UMA Seminar: Session 3 APPLIED DISCOURSE ANALYSIS 16/03/2018

Dr. Mercedes Díez Prados (mercedes.diez@uah.es)

APPLIED DISCOURSE ANALYSIS

What characterizes ADA is its concern for diverse real life areas in which discourse is essential
for the results of the interaction among individual (Gunnarson 1997: 405).

FOCUS: language & communication in real life situations

OBJECTIVE: analyze, understand and solver problems related with practical issues in real life
contexts.

Its object is not language per se but the language use in authentic contexts.

Research areas:

- Education: L1 and L2 acquisition.

- Medicine: Doctor-patient interaction.
- The workplace: the court, aviation (e.g. airplane catastrophes), cross-cultural
communication in business settings, etc.
- Science and academic discourse: rhetorical conventions in academic discourse,
argumentation, writing for academic purposes, persuasive rhetorical patterns in
discourse communities.

Discourse Analysis and Literature

D. Maingueneau (2010: 152) mentions 4 approaches to the analysis of Literature via DA:

1. Traditional stylistics: studies linguistic phenomena to interpret texts. The linguistic

analysis is only a tool.
2. Uses concepts and methods from pragmatics, text linguistics or discourse analysis. Two
purposes:
a. Elaborating interpretations of a (group of) work(s)
b. Working out a model of the linguistic properties of a corpus, which can be
defined according to certain criteria (e.g. describing a genre or properties of
texts belonging to the same aesthetic position or written by the same author).

*** See COOK (1994) Chapter 2 for suggestions on how to apply pragmatic, text
linguistic and DA models/concepts to the analysis of literary texts.

3. The study of works, to attempt to question the frontier between text and context, taking
into account the literary field, discourse communities, etc.
4. The texts are no longer the focus of analysis, but literary discourse, considered as a
network of manifold genres (anthologies of literature, literature chronicles in
newspapers, commentary practices at the university/school, interviews with writers,
etc.) DA is a new way of constructing the object “Literature”. The purpose of DA would
be to understand the construction, management and the role of Literature.

For Maingueneau, modality (1) does not pertain to DA; modality (2) pertains to literary DA in a
weak sense, and (3) and (4) in a strong sense.

Two interesting concepts:

- Literature as self-constituting discourse discursive communities (i.e. certain textual

configuration and way of life of a group of people) that are structured by the discourses
they produce and put into circulation; they are united by the texts they produce;

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 UMA Seminar: Session 3 APPLIED DISCOURSE ANALYSIS 16/03/2018
Dr. Mercedes Díez Prados (mercedes.diez@uah.es)

paradoxically, the texts are both their product and the condition of their existence (p.
154) meaning is not only inside texts but emerges from practices that depend on the
status of these texts in a given society. The way it is presented and published depends
on this status.
- Scenography: texts construct their own context. Scenographies may refer to singular
communicative events or prototypical discourse genres (e.g. friendly conversation,
handbook, talk-show). Discourse implies a given scenography (speaker, addressee,
place, moment). Scenography id both what D comes from and what D generates.

Whereas advertisements have a specific purpose (selling) and are always searching to the best
way to achieve this objective, writers cannot really define what they are aiming at when
publishing their texts (p. 156).

According to this author, 2 approaches to literature will co-exist, that obey very different norms:
Hermeneutic and discourse analytical (see Table 1 by Maingueneau, 2010: 157)

However, this author explains that these two paradigms can exist independently from each
other:
Hermeneutic approaches have constant resort to discourse analytical concepts to elaborate new
interpretations of works. On the other hand, discourse analytical approaches cannot work without
the interpretative background produced by hermeneutic approaches. The main criteria is the goal
of the analysis: it is clearly different in these two paradigms (Maingueneau, 2010: 158).

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 UMA Seminar: Session 3 APPLIED DISCOURSE ANALYSIS 16/03/2018
Dr. Mercedes Díez Prados (mercedes.diez@uah.es)

COOK’S (1994) PROPOSAL (based on Discourse and Literature)

Pragmatic analysis of D assumes shared knowledge and inference. Both must apply if
participants are to reach similar interpretations of discourse. Cook’s approach to the analysis of
literary discourse “dwells more upon the nature of shared knowledge of the world than upon
inferencing procedures” (he considers them constant and universal).

A theory of knowledge is provided by the notion of SCHEMA (pl. schemata) mental

representations of typical instances; they are used in D processing to predict and make sense of
D. The mind, stimulated either by key linguistic items in the text (triggers) or by the context,
activates a schema and uses it to make sense of discourse.

Schemata

 How do we store our experiences?

 Into knowledge structures (or conceptual representations)  schemata (similar concepts:
scripts, scenarios)
 When encountering new or unknown situations try to make the data fit our existing
schemata.
o If no adaptation is possible  we adapt the schema or reject it (“culture
shock”)

 Let’s do an experiment: read the text in the following page and decide if it coherent
for you.

IS THIS TEXT COHERENT?

The procedure is actually quite simple. First you arrange things into different groups. Of course,
one pile may be sufficient depending on how much there is to do. If you have to go somewhere
else due to lack of facilities that is the next step, otherwise you are pretty well set. It is important
not to overdo things. That is, it is better to do too few things at once than too many. In the short
run this may not seem important but complications can easily arise. A mistake can be expensive
as well. At first the whole procedure will seem complicated. Soon, however, it will become just
another facet of life. It is difficult to forsee any end to the necessity for this task in the immediate
future, but then one can never tell. After the procedure is completed one arranges the materials
into different groups again. Then they can be put into their appropriate places. Eventually they
will be used once more and the whole cycle will then have to be repeated. However, that is part
of life (Bransford y Johnson 1973:400, cf. Rumelhart 1981:23 y Renkema 1993:35).

There are 3 reasons implicit in schema-theory as to why incomprehension may occur:

1) The reader may not have the appropriate schemata (he/she simply cannot understand
the concept being communicated).

2) The reader may have the appropriate schemata, but the clues provided by the author
may be insufficient to suggest them (with additional clues, he/she may come to
understand it).

3) The reader may find a consistent interpretation of the text, but may not find the one
intended by the author (he/she will understand the text, but misunderstand the author).

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 UMA Seminar: Session 3 APPLIED DISCOURSE ANALYSIS 16/03/2018
Dr. Mercedes Díez Prados (mercedes.diez@uah.es)

SCHEMATA: All knowledge is packaged into units. These units are the schemata. A schema is a
data structure for representing the generic concepts stored in memory. There are schemata for
representing our knowledge about all concepts: those underlying objects, situations, events,
sequences of events, actions and sequences of actions.

 Schemata are like a private theory we have of the world and we use them to interpret it.
 In this way, the moment we know this text is about washing clothes, as Rumelhart points
out, it becomes (quite) comprehensible, because we provide the right sort of schemata to
make sense of what we are reading. Most readers who read this text in the experiment
mentioned above were not able to activate the right schemata to understand the text,
however, one reader was able to interpret it because he thought it was a perfect description
of his job as a bureaucrat. For this reader, who had been able to provide a coherent
interpretation of the text, it was very difficult to assume that the text was about washing
clothes.
 However, we cannot say that the interpretation of the above text depends exclusively on
the reader. The text itself uses a series of lexical items that favor this lack of comprehension:
- There are many general words (broad meaning): procedure, things, do, overdo, facilities,
step, task, materials, places, cycle.
- There can be many types of “complications” and “expensive mistakes”.
- Reference elements produce ambiguity. The following expressions do not have a clear
referent:
this may not seem important
it will become just another facet of life
it is difficult to foresee any end to the necessity for this task.
 Therefore, the difficulty to assign coherence to this text is not exclusively due to the fact
that the reader cannot activate the right schemata, but because the text does not provide
the necessary clues to consider it as coherent. Most probably, the text was elaborated with
the final aim of carrying out the experiment and those imprecise terms were chosen
purposefully to check whether a coherent mental representation of the events described
could be evoked. If more concrete ones (like clothes for things, washing clothes for process,
etc.) substituted those general terms, the readers would have been able to understand it.
This is evidence enough to conclude that the text itself plays a fundamental role for its
coherence.
 Schemata are very general prototypes (data structure) for example the prototype BUYER
has the variables:
o PURCHASER (person)
o SELLER (person)
o MERCHANDISE (thing)
o MONEY (usually money, not any other product, for example)
o BARGAINING (a proecess)
 What do you think are the variables for RESTAURANT1?
 Thanks to these knowledge structures we can guess and infer.
Ex: Pete went to the fridge, got a banana and ate it

Answer the Q: Did he peel it?

 Although not explicitly mentioned, we assume he did.

 Schemata may change, since cultural values may change.

1
ANSWER: ACTORS (WAITER, CUSTOMER), PROPS (TABLE, MENU…)

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 UMA Seminar: Session 3 APPLIED DISCOURSE ANALYSIS 16/03/2018
Dr. Mercedes Díez Prados (mercedes.diez@uah.es)

 Schemata have the following characteristics:

1. They have variables.
2. They can be embedded into one another (e.g. BUS embedded in BUS JOURNEY).
3. They represent knowledge at all levels of abstraction.
4. They represent knowledge, not definitions.
5. They are active processes.
6. They are used to recognize the appropriacy of the data.
 Two types of activation:
a) Top-down: from whole to part  when a schema is activated, all its sub-schemata are
also activated.
Ex. FACE activates EYE, NOSE, MOUTH

b) Bottom-up: from part to whole

Ex. FACE activates PERSON

Cook (1994:13) mentions that this mental ability to read in details that are not present in the
text is particularly relevant to literary narrative, “in which readers are given points of reference
and left to fill the gaps ‘from imagination’”. Many literary narratives, for instance, in their
opening sentences use the definite article in a noun phrase to refer to someone we don’t know
of (e.g. The lawyer opened the door) no antecedent possible since it is the 1st sentence of the
novel and no schema can be recovered since no lawyer has previously been mentioned. Effect:
to make the reader process the discourse as though the relevant schema were shared with the
narrator or characters when in fact it is unknown involvement due to the intimacy created
and also drives the reader forward to continue reading to construct the necessary schema as
quickly as possible. It also produces the sensation of entering into a mental world.

 Real vs fictional narrative: in the former the chronology of events is usually respected,
while in the latter it may be disrupted different text schemata seem to be imposed.
 Texts are interpreted with the help of knowledge structure activated from memory,
capable of filling in details which are not explicitly stated (Cook: 1994: 17).
 Cook (1994: 20) distinguishes 3 types of schemata:
o World schema
o Text schema
o Language schema
 An accepted component of DS is the study of what makes texts meaningful and coherent
for their users.
 Certain uses of language can change our representation of the world certain texts can
alter our schemata.
 Context for Cook consists on knowledge of:
o Co-text
o Paralinguistic features
o Other texts (i.e. intertextuality)
o The physical situation
o The social and cultural situation
o Interlocutors and their schemata (knowledge about other people’s knowledge).
 COHERENCE: quality of perceived purpose, meaning, and connection DA is the study
and the explanation of this quality of coherence. A discourse is a coherent stretch of
discourse  DA must, thus, study the formal linguistic qualities of texts and the variable
perception of stretches of language by individuals and groups (Cook, 1994: 25).

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 UMA Seminar: Session 3 APPLIED DISCOURSE ANALYSIS 16/03/2018
Dr. Mercedes Díez Prados (mercedes.diez@uah.es)

 COHESION: it is relevant to observe the particular uses of cohesive devices which are
typical of literary texts and also see to what degree cohesion may contribute to the
explanation of COHERENCE in texts (i.e. of the relation between language and
knowledge).
 Within cohesion, PARALLELISM (refer to Beaugrande & Dressler’s standards of
textuality, particularly, cohesion and its mechanisms) is very relevant in literary
discourse: phonological (rhyme), morphological, syntactic parallelisms may all be
considered instances of cohesion when they create links across clause and sentence
boundaries (Cook, 1994: 29).
 Other aspects of literary cohesion (Cook, 1994: 30-34):
o Verb form sequences: constraints on verb form determined by preceding
clauses. A literary license may be to break those constraints.
o Referring expressions: this includes Reference, Total Repetition and Partial
repetition (B&D) and reduced repetition (e.g. the river Alma the river).

Cook (1994) presents his own theory to explain literary language remodeling the concept of
SCHEMA: Schema refreshment and cognitive change.

 Literature create a different type of schemata: those that exist only through language,
with no accessible corresponding reality in the world, though it creates an illusion of
one this provides the opportunity to reorganize schemata.
 Schema refreshment: when existing schemata are destroyed, new ones are constructed
or new connections are establish between existing ones.

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 UMA Seminar: Session 3 APPLIED DISCOURSE ANALYSIS 16/03/2018
Dr. Mercedes Díez Prados (mercedes.diez@uah.es)

TEXTS FOR ANALYSIS

 Activity 12. Apply Labov and Waletzky’s story structure to Little Red Ridding Hood and indicate
which parts are problematic.

Little Red Riding Hood

Charles Perrault
Once upon a time there lived in a certain village a little country girl, the prettiest creature who was ever seen.
Her mother was excessively fond of her; and her grandmother doted on her still more. This good woman
had a little red riding hood made for her. It suited the girl so extremely well that everybody called her Little
Red Riding Hood.
One day her mother, having made some cakes, said to her, "Go, my dear, and see how your grandmother
is doing, for I hear she has been very ill. Take her a cake, and this little pot of butter."
Little Red Riding Hood set out immediately to go to her grandmother, who lived in another village.
As she was going through the wood, she met with a wolf, who had a very great mind to eat her up, but he
dared not, because of some woodcutters working nearby in the forest. He asked her where she was going.
The poor child, who did not know that it was dangerous to stay and talk to a wolf, said to him, "I am going
to see my grandmother and carry her a cake and a little pot of butter from my mother."
"Does she live far off?" said the wolf
"Oh I say," answered Little Red Riding Hood; "it is beyond that mill you see there, at the first house in the
village."
"Well," said the wolf, "and I'll go and see her too. I'll go this way and go you that, and we shall see who will
be there first."
The wolf ran as fast as he could, taking the shortest path, and the little girl took a roundabout way,
entertaining herself by gathering nuts, running after butterflies, and gathering bouquets of little flowers. It
was not long before the wolf arrived at the old woman's house. He knocked at the door: tap, tap.
"Who's there?"
"Your grandchild, Little Red Riding Hood," replied the wolf, counterfeiting her voice; "who has brought you
a cake and a little pot of butter sent you by mother."
The good grandmother, who was in bed, because she was somewhat ill, cried out, "Pull the bobbin, and
the latch will go up."
The wolf pulled the bobbin, and the door opened, and then he immediately fell upon the good woman and
ate her up in a moment, for it been more than three days since he had eaten. He then shut the door and
got into the grandmother's bed, expecting Little Red Riding Hood, who came some time afterwards and
knocked at the door: tap, tap.
"Who's there?"
Little Red Riding Hood, hearing the big voice of the wolf, was at first afraid; but believing her grandmother
had a cold and was hoarse, answered, "It is your grandchild Little Red Riding Hood, who has brought you
a cake and a little pot of butter mother sends you."
The wolf cried out to her, softening his voice as much as he could, "Pull the bobbin, and the latch will go
up."
Little Red Riding Hood pulled the bobbin, and the door opened.
The wolf, seeing her come in, said to her, hiding himself under the bedclothes, "Put the cake and the little
pot of butter upon the stool, and come get into bed with me."
Little Red Riding Hood took off her clothes and got into bed. She was greatly amazed to see how her
grandmother looked in her nightclothes, and said to her, "Grandmother, what big arms you have!"
"All the better to hug you with, my dear."
"Grandmother, what big legs you have!"
"All the better to run with, my child."
"Grandmother, what big ears you have!"
"All the better to hear with, my child."
"Grandmother, what big eyes you have!"
"All the better to see with, my child."
"Grandmother, what big teeth you have got!"

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 UMA Seminar: Session 3 APPLIED DISCOURSE ANALYSIS 16/03/2018
Dr. Mercedes Díez Prados (mercedes.diez@uah.es)

"All the better to eat you up with."

And, saying these words, this wicked wolf fell upon Little Red Riding Hood, and ate her all up.
Moral: Children, especially attractive, well bred young ladies, should never talk to strangers, for if they
should do so, they may well provide dinner for a wolf. I say "wolf," but there are various kinds of wolves.
There are also those who are charming, quiet, polite, unassuming, complacent, and sweet, who pursue
young women at home and in the streets. And unfortunately, it is these gentle wolves who are the most
dangerous ones of all.
(Source: http://www.pitt.edu/~dash/type0333.html#perrault)

Now compare with this other version :

The Politically Correct Version of Little Red Riding Hood (Author unknown)
There once was a young person named Little Red Riding Hood who lived on the edge of a large forest full
of endangered owls and rare plants that would probably provide a cure for cancer if only someone took the
time to study them.
Red Riding Hood lived with a nurture giver whom she sometimes referred to as "mother", although she
didn't mean to imply by this term that she would have thought less of the person if a close biological link
did not in fact exist.
Nor did she intend to denigrate the equal value of nontraditional households, although she was sorry if this
was the impression conveyed.
One day her mother asked her to take a basket of organically grown fruit and mineral water to her
grandmother's house.
"But mother, won't this be stealing work from the unionized people who have struggled for years to earn
the right to carry all packages between various people in the woods?"
Red Riding Hood's mother assured her that she had called the union boss and gotten a special compassionate
mission exemption form.
"But mother, aren't you oppressing me by ordering me to do this?"
Red Riding Hood's mother pointed out that it was impossible for womyn to oppress each other, since all
womyn were equally oppressed until all womyn were free.
"But mother, then shouldn't you have my brother carry the basket, since he's an oppressor, and should learn
what it's like to be oppressed?"
And Red Riding Hood's mother explained that her brother was attending a special rally for animal rights,
and besides, this wasn't stereotypical womyn's work, but an empowering deed that would help engender a
feeling of community.
"But won't I be oppressing Grandma, by implying that she's sick and hence unable to independently further
her own selfhood?"
But Red Riding Hood's mother explained that her grandmother wasn't actually sick or incapacitated or
mentally handicapped in any way, although that was not to imply that any of these conditions were inferior
to what some people called "health".
Thus Red Riding Hood felt that she could get behind the idea of delivering the basket to her grandmother,
and so she set off.
Many people believed that the forest was a foreboding and dangerous place, but Red Riding Hood knew
that this was an irrational fear based on cultural paradigms instilled by a patriarchal society that regarded
the natural world as an exploitable resource, and hence believed that natural predators were in fact
intolerable competitors.
Other people avoided the woods for fear of thieves and deviants, but Red Riding Hood felt that in a truly
classless society all marginalized peoples would be able to "come out" of the woods and be accepted as
valid lifestyle role models.
On her way to Grandma's house, Red Riding Hood passed a woodchopper, and wandered off the path, in
order to examine some flowers.
She was startled to find herself standing before a Wolf, who asked her what was in her basket.
Red Riding Hood's teacher had warned her never to talk to strangers, but she was confident in taking control
of her own budding sexuality, and chose to dialogue with the Wolf.
She replied, "I am taking my Grandmother some healthful snacks in a gesture of solidarity."
The Wolf said, "You know, my dear, it isn't safe for a little girl to walk through these woods alone."
Red Riding Hood said, "I find your sexist remark offensive in the extreme, but I will ignore it because of
your traditional status as an outcast from society, the stress of which has caused you to develp and
alternative and yet entirely valid worldview. Now, if you'll excuse me, I would prefer to be on my way."

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 UMA Seminar: Session 3 APPLIED DISCOURSE ANALYSIS 16/03/2018
Dr. Mercedes Díez Prados (mercedes.diez@uah.es)

Red Riding Hood returned to the main path, and proceeded towards her Grandmother's house.
But because his status outside of society had freed him from slavish adherence to linear, Western-style
thought, the Wolf knew of a quicker route to Grandma's house.
He burst into the house and ate Grandma, a course of action affirmative of his nature as predator.
Then, unhampered by rigid, traditionalist gender role notions, he put on Grandma's nightclothes, crawled
under the bedclothes, and awaited developments.
Red Riding Hood entered the cottage and said, "Grandma, I have brought you some cruelty free snacks to
salute you in your role as wise and nurturing matriarch."
The Wolf said softly "Come closer, child, so that I might see you."
Red Riding Hood said, "Goddess! Grandma, what big eyes you have!"
"You forget that I am optically challenged."
"And Grandma, what an enormous and fine nose you have."
"Naturally, I could have had it fixed to help my acting career, but I didn't give in to such societal pressures,
my child."
"And Grandma, what very big, sharp teeth you have!"
The Wolf could not take any more of these specist slurs, and, in a reaction appropriate for his accustomed
milieu, he leaped out of bed, grabbed Little Red Riding Hood, and opened his jaws so wide that she could
see her poor Grandmother cowering in his belly.
"Aren't you forgetting something?" Red Riding Hood bravely shouted. "You must request my permission
before proceeding in a new level of intimacy!"
The Wolf was so startled by this statement that he loosened his grasp on her.
At the same time, the woodchopper burst into the cottage, brandishing an ax.
"Hands off!" cried the woodchopper.
"And what do you think you're doing?" cried Little Red Riding Hood. "If I let you help me now, I would
be expressing a lack of confidence in my own abilities, which would lead to poor self esteem and lower
achievement scores on college entrance exams."
"Last chance, sister! Get your hands off that endangered species! This is an FBI sting!" screamed the
woodchopper, and when Little Red Riding Hood nonetheless made a sudden motion, he sliced off her head.
"Thank goodness you got here in time," said the Wolf. "The brat and her grandmother lured me in here. I
though I was a goner."
"No, I think I'm the real victim, here," said the woodchopper. "I've been dealing with my anger ever since
I saw her picking those protected flowers earlier. And now I'm going to have such a trauma. Do you have
any aspirin?"
"Sure" said the Wolf.
"Thanks."
"I feel your pain," said the Wolf, giving a little belch, and said "Do you have any Maalox?"

(Available at: http://baetzler.de/humor/pc_lrrh.html)

Feed these two texts into a software tool and carry a Transitivity analysis (at:
http://www.corpustool.com/download.html)

TRANSITIVITY ANALYSIS (Systemic Functional Grammar)

MATERIAL PROCESSES or process of “doing”.

1. AGENT or ACTOR
Material processes express an action or an activity, which is typically carried out by an AGENT.
Agent Process: Material

The Prime Minister resigned

The spectators cheered
S P

2. INANIMATE AGENT OR “FORCE”

Force Process: Material Affected

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 UMA Seminar: Session 3 APPLIED DISCOURSE ANALYSIS 16/03/2018
Dr. Mercedes Díez Prados (mercedes.diez@uah.es)

Lightning struck the oak tree

The thunder buried the climber
S P Od

3. AFFECTED
The Affected participant is that which is affected by the action expressed by the verb.

Agent Process: Material Affected

Ted kicked the ball

My brother is painting the house
S P Od

Affected Process: Material Agent

I was beaten by my brother

The ball was kicked by Ted
S P A

4 & 5. RECIPIENT AND BENEFICIARY ROLES

When the action expressed by the verb extends to two inherent participants the additional
participant is the Recipient:

Agent Process: Material Recipient Affected

I will give the children some sweets

The judge granted the accused bail
S P Oi Od
(e.g. I will give some sweets TO the children)
Agent Process: Material Beneficiary Affected

He fetched me the newspaper

She mixed James the cocktail
S P Oi Od
(e.g. She mixed the cocktail FOR James)
MENTAL PROCESSES
Mental processes are processes of perception (see, hear, etc), of cognition (know, understand,
etc) and of affection (like, fear, etc).
Mental Process: Perception
Recipient Experiencer Mental Process: Perception Phenomenon

Tom saw a snake

We heard a noise
S P Od

Agentive Experiencer Mental Process: Perception Phenomenon

Tom watched a snake

S P Od
We listened to a noise
S P Oprep

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 UMA Seminar: Session 3 APPLIED DISCOURSE ANALYSIS 16/03/2018
Dr. Mercedes Díez Prados (mercedes.diez@uah.es)

In processes of seeing, hearing and feeling English allows the Phenomenon to represent a
situation that is either completed or not completed. Compare:
Recipient Experiencer Mental Process: Perception Phenomenon: completed

I saw him cross the road

S P Od

Recipient Experiencer Mental Process: Perception Phenomenon: not completed

I saw him crossing the road

S P Od

Cognitive processes
Cognitive processes: stative verbs: believe, doubt, guess, know, recognise, think, forget, mean,
remember understand…

Experiencer Mental Process: Cognition Phenomenon

I don’t know what to do

He can’t understand their objections
Everybody remembered his face
S P Od

Affectivity processes
Verbs: like, love, enjoy, please, delight, dislike, hate, detest, want. In English most of these
verbs in everyday use have a Recipient Experiencer subject

Recipient Experiencer Mental Process: Affection Phenomenon

Cats love fish

Many people enjoy watching TV
S P Od
RELATIONAL PROCESSES: expressing processes of being and becoming.

Attributive Relational Process

Carrier Relational P.: Attribution Attribute (Characterising)

John is a good player

Silvia is thirteen
S P Cs

Carrier Relational P.: Attribution Attribute (Identifying)

John is the captain

Silvia is my cousin
S P Cs

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 UMA Seminar: Session 3 APPLIED DISCOURSE ANALYSIS 16/03/2018
Dr. Mercedes Díez Prados (mercedes.diez@uah.es)

There is a wide variety of verbs in English to express both states and transitions. A recipient
participant can optionally added to this semantic structure:
Carrier Relational P.: Attribution Attribute Recipient

This test looks easy (to me)

His name sounds familiar (to me)
S P Cs A

Circumstantial Relational Processes

Carrier Relational P.: Circumstantial Attribute

The museum is round the corner (place)

Our next meeting will be on June 10 (time)
S P Cs

Possessive Relational Processes

a) Possession as attribute

Carrier Relational P.: Possession Attribute

(possessed) (possessor)

This shirt is my father’s

This shirt isn’t mine
S P Cs

b) Possession as process

Carrier Relational P.: Possession Attribute

(possessor) (possessed)

He has blue eyes

His uncle owns a yacht
S P Od

EXPRESSING PROCESSES OF SAYING

Sayer Verbal Process Verbiage

They announced the name of the winner

He said “No”
S P Od

Sayer Verbal Process Recipient Verbiage

Mary told me the truth

S P Oi Od

Verbiage can be realised by a NP or a clause

Sayer Verbal Process Verbiage (Reported statement)

She said that the film was good

S P Od

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 UMA Seminar: Session 3 APPLIED DISCOURSE ANALYSIS 16/03/2018
Dr. Mercedes Díez Prados (mercedes.diez@uah.es)

Sayer Verbal Process Recipient Verbiage (Reported question)

Sue asked the assistant how much it weighed

We asked him whether he was sincere or not
S P Od Cp

Sayer Verbal Process Recipient Verbiage (Reported directive)

John persuaded the boys to see a doctor

She urged us to study English
S P Od Cp

These are the results:

Per File Statistics: Features

Project: Little_Red_Riding_Hood
Counting: global
Unit: <Transitivity/>
Date: Mon Mar 12 15:53:34 2018
Politically_correct/L Traditional/Perrault.
Feature N Percent N Percent
GRAMMATICAL-RANK N=694 N=492
participant 215 30.98% 135 27.44%
process 171 24.64% 122 24.80%
circumstance 108 15.56% 85 17.28%
configuration 148 21.33% 106 21.54%
configuration-complex 0 0.00% 0 0.00%
CLAUSE-TYPE N=694 N=492
material 80 11.53% 66 13.41%
mental 18 2.59% 45 9.15%
verbal 19 2.74% 9 1.83%
relational 28 4.03% 17 3.46%
modal 0 0.00% 0 0.00%
existential 0 0.00% 4 0.81%
MATERIAL-TYPE N=694 N=492
intransitive 14 2.02% 26 5.28%
monotransitive 59 8.50% 36 7.32%
ergative 0 0.00% 0 0.00%
ditransitive 7 1.01% 4 0.81%
MENTAL-TYPE N=694 N=492
cognition 0 0.00% 0 0.00%
perception 0 0.00% 0 0.00%
reaction 0 0.00% 0 0.00%
MENTAL-TYPE2 N=694 N=492

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 UMA Seminar: Session 3 APPLIED DISCOURSE ANALYSIS 16/03/2018
Dr. Mercedes Díez Prados (mercedes.diez@uah.es)

mental-active 14 2.02% 6 1.22%

mental-passive 4 0.58% 3 0.61%
VERBAL-TYPE N=694 N=492
addresee-oriented 0 0.00% 0 0.00%
not-addresee-oriented 0 0.00% 0 0.00%
VERBAL-TYPE2 N=694 N=492
verbal-active 18 2.59% 9 1.83%
verbal-passive 1 0.14% 0 0.00%
RELATIONAL-TYPE N=694 N=492
identifying 0 0.00% 0 0.00%
attributive 22 3.17% 11 2.24%
circumstantial 0 0.00% 0 0.00%
possessive 6 0.86% 6 1.22%

This the scheme in UAM Corpus Tools:

participant
process
circumstance
intransitive
MATERIAL- monotransitive
material
TYPE ergative
ditransitive
cognition
MENTAL-
perception
TYPE
mental reaction
MENTAL- mental-active
GRAMMATICAL- TYPE2
ideational-unit mental-passive
RANK
CLAUSE- VERBAL- addresee-oriented
configuration TYPE not-addresee-oriented
TYPE
verbal
VERBAL- verbal-active
TYPE2 verbal-passive
identifying
RELATIONAL- attributive
relational
TYPE circumstantial
possessive
modal
existential
configuration-complex

14
 UMA Seminar: Session 3 APPLIED DISCOURSE ANALYSIS 16/03/2018
Dr. Mercedes Díez Prados (mercedes.diez@uah.es)

ANALYSIS (from Fairclough, 1989, Ch. 5)

VOCABULARY
1. Experiential values of words

What classification schemes are drawn upon?

Are there words which are ideologically contested?

Is there rewording or overwording?

What ideologically significant meaning relations (synonymy, hyponymy, antonymy) are there
between the words?

2. Relational values of words

Are there euphemistic expressions?

Are there markedly formal or informal words?

3. Expressive values of words
4. Metaphors used
GRAMMAR
5. Experiential values of grammatical features

What types of process & participant predominate?

Is agency unclear?

Are processes what they seem?

Are nominalizations used?

Are sentences active or passive?

Are sentences positive or negative?

6. Relational values of grammatical features

What modes (declarative, interrogative, imperative) are used?

Are there important features of relational modality?

Are the pronouns we and you used. and if so, how?

7. Expressive values of grammatical features.

Are there important features of expressive modality?

8. How are (simple) sentences linked together?

15
 UMA Seminar: Session 3 APPLIED DISCOURSE ANALYSIS 16/03/2018
Dr. Mercedes Díez Prados (mercedes.diez@uah.es)

What logical connectors are used?

Are complex sentences characterized by coordination or subordination?

What means are used for referring inside & outside the text?

TEXTUAL STRUCTURES
9. What interactional conventions are used?

Are there ways in which one participant controls the turns of others?

10. What larger-scale structures does the text have?

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