion is achieved through the following five (5) main methods:
● Reference words
● Repeated words/ideas
● Transition signals
● Substitution
● Ellipsis

What are reference words?

- words which do not make sense on their own
- refer to something else in the text.
e.g., that, those, it, they, them, he, she, which

What are transition signals?

- words/phrases which signal relationships between ideas
- also called linking phrases/signpost phrases/cohesive devices

Cause transitions Effect transitions Comparison transitions Contrast transitions

For this reason As a result Similarl however
because of Consequentl y just
y like

What is substitution?
- substitutes (i.e. replaces) an earlier word(s) with another
- similar to reference words

What is ellipsis?
- leaving out words (because the meaning is clear)
e.g., The first graph shows a high calorie intake for 20-25-year-olds,
 the first graph shows a lower calorie intake for 25-30-year-olds,
and the first graph shows a very low calorie intake for those over 30.

TRANSCRIPTION

● TRANSCRIPTION is the process of converting audio or video content to a written

format of the same language. The source can be either utterances (speech or sign
language) or preexisting text in another writing system.

TYPES OF TRANSCRIPTION
1. Verbatim Transcription - This transcription style encapsulates all spoken words that the
transcriber can hear from an audio or video file. - Capturing every sound made, it can
include throat clearing and verbal pauses such as "ah," "um," and "uh." - considered the
most common, most complicated and time-consuming process.
Examples:
"I ah saw the er red (snickering) pickup truck hit the uh (6-second silent pause) the
pedestrian."
"We not only beat our fourth-quarter (sniffing, clears throat) earnings projections but
exceeded our projections for the first three quarters (cough) as well."

2. Intelligent Verbatim Transcription - It's a style which edits and abridges the text to
create an easy-to-read transcript. Alternately known as non-verbatim transcription. It is a
style of transcription that involves omissions. Most commonly utilized in business and
medical spheres.
Examples:
"I saw the red pickup truck hit the pedestrian."
"We not only beat our fourth-quarter earnings projections but exceeded our projections
for the first three quarters as well."

3. Edited Transcription - In this style, certain parts of the audio or video file that are
unimportant or non-essential can be excluded. -Generally used for seminars, conferences,
public speeches, and editorial classes.
Example:
Unedited: "My mama told us- me and my brother and sis, 'Y'all shouldn't complain about
having to eat your veggies at suppertime."
Edited: "My mother told me and my siblings not to complain about having to eat
vegetables at dinner."
TRANSCRIPTION AND THE TYPES OF DOCUMENTS
1. Audio Files - Recordings and podcasts are commonly transcribed into readable, written
texts.
2. Video Files - Video transcription involves converting a video or a film's audio track into
a written document. A typical example is the transcription of video interviews into blogs
and news articles.
3. Written Materials - Written PDFs and hand-written matters like notes, letters,
manuscripts, etc., are a regular part of the transcription process. Transcribing hand-
written materials entails converting multiple messages into a single, readable text for the
reader's convenience.

CATALOGUING AND ANALYZING DISCOURSE DATA

What is Cataloguing?
Cataloguing is the process of creating and maintaining bibliographic and authority
records in the library catalog, the database of books, serials, sound recordings, moving images,
cartographic materials, computer files, e-resources etc. that are owned by a library. In other
words, cataloguing is a way of describing materials to make them easy to identify and locate.

Descriptive Cataloguing
Descriptive Cataloging or Descriptive Cataloguing includes recording the attributes of a
library item, such as the name of author(s), contributor(s), title, edition, publisher, distributor,
date, the number of pages, its size, name of series, etc. Descriptive Cataloging enables the user to
find and identify a book, by the name of the author, the title, variant titles, etc.

Subject Cataloguing
Subject cataloging is the phase of the cataloging process which is concerned with
determining and describing the intellectual or artistic content and the genre/form characteristics
of a resource and translating that understanding into subject headings and classification
notations.

How to Catalogue Materials?

1. Author information
a) Look for the author (or editor or compiler).
b) Write the family name first, then the first name, separated by a comma.
Example: CARRINGTON, John
c) If the material has two or three authors, list all the authors’ names. Separate the names
with a space, semicolon and another space.
Example: LANKASTER, Ted ; CAMPBELL, Ian D ; RADER, Alison
 d) If the material has more than three authors, use the first name only, followed by the
words ‘et al’ (which mean ‘and others’ in Latin).
Example: AGYEPONG, Irene Akua et al.
e) If the material has an editor or compiler instead of an author, treat the editor
or compiler as the author, but add ‘Ed.’ or ‘Comp.’ in brackets.
Example: DHINGRA, Seema (Ed.)
f) If the author is an organization, write the name in full.
Example: World Health Organization

2. Title information
a). Look at the title page and back of the title page. The title here might not be exactly the
same as the title on the front cover. Write out the title in full. If there isa sub-title, write this
out, separated by a colon with a space before and after. The spaces help to emphasize that the
following text is a sub-title. A colon without space can be easily missed or could be seen as part
of the text.
Example: The malaria manual : guidelines for rapid assessment of social, economic
and cultural aspects of malaria
b). If the material is not a printed publication, note its format in square brackets after the
title.
Examples: [Braille] [Audio cassette] [CD-ROM] [Video]
c) If the material is a second or third edition, write this in abbreviated form after the title,
separated by a full stop, space, dash, and another space. This punctuation helps the
information to be easily identified.
Example: On being in charge. – 2nd Ed.

3. Series information
If the item is part of a series, write the series in brackets after the title.
Example: The malaria manual: guidelines for rapid assessment of social, economic
and cultural aspects of malaria (Methods of Social Research on Tropical Diseases No. 2)

4. Publication details
a) Publication details include the place of publication, publisher's name and date of
publication. These are usually found at the bottom of the title page or on the back of the
title page. Separate the place and publisher with a space, a colon and another space, and
separate the publisher and date of publication with a comma.
Example: London : Macmillan, 1994
b) Place of publication – Usually only the town needs to be written but write the country
as well if it would not be obvious to your users. If several towns are listed, write the first
one only.
If no place has been given, write in square brackets: [place unknown].
 c) Publisher – The publisher's name follows the place of publication. Write
the publisher's name in the shortest form. If the publisher is the same as the
author or editor, use an abbreviation. Separate the place of publication and the publisher
with a space, a colon and another space.
Example: Geneva : WHO, 1996
If there is no publisher, write in square brackets: [publisher unknown].
d) Date of publication – This follows the publisher's name. It is usually sufficient to give
the year. For project papers and reports, include the month as well, if given.
Example: [1999]
Otherwise, try to estimate the date from the information given in the publication, and use
a question mark.
Example: [1998?]

5. Number of pages/format/length
a) Write down the number of pages followed by 'p.'
Example: 145 p.
If there are no page numbers, estimate the number, and put this in square brackets.
Example: [150 p.]
b) To catalogue Braille materials, write down the number of pages or leaves (if only
one side of the page can be read), depending on the type of Braille used in
the publication.
Example: 34 leaves
c) To catalogue audiovisual materials, write down the format, and then the length in
brackets. If the length is not shown, time the tape when playing. It is not necessary to watch
or listen to the whole tape, only to note the time when it starts and ends.
Example: Audio cassette (35 min.)

If audiovisual materials are accompanied by an information sheet, a trainer’s guide,

or a booklet, this should be mentioned in the catalogue. Separate this from the format and length
information with a space, plus sign and another space.
Example: Audio cassette (35 min.) + booklet (23 p.)

6. Illustrations
It is often helpful for users to know whether a material contains illustrations, before they
start looking for the material on the shelves. If print materials contain any illustrations
that are important for understanding the material, this should be mentioned in the
catalogue. You can do this by adding the abbreviation ‘ill.’ after the number of pages
or length, separated by a space, semi-colon and another space.
Example: 23 p. : ill.
7. Notes
Put any notes needed to explain the content of the material.
Example: Tape and booklet to accompany the Healthy Woman Counselling Guide
radio programme

8. Keywords
Write the keywords, separated by a forward slash. Use enough keywords to describe the
content of the material.
Example: malaria / health education / radio

9. Accession number
Write the accession number at the bottom right-hand corner.

10. Classification number

Write the classification number at the top right-hand corner.

How to Analyze Discourse Data

Instead of focusing on smaller units of language, such as sounds, words, or phrases, discourse
analysis is used to study larger chunks of language, such as entire conversations, texts, or
collections of texts. The selected sources can be analyzed on multiple levels.

Level of What is analyzed?

Communication
Vocabulary Words and phrases can be analyzed for ideological associations,
formality, and euphemistic and metaphorical content.
Grammar The way that sentences are constructed can reveal aspects of
intended meaning.
Structure The structure of a text can be analyzed for how it creates emphasis
or builds a narrative.
Genre Texts can be analyzed in relation to the conventions and
communicative aims of their genre.
Non-verbal Non-verbal aspects of speech such as tone of voice, pauses,
communication gestures, and sounds like “um”, can reveal aspects of a speaker’s
intentions, attitudes, and emotions.
Conversational codes The interaction between people in a conversation can reveal aspects
of cultural conventions and social roles.

The range of options for discourse analysis is wide. Discourse studies can focus on different
components of language, called “standards of textuality,” such as intentionality, acceptability,
informativity, situationality, and intertextuality (Beaugrande, 1997).
Intentionality - refers to what speakers intend.
Acceptability - refers to the degree to which hearers (audience) engage the discourse and whether
the discourse meets with their approval and understanding.
Informativity - concerns how new or unexpected the information is.
Situationality - refers to ongoing circumstances.
Intertextuality - refers to a text’s relations with other texts.

Steps in Analyzing a Discourse Data

Step 1: Decide on your discourse analysis approach. There are many different approaches and
techniques we can use to analyze.
a) Language-In-Use – this approach focuses on the finer details of language used within the
discourse, such as sentence structure (grammar) and phonology (sounds).
b) Socio-political Approach – an approach that looks beyond the technicalities of language
and instead focuses on the influence that language has in the social context, and vice
versa.
c) Socio-cultural Approach – an approach to Critical Discourse Analysis that was
developed by Norman Fairclough. Socio-cultural analysis regards discourse as
interactional activities and emphasizes the social function of language.
d) Socio-Cognitive Approach – developed by Teun Van Djik (2001) this approach shows
that discourse can only be adequately described in terms of notions of cognition such as
information, knowledge, or beliefs of participants.

Step 2: Gather information and theory in the context. Next, you must establish the social and
historical context in which the material was produced and intended to be received.

Step 3: Analyze the content for themes and patterns. This step involves closely examining
various elements of the material – such as words, sentences, paragraphs, and overall structure –
and relating them to attributes, themes, and patterns relevant to your research question.

Step 4: Review your results and draw conclusions. Here, you will return to your research
questions and compile your answers to them, based on the analysis. Make sure that you can
answer your research questions thoroughly, and also substantiate your responses with evidence
from your data.

IDENTITY AND SUBJECTIVITY

What is Identity?
 ● Oxford English Dictionary: The sameness of a person or thing at all times or in all
circumstances, the condition or fact that a person or thing is itself and not something else
individuality and personality.

● Identity is the everyday word for people's sense of who they are' (Djité 2006:6)

● We could state that identity is in many cases interpreted as 'people's sense of what, who,
or where they belong to. Identity is thus the concept used in social science to describe a
certain sense of belonging, reflecting people's need to define themselves and others.

● In the most general sense, we can define identity as a person's sense of self, established
by their unique characteristics, affiliations, and roles. Moreover, identity has continuity,
as one feels to be the same person over time despite many changes in their circumstances.

Concept of Identity
● Self-Identity – The verbal concepts we hold about ourselves and our emotional
identification with those self-description.
● Social Identity – The expectations and opinions that others have of us. These
categorizations are often assigned to us or something we are born into. Examples of
social identity include race, ethnicity, gender, sex, socioeconomic status, sexual
orientation, age, religion/religious beliefs, national origin, and emotional, developmental
disabilities and abilities.

What is the relation between Discourse and Identity?

● One identity may be more appropriate or relevant than others in a given moment
in an interaction and rise to the top of a hierarchy of identities (Omoniyi 2006).

● Group identity research is organized around sociological variables such as race,

ethnicity, nation, religion, sex, and age.

● The nation-state paradigm in conferring citizenship on people creates an idea of

identity as fixed and given, once a Filipino always a Filipino, but the reality is that
people experience varying intensity levels in affiliating with the nation.

● Discourse and Identity offers a critical overview of the ways in which

researchers have approached the concept of identity. Language use is a parameter
in determining identity, whether of individuals or groups, as research in
 sociolinguistics, the sociology of language, anthropology, social psychology, and
other disciplines has shown.

● Minority Identity is a number of people or groups who form social units who are
numerically challenged relative to other groups within a polity, or who have
limited access to economic and political power. It is also used to describe people
who follow non-mainstream values.

● Marshall (1994: 334) says that the term 'applies to social groups who are
oppressed or stigmatized on the basis of race, ethnicity, biology or other
characteristics'.

What is Subjectivity?

● Subjectivity - Described as the condition of being a person and /or the process by which
we become a person and how we experience ourselves.
● In a traditional scientific discourse, subjectivity is often presented as a polar opposite to
objectivity. In this sense, objectivity is often seen as an absence of bias, thus implicitly
implying that subjectivity is equated with bias.

What is the relation between Discourse and Subjectivity?

● Subjectivity is the quality of human phenomena that allows individual and social
instances to generate specific subjective senses and configurations within those human
communicative activities. In such processes, singular individual and social alternatives
can emerge within the shared social symbolic constructions.

● For cultural studies, subjectivity is often regarded as an effect of discourse, because

subjectivity is constituted by the subject position that discourse obliges us to take up.

POWER AND DISCOURSE

● Power and discourse are two perennially contested subjects.

● Power is often defined as a person's ability to influence the behaviors of other people,
whereas discourse generally refers to the use of language as a form of social action. The
relation between the two is largely contingent upon the divergent conceptions held by
different academic disciplines of what power is and how discourse functions.
 ● Language and social interaction (LSI) is concerned about the interplay between
language use and social action, and thus power and discourse are dealt with explicitly or
implicitly in many LSI studies.
● Five approaches are reviewed here in terms of their analytical positions on the link
between power and discourse. These discourse-analytic approaches are language
pragmatics (specifically speech act theory), critical discourse analysis, conversation
analysis, ethnography of communication, and interactional sociolinguistics.
● Power is endemic to social interactions. Discourse is informative about and constitutive
of power relations in social context. there is an extensive range of academic work on
power and discourse in different disciplines. the relation between power and discourse is
largely contingent upon the divergent views of what power is and how discourse
functions.
● Language and social interaction studies, as exemplified in the Handbook ofLanguage
and Social Interaction (Fitch & Sanders, 2005), while various and one con-tentious in
their approaches to the topic, are strongly committed to the ne-grained analysis of
language and the latter’s informative or formative relations to power, as either embedded
in or emerging from social interaction.
● Five discourse-analytic approaches are selected here to demonstrate the specific ways of
exploring and explicating the relation between power and discourse in LSI stud-ies. these
approaches are speech act theory (SAT), critical discourse analysis
(CDA),conversation analysis (CA), ethnography of communication (EOC), and
interactional sociolinguistics (IS). ey have been chosen because each provides a set of
theoretical assumptions and a methodological framework foreclose analysis discourse;
each views power and power relations as either informed or formed in the various
dimensions of discourse; and each proposes a systematic way of observing and analyzing
power and power relations in discourse. Power analysis - Power is a central and
perennially contested concept in western socio political discourse.

DISCOURSE STUDIES IN THE CLASSROOM

● Discourse analysis, or discourse studies, is an approach to the analysis of written, vocal,

or sign language use, or any significant semiotic event. The objects of discourse analysis
are variously defined in terms of coherent sequences of sentences, propositions, speech,
or turns-at-talk.
● In Discourse Studies, discourse is typically seen as a social practice of participants
communicating through linguistic and other semiotic resources in certain contexts.
● Researchers in this field often insist on the constitutive character of discourse for social
realities, structures and subjectivities.
● Classroom discourse is a discourse that is based on the conversation between teacher and
students.
● Classroom Discourse, language in use, varies depending on the field of study. A teacher’s
discourse is the way in which they use language to get things done.
● Classroom Discourse is unique in its setting due to the unequal power relationship
between teacher and student. Teachers tend to control the lesson, dominate interactions,
and initiate exchanges. Typical discourse includes the teacher asking a question, one or
more pupils responding, and the teacher evaluating that response (Nunan, 1999).
● Aspects of natural discourse, such as turn-taking, intonation, and exchanges are altered in
a classroom setting (McCarthy, 1991).
● Turn-taking is predetermined and primarily teacher-controlled within the classroom
(Brazil, 1995). Teachers, in their dominating role, also tend to use more tonal units with
prominent syllables more frequently to highlight important information. This is
unnatural when compared to real communication intonation.
● Regarding classroom discourse, there are different models to help the discourse taking
place in the classroom between teacher and students. One of these models is the Sinclair
and Coulthard (1975) model. This model was developed to describe teacher-pupil talk
based on a hierarchy of discourse units.
● It assumes that classroom discourse ‘follows a fairly typical and predictable structure,
comprising three parts: a teacher Initiation, a student Response, and a teacher
Feedback, commonly known as IRF, or IRE: Initiation, Response, and
Feedback/Evaluation.
● IRE is preferred by some writers and practitioners to reflect the fact that, most of the
time; teachers' feedback is an evaluation of a student’s contribution.
● Teachers are constantly assessing the correctness of an utterance and giving feedback to
learners. Basically, the model is based on the fact that each exchange between teacher
and pupil in the classroom is made-up of three moves: a question, a response, and then
follow-up.
● The S&C model employs a hierarchical system, modeled on Halliday (1961). The highest
rank is lesson, which is made up of ‘an unordered series of transactions’. Due to the lack
of restriction on the order of transactions in a lesson, analysis of this rank is moot. It
would be impossible to arrive at a structural statement from such pursuit as an ordering
varies from teacher to teach.