DISCOURSE ANALYSIS

INTRODUCTION
Language, action, knowledge
and situation
 Much of the fascination of discourse analysis comes
from the realization that language, action and knowledge
are inseparable.
 The most essential insight, discussed by J. L. Austin in
his 1955 lectures at Harvard University, is that
utterances are actions (Austin, 1962).
 Some actions can be performed only through language
(for example, apologizing), whilst others can be
performed either verbally or nonverbally (for example,
threatening).
 As soon as we start to study how language is used in
social interaction, it becomes clear that communication
is impossible without shared knowledge and
assumptions between speakers and hearers.
 Determinism
 Language and situation are inseparable but
there is no deterministic relationship, of course,
except in highly ritualized situations.
 Thus in a `small village shop', it is possible to
predict a great deal about the content, functions
and style of language used there.
 Much of the language will be either local gossip
or transactional, concerned with buying and
selling.
 However, one can visit a local village shop to
perform other speech acts: to complain about
unsatisfactory newspaper deliveries, and to ask
directions to a local street.
 Discourse and Meaning
 The concept of truth is applicable only to a narrow range of sentences: only statements
can be true or false, but truth or falsity are not applicable to questions, directives,
expletives, promises, counterfactuals (e.g. If Harry was more intelligent, he wouldn't
have married Susan), and other utterances which express probabilities, beliefs or
intentions.
 An immediate problem is the depth of indirection which is often involved: the distance
from surface linguistic forms to underlying social meanings, from utterances to
directives, hints and challenges.
 Examples of indirect speech acts are very common. For example, a speaker might say:
– Your glass is empty.
 And this might mean:
– "I'm offering to buy you a drink."
 However, some utterances can be much more indirect. A consultant surgeon saying to a
patient:
– Right - a little tiny hole and a fishing expedition - is that it?
 actually means something like:
– "1 am going to operate on you and remove your appendix."
 The choice of the very indirect reference was intended to convey reassurance, by a
jocular reference to an every day operation.
Discourse and Meaning
 We have the basic problem of how speakers can say
one thing and mean another.
 There is, therefore, also the converse problem of how
hearers may perform long strings of interpretation on
any utterance they hear.
 However odd the utterance, hearers will do their utmost
to make sense of the language they hear, by bringing to
bear on it all possible knowledge and interpretation.
 Hearers and readers have a powerful urge to make
sense out of whatever nonsense is presented to them,
and this principle has obvious relevance to a practical
study of rhetorical devices used in advertising, political
manifestos and so forth.
DISCOURSE
 Language in use, which is used to communicate
and is felt to be coherent is called discourse.
 Discourse can be defined as a stretch of language
consisting of several sentences which are
perceived as being related, not only in terms of
ideas, but also in terms of the jobs they perform.(
function)
 Discourse is fundamentally concerned with the
relationship between language and the contexts
of its use.
 Discourse is a text forming device. It studies how
language can be made coherent and cohesive.
Definition of Discourse
 ‘a continuous stretch of language larger than a
sentence, often constituting a coherent unit, such
as sermon, argument, joke or narrative.’
(Crystal:1992)
 Cook (1989) defines discourse as stretches of
language perceived to be meaningful, unified and
purposive.
 In the study of language, discourse often refers to
the speech patterns and usage of language,
dialects, and acceptable statements, within a
community.
 It is a subject of study in people who live in
secluded areas and share similar speech
conventions.
 The term discourse is used to describe the
conversations and the meaning behind them.
Understanding
Discourse
 Language helps us communicate.
 Communication takes place with the help of symbols,
signs, words or body language.
 Language is a code or a system which has a lot of
signals being transmitted through a medium by a
sender to a receiver. This system is governed by a set
of rules.
 Along with the set of rules there are some social
features that govern the use of language. Context and
cultural influences also affect language in use.
 Discourse studies the relation between the form and
function of language.e.g
Do I have something to tell you?(!)
To understand discourse we must look at the
distinction that Ferdinand De Sassure made
between langue and parole
LANGUE PAROLE

The collective social Usage of language

knowledge. A set of produced
The system that statements
enables people to speak It is physical & can be
differently according to used.
the situation. It is concrete
It is abstract.
Langue Parole

 Based on this distinction we see that

discourse includes the usage of language
by conveying messages based on the
abstract knowledge i.e. making langue as
its frame work.
 Discourse may not always conform to
grammatical rules .
 DISCOURSE VS. TEXT
 Discourse is how language is written or spoken?
What is the meaning of language? Which words
to emphasize?
Discourse analyses the Text is a piece of naturally
meaning of language. It occurring spoken or
looks at language from a written discourse,
social and political identified for the purpose
perspective. e.g. 1857, of analysis. Text is
there are different points of language form. It is how
view of the same event. We language ought to be
choose our words and written. Text consists of
language according to the alphabets, words,
genre (it is the mode or the sentences etc.
kind of discourse used for
exchanging ideas).
TEXT VS. DISCOURSE
 The terms text and discourse are interchangeable
according to some linguists.
 Other linguists are of the view that discourse is
language in action, while a text is the written record of
that interaction. So, discourse brings together the
language, the speaker/writer, and the context.
 Many linguists prefer to use the term text for all
recorded instances of language in use.
 We may refer to text as any written record of a
communicative event. (oral or written)
 And refer to discourse as the interpretation of the
communicative event in a context.
Features of Textuality:
Coherence & Cohesion
 Cohesion - grammatical relationship between parts of a
sentence essential for its interpretation;
 Coherence - the order of statements relates one another
by sense.
 The quality of being meaningful and unified is known
as coherence(everything fitting together well). It is a
necessary quality for communication.
 Coherence is not completely conveyed with or encoded
in the text. It also includes how people make sense of
what they read and write. They try to arrive at an
interpretation that is in line with their experience of the
way the world is.
 Coherence is constructed by the writer and
reconstructed by the user.
 Coherence is also a matter of social convention.
 Coherence
- A: That’s the telephone
- B: I’m in the bath
- A: O.K.
 How do both the speakers manage to make sense of what the
other says?
 The 1st speaker makes a request for the 2nd speaker to perform
action.
 The 2nd speaker states reason why he cannot comply with the
request.
 The 1st speaker undertakes to perform the action.
 Thus language users must have a lot of knowledge of how
conversation works that is not simply ‘linguistic’ knowledge.
 Coherent texts are sequences or utterances which seem to ‘hang
together”– as they contain text forming devices e.g. words &
phrases.
 Cohesion
 Cohesion designates the "glue" which holds the
propositions of a text together. It refers to ties or
connections within texts. It is visible on the
surface of texts.
 Cohesion is established by grammatical
relationship within a text or sentence.
 It can be defined as the links that hold a text
together and give it meaning.
 Cohesive relationships within a text are set up
where the interpretation of some element in the
discourse is dependent on that of another.e.g.
Wash and peel six apples. Put them into the
oven.
 Cohesive Devices
 Formal links between sentences and between
clauses are known as cohesive devices.
 By and large five types of cohesive devices are
distinguished:
 Reference
 Substitution
 Ellipsis
 Conjunction
 Lexical Cohesion
 Discourse
Spoken discourse
Speech occurs at varying speed,
especially one that is suitable for the
speaker, even if it may not be
appropriate for the listener and though a
request for repetition is possible, it is
difficult to imagine a conversation in
which every sentence is to be rephrased.
Talking might be spontaneous which
results in mistakes, repetition,
sometimes less coherent sentences
where even grunts, stutters or pauses
might be meaningful.
The speaker usually knows the listener,
or listeners, which enables him to
adjust.
Written discourse
Writing develops in space in that it
needs a means to carry the information.
The readers are often unknown, as a
result he cannot adjust to readers'
specific expectations.
The writer is able to consider the
content of his work which makes it
more coherent, having complex syntax.
 Neat message organization, division
into paragraphs, layout are of vital
importance to make comprehension
easier.
 Texts might be read at different times
and places.
The organization of tables, formulas,
or charts can be portrayed only in
written form.
Spoken discourse
 As interlocutors are most often in face-to-face
encounters (unless using a phone) they take advantage
of extralinguistic signals as grimaces, gesticulation,
expressions such as 'here', 'now', or 'this' are used.
 Employment of nonsense vocabulary, slang and
contracted forms (we're, you've) is another feature of
oral discourse.
 Among other significant features of speech there are
rhythm, intonation, speed of uttering.
 What is more important, is the inability to conceal
mistakes made while speaking.
 An important feature of spoken discourse is turntaking.
Patterns in a text
 All types of discourse are structured and patterned
which are hierarchical in nature.
 Broadly speaking the following patterns occur in a
text/discourse:
 General –specific Patterns: the subject of the
sentences will be related to the topic and the pattern
moves from general to specific.
 Cause-Consequence Patterns: these relationships
imply that A causes B or vice versa. e.g use of because,
so, as a result, show this pattern.
 Instrument-Purpose Patterns: Ideas of purpose and
achievement are linked. Phrases like in order to show
reason or purpose of an activity.
Patterns in Discourse
 Problem-Solution Patterns: some texts need or have
gained solutions. They follow the following structure–
SITUATION --- PROBLEM--- SOLUTION---
EVALUATION
 Predictive Patterns: certain nouns called text nouns
refer to other parts of the text. E.g. situation, fact, move,
problem etc. they can also be used to predict what will
happen next in the text.
 Sets of Expectations: we have expectations of things
that we read/hear about, or that exist in certain
situations. We also have expectations about the order in
which we will find things. e.g. newspaper.
 Discourse analysis and related
disciplines
 The term `discourse analysis' has come to be
used with a wide range of meanings which cover
a wide range of activities.
 It is used to describe activities at the intersection
of disciplines as diverse as sociolinguistics,
psycholinguistics, philosophical linguistics and
computational linguistics, pragmatics.
 Scholars working centrally in these different
disciplines tend to concentrate on different
aspects of discourse.
 Discourse analysis
 D.A examines, not only the formal syntactic features of an utterance, the
semantic structure of its propositional content, the linguistic
presuppositions inherent in the lexical selection, the formal thematic
structure of the sentence, the mode of reference, the intonation and
structure of the sentence, the bundles of vocal paralinguistic features which
constitute 'voice quality' and other paralinguistic features, but also the
effect of the utterance of a message thus characterised, by a particular
speaker, to a particular hearer, before a particular audience, on a particular
occasion, in a particular genre, on a particular topic, choosing a particular
channel the effect of the utterance is investigated with respect to the
interactive structure holding between speaker/hearer the construction of
question/answer dyads, the exchange of turns, etc.) with respect to how the
propositional, and logical structure of the topic is developed, and with
respect to the performative intention of the speaker in producing the
utterance.
 Consequently the analysis of discourse is, necessarily the analysis of
language in use.