English: A Linguistic Toolkit

Chapters 17-21

Discourse
Chapter 17: Taking Turns

Whereas the study of grammar focuses on how words are put together in
sentences to create meaning, the study of discourse takes a different
approach, by looking at the way language is used within a social context.
Analysing discourse involves looking beyond words and sentences to how
these are used to communicate, for example within conversation.
In this chapter, you’ll explore how people organise talk through turntaking.
You’ll look at how turns are managed, what people are expected to say
when they take a turn, and how casual conversation differs from more
formal exchanges.
Transition relevance places

The key to turn-taking in conversation is that when we listen

we’re not just passively taking in what the speaker says but
are actively predicting where the next possible opening will
come. This occurs whenever the speaker reaches a point at
which it’s possible to complete a turn, which may be at the
end of a word, a phrase, a clause, or a sentence. These
possible openings are known as transition relevance places
(Sacks, Schegloff and Jefferson, 1974), often abbreviated to
TRPs.
TRPs occur when the structure is complete.
Pauses within incomplete structures are not TRPs.
The rules for turn-taking at TRPs seem to operate as follows:
• The current speaker may nominate the next speaker (e.g. by
saying ‘Hey Kim, what do you think?’), and in that case the
person selected has both the right and the obligation to speak.
• If nobody is nominated, then any speaker may take a turn. If
more than one speaker tries to come in, the first person to
start gets the turn.
• If neither of these happens, the current speaker may continue
if they wish.
Backchannel responses

Sometimes listeners respond at TRPs not by trying to take a

turn, but by encouraging and supporting the speaker’s turn for
example by saying ‘yeah’ at TRPs and this doesn’t interrupt
the speaker’s turn, who continues speaking.
This is known as backchannel behaviour or backchannel
responses and shouldn’t be mistaken for interruption.
Backchannel behaviour includes expressions like yeah, or
uhuh, or perhaps more emphatic phrases which show empathy
with the speaker, such as wow or oh how sad.
Adjacency pairs

Conversation is structured not only by rules about turn-taking,

but also by expectations about what’s said.
When you take a turn, you’re expected to respond
appropriately to what has gone before. In some cases, the
previous utterance puts tight limits on what can be said next.
For example, if someone says ‘hello’ to you, you’re expected
to respond with a greeting, and if someone makes an offer,
you’re expected either to accept or reject the offer. An
exchange of this kind is called an adjacency pair.
Initiation, response, feedback

The two-part structure exemplified by adjacency pairs can be

seen in many formal conversations, as well as informal ones.
A police interview or a doctor–patient consultation, for
example, is likely to consist of a chain of question-and-answer
exchanges. However, this two-part structure isn’t typical of all
our conversati
So instead of the two-part exchange typical of casual
conversation, there’s a three-part structure, initiation,
response, feedback (IRF). (See next slide)
Initiation, response, feedback (IRF)
Chapter 18: Doing things with words

when we speak, we’re not

simply producing sounds to
convey meanings – we’re also
doing something, such as
making a request, or proposing a
candidate, or apologising, or
insulting someone. The study of
how utterances take on meanings
for their users in context is
known as pragmatics.
Speech acts

The actions that we perform by uttering something are called

speech acts (Austin, 1962).
Examples:
• I said ‘I’m sorry’. (I apologised.)
• She said ‘Okay, I’ll help out’. (She agreed to help out.)
• They said ‘Please sit down’. (They invited me to sit down.)
• They said ‘Don’t use your real name online’. (They advised/
warned me not to use my real name online.)
Speech Acts (Direct vs Indirect)

A direct speech act, in which the form and the function of

the utterance correspond.
In some of these cases, the speech act announces itself; if you
say ‘I’m sorry’ then you’re apologising, and if you say ‘I
refuse’ then you’re refusing.
Other speech acts can be interpreted directly, according to the
literal meaning of the utterance. For example, if a visitor on
your doorstep says ‘May I come in?’ they’re directly
performing the speech act of asking for permission. The modal
verb may carries the meaning of permission, and the
grammatical structure creates a question
Speech Acts (Direct vs Indirect)

Often, however, we perform speech acts indirectly, with words

and structures that don’t obviously mean what they say. Searle
(1975) called these indirect speech acts. Have a look at the
example below:
A: Have you tidied your room yet?
B: I have to finish my homework. (Explanation)

‘Is anybody thirsty?’ (e.g. offering a drink)

Grice’s maxims

A conversation will only be coherent if the participants are

able to work out what speech acts are being performed, and
how they make sense within the context. When this goes
wrong, a conversation will be incoherent, even if the
individual utterances are grammatically correct.
The fact that we’re able to have coherent conversations
suggests a high degree of cooperation between participants.
Grice (1975) called this the cooperative principle and
suggested that there are four key maxims which govern the
way that participants cooperate in conversation:
Grice’s maxims

These maxims can be regarded as guidelines for successful conversation.

• The maxim of quantity: be informative (don’t give too much or too
little information).
• The maxim of quality: be honest (don’t say things unless you know they
are true).
• The maxim of relation: be relevant.
• The maxim of manner: be clear.
These maxims can be regarded as guidelines for successful conversation.
For example, if you ask someone if they know what the
time is and they respond with ‘It’s half past four’, you can reasonably
assume that they’re not misleading you (maxim of quality).
In practice, the maxims aren’t always followed: speakers often violate
them, either deliberately or unintentionally.
Grice’s maxims

Exercise:
For each expression below, think about which maxim the
speaker might be about to break:
1 By the way ...
2 It’s a long story ...
3 Well, it’s only a rumour, but ...
4 I have to get a bit technical here ...
Grice’s maxims

Exercise:
For each expression below, think about which maxim the
speaker might be about to break:
1 By the way ... (relation)
2 It’s a long story ... (quantity)
3 Well, it’s only a rumour, but ... (quality)
4 I have to get a bit technical here ... (manner)
Grice’s maxims

When the cooperative principle is broken in such an intentional

and obvious way, Grice called this flouting a maxim, and this
can act as a signal to the listener that what’s being said isn’t to be
taken literally. This is different to violating a maxim, because
when a maxim is flouted the speaker expects the listener to
notice.
Grice’s maxims

Conversational maxims are based on the idea that listeners use inference to
make sense of what’s said; that is, listeners can infer meaning or ‘read
between the lines’, and doing this involves more than just decoding lexis
and grammar.
A: Have you tidied your room yet?
B: I have to finish my homework.
Speaker B doesn’t directly answer Speaker A’s question, but we can
infer the intended meaning using our (unconscious) awareness of
Grice’s maxims.
Following the maxim of quantity, we assume B’s response is
informative (i.e. that there’s a relationship between having homework to
finish and not yet tidying their bedroom) and from the maxim of
relation, we assume that B’s response is relevant (i.e. that B has been
spending the available time on homework rather than on room-tidying).
Cross-cultural talk and politeness

A: Would you like some coffee?

B: Thank you.
[A pours out a cup of coffee for B]
B: Sorry, I don’t drink coffee.
In many English-speaking cultures, the utterance Thank you
would be interpreted as an acceptance of A’s offer of coffee,
but B comes from Iran, where Thank you said in this context
would constitute a polite refusal, not an acceptance.
Cross-cultural talk and politeness

We all tend to take our own cultural practices as the norm and forget that
they’re not necessarily universal. British culture, for example, favours
multiple expressions of gratitude within a service encounter, giving rise to
dialogues such as this:
A: Herald please.
B: Here you are. [hands over newspaper] That’s £2.50.
A: Thanks. [hands over five pound note]
B: Thanks. [hands over change]
A: Thank you. Goodbye.
B: Goodbye. Thanks.
In other cultures, so much thanking may be seen as inappropriate,
creating an impression of insincerity rather than gratitude. Cross-cultural
miscommunication often involve different views of what counts as polite
behaviour.
Cross-cultural talk and politeness

Politeness theory says that being polite is an attempt to save

someone’s face, perhaps by trying to avoid embarrassment or
discomfort for them.
Brown and Levinson (1987) claim that there are two contrasting
aspects of face – positive face and negative face. Positive face
relates to our need to be approved of by others and negative face
relates to our need for independence.
If we do or say something that potentially interferes with these face
wants, this is a face-threatening act (FTA).
Politeness strategies can also be positive or negative: positive
politeness involves establishing solidarity and making the person
feel liked or admired, while negative politeness involves showing
deference and making sure that the person doesn’t feel imposed on.
Cross-cultural talk and politeness

Politeness strategies can be used to lessen the impact of an

FTA.
For example, when a child wants a carer to get them a drink,
they may be encouraged to include please as a negative
politeness strategy to soften the FTA, and carers may use
terms of endearment such as sweetie or buddy as a positive
politeness strategy with children.
Chapter 19: Making text

Coherence and cohesion

Cohesive Devices:
1. Reference
2. Substitution
3. Ellipsis
4. Discourse markers
Coherence and cohesion

• The way that ideas in a text relate to each other and to our
knowledge of the world is known as coherence.
• The way that words in a text link together is known as cohesion.
Cohesive Devices

1. Reference
One of the most common cohesive devices is reference.
Reference items are items in a text which cannot be
interpreted on their own, but only through reference to
something else. Here’s an example. Referent
A: Where’s the headteacher’s office?
B: It’s just at the end of the corridor, down there.

References can be described as endophoric (referring to

something that’s within the text) or exophoric (referring to
things outside the text).
1. Reference

Endophoric references make a text more cohesive, whereas

exophoric references tend to result in a briefer text, but one
that’s more reliant on its full context. Examples:
1. Reference

Endophoric references make a text more cohesive (Example

1), whereas exophoric references tend to result in a briefer
text (Example 2), but one that’s more reliant on its full
context.
Endophoric References (anaphoric vs cataphoric)

What does ‘it’ refer to in each of the utterances below?

1. She lent me her pencil, but I’ve lost ‘it’.
2. If you’re finished with ‘it’, can you put your ruler away.
A reference inside the text usually points back to something
that has already been mentioned; this is known as anaphoric
reference. (1)
Sometimes, though, a reference item points forward to
something which is mentioned later; this is known as
cataphoric reference. (2)
2. Substitution

Substitution is a type of cohesive device which is similar to

reference but operates at a grammatical level by replacing
parts of a sentence – sometimes quite substantial parts – with
a substitute word or words. Example:
A: This stapler’s useless. (referent)
B1: Why don’t you throw it away? (reference, anaphor)
B2: Why don’t you buy a new one? (substitution)
Substitution items are used to avoid repetition by replacing
words that occur in a previous part of the text with a
replacement or substitution item such as one, whereas
reference items refer to something or someone mentioned in
the text (or present in the context).
2. Substitution

In the dialogue below, the words in bold all involve repetition.

Can you suggest a shorter word or phrase as a substitute in
each case?
A: Excuse me, could you tell me the time of the next bus to
campus?
B: The next bus to campus is at 2.30, getting in at 2.55. Do
you have a lecture to get to?
A: Yes, I have a lecture to get to. Would I have enough time
to walk to the main lecture hall for 3pm?
B: Yes, I think you would have enough time to walk to the
main lecture hall for 3pm.
2. Substitution

In the dialogue below, the words in bold all involve repetition.

Can you suggest a shorter word or phrase as a substitute in
each case?

A: Excuse me, could you tell me the time of the next bus to
campus?
B: The next one is at 2.30, getting in at 2.55. Do you have a
lecture to get to?
A: Yes, I do. Would I have enough time to walk to the main
lecture hall for 3pm?
B: Yes, I think so.
3. Ellipsis

Cohesive devices like substitution allow us to economise in

speaking. An even briefer way to achieve the same goal is by
simply omitting superfluous words that you think listeners can
work out for themselves.
Example:
A: ‘How long do your Spanish lessons last?’
B: ‘An hour.’

This kind of omission is known as ellipsis.

3. Ellipsis

Can you see which words have been ellipted in the responses below?
1. A: Do you need any more chairs?
B: Yes, three more.
2. A: Are you interested in taking A Level History?
B: I might be.
3. A: What have you been doing?
B: Working out in the gym.
4. A: I don’t know how to reference a website.
B: I’ll show you how.
5. A: Can I have one of these biscuits?
B: If you like.
4. Discourse markers

With reference, substitution and ellipsis, the speaker or writer

makes a judgement that the listener or reader will be able to
supply the necessary information from their understanding of
the context.
Discourse markers constitute another type of cohesive
devices that give additional information to the listener or
reader. Examples:
4. Discourse markers

Types of discourse markers:

Conjunctions (and, or, so, but)
Adverbials (Consequently, afterwards, funnily enough)
Prepositional phrases (in conclusion, for example, in other words)
Discourse markers – aka sentence connectors – indicate a range of
relationships between stretches of text, including addition,
consequence, reformulation, contrast and exemplification. They link
one clause or sentence to another, but they may also be used to link
groups of sentences, paragraphs, or even whole chapters.
The vast majority of our spoken and written communication is
peppered with examples of reference, substitution, ellipsis and
conjunction. They act as the glue that holds a text together, making
it sound like a unified whole rather than just a list of sentences.
4. Discourse markers

p.
167
Chapter 20: Language in context

The study of discourse looks at the way language is used within a social
context. In discourse analysis we use context to mean the external situation
in which language takes place.
A text often points to the external context through, for example, use of
exophoric expressions such as this and there.
Meaning of words is influenced by the surrounding (linguistic) words (i.e.
co-text).
Meaning is also shaped by the social context. The key aspects of the social
context that have a major effect on texts and are used by linguists to
characterise discourse are:
1. Participants
2. Setting
3. Genre
4. Register
Text and co-text

Most of the language we use in real life doesn’t come as isolated

sentences, but as part of a longer communication.
The term text is used by linguists to describe such a stretch of
language.
A text refers to any piece of language, whether spoken or
written, which forms a unified whole. It may be of any length
(e.g. a passage, a report, a novel)
When a word has more than one possible meaning, we use our
understanding of what’s relevant to the communication to help
us infer which one is correct. One source of relevant information
to understand meaning is the language that surrounds or
accompanies the word in question: this is known as the co-text.
Text and co-text

Words on their own can often be ambiguous. Without any

contextual information, you may not know the intended
meaning of the word. Examples:
bark pupil
When you view these words along with some co-text, the
intended meaning becomes clear:
That dog has a loud bark!
Which pupil needs extra help with their assignment?
Text and co-text

Co-text can be very important in helping us understand the

intended meaning of words. But it also helps us understand the
meaning of whole texts.
Context

Co-text is often contrasted with context, and you’ll now look

at four key aspects of context that play a part in shaping texts
and guiding how we interpret them. These are the participants,
the setting, the genre, and the register.
Participants

Language use varies according to the participants involved:

who they are, what their status is and how they’re related. For
example, a sentence like
I can’t believe you managed to tie your own shoelaces!
would probably be a compliment if uttered to a toddler, but an
insult if uttered to a colleague at work.
What’s appropriate for one person wouldn’t necessarily be
appropriate for another. In the cartoon, the line What did I just
tell you?!? is exactly what a parent might be expected to say to
a naughty child, but could be highly inappropriate if spoken to
a supervisor in the workplace.
Setting

Language is also influenced by the setting in which it occurs, both the time
and the place.
Saying ‘good morning’ would be coherent at ten in the morning, but nonsense
at ten in the evening.
Consider how partners might talk to each other when in their own home, and
when in a family court.
How might you greet a new acquaintance differently in a social setting or in
the workplace?
The setting can affect not only the kind of language we use, but also the kind
of language activities that we can carry out.
For example, it’s appropriate to give a lecture in a college, but not in a
supermarket.
Written texts also need to be appropriate to their setting; for example, an
advertisement in a local shop window might be worded differently from that in
a national newspaper. Y
Genre

Genre in linguistics is a way of classifying texts that are seen

as similar in terms of formal characteristics (e.g. choice of
lexis) which emerge and become established through repeated
use.
For example, you probably recognised the following as part
of the cartoon genre.
Genre

The following are examples of business cards; these may have

differences, but they’re all produced to fulfil the same social
action through writing (to quickly share contact details) and
they all present similar information in a similar format.
Genre

An important factor of genre is that it involves language

placed in its cultural context. The genres used in one society
aren’t necessarily the same as those used in another.
Western culture, for example, doesn’t have any genre that
corresponds to the hadith of Muslim culture, which are
accounts of words or actions attributed to the Prophet
Muhammad (PBUH).
Even when different cultures appear to share the same genre,
they may not share the same conventions; a business meeting
in Amsterdam, for example, may be quite different from one in
Mumbai.
Register

Register and genre are closely related; genre is used to classify

texts according to their conventions and purpose, and register
is used to examine the variety or style of language used. So
while genre is used to group texts together, we can use register
to examine the language used by these texts. Texts from the
same genre will probably use similar registers.
According to Halliday (2014), register involves three main
aspects:
• the field: the area of human activity the communication
relates to
• the mode: whether it’s written or spoken
• the tenor: the level of formality.
Register

Consider the following utterance:

quick question: are offsite colleagues using an SSL or IPSEC
VPN? Thx
This was a message sent by an ICT support technician using a workplace
chat client.
The field of this utterance is technology (SSL, IPSEC and VPN are all
abbreviations commonly used in their workplace).
The mode is written.
The tenor is fairly informal, as you can tell from the opening with quick
question rather than something more formal such as Good afternoon. I
would be grateful for an answer to the following quick question. In this
particular workplace, such formality would be inappropriate, just as being
too casual or using digital forms such as thx would be inappropriate in a
formal letter.
Register

Table 2 Examples of different registers (p. 177)

Chapter 21 Beyond words

Speakers and writers have a range of different resources at their disposal,

including:
• gesture and volume (when speaking)
• altering the spelling of words for creative effect
• changing the size
• font or colour of texts (when producing printed writing).
A great deal of our communication is non-verbal or non-linguistic; this includes
any resources apart from our words that convey socially shared meanings.
Since non-verbal communication (NVC) is a social code, the way we use it
varies from one society to another, and as a result there are cross-cultural
differences in non-verbal as well as verbal communication.
Are sign languages considered non-verbal communication?
Sign languages (such as British Sign Language or BSL) are language, and
include vocabulary and grammar just as English does.
Beyond words

Some forms of non-verbal communication have no direct

relationship to language.
For example, within our own society we’re able to interpret
the significance of other people’s clothing and hairstyles;
using these features, you’ve probably already drawn some
ideas about the gender, social class and professional status of
the people.
On the other hand, there are also non-verbal behaviours that
occur together with language – such as:
• the facial expressions,
• gestures and tone of voice that accompany speech, and
• the visual elements that accompany written words.
Non-verbal communication in speaking

One aspect of non-verbal communication is voice quality.

We can speak loudly or quietly, shout or whisper, use a breathy or a
creaky voice, drawl or clip our vowels, and so on.
Example: You’re a good friend
This sentence can be delivered in either a sincere or sarcastic tone of
voice, resulting in completely different meanings.
Variation of this sort often reflects our emotions, but we can also
use it to mark different types of information, for example to
distinguish other people’s voices from our own, or parenthetical
comments (asides) from main points, or what’s definite from what’s
dubious.
Voice quality also provides information about the speaker’s age, sex
and origin.
Non-verbal communication in speaking

Other forms of NVC using voice include sighs, gasps, moans,

groans and even coughs. You may clear your throat to signal
that you’re about to start speaking, or make a hmm noise to
indicate that you’re thinking.
Cultural variation also affects the way we position ourselves in
relation to other people, so as to maintain our ‘personal space’
under different circumstances. How close we stand to others
sends a message about how we perceive the situation, and
standing too close or too far can make them feel very
uncomfortable.
Non-verbal communication in speaking

In addition to voice quality and positioning, bodily movements make

up a large part of our non-verbal communication. Some gestures have a
linguistic equivalent, such as
tapping a watch to indicate Time’s up
putting a finger to your lips to indicate Be quiet.
These gestures are particularly likely to vary from one society to
another, leading to potential misunderstandings.
In the UK, nodding the head means yes,
shaking it means no,
In Greece and Turkey, nodding the head means no
In India shaking it means yes in India.
Making a circle with your thumb and index finger means okay in
America or zero in France, but is obscene in Brazil.
Non-verbal communication in speaking

Facial expressions in particular may reveal our emotions.

Some expressions are said to be universal, but there may be
differences in how they’re perceived. For example, research
suggests that while Americans typically assess someone’s
emotions by looking at all parts of the face, East Asians tend
to focus on the eyes; this is reflected in American emoticons
which foreground the mouth, e.g. :-), and Japanese ones which
make the eyes more salient, e.g. (^v^).
Universal facial expressions of emotion
Non-verbal communication in writing

Several approaches were used to compensate for the fact that

we can’t use tone of voice, gestures or body language when
writing. These are most evident in informal writing, such as
notes you may stick to your fridge or
text messaging and social media posts.
One widely accepted modern
Convention online is that using
all capital letters gives the
impression of shouting.
Non-verbal communication in writing

Other typographic features such as punctuation, spelling

variation and style can be used to suggest the emotional tone
of their messages, as in the following example:
YAAY!!! Stoics playing tonight at DSU :-) Sooooo cool, you
should defo come – and make a night of it hehehe ….. ;-)
The symbols used here include punctuation marks, but also
capitalisation for emphasis, non-standard spellings (including
extra letters in the word so to mimic how the writer might
lengthen the vowel sound in speech) and the emoticons :-) for
a smile and ;-) for a wink. The writer has also used hehehe to
typographically create the sound of a chuckle.
Non-verbal communication in writing

As well as phonetically typing out laughter and other

paralinguistic cues such as ugh or umm, users of digital
communication may find playful and creative ways to represent
body language or gesture. Examples:
- The ‘keyboard smash’ (which might look something like this:
asdlkjflskdjfeifjsldkjfslk) is designed to give the impression that
someone is too frustrated or otherwise overwhelmed with
emotion to use words and is just hitting the keyboard at random.
- Messages consisting only of question marks ????? indicate
confusion or disbelief.
- Emojis (small pictures such as or ) have increasingly
replaced typed emoticons in digital communication.
Multimodality
Computer technology allows us to
engage with multimodal texts. We
communicate not through words alone,
but also through pictures, diagrams,
tables, videos or music.
One popular online example of a
multimodal text is the meme. Memes
combine words with visuals to create
simple, usually humorous ideas, which
are rapidly spread by internet users,
often with variations in the text but
keeping other elements of the visuals
similar enough to make them
recognisable.