DISCOURSE ANALYSIS

Chapter 11
 What is DA?

It refers mainly to the linguistic analysis of naturally occurring

connected speech or written discourse.
It refers to attempts to study the organization of language
above the sentence or above the clause, and therefore to study
larger linguistic units, such as conversational exchanges or
written texts.
Discourse analysis is also concerned with language use in social
contexts, and in particular with interaction or dialogue
between speakers.
 Interpreting discourse

My Town
My natal was in a small town, very close to Riyadh capital of Saudi
Arabia. The distant between my town and Riyadh is 7 miles exactly.
The name of this town s almasani that mean in English factories. In
my childhood I remmeber the people live.

Ungrammatical but we try to make sense of it. Texts must have

a structure that depends on factors different from sentence
structure.
 Cohesion

Cohesion (cohesive ties)= ties and connections that exist

within a text.
My father once bought a Lincoln convertible. He did it by saving
every penny he could . That car would be worth a fortune
nowadays. However, he sold it to help pay for my college
education. Sometimes I think Id rather have the convertible.
Links between words and phrases.
Verb tenses, past then present.
Sometimes we may have a highly cohesive text that is
difficult to interpret.
 Coherence

My father bought a a Lincoln convertible. The car driven by

the police was red. The color didnt suit her. She consists of
three letters. However, a letter isnt as fast as a telephone
call.
HER: thats the telephone
HIM: Im in the bath
HER: O.K.
Knowledge of how conversations work is not simply linguistic
knowledge.
 Speech event

Variation in what people say or do in different

circumstances.
Different factors may influence what is said or how it
is said
Debate, interview, discussion
Roles of speaker/ hearer(s)

Their relationships (sex, age, social status)

Topics

setting
 Conversational analysis

An activity in which two or more people take turns at

speaking with one person speaking at a time.
A: didnt you [know wh-
B: [but he mustve been there by 2
A: yes but you know where he was going.

Completion point- asking a question, pausing at

the end of a syntactic structure
 Turn-taking

Different styles and strategies or conventions.

Rudeness is a person cuts in on another speaker
Shyness if one speaker keeps waiting to take a turn
holding the floor= avoiding normal completion points

E.g. thats their favorite restaurant because they..

Enjoy French food and when they were. in France they
couldnt believe it that . you know
These strategies indicate that conversational discourse
is cooperative.
 The cooperative principle

Grices cooperative principle make your contribution

such as is required, at the stage at which it occurs, by
accepted purpose or direction of the talk exchange in
which you are engaged.
Gricean Maxims:
Quantity: informative, no more or less
Quality: dont lie
Relation: be relevant
Manner: be clear, brief, orderly

E.g. a sandwich is a sandwich

 Hedges

Words that are used to indicate that were not really

sure that what were saying is sufficiently correct or
complete.
It shows speakers awareness of the quality maxim.
E.g. The book cover is kind of yellow
More hedges= 'I think', 'I'm sure', 'you know',

'sort of', and 'perhaps'

 Implicatures

With cooperative principle and maxims as guides, we can start

to work out what people imply in conversations.
E.g. A: are you coming to the party tonight?
B: Ive got an exam
Is speaker A adhering to the maxims of relation and quantity?
It contains an implicature (an additional conveyed meaning)
Background knowledge shared by participants
Background knowledge

Sanford & Garrod (1981)

John was on his way to school last Friday
He was really worried about the math lesson

Last week he had been unable to control the class

It was unfair of the math teacher to leave him in

charge.
After all, it is not a normal part of a janitors duties.

Inferences and interpretations

 Schemas and Scripts

Schema= conventional knowledge structure that exists in the

memory.
We use schema to interpret what we experience, hear, or
read.
E.g. supermarket schema
Script= dynamic schema, a set of conventional actions going
to the dentist, going to the movies, eating in a restaurants
 Schemas and Scripts

Trying not to be out of the office for long, Suzy went into the
nearest place, sat down and ordered an avocado sandwich. It
was quite crowded, but the service was fast, so she left a good
tip. Back in the office, things were not going well.
Fill in measure cup to line and repeat every 2-3 hours