Text and Discourse

Bahroz H. Mawlood
2018
 What is a sentence?
• A sentence is the largest linguistic unit with grammatical
structure.

• Sentences are put together and structured in order.

• Sentences consist of one or more

• Clauses consist of one or more
• Phrases consist of one or more
• Words consist of one or more
• Morphemes consist of one or more phonemes .
 Sentence tokens and types
• I have two books and two notebooks.

• Tokens: (I, have, two, books, and, two,

notebooks)= seven.
• Types: (I, have, two, books, and, notebooks)= six.
 Text
• In real life, a sentence is hardly ever used alone.
• Sentences normally appear in sequence such as a
dialogue, a speech, a letter or a book.
• Any set of sentences that “cohere” in a sequences is
called a text.
• A text is a coherent, complete unit of speech or
writing. It may consist of many sentences. It is also
possible for a text to be one sentence.

• The coherence happens through using many features

which connect sentences.
 Text Coherence
• General knowledge: our minds create a link
between sentences owing to our general
knowledge or expectations.

• Vocabulary: the choice of words is enough to

connect sentences.

• Punctuation: written marks and layout may be

sufficient to show that sentences or paragraphs
are connected in a specific way.
 Discourse
• Discourse is as any piece of extended language,
written or spoken, that has unity and meaning
and purpose. By 'extended' it means more than
one sentence.

• Discourse refers to both written and spoken

communications.
 Grice’s Maxims
Quality:
 Do not say what you believe to be false.
 Do not say that for which you lack evidence.

Quantity:
 Make your contribution as informative as is required.
 Do not make your contribution more informative than is required.
Manner:
 Be perspicuous” (clearly understood)
 Avoid obscurity of expression
 Be brief
 Be orderly

Relevance:
 Be relevant.
 Text Organization
• Text Types and Structures

• Narrative: presents a story that unfolds over

time. It usually entertains. It has characters, an
orientation a setting, events, a problem, and a
resolution.
 Structure of a Narrative

Orientation

Complication

Resolution

Coda
 Point of View
• First person point of view. First person is when “I” am
telling the story. The character is in the story, relating his or
her experiences directly.

• Second person point of view. The story is told to “you.”

This POV is not common in fiction, but it’s still good to
know (it is common in nonfiction).

• Third person point of view, limited. The story is about

“he” or “she.” This is the most common point of view in
commercial fiction. The narrator is outside of the story and
relating the experiences of a character.
 Text Organization
• Text Types and Structures

• Expository: explains or describes something. Scientific

writing is mainly constituted by expository texts. It explains
facts, information. Text features (headings, bold words,
charts, graphs captions)

• Other types of text include procedural texts, recounts a

sequence of events, biographies lectures, sermons,
hortatory (encouraging someone to do something).

• Different genres differ in terms of the patterns and

frequency of lexical choice and use of grammatical
categories and constructions.
 Structure of an Expository
• Introduction statement of thesis
• Argument evidence for thesis
• Claim one
• Reason
• Claim two
• Exemplification
• Conclusion restatement of thesis
 Coherence n Coherent adj
• The relationships which link the meanings of utterances in a
discourse or of the sentences in a text.
• These links may be based on the speakers’ shared knowledge.
A: could you give me a lift home?
B: sorry, I'm visiting my uncle.
• There is no grammatical or lexical link between a’s question and b’s
reply but the exchange has coherence because both a and b know
that b’s uncle lives in the opposite direction to a’s home.
• In written texts coherence refers to the way a text makes sense to
the readers through the organization of its content, and the
relevance and clarity of its concepts and ideas. Generally a
paragraph has coherence if it is a series of sentences that develop
a main idea with a topic sentence and supporting sentences which
relate to it.
 Cohesion
• The grammatical and/or lexical relationships
between the different elements of a text. This may
be the relationship between different sentences or
between different parts of a sentence.
A: is jenny coming to the party?
B: yes, she is.
• There is a link between jenny and she and also
between is . . . Coming And is.
• in the sentence:
If you are going to London, I can give you the address of
a good hotel there.
• The link is between London and there.
Coherence and Cohesion
• My favorite color is green. I like it because it is relaxing
and it relieves me. I usually go out in the spring and lie on
the grass when I am stressed. Consequently, I have to say
green is my favorite among all other colors.

Cohesion but no Coherence

• My favorite color is green. Green cars are very fast. Driving
this way is not safe and may lead to many car accidents. I
had one once and I broke my leg. I was very unhappy
because I missed the picnic because of the injury.

Coherence but no Cohesion

• My favorite color is green. I am relaxed. In the spring I lie
on the grass. I sleep.
 Reference
• Reference is the use of a word to refer to an item in the
real world or in a text”.

• Reference in its wider sense would be the relationship

between a word or phrase and an entity in the external
world For example, the word tree refers to the object
‘tree’ (the referent).

• Reference in its narrower sense is the relationship

between a word or phrase and a specific object, e.g. a
particular tree or a particular animal. For example,
Peter’s horse would refer to a horse which is owned,
ridden by, or in some way associated with Peter.
• Reference is either endophoric or exophoric.
• Endophoric reference is classified into:

• Anaphora (reference back) – a tie where an element in

a text is connected with some previously mentioned
element, pointing back to the text.

• Cataphora (reference forth)– a tie where an element in

a text is connected to an element that follows later in
the text, when an item points forward to the text.

• Exophora – is a relation where one element points

outside the text. The use of exophoric reference
requires some shared knowledge between two
speakers, or between writer and reader
• Reference can be shown through the use of personal
pronouns and demonstrative adjectives.

Anaphoric personal pronoun reference:

Bill stayed up all night last night. He was studying for his
final exam.

Cataphoric personal pronouns:

I didn’t think I’d watch it all. The movie was interesting.

Anaphoric Demonstrative:
John has gone to Canada. He will stay there for a month.

Cataphoric Demonstrative:
This is what I said: that we are born equal.
 Conjunction= Connective
• A word which joins words, phrases, or clauses together, such as
but, and, when:
John and Mary went.
She sings but I don’t.

• Units larger than single words which function as conjunctions are

sometimes known as conjunctives, for example so that, as long
as, as if:
She ran fast so that she could catch the bus.

• Adverbs which are used to introduce or connect clauses are

sometimes known as conjunctive adverbs, for example however,
nevertheless:
She is 86, nevertheless she enjoys good health.
• There are two types of conjunction:
• Co-ordination, through the use of co-ordinating
conjunctions (also known as co-ordinators) such as
and, or, but. These join linguistic units which are
equivalent or of the same rank.
It rained, but i went for a walk anyway.
Shall we go home or go to a movie?

• Subordination, through the use of subordinating

conjunctions (also known as subordinators) such as
because, when, unless, that. These join an
independent clause and a dependent clause
I knew that he was lying.
Unless it rains, we’ll play tennis at 4.
Conjunction ties are categorized into additive,
adversative, causal, and temporal.

• Additive such as and, also, too, additionally,

furthermore, moreover, besides that, addition.

• Adversative(contrastive) such as yet, though,

but, however.

• Causal such as so, because, therefore, for.

• Temporal such as then, after that, afterwards,

later, next since.
 Substitution
• It is the replacement of any word or item by a general word to avoid
repetition. The substitute item has the same structural function as that
for which it substitutes.

• Substitution can be categorized into:

• Nominal substitution (replacement of a noun by “one, ones, same”,
• My wallet is torn. I need to get a new one.

• Verbal substitution (replacement of a verb by “do”)

• He has to pay off his debt. If he does, they won’t kill him.

• Clausal substitution (replacement of a clause by “so, not”)

• A: Are we going by bus?
• B: I think so.
• A: And are we supposed to bring food?
• B: I guess not.
 Ellipsis
• Is the leaving out of words or phrases from sentences
where they are unnecessary because they have already
been referred to or mentioned.

• When the subject of the verb in two coordinated

clauses is the same, it may be omitted to avoid
repetition:

• The man went to the door and (he) opened it. (subject
ellipsis)
• Mary ate an apple and Jane (ate) a pear. (verb ellipsis)

• I bought jeans and my brother sneakers.

• I went for a walk and took some photos.
 Lexical Cohesion
• Reiteration( repetition): is the restatement of the same lexical item.

• Anna ate the apple. The apple was fresh.

• If you think you can do it, you can do it.

• The teacher repeated “Don’t speak in any other language except

English, don’t interrupt anyone, and don’t laugh at anyone’s opinion.”

• Synonyms: Different words which have the same or very similar meanings.

baby/infant, sick/ill, pupil/classmate, integer/number, freedom/liberty,

• Antonymy: is the relation of opposite in meaning.
Dead/alive, short/long, up/down, big/small.

• Gradable antonyms allow degrees like big/small,

fast/slow.
• They can be used in comparative constructions. Bigger
than, faster than.

• The negative of a gradable antonym doesn’t imply the

positive of the other. Not fast doesn’t mean slow.

• Non-gradable antonyms are polar opposites.

• Male/female, dead/alive.
• Reverses: Describe movement in opposite directions
or actions
• up/down, rise/fall, lock/unlock, push/pull, come/go,
pack/unpack, tie/untie.

• Hyponym: X is a type of Y.
•
A boy is a type of child.
A car is a type of vehicle.

• Meronym: X is part of Y.
•
Tire is part of car.
Oxygen is part of air.
 Discourse Structure
• Discourse are made up of utterances and acts of producing and using sentences
to do things.

• Transactions are stages or topics in a conversation. These stages often include

greetings and conclusions.
• Boundaries of transactions are marked and shown by words like OK, well, right,
now. These words are usually used to mark the beginning and the end of a
topic.

• Exchanges are pairs of utterances and speech acts linked and produced by
different speakers. These include pairs as questions/ answers, offers/
acceptances or refusals, commands/ compliances.

• Moves are turns or contributions to a discourse. In discourse a speaker may

express a single sentence or a sequence of sentences which represent the
speaker’s contribution.
• Pre-sequences are techniques speakers use to prepare the listener for what is
to come. These come in various situations such as requests, offering for
invitations, asking questions of closing a conversation or transaction.