Professional Documents
Culture Documents
26-10-2015
DEL
DISCURSO
When we speak, we tend to indicate connotations that people take from conversation.
Emphasizing in normal communication.
E.g.: I know that you are busy, but...(I would like to share a moment with you). It is not
'Come to my house right now'. So we use rhetorical devices. You may also make
personal interest.
Conclusion always seems to be difficult in the essay/report/assignment/argumentation.
Normally the conclusion should have a final line in which we punctuate a kind of
shocking conclusion of the all.
UNIT 2 ASSIGNMENT
Most linguistic texts are based on common sense and the application of background
knowledge, contextual information.
* Mediterranean diet is an article published in New York Times a few years ago.
Russian woman cosmonaut slams focus on her hair and parenting
She is an engineer, she is not there for being a woman, she is there for being an
engineer because she is prepared, she has been trained with other cosmonauts.
She might demonstrate her skills.
In a communicative function, she is criticising the journalist, society which
focuses on physical element of the female engineer and not in the male
counterpart.
Origin: The different between Eastern and Western is that in Eastern is about
the first sector (agriculture, lest develop) and in Western is closer to continental
Europe (more universities, more culture, second sector). She is Eastern
Spain-South-Lepe
Canada-Newfoundland (Terranova)
British- Irish
Argentinians-Chistes de gallegos
She comes from the working class.
She was personally chosen by Vladimir Popavkin, she has been selected by
someone who is formal.
If a person is not physically strong, his jobs is typing on the computer.
Lame excuses: you are not chosen for a job because of you appearance.
The implication: Women
50% Russian population is not a good image of Russia.
50% Russian population is good image (men) but they were given by women.
UNIT 2. FORMAL LINKS (GUY COOK)
FORMAL AND CONTEXTUAL LINKS
Discourse looks at features outside the language: at the situation, the people
involved, what they know and what they are doing. These facts enable us to
construct stretches of language as discourse; as having meaning and unity for
us.
There are two ways of approaching language:
- contextual: referring to facts outside language.
- formal: referring to facts inside language.
Stretches of language treated only formally are referred to as text.
We cannot say that there are no formal links between sentences in discourse.
Although linguistics has traditionally concentrated upon formal features within
sentences, discourse analysis suggests ways of directing teachers' and
students' attention to formal features which operate across sentences as well.
COHESIVE DEVICES
Formal links between sentences and clauses.
1. VERB FORM
We can see that verbs ('s goin, 's got to take, ain't goin', don't, come on) are all
in the present (although they refer to the future). There seems to be a degree of
formal connection between them, a way in which the first tense conditions all
the others, and it would be very strange if the exchange has been:
A: Right, who's going' to lift the bottom? Well, come one had got to take hold of
it.
B: I shan't have been goin' to.
A: Don't...Come on will you?
2. PARALLELISM
Parallelism is a device that suggest connection because the form of the
sentence or clause repeats the form of another. It is used in speeches, prayers,
poetry, and advertisements. It has an emotional effect and it is a useful aidemmoire.
For example, in a Christian prayer, we can see that there is a repetition of the
grammatical structure creating rhythm.
The structure of two sentences linked because they follow the grammatical
pattern: define article + proper noun + copula + complement.
Parallelism suggests a connection of meaning through an echo of form, does not
have to be grammatical parallelism. It may be a sound parallelism: as in the
rhyme, rhythm, and other sound effects of verse.
The idea of semantic parallelism is when two sentences are linked because
they mean the same thing.
3. REFERRING EXPRESSIONS
Referring expressions are words whose meaning can only be discovered by
referring to other words or to elements of the context which are clear to both
sender and receiver.
We have the example of third person pronouns (she/her/hers/herself;
he/him/his/himself; it/its/itself;
they/ them/their/theirs/themselves). The
meaning of 'it' has a partly formal though. It also involves our knowledge of the
world.
- Anaphora: a common procedure for the identity of someone or something to
be given once at the beginning, and thereafter referred to as 'she' or 'he' or 'it'.
It is not only third person pronouns which work in this way. The meaning of 'this'
and 'that', and 'here' and 'there'.
- Cataphora: it is a favourite device of authors who begin stories and novels with
unidentified 'he' or 'she'. So, we are given the pronoun first, and then kept in a
suspense as to its identity, which is revealed later.
Referring expressions fulfil a dual purpose of unifying the text and of economy,
because they save us from having to repeat the identity of what we are talking
about again and again.
4. REPETITION AND LEXICAL CHAINS
The repetition of words can create the same sort of chain as pronouns, and
there are sometimes good reasons for preferring it. In Britain, mother tongue
learners of English are discouraged from using repetition on the grounds that it
is 'bad style', and encouraged to use a device known as 'elegant repetition',
where synonymous or more general words or phrases are used.
So instead of writing: The pineapple...the pineapple...the pineapple...the
pineapple; they might write: The pineapple...the luscious fruit...or meal...the
tropical luxury.