UNIVERSIDAD AUTONOMA DE CHIAPAS

MARGARITO ESCALANTE CRUZ

DISCOURSE ANALYSIS
SIGNIFICANT ASPECTS AND MECHANISMS OF DISCOURSE
SUMMARY
PROFESSOR: OLGA LIDIA JIMENEZ GARCIA
SATURDAY JANUARY 22ND 2021
 SIGNIFICANT ASPECTS AND MECANISMS OF DISCOURSE
SUMMARY
Discourse is often related to spoken or oral language; however, text is now considered
as every type of statement which its purpose is to communicate and it must meet the
following aspects.
Cohesion, the relationship between text and syntax.
Coherence, the meaning of the text considering the pragmatic function.
Intentionality, the attitude and purpose of the message that has to be conveyed by the
speaker.
Acceptability, the satisfaction of the receiver in assessing the importance and
usefulness of the utterances.
Informativity, the new knowledge or information provided in the interaction.
Situationality, the circumstances in which the text is produced.
Intertextuality, the doer and receiver’s schemata so they link the utterances to group
text varieties.
Discourse analysis involves the study of text as any linguistic contents such as
expressions, words and sentences, then context as the environment where text occurs,
so we can say the terms text and discourse would mean the same, following this text
linguistics as a formal and experimental approach and discourse analysis as a
functional approach.
Discourse itself is very ambiguous, the language above the sentence whether oral or
written language such as in conversations or written texts, in addition it is
multidisciplinary because it involves many areas, including the new aim which considers
systems like gesture, dance, song, photography or clothing, what the connection is
between these systems of language.
The main three categories used to explain discourse and discourse analysis are:
Anything beyond the sentence.
Language use.
A broader range of social practice.
And two main approaches; the formal approach, the unit of language beyond the
sentence (text) and the functional approach, language use (context).
Some aspects of discourse are: relevance and choice, which relies in the importance of
the context and the choice where principles of cooperativeness and politeness play an
essential role to be competent in discourse, because of the conventions and the
interpretation of social life, conversational interaction as it evolves unless the utterances
are deliberately flouted for some purpose of one of the participants. These principles
help us understand to infer what is conveyed from the message, acting as a bridge
between text and context.
The co-operative principle, speakers normally apply four maxims.
Quality, true information is provided.
Quantity, only the necessary information is provided.
Relevance, importance of the information.
Manner, an effort to be clear and respectful as for the information provided.
The politeness principle follows these maxims.
Avoid imposing on others.
Give options for response.
Make the receiver feel good.
I think, we construct discourse from text to context, form to function, therefore the
receiver is able to elaborate coherent discourse from the message they receive and as
a result there is an interaction of information or knowledge, reasoning and language for
a proper understanding, the receiver or addressee must have enough knowledge of
language to know what to reply. If the principle of politeness is no followed, one as a
receiver must realize when the maxims are purposely floated and choose the most likely
meaning according to our expectations. A maxim for the politeness principle is always
avoid to be rude.
It is essential for language teachers to be aware of the aspects and mechanisms of
discourse because they are the ones who are supposed to provide the tools to students
to have discourse competence and be successful in any area, undoubtedly teachers
first have to become discourse competent by immersing themselves in the language,
the culture so they are able to convey reliable knowledge, at this point they will achieve
their goal in forming discourse competence in their students.