Criteria for Identifying Discourse According to Bell R. 1. 991; 163 171). there are can help to identify a discourse, They are also the seven inherent features of ven criteria that adiscourse (i) cohesion How do the clauses hold together? (ii) coherence. How do the propositions hold together? (iii) imemionality: Why did the speaker / writer produce this? tiv) acceptability How does the reader take it? (1) informativity: What does it tell us? (vi) relevance: What is the text for? Wii) intertextuality: What other texts does this one resemble? (i) Cohesion operates on the basis of formal surface structures (syntax and lexis) to interact with underlying semantic relations or underlying ‘The major ways of creating functional coherence to create textual unity. cohesive relationships will be discussed in Chapter 3 of this book. The sentences in extract 2 are syntactically and lexically related through the underlined words and the lexical chain on the basis of semantic relations. Extract 2: Only five hundred years ago, the oceans were the limits of people's knowledge of the world in which they lived. They were afraid to s the wcem because no one knew what might be waiting for them U shore was the edge of the world, many people believed (0). The navigators who began to break through this darkness stayed the cousts as they discovered the shape of Africa, Then in I. Columbus sailed directly across the Atlantic. He th India, but he hed really discovered the fa the unknown seas until those lands had become fa 4 Scanned with CamScannerGrammatically, there are cases in which words are referred to or omitted, ‘ally ie some key words are repeated and a lexical chain also exists through the extract (oceans - sail - shore = navigators ~ coust - continents « islands ~ seas). In the example below. however, despite the seemingly related sentences via the repetitions of lexical items. the extract lacks cohesion due to the fact that the sentences are not semantically related, Extract 4: Cain boi mor minh wong dém, Dém téi hung khong nhin ro mat dwong. Tren con duéng dy, chié lan banh rdi ém. Khung cwa xe phia cb géi ngdi ling day bong twang. Trang bing bénh néi lén qua day Pi Hing. Day mii nay c6 anh huecng quyét dinh 16i gid mia dong bec nude ta. Nuée ta bay git: cua ta rdi, cuge dai da bét ddu hing sang. (Trin Ngoc Thém, 1999) (ii) Coherence is concerned with the logical sequencing of the concepts and relations of the textual world which underlie and are rea surface text. . ized by the ‘he following texts are not coherent because they are illogical sequences ~ Thad a cup of coffee. 1 got up. Lwoke up - Yesterday 1 got up very early. 1 had my breakfast, br shed my teeth and washed my face. Then I went (o the university and did morning exereises (Van H.V., 2006) Regarding the relationship between cohesion and coherence, Carthy M. (1993) believes that the former is only a guide to the latter. Coherence is something created by the reader in the act of reading the text. It is the {ecling that a text hangs together, that it makes sense and that it is not just a Jumble of sentence: is . For example, whether the reader feels the below te Coherent or not depends on whether he/she knows that Irish people love potatoes, 15 Scanned with CamScannerCare loves potatoes. She was born in Ireland. ext may not have cohesion, but it must be coherent, as shown jn th xt may . Al following example: ‘Ae Can you go to Edinburg tomorrow? or B: BEA pilots are on strike. A: Let's go out for a walk B: It's raining. Intentionality and (iv) acceptability: A text must be intended to be (i and accepted as such in order to be utilized in communicative a ten imeraction. A communicative interaction is established on the basis of exchange of either information or goods-and-services. The participants play the role of either ‘giving’ or “demandin; Giving + goods-and-services (OFFER) Giving + information (STATEMENT) Demanding + goods-and-services (COMMAND) Demanding + information (QUESTION). ‘The producer of the text must intend to contribute towards one of the four goals: statement, question, offer and command/request and be accepted as such by the the receiver. It can be seen that intentionality is producer-oriented, whereas acceptability is receiver-oriented. If there is a mismatch between intentionality and acceptability, then communication will collapse and, therefore, there will be no discourse. (v) Informativity is a measure of the information of a text, Informativity depends on the notions of choice and probability. ACTIVITIES: Complete the following sentence with ONE word or phrase and compare your choice with the other students’ in terms of informativity. 16 ie Scanned with CamScannerGirls are A text is seen as the realization of choices, made from among sets of options. ‘There are, at cach point where a choice can be made, actual choices which are more or less probable. ‘The less probable and predictable a choice is. the more informative and interesting it is. On the contrary, choices which are wholly predictable are uninformative and uninteresting. (Bell R. T.. 1991: 167 - 168). According to Bell R. T. (1991: 169 - 170). there are three levels of informativity: (i) First order: this level is always present in a text and is typified by choices which are obligatory or almost so; function words are a good example, (ii) Second order: this level represents the middle ground between first and third and arises when first-order expectations are not fulfilled i.e. where unexpected but not unlikely choices are made, Coffee and tea are (popular drinks). (iii) Third order: this level is attained by choices which fall outside the expected set of options and is typified by discontinuities, where information appears to have been omitted, and/or discrepancies, where what is being represented in the text fails to match with our knowledge; i.c. there is a mismatch between the text-world and the real world. e.g. Girls are __ (poisonous) ACTIVITIES: Make comments on the following extracts concerning their informativity. The intended reader of extract I is a ten-year-old school child, and the intended reader of extract 2 is a fourth-year student of English. Extract 1: Attack on British Council compound in Kabul kills nine Gunmen have stormed the British Council office in the Afghan capital, Kabul, killing at least nine people and taking over the compound for hours. WwW Scanned with CamScannerb destroyed the compound wall and a number of fe car bomb des! the way inside. J lasts, the UK's ambassador in Kabul \ suicidl r heavily armed men Forced elt After several hours of gunfire ane said all the gunmen had been Killed: n said the attack marked ¢ independence from the UK in 1919. he anniversary of Alighanistan's the Valibar a foreign sccurity official - At least eight Afghan policemen and @ foreign security offical eon cial services soldier - were Killed, Afghan reportedly a New Zealand spe' authorities said. : UK Prime Minister David Cameron condemned the "cowardly attack", had spoken to New Zealand Prime Minister John Key to thank s had played in defending the saying he him for the role the country's special force compound. Extract 2: The bait is on the floor. It is a red ball. It isa rubber ball. The baby looks ew the ball. The cat looks at the ball, The cat is white, The cat walks over to the ball. The cat hits the ball with its paw, The ball rolls on the floor. The aby smiles {t can be seen from the above activities that too much information makes the text unreadable, while the text with too little information is not worth reading at all. 18 Scanned with CamScanner(vi) Relevance (or situationality) refers to the relationship between the communicative purpose ofa text and the situation in which the text occurs, ‘The same text may have different communicative purposes in different situations. For example, the text: CHINESE TAKEWAY FOOD is a headline if found in Newspaper above an item of news. but a sign if seen outside a shop. (vii) Intertextuali y refers to the relationship between a particular text and other texts which share characteristics with it. A good knowledge of a particular genre (i.¢. text type) will enable the reader to understand new texts of that genre, ACTIVITIES: Explain what the text below means if it is (i) a political slogan and (ii) a traffic sign. STOP CHILDREN CROSSING (i) a political slogan: {t should be noted from the activity above that the same text may have different communicative meanings if it belongs to different genres. ‘The text above means children are not allowed to cross the road if it is a political slogan. but it means all the traffic must stop because the children are crossing the road if it is a traffic sign. 1.4. Spoken vs Written Language In Van H. V. (2006), written language and spoken language differ in three aspeets, namely grammar, lexical density and situation. 19 Scanned with CamScanner