How

How can
can discourse
discourse be
be
analysed?
analysed?
Universidad Juárez Autónoma de
Tabasco.
 Discourse
• A stretch of language consisting of several sentences which are perceived as
being related in some way.

What makes the sentences relate among themselves?

• The relationship can be found as a consequence of …

a) lexical cohesion
b) grammatical cohesion
c) macrostructures
 Cohesion
• It refers to relations of meaning that exist
within the texts, and that defines it as a
text.

•  It occurs where the interpretation of some

element in the discourse is dependent on
that of another. The one presupposes the
other, in the sense that it cannot be
effectively decoded except by recourse to it.
 Lexical cohesion
( relationship between the different
lexical elements in a text).
• 1. Repetition of words

• 2. Use of synonyms: having the same or nearly the same

meaning as another word.

• 3. The use of hyponyms: a relationship between two words in

which the meaning of one of the words includes the
meaning of the other word. For example animal
(superordinate) and dog (hyponym). What would be the
hyponyms of vehicle?
 Lexical cohesion
• 4. Collocations: The way in which words are
used together regularly (restrictions on how
to use words together). For example
perform collocates with operation but not
with discussion.

• The doctor performed the operation

• The committee performed a discussion.
Find the lexical cohesive devices in
the following paragraph:
Pigs.
A: Oh an one pig died A: It was marvellous. Erm
because it ate too much.
B: Oh, really?
A: Oh, it was revolting.
They were terrible, the
pigs.
C: Oh.
A: They made a dreadful
row in the morning when
it was feeding time and
one pig it was, erm a
young pig about that size
you know, middling and
erm it was dead and I
was lying there. I´d
never seen a dead pig
before. Absolutely stiff.
B: The children saw it, did
they?
A: Oh, they were engrossed
you know.
C: Oh yes.
they thought this was
wonderful and erm they
they asked why it was
dead and er the farmer
apparently didn´t want
his wife to know because
he´d overfed them
before and she´d been
furious and of course he
was trying to keep it
from her but all the kids
were agog about the
dead pig. And*** was
telling them not to tell
the farmer´s wife = =
 Model of cohesion proposed
by Halliday and Hasan (1976)
1. Direct repetition, eg. A pig  the pig

1. Use of a derived form, e.g. Smouldering

smoulders; deaddieddeath; ate eaten;

3.Use of a synonym, including a hyponym, e.g.

engroussedagogvery taken; children kids;

4. use of a superordinate, e.g.pig animal;

5.Use of an item from the same lexical set, e.g. Ate feeding
time  overfed.
• The net effect of these different ways of
repeating an item, along with the use of
referring pro-forms (e.g. It, they), makes the
pig text very cohesive.

• From the repeated vocabulary the combination

of two propositions lets the listener construct
an accurate schema for the story:

<one pig died because it ate too much>

<the children were engrosed>

 Grammatical cohesion
• Halliday and Hassan identified four
types of grammatical cohesion:
a) Conjunctions:
b) Substitutions
c) Ellipsis
d) Co-reference
 a) Conjuction.
a word that joins words, phrases or
clauses together, such as but, and,
when:

John and Mary went.

She sings, but I don’t.
Unless it rains, we’ll play tennis at four.
a) Conjunctions: Identify the conjuctions devices in the
following text . Then identify the function of the
conjunctions:

It is generally agreed that the earth’s capacity to

provide resources and to absorb wastes must be
finite. Furthermore, there is little argument but
that the earth as a whole is over-populated.
Hense, action is urgently needed. As to the
precise nature of that action, however, and how it
is to be arrived at, there is great disagreement.
In short, it is a prob¡em which at present has no
obvious solution.
 Conjuctions
• Furthermore: Signals an addition to a
previous element. (others are and,
also,morover, that is, alternatively)
• Hense: Causal. (other ones: thus,
consequently, therefore, it follows, for
this reason)
• However:Adversative. It signals a change
in direction. (yet, although, but,
nevertheless, instead, on the contrary)
b) Grammatical
substitution
Grammatical substitution
• Grammatical substitutions: Items
that commonly substitute for nouns
and noun phrases, verbs and verb
phrases and clauses: one(s), the
same, do/did, so, not.
 c) Ellipsis
The top priority for some countries is to tackle
unemployment, and for others inflation.

• The man went to the door and (he) opened it.

• Mary ate an apple and Jane (ate) a pear.

The leaving out of words or phrases from sentences

where they are unnecessary because they have
already been referred to or mentioned.
d) co-reference: What do each of the
following highlighted words refer to?
 co-reference
a) Anaphoric reference: When it is necessary to look back to
identify the information that is being refered to. (ex it in
line 2).

b) Cataphoric reference: when it is necessary to look forward

to identify the information that is being refered to. (e.g.
its in line 4).
This kind of reference can be found with words such as :
Then (in the example: 1969), deictic items (this,these,
those,that), such, likewise, same, object pronouns
Article the
 What happens if the cohesive devices are
removed and only a few lexical and
grammatical devices are left?

It is generally agreed that the earth’s capacity to provide

resources and to absorb wastes must be finite. There
is little argument but that the earth as a whole is over-
populated. Action is urgently needed. As to the
precise nature of that action, and how it is to be
arrived at, there is great disagreement. It is a
problem which at present has no obvious solution.

?
 What are the implications
about cohesion for teaching or
translation?
• It is important for the learners to understand that
utterances or sentences are connected with the previous
and subsequent ones creating a whole.
• By being aware of this and trying to apply it, students are
explected to produce a continuous discourse.

• The understanding of cohesion is important to plan the

teaching and practice material that gives students the
opportunity to produce extended and continuos discourse.
 Text 1 answers
Text 1
LEXICAL REPETITION
HOSPITAL: hospital, hospital;
cleaning, clean
INDIRECT REPETITION
e.g the use of synonyms:
VISITS…inspectioning,
using…operate, approval…acclaim
And of more general terms;
hospital… the place.
Lexical sets:
Hospital…health,,,casualty…
doctor; minister…officials
Tense agreement:
First paragraph narrated in past
tense
 
Pronoun reference:
The minister…his appointment…
he went about
 
 
Article reference.
Safdarjang Hospital…the
hospital…the place
Text 2 answers
Lexical sets Phone…messages…callers…
communications; piece of cake…easy
as pie… half baked
Tenses  
agreement All verbs are in the present

Pronoun Using it…the MT 20…controlling it…the

reference: MT20… it has all the fuctions…they
make
 
Substitution: Pick one up
 
 Ellipsis: Several (functions) you wouldn’t
  (expect), you’d have to be half baked
not to (pick one up)

Conjuctions And, no wonder

 Coherence
• The relationship which links the
meanings of utterances in a discourse
or the sentences in a text through
the context. The context deals with
the cultural or social relationships
among the participants.
• The area of linguistics that studies
the language in context is pragmatics.
 Background knowledge
• The information we understand of something that
depends on our past experiences and learning.(stored in
schemata, frames, scenarios)

• Look at the following sentences. Where do they come from?

1. This is an asnwering machine. When you hear the tone, leave

your message.
2. We went to the cinema, but there were no tickets left. So
we booked for the next matinee.
3. Your attention please. Lufthansa announces the departure
of Flight 675 to New York.
What to study about the context
• Social context
• Speech acts
• Conversational implicature (Grice
Maximes).
• Reference
• Presupposition
• Discourse markers
 Discourse Analysis
• It studies how people use language in a variety of
discourses (conversation, interview, spoken
commentaries, political speeches, teaching, etc.
This kind of analysis involves the investigation of
what people are trying to accomplish with their
words and with the overal patterns that can be
found in discourse using as a tool cohesion and
coherence study.
 Medium
• Crystal and Davy (1969) use the term
medium for the perception that speech
(phonic) and writing (graphic) are
different events.

• However, at times our talk may seem like

someone writing and what we write may at
times seem closer to the way we talk.
 Complex medium
• written messages that are meant to
be delivered as speech. It needs to
be accompanied by an independent
level of choice (mode).
 Mode
• It refers to the choices that the sender makes as to
whether features usually associated with speech or writing
shall be included in the message, regardless of the medium
in which it is transmitted.

• Example: a speech (oral but similar to written) academic

characteristics (carefully planned, structured language,
impersonal grammatical forms).

• It takes into account: aspects of language form, lexical

expressions, genre.
 Activity
Study the following conversation, which has been taken
from Chrstie (1989,51‫ )׃‬and see if you can work out what
it is about.

1m
J: Oh, this is beautiful!
R: Oh, yes, that’s right.
J: Is that how you …you wanted it hard boiled, didn’t you?
R: Yes, that’s what I call hard.
J: Well, do you want to have this one?
R: No, you have that one, ‘cause this one must be harder, mustn’t it?
J: Doesn’t necessarily follow.
F: Yes, surely it…is you’re right…it doesn’t.
J: Depends which one went in first.
R: Yes, you’re right, well look, in a minute we’ll know.
•  
Now consider a written account of the conversation.
As you do, make a note of the differences
between the two extracts.

• Fran, Jum and Ros went away together one Easter holiday weekend.
They spent the first night in a holiday cabin they had rented. In
the morning, having slept well they got up an prepared breakfast in
the tiny kitchen.
•  
• Ros and Jim both decided to have a boiled egg, while Fran, who
didn’t like eggs, settled simply for a toasted Easter bun and coffee.
The breakfast preparations proceeded very cordially, thought some
confusion was caused by the fact that Ros placed the two eggs in
the boiling water at different times. Subsequently, she was not
able to tell which egg had been in the water longer, though she
particularly wanted a hard-boiled egg herself.
•  
 Differences between
written and oral discourse
written Oral

Grammar

Lexical density

situation
 Differences…
Oral Written
- Repetitions are more frequent - Less frequent repetitions
- More frequent conversational -Less frequent conversational
turns turns
- Temporary - Permanent
-Spontaneous mental organization - Elaborated mental organization
-Immediate checking -several non- immediate checking

-Makes sense through situational -Logical and semantic organization

and interactional context.
- More lexical selection
-Less lexical density
References on the topic:
• Cook, G. • Cook pg. 59-67
((1989)Discourse.O (2.1)
xford: Oxford
University Press. .
PP.3 -13.

• oMcCarthy and
Carter 1.4. pp. 3-10