DISCOURSE

DISCOURSE ANALYSIS
FEATURES OF DISCOURSE

Muqaddas Hira Malik

 CONTENTS

* Introduction to Discourse
* Origin of Discourse
* Features of Discourse
* Discourse Analysis
 INTRODUCTION TO DISCOURSE
* Language is an instrument of
communication, of which expression is
discourse.
* A unit of language above or longer than a
sentence is called Discourse.
* Discourse is a connected speech or writing.
INTRO TO DISCOURSE CONTINUED…
* ‘‘ discourse is linguistic communication seen as
transaction between speaker and hearer, as an
interpersonal activity whose form is determined
by its social purpose’’.
Geoffery Leech
* Discourse is more than just language use.
* Discourse is a social Practice. It constitutes the
social; distinguished-knowledge, social relations,
and social identity.
EXAMPLES OF DISCOURSE…
Written Discourse

* Literature
* Reports
* Legal Texts
* Political Texts
* Newspapers
 Spoken Discourse

* Conversation
* Lectures
* Jokes
* Sermons
* Public Speeches
* Interviews
ORIGIN OF DISCOURSE

* The term “Discourse” came from Latin word

“Discursus” that means ‘conversation, speech’
and this term was further derived from ancient
Latin word “Discurrere” which means ‘to run
about’.
* The Latin term was first used in 14th century
* English term firstly used in 1559.
FEATURES OF DISCOURSE
 Cohesion – Cohesion means links and ties with in the
text. grammatical relationship between parts of a
sentence essential for its interpretation is called
cohesion.
 A piece of discourse is set to be Cohesive if its components
are bound together through linguistic and non-linguistic
features to form a unified whole.
 Those features are known as Cohesive devices or cohesive
ties:
• Substitution
• Ellipsis Grammatical Ties
• Reference
• Conjunction
• Lexical Cohesion Vocable Tie
FEATURES OF DISCOURSE CONTINUED…
 Coherence - the order of statements relates one another by
sense. It makes a Discourse meaningful.

 Example: Jane: You were late again this morning.

Ann: The construction of the bridge has not completed
yet, so, there was a traffic.
 The vocabulary used can aid coherence in several ways. Such as,
the topic being written or talked about may invite a certain
vocabulary, either technical words (Poetry criticism might
invite metaphor, simile, form, style etc) or simply words associated
with the topic (Summer might invite heat, holidays, sunshine,
roses etc).
 An inappropriate choice of vocabulary can disrupt the coherence,
whereas particularly well-chosen vocabulary can enhance it.
FEATURES OF DISCOURSE CONTINUED…
 Intentionality - the message has to be conveyed
deliberately and consciously; Intentionality concerns the
text or utterance producer's attitude and intentions.
 Acceptability - indicates that the communicative product
needs to be satisfactory in that the audience approves it;
Acceptability concerns the text receiver's attitude that
the text should constitute useful or relevant details or
information such that it is worth accepting.
 Informativeness - some new information has to be
included in the discourse; No matter how known or
predictable content may be, a discourse will always be
informative at least to a certain degree due to
unforeseen variability.
FEATURES OF DISCOURSE CONTINUED…

 Situationality – circumstances in which the remark is

made are important; situation in which the text is
presented provides the context which influences how
text receivers interpret the text.
 Intertextuality - reference to the world outside the
text or the interpreters' schemata;  If a text receiver
does not have prior knowledge of a relevant text,
communication may break down because the
understanding of the current text is obscured.
 E.g. ‘Myth of Electra’ and the Play
 DISCOURSE ANALYSIS
* The term discourse analysis was first employed by
Zelling Harris.
* He named it to be ‘a method for the analysis of the
connected speech or writing for continuing descriptive
linguistics beyond the limit of a single sentece at a time
and for correlating culture and language’ ( Harris 1952)
DISCOURSE ANALYSIS CONTINUED…

* Discourse analysis is the study of how stretches of

language used in communication assume meaning,
purpose and unity for their users.
* Discourse analysis is an attempt to discover linguistic
regularities in discourse using grammatical,
phonological and semantic criteria e.g. cohesion,
anaphora, inter sentence connectivity etc. It is an effort
to interpreter what the writer or speaker intended to
convey with in a sensitive social context.
DISCOURSE ANALYSIS CONTINUED…
* Discourse Analysis discusses not only about language
itself but also how it relates with society, culture, and
thought. It is use to describe activities in several
disciplines, such as linguistics, sociolinguistics and
psycholinguistics.
ANY QUESTIONS