Discourse analysis:

- help us to understand how the societies in whichwe live are put

together and how they are maintained through our day-to-day
activities of speaking, writing and making use of other modes of
communication.
- understand how people interact and how they exert power and
influence.
- understand how people view reality differently
- is indirectly the study of romance, friendship, psychology,
politics, power, etc.
Discourse analysis: subfield of linguistics
What does discourse analysis study?
Discourse analysis study the ways sentences and utterances go
together to make texts and interactions and how those texts and
interactions fit into our social world.
So what will we learn in this Discourse Analysis course?
• A number of approaches to analyze written, vocal, or sign language
use, or any significant semiotic(ký hiệu) event.
- Discourse has different forms as discourse of advertising, discourse
of racism, discourse of medical, etc.
1.2.1. What is a text?
- A Text is an object that can be read, whether it is a work of
literature, a lesson written on the blackboard, or a street sign. It
transmits some kind of informative message.
- Discourse was interpreted as dialogue — an interaction between a
speaker and a listener.

Discourse = text + situation

Text = discourse -situation
  Discourse Analysis: focus on interviews, commentaries and
speeches.
 Text analysis focuses on essays, notices, road signs and
chapters.
The differences in text (analysis) and discourse (analysis)

Text written Discourse spoken

Text analysis investigates Discourse analysis analyzes

written spoken form
1.3. Discourse and context
Context refers to "the situation giving rise to the discourse, and within
which the discourse is embedded" (Nunan, 1993:7).
• "Context is the physical environment in which a word is used"
(Yule, 2000).
• Context is the environment in which a discourse occurs.
1.3.2. Classifications of context
A. Linguistic context
Linguistic context refers to the context within the discourse, which is,
the relationship between the words, phrases, sentences and even
paragraphs.
"bachelor"
"He is a bachelor."
=> without the linguistic context, we can't make clear the exact
meaning of this word.
- Linguistic context can be explored from three aspects: deictic, co-
text, and collocation.
B. Situational context
- Situational context, or context of situation, refers to the
environment, time and place, etc in which the discourse occurs, and
also the relationship between the participants.
=> These factors in the context help us to predict the language choices
we might make.
(Formal/Informal/technical/slang/...)
=> REGISTER: the style of language
- Situational context is traditionally approached through the concept
of REGISTER, which helps to clarify the interrelationship(môi quan
hệ qua lại) of language and context. (Register: field, mode, tenor)
The field of discourse describes activities and processes that are
happening at the time of speech
The mode of discourse describes the way the language is being used
in the speech interaction, including the medium( spoken, written,
written to be spoken, etc) as well as the rhetorical mode (expository,
instructive, persuative, etc)
Tenor of discourse describes the people that take part in an event as
well as their relationships and statues.
- The field refers to the content or subject matter.
- Analyze language of a distinct content (Kpop, Sport,..)
- The mode of discourse: the way the language is being used,
 the medium (spoken, written, written to be spoken, etc.)
 rhetorical mode (expository, instructive, persuasive, etc.).
 Tenor of discourse describes the people that take part in an event
as well as their relationships and statuses,
"Could you provide me with an update on the progress of the new
project?"
=> when the head of a business talks to an employee
Person A: Excuse me, do you have the time? B: Sure, it's 10 o'clock.
=> when a person asks an unknown pedestrian for the time.
C. Cultural Context
 Cultural context refers to the culture, customs and background
of epoch(thời đại) in which the speakers participate.
 Language is a social phenomenon, and it is closely tied up with
the social structure. Therefore, language cannot avoid being
influenced by all these factors like social role, social status, sex
and age, etc.
Female: "I totally understand how you feel. It must have been really
difficult for you. If you ever need to talk, I'm here for you."
=> Show sympathy, show support
Male: "Here's what you should do to fix the issue. You should call the
shopkeeper first..."
=> straightforward
1.3.3 The Role of context
A. Eliminating ambiguity
There are two kinds of ambiguities: lexical ambiguity and structural
ambiguity.
Lexical ambiguity
Lexical ambiguity is mostly caused by homonymy and polysemy (từ
đa nghĩa).

⚫ For example, these four words, right, rite, write and wright, are all
pronounced as /rait/, but they are quite different from each other.
B. Indicating referents
I, you, he, this, that, => Used to avoid repetition
do, can, should, etc. =>context is important to
then, there => understand
C. Detecting conversational implicature
conversational implicature => What a speaker can imply
• Grice (1989) the conversational meaning of words together with the
context, under the guidance of the Cooperative Principle and its four
maxims, i.e., Quantity, Quality, Relation and Manner.
Let look at the following example:

Wife: Shouldn't you help me do some housework?

Husband: I have worked for nine hours.
- Apparently, the husband's answer has nothing to do with the
wife's question => He violates the maxim of relevance.
- Actually, we must assume that the husband is adhering to the
Cooperative Principle and means something more than the
literal meaning.
- The additional meaning, namely, conversational implicature, is
that he has worked for a whole day, so he is too fired to help his
wife to do any housework.
Let look at the following example:
(The husband had just finished supper and wanted to watch TV,
leaving his wife alone to clear the table and wash dishes.)
Wife: Shouldn't you help me do some housework?
Husband: I have worked for nine hours.
(The boss of a restaurant gives two pennies to a temporary worker
who does washing for him.)
Boss: Here is your pay, boy!
Worker: I have worked for nine hours.
Does this utterances have the same conversational implicature?
The real conversational implicature of his utterance is that the boss
should have given him more pay since he had worked such a long
time.
We must pay attention to the changed context:
- the relationship of two speakers has changed from wife-husband
to boss-worker;
- the status has changed from equal to superior - inferior;
- the pre-linguistic context has changed from words for a request
of doing housework to that for an act of giving pay.
- The conversational implicature is changed as the context
changes.
1.4.1. The functions of language
Brown and Yule (1983) suggest that language has two main
functions: interactional and transactional. The interactional function is
concerned with the maintenance of social relationships - for example,
Two people pass in the street and say
A: Hi, all right?
B: Yeah, fine thanks.
=> the function of the exchange is purely interactional
• Transactional discourse, on the other hand, is concerned with the
transmission of information, If at the greengrocers I say
A: Two pounds of cherry tomatoes.
B: These ones, or the ones next to the potatoes?
A: The ones next to the potatoes
B: That's £5
=> To make sure the information is accurate
2.1. DISCOURSE COHESION
Cohesion: Ties and connections that hold paragraph together
"My father once bought a Lincoln Convertible. He did it by saving
every penny he could. That car would be worth a fortune nowadays"
"This morning, I went for a walk in the park. The weather was
beautiful. Everyone is enjoying the green space." => Not cohesive
2.1.1 grammatical cohesion
2.1.1.1 reference
Reference concerns the grammatical relations between a discourse
element and a preceding or following element.
Exophoric reference: requires the reader to infer the interpreted
referent by looking beyond the text in the immediate environment
shared by the reader and writer.
Endophotic reference: lies within the text ifself. Endophora is a term
that means an expression which refers to something intr-linguistics
i.e. in the same text.
- Anaphoric: reference is where a word or phrase refers back to
another word or phrase used earlier in the text.
- cataphoric: reference looks forward to another word or phrase
mentioned later in the text.
TYPES OF REFERENCE
A. Personal reference
Pronoun, possessive adjectives.
B. Demonstrative reference
- the adverbial demonstratives: here, there, now, then
- the selective nominal demonstratives: this, that, these, those.
C. Comparative reference
- General comparison: the same, a similar, a different, etc
- Particular comparison: more, less (quantity), bad, good(quality)
2.1.1.2. SUBSTITUTION
Ex: The flower seller cries, "Red flowers, red flowers, come and buy
ones and present her".
Here, ones substitutes for red flowers.
=> that maintains relations on the lexico - grammatical level of a
sentence or a sentence in a text
Reference
- semantic level
Ex: The cat chased the mouse. It was very fast.
Substitution
lexico - grammatical level
Ex: You think Joan already knows? I think everybody does.
TYPES OF SUBSTITUTION
 Since substitution is a grammatical relation, a relation in the
wording rather than in the meaning, the different types of
substitutions are defined grammatically rather than semantically.
 The criterion is the grammatical function of a substitute item.
 In English, the substitute may function as:
-a noun,
-a verb,
-a clause.
•To these corespond, there are three types of substitution:
A. Nominal substitution
B. Verbal substitution
C. Clausal substitution
A. Nominal substitution
  Nominal substitution means the replacement of a noun or a noun
phrase by a nominal substitute, i.e. -one/ ones, same.
 Nominal substitution functions either as the head of a nominal
group or as to presuppose an entire nominal group.
B.Verbal substitution
• The verbal substitution in English is 'do'. This operates as the head
of a verbal group, in the place that is occupied by the lexical verb; and
its position is always final in the group,

• Ex:
(a)...the words came the same as they used to do.
(b) 'I know the meaning of half those long words, and what's more, I
believe you do, too!"
• Here, the first do in (a) substitutes for come; that in (b) substitutes
for know the meaning of half those long words.
C. Clausal substitution
 There is one type of substitution in which what is presupposed is
not an element within the clause but an entire clause. The words
used as clausal substitutes are 'so' and 'not'.
 In clausal substitution, the entire clause is presupposed and the
contrasting element is outside the clause.
Ex: Is there going to be an earthquake? It says so.
 Here, the 'so' presupposes the whole of the clause 'there is going
to be an earthquake' and the contrastive environment is provided
by the 'says' which is outside it.
2.1.1.3 Ellipsis
Ellipsis is the omission of a word or part of a sentence. In certain
contexts it is possible to leave out a word or phrase rather than
repeating it.
 A. Nominal ellipsis
B. Verbal ellipsis.
C. Clausal ellipsis.
2.1.1.4 Conjuntion
Conjunction words are linking devices between sentences or clauses
in a text.
- Express logical-semantic
Four types of conjunction:
A. Additive (bổ sung): and, or, nor
B. Adversative (so sánh, trái ngược): but, however, in contrast,
whereas, etc.
C. Temporal (thời gian): finally, then, soon, at the same time,
before, after, as soon as, when, while, until, etc.
D. Causal (nguyên nhân kết quả): so, thus, therefore, because, etc.