LANGUAGE AS A DISCOURSE

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- ‘Discourse’ is used to refer generally to’ an instance of spoken or written language

that has describable international relationships of form and meaning (e.., words,
structures, cohesion) that relate coherently to an external communicative function or
purpose and a given audience/interlocutor’ (Celce- Muricia & Olshtain, 2000,p.4).
- Chomskyan’s view of language:
+ as system that focused mainly on disconnected and decontextualized units of
phonology, syntax and semantics. to the speaker- hearer in social contexts
+ emphasis on grammar
- Halliday’s view of language:
+ as meaning potential,that is, as sets of options in meaning that are available
+ as a means of functioning in society. From a functional perspective, he sees
three mentafunctions or macrofunctions of language:
1. Ideational function: represents the individual’s meaning potential and
relates to the expression and experience of the concepts, processes,
and objects governing the physical and natural phenomena of the
world around.
2. interpersonal function: deals with the individual’s personal
relationships with people.
3. textual function: refers to the linguistics realizations of the ideational
and interpersonal functions enabling the individual to construct
coherent texts, spoken and written.
Example: as the child interacts with the language and language users, he or
she begins to understand the meaning potential within the language, and
develops a capacity to use it.
- Hymes’ view of language:
+ Competence is a mental structure of tacit knowledge possessed by
the idealized speaker- hearer ( Chomskyan), but for Hymes,it is that
plus the communicative ability to use a language in concrete
situations.
 Example: a normal child acquires knowledge of sentences not only as
grammatical but also as appropriate. He or she acquires competence as to
when to speak, when not, and as to what to talk about with whom, when,
where, and in what manner.--> In short, a child becomes able to accomplish a
repertoire of speech acts,to take part in speech events, and to evaluate their
accomplishment by others (Hymes, 1972)
+ Knowing a language is BOTH about the GRAMMATICAL rules and
COMMUNICATIVE use.
+ Factors: SPEAKING is the acronym of:

- AUSTIN’s view of language:

Every speech act has 3 components:
+ Locutionary act: the literal meaning of a meaningful utterance: It is cold.
+ Illocutionary act: the PURPOSE: to order. (based on various contexts, it can
be to urge, to suggest, to advise)
+ Perlocutionary act: the effect of the speech: someone will close the door for
you/ hug you