IDENTIFICATION:

Tracking Participant
Nurur Risky Aulia
Mustaniroh Anningrum
Ahmad Bowo
This presentation will discuss about:
1) Keeping Track
2) Who’s who?: Identifying people
3) What’s what?: Identifying things
4) Where to look?
5) Tracking and genre
6) Identification systems in full
 Keeping Track
Range of resources for
Someone or Something
introducing participants into
a discourse and for keeping
track of them once there. Identified

(Martin & Rose, 2007)

He, She, They or It
The Example: when Tutu presents Helena’s story

The South Africa Broadcasting Corporation's Five participant

radio team covering the Truth and
Reconciliation Commission received a letter
From a woman calling herself Helena (she
1) The SABC’s radio team
wanted to remain anonymous for fear of 2) The Truth and Reconciliation
reprisals). Commission
3) Helena
4) Her letter
5) The reprisals that she fears
a letter
a woman Indefinitely Helena was introduced as a woman

reprisals Can be referred as

Herself
She

A woman calling herself Helena

 Entities: ‘ The ’

The South Africa Broadcasting Corporation's radio team

The Truth and Reconciliation Commission

‘the’ tells us that we can assume an identity as known as ‘definite’.

 Basic choice in identification

Introducing: a letter, reprisals

Identification
By pronoun: herself, she

Tracking By name: Helena

By ‘the’: the Truth and

Reconciliation Commission
Who’s who? :
Identifying people
 Introducing people
Helena : a woman
‘a’ means someone whose
identity we can’t assume or as
known as ‘indefinite’
Helena’s story has
three main Her first love : a young man
characther
‘an’ means ‘indefinite’
and ‘other’ means he is
Her second love : another policeman different from the first
policeman
As an eighteen-year-old, I met a young man in his twenties.
He was working in a top security structure.
It was the beginning of a beautiful relationship. We even spoke about Tracking people
marriage,
A bubbly, vivacious man who beamed out wild energy.
Sharply intelligent. On his own : he, his
Even if he was an Englishman
he was popular with all the 'Boer' Afrikaners.
And all my girlfriends envied me.
Then one day he said he was going on a 'trip'.
'We won't see each other again... maybe never ever again.'
I was torn to pieces.
So was he. A young man With Helena : we
An extremely short marriage to someone else failed all because 1
married to forget.
More than a year ago, 1 met my first love again through a good friend.
I was to learn for the first time that he had been operating overseas
and that he was going to ask for amnesty.
I can't explain the pain and bitterness in me
when I saw what was left of that beautiful, big, strong person. Kind of person : my first love,
He had only one desire - that the truth must come out. and that beautiful big, strong
person
 Tracking people
I, my, we, our the

a woman calling herself Helena I can't handle the man anymore!

Helena Helena’s second love

 Comparing people
Compare one participant with another,
and so are known as comparative For example in Helena’s
reference. Comparative reference may story:
involve simple contrast, or numbers
such as first, second and superlatives my first love

such as best, better. (Martin & Rose, someone else

another policeman
2007)
 Possession
Identifying participants is possessive pronouns. These pronouns (my, your, her, his, its, our, their)
work like (a, some, the, this, that, these, those) to tell us which participant we are talking about.
(Martin & Rose, 2007)

For identifying participant in Helena’s story: For identifying part of people:

all my girlfriends his throat

and three of our friends my head
their leaders

Possessive pronuon : my Always presumes an identity

Two
identities
May or may not have been
Possessed : girlfriends
previously mentioned
Basic resources for introducing and tracking people
Introduction (Presenting) Tracking (Presuming)

a woman Helena

another policeman his twenties

someone else he

we

my first love

that... person

the man
another person
‘an’ : new person
‘other’ : comparing him with someone we
already know
Comparative reference Presenting reference
someone else
‘someone’ : new person
‘else’ : comparing him with someone we
already know

all my girlfriends
‘girlfriends’ : new people
‘my’ : someone we already know (refer to
Helena)
Possessive reference Presuming reference
my first love
‘first love’ : new person
‘my’ : someone we already know (refer to
Helena)
 Resources for identifying people

PRESENTING a, an, one

someone, anyone
PRESUMING the
this, that
I, me, you, she, he, it, we, us, they, them
POSSESSIVE his (twenties)
my (girlfriend)
Helena’s (friend)
COMPARATIVE same, similar
other, another, different, else
 Instances that neither present nor presume participant identities

Presenting reference is used when we first mention a person, and presuming reference is used
for second or subsequent mentions. But in English this doesn’t always hold

My story begins in my late teenage years as a farm girl...

he was an Englishman

The reason for these apparent anomalies is that these indefinite expressions are being used to
describe or classify people, not to identify them.
 What’s what?
Identifying things
 Identifying Institutions and
objects abstractions

Identifying things
Identifying what
in legal and
people say: text
administrative
reference
discourse

Comparing
things:
comparative
reference
 Identifying objects

Object tracked with determiners with the or it

Example :
They started to take a plastic bag
Then one person held both my hands down and the other person put it on my head
Then they sealed it so that I wouldn’t be able to breathe
And kept it on for at least two minutes…
For presenting participants, there is the plural of ‘a’ namely ‘some’

they had some milk for Helena

However with plural things or with masses we also have the option of presenting
participants without ‘a’ or ‘the’:
I put garden shears through his neck

Plural things are presented with the ending ‘-s’, while plural masses are presented
with neither an ending nor a determiner
 Institutions and abstractions
Less concrete things such as agencies
(special forces) and abstractions (price,
marriage, amnesty) are identified similarly to
objects:
We're moving to a special unit
After about three years with the special
forces, our hell began.
Identifying what people say: text
reference
In abstract discourse such as Tutu’s
argument, this kind of reference to what
was
just said is very common to refer to a
point that’s just been made, possibly to
evaluate
it. What was said previously is typically
tracked with demonstratives (this, that)
Once amnesty is granted, and this has to happen immediately

The advantage of this kind of tracking is that stretches of meaning can be

packaged up to play a new role as the argument unfolds. In the following passage,
for example, Tutu packages up the effect of amnesty in order to expand on its
consequences for civil damages (this means that...). These consequences are in
turn packaged up to be evaluated (that is...) and identified (it is...)

This kind of tracking of what was said is called text reference. As we’ve seen it is
used to turn big meanings into smaller, more manageable ones.
so that we can then make some more meanings with them. Meanings contract, in other
words, so that
new meanings can expand. The text is breathing, as the argument moves along.
 Identifying things in legal and administrative discourse
In legal and administrative discourse quite a lot of pressure is put on identification in order to
be precise.

Example of specialized reference is the tracking device therewith, which refers to a specific
‘location in the text. This is used to keep things open, to refer generally to the processes that
have to be undertaken to establish the Commission and Committees and empower them:

‘’and for the said purposes to provide for the establishment of a Truth and Reconciliation
Commission and to confer certain powers on, assign certain functions to and impose certain
duties upon that Commission and those Committees and to provide for matters connected
therewith’’
Comparing things: comparative reference
Comparative reference is indirect reference by means of identity or similarity. Personal reference
items are those which refer to their referents by specifying their function in the speech situation,
using nouns and pronouns.

Helena uses several comparative references in some parts of her story:

I finally understand what the struggle was really about.
I would have done the same had I been denied everything.

She begins by presenting the struggle as though we all know what she means, and
then refers to it as the same.
Resources identifying things and people

PRESENTING a, an, one

someone, anyone
PRESUMING the
this, that
I, me, you, she, he, it, we, us, they, them
POSSESSIVE his (twenties)
my (girlfriend)
Helena’s (friend)
COMPARATIVE same, similar
other, another, different, else
TEXT REFERENCE This, that, it
All my questions
Where to look?
Looking back or forward: anaphoric or cataphoric reference
In writing, the obvious place to look for a presumed identity is the surrounding
text; usually we look back, like we did from herself to a woman in Tutu’s
introduction to Helenas story. But we may have to look forward, in order to find
out what it means for example at the beginning of the Act, where it refers forward
to the whole Act

Anaphoric reference means that a word in a text refers back to other ideas in the text for its meaning.
Example : Michael went to the bank. He was annoyed because it was closed. He refers to Michael. it
refers to the bank.

cataphoric reference, which means a word refers to ideas later in the text.
Example : Although I phone her every week, my mother still complains that I don't keep in touch often
enough. Her refers to mother.
 Looking outside: exophoric and homophoric reference

Exophoric

Exophoric reference occurs when a word or phrase refers to something outside the discourse.

Here are some examples of exophoric reference:

“They‘re late again, can you believe it?”

“I know! Well, they’d better get here soon or it‘ll get cold.”

They refers to some people outside the discourse known to both speakers.
It also refers to something that both speakers know about (perhaps the dinner).

The use of exophoric reference requires some shared knowledge between two speakers, or
between writer and reader(s).
Homophoric reference

homophoric reference is the kind of reference which comes

from general context of culture shared by members of a
particular world. For example, if a person says “the earth is
round”, then all people should notice it and they should
know which earth being talked about since we live in the
only earth.
Referring indirectly: bridging reference
Indirect anaphora is called bridging reference. the
relationship between a linguistic expression and its
intended referent not explicitly mentioned in previous
context.
Example :
I walked into the room. The windows looked out the bay.
Self-identification: esphoric refence
when the referent occurs in the phrase
immediately following the presuming r
item. This happens when one thing mo
another one and
answers the question ‘Which one?
 Anaphoric Esphoric (forward within
(backward) same nominal group)

Bridging (indirectly Homophoric (out to

backward) share knowledge)

Cataphoric Exophoric (out to the

(forward) situation)
 Tracking and Genre
Frame
The use of pronouns to sustain reference within phases and nouns
to frame phases in story telling.

Evaluation
Is another function of using full nominal groups to track participants.

I met another policeman

I can't handle the man anymore!
I end with a few lines that my wasted vulture said to me one night

The second and third of these are also evaluative, referring to her second love as
the man expresses the distance in their relationship, while my wasted vulture
registers her sympathy with his living hell.
Tracking by possession
In relation to evaluation, the other tracking pattern we should look at is
the frequent use of possessive reference

After about three years with the special forces, our hell began
Sometimes he would just press his face into his hands and shake uncontrollably
He tried to hide his wild consuming fear, but I saw it
I jolt awake from his rushed breathing.

We can see closely related functions (of framing phases and evaluating people) at work with
Helena’s second love. He’s introduced as another policeman, referred to as the man when
he becomes too much to handle, and as my wasted vulture the last time Helena mentions him
The second and third of these are also evaluative, referring to her second love as the man
expresses the distance in their relationship, while my wasted vulture registers her sympathy
with his living hell.
Tracking in quoted speech
In quoted speech the pronouns used to track participants shift,
from third person to first person for Helena’s first and second loves:

'We won’t see each other again... maybe never ever again.'
'We're moving to a special unit. Now, now my darling. We are real policemen now,’
'What you don't know, can't hurt you.‘
'They can give me amnesty a thousand times. Even if God and everyone else
forgives me a thousand times - I have to live with this hell. The probiem is
in my head, my conscience. There is only one way to be free of it. Blow my brains out.
Because that's where my hell is.'

tracking resources have a role to play in setting up planes of narration,

including what the narrator tells us directly alongside what she quotes from others.
Tracking identities implicitly
One part of the picture we haven’t covered yet, but which is relevant here is the use of ellipsis
as a tracking device. In the following example, Helena doesn’t actually use a pronoun to tell us
who abruptly muttered and who drove off, but we know perfectly well who she means because
English can refer to participants by leaving them out:

Suddenly, at strange times, they would become restless. 0 Abruptly mutter the feared
word 'trip' and 0 drive off.

This kind of implicit reference is known as ellipsis. In many languages (e.g. Spanish, Japanese),
ellipsis of this kind is far more common than pronouns; but English more often likes its pronouns
there Once again here, Helena’s punctuation isn’t quite the norm for tracking by ellipsis of this kind;
in English this would be more common within rather than between sentences.
Tracking abstractions
The things we’ve covered so far tell us most of what we need to know because identification is
essentially a device for tracking people, who are after all the mainstays of storytelling and casual
conversation. As we’ve seen, the same kinds of resources can be used for concrete things,
and for abstract things and even discourse itself; but in general, with non-humans, there is
much less tracking going on. As a rule of thumb, the more abstract a participant, the less likely
it is to be presumed.

If I had to watch how white people became dissatisfied

with the best and still wanted better and got it.
Tracking in administrative
discourse With policy, almost everyone and everything mentioned is generic, since the provisions are
designed to apply across the board. The exceptions to this are the specific agents and agencies
set up by the provisions, and the provisions themselves. With other kinds of reference the general rule
for policy is that participants can be tracked within but not between sentences.
This holds true for generic classes of person and thing and for specific agents or agencies:

(c) establishing and making known the fate or whereabouts of victims and by restoring
the human and civil dignity of such victims by granting them an opportunity to relate their own
accounts of the violations of which they are the victims, and by recommending reparation
measures in respect of them;
The functions of the Commission shall be to achieve its objectives, and to that end
the Commission shall

Overall, what this means is that unless we use a proper name to refer to something
any information presumed must be available in the immediately preceding co-text.
This kind of tracking has evolved, we presume, in order to avoid any ambiguities
that might be exploited in a legal challenge. The result is a formally-partitioned text unfolding as
short phases of proposals and definitions.
Identification system in full
Identification System
Identification system in full
Tracking System
 identification resources in the grammar of nominal groups

Deictic and Thing functions identify participants with a determiner or noun.

Numerative and Epithet functions compare participants by their order (numbers)
or qualities (adverbs). The Qualifier compares or locates the participant it qualifies.
Halliday also recognizes a Post-Deictic function in nominal groups. This is realized
by an adjective which generally comes after the Deictic but before a Numerative.
Several of these are comparative:

the same three.. a similar one.. the other two.. a different one.. someone
else …

there are also several locative expressions which presume information about time and space:

now, then; here, there; hereby, thereby; herewith, therewith

Resource
Martin, J.R & Rose, D. (2007). Working with Discourse: Meaning Beyond the Clause. Great Britain: Athenaeum Press,
Gateshead, Tyne & Wear.

Brown, G., & Yule, G. (1983). Discourse analysis. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Neisi, H., & Gorjian, B. (2017). A Comparative Study of Using References in English Political News Written by English
Language Natives and Non-Natives. Journal of Applied Linguistics and Language Learning 3(4). 79-87.
Thanks!
Do you have any questions?