Transcript

1. Discourse Analysis Ch. 11 Fall 2012

2. Background knowledge The cooperative principle Turn-taking Conversation analysis
Speech events Structure of a discourse Text analysis Basic ideas in Discourse Analysis
3. Our presidents inaugural speech? A class you had, Today we are going to talk about
Thats all for today. Ill see you next week.? A composition of your Unforgettable Trip to
Ken-ting? A short dialogue with your roommate this morning: Morning! Any classes
today? An ad says, Story Tellers Wanted!? A teachers note on the door of his office, says
Back right back!?What is discourse?
4. Discourse Naturally conversations spokendiscourse texts Any written
5. Discourse Analysis Conversation Naturally analysis spokenDiscourse analysis Text
analysis Any written
6. How do language users (listeners or readers) interpret, or do so as to obtain, what other
language users (speakers or writers) intend to convey or communicate? In a nutshell,
Language as a dynamic, social, interactive phenomenon whether it is between speaker
and listener, or writer and reader (Crystal, 2005, p. 260). The structure or grammar of a
discourse; be it spoken or written.Why do we do discourse analysis?
7. Speech events Coherence CohesionBasics of Text Analysis
8. Schemas and scripts Backgroud knowledge Implicatures Hedges The co-operative
principle Turn-takingBasics of Conversation Analysis
9. (Culpeper et al., 2009, p. 171)Sample for Analysis
10. Coherence CohesionLinguistic mechanisms that make a discourse/text interpretable
11. A Lincoln convertible that car- it-the convertible Father he he he; Cohesive ties
(in reference): 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. (Yule, 2010, p.
143)Cohesion
12. My father once bought a Lincoln convertible. He did it (Yule, 2010, p. 143)Cohesion
[time]: once-nowadays-sometimes [money]: bought-saving-penny-worth-fortune-sold-pay
Cohesive ties (in semantics): 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.
13. Cohesive devices for textual relation: however Tense: bought-did-could-would-sold ~
think Cohesive ties (in grammar): 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.
(Yule, 2010, p. 143)Cohesion
14. We know that the writer is writing about something, but we, as readers, just cant get a
general idea out of the text. Many cohesive devices, but a text very hard to interpret. My
father bought a Lincoln convertible. The car driven by the police was red. That color doesnt

suit her. She consists of three letters. However, a letter isnt as fast as a telephone call. For
example (Yule, 2010, p. 143): Cohesive (with many cohesive ties) coherent (easy to
interpret)Cohesion
15. HER: O.K. devices/ties, and yet coherent. How? HIM: Im in the bath. No cohesive
HER: Thats the telephone. For example (Widdowson, 1978, in Yule, 2010, p. 144):
Information gaps filling: managing to make sense out of a piece of discourse, when
encountering incoherence. Being coherent: making sense of what we read and hear (Yule,
2010, p. 144) or with a clear idea that readers or hearers can easily obtain.Coherence
16. Interlocutors (the speaker Speech event: debate, lecture, interview, game, daily routine,
etc. To interpret the conversation above, we need to possess knowledge of the followings:
Conversation Knowledge & Culturally specific factors Setting wherein a conversation
occurs or frame Topic of a conversation the hearer): the social distance, interpersonal
status, age, gender, etc.
17. Cohesion & Think about: what are the other cohesive devices/mechanisms in English
discourse? Inappropriate cohesion usually results in incoherence. Coherence can be made
with/out cohesive ties/devices. Cohesion does not entail coherence. Cohesion helps to
create coherence.Coherence
18. Cohesive ties/devices Take a look at the handout.Sample analysis
19. A: How are you? (initiator) B: Fine, thank you. (response) And you? (initiator) A: Im fine.
Thanks. (response) A: Hello. (initiator) B: Hi. (response) For example: one person speaks
at one time, and the other listens, and then they switch places. The speaker and the hearer
take TURNs talking. The basic structure of a conversation: Turn(s) Conversation Analysis
20. A: How are you doing? (initiator) B: Not good Mr. Chen gave me an F. (response) A:
Thats too bad. (follow-up, feedback or comment) Can you do anything to fix it? (initiator) B: I
dont know (response) More example: Conversation Analysis
21. A: Didnt you [ know wh- B: [ But he mustve been there by two A: Yes but you knew
where he was going overlap repair For example (Yule, 2010, p. 145): Overlaps: when
interlocutors speak at the same time; both take the turnOverlaps and interruptions
22. TRP (Turn Relevance Place) (Sacks, Schegloff, How do the interlocutors know when to
take the turn?Pauses & Long pauses imply overtones. How about pauses that last longer
than 0.2 seconds? A perceivable/detectable pause, usually 0.2 seconds A falling in
intonation The end of a phrase, clause, or sentence Jefferson, 1974):
23. Mum: Helloo: Les: Oh hello howre you? Mum: Very well thank you love and you? Les:
Yes tha:nk you Mum: Thats good (0.5) Mum: We had torrential rain today (A new topic
initiated) (Drew and Chilton, 2000, p. 145) For example (in Culpeper et al., 2009, p. 503):
Pauses
24. Roger: Well it struck me funny (1.0) Al: ha, ha-ha-ha Ken: hh Roger: thank you
(Jefferson, 1979) For example (in Culpeper et al., 2009, p. 503): Pauses
25. Y: so when did he make that one X: I mean his other em his later films were much
more er really more in the romantic style and that was more what what he wasyou
knowem best at doing Y: [ when di- X: well that film really was [ wasnt what he was

good at For example (Yule, 2010, pp. 146-147) To keep the turn and imply to the other that
the current speaker has more to say.Filled pauses or pause fillers
26. What are the others? Question response/ignorance Statement
agreement/disagreement Request acceptance/rejection Greeting greeting/ignorance
For example: Adjacency pairs: a turn that is expected or predicted to follow a previous one.
How does the current speaker know what to say to take a turn?Adjacency pairs
27. (ii) HE: I think shes really sexy. SHE: Well er Im not sure you may be right
but you see other people probably dont go for all that you know all that makeup
so em sorry but (i) HE: How about going for some coffee? SHE: Oh eh Id love to
but you see I Im supposed to get this thing finished you know. In conversation
analysis, what is the difference between a preferred response and a dispreferred
response? How would you characterize the responses by She in these two examples?
Practice (Yule, 2010, p. 152): Adjacency pairs
28. The Manner maxim: Be clear, brief and orderly. The Relation maxim: Be relevant. The
Quality maxim: Do not say that which you believe to be false or for which you lack adequate
evidence. The Quantity maxim: Make your contribution as informative as is required, but not
more, or less, than is required. Gricean Maxiams, by Paul Grice (Yule, 2010, p. 147):
Assumption: interlocutors are cooperative in constructing a conversationThe cooperative
principle
29. [A is working at a computer in library when she experience a problem.] A: Can you help
me? B: Try the librarian. What is the implicature of Bs? What maxiam is flouted? Examples
(Culpeper et al., 2010, p. 215): Flouts of Grices maxiams
30. [A, sensitive about his lack of progress in Italian, has just returned from an Italian
evening class. B is his wife.] A: What did you do? B: This and that. What is the implicature of
Bs? What maxiam is flouted? Examples (Culpeper et al., 2010, p. 215): Flouts of Grices
maxiams
31. [Victor has been buried up to his neck in the back garden by an irate builder. His wife,
Margaret, comes out and sees him.] A: What are you doing? B: Im wallpapering the spare
bedroom What is the implicature of Bs? What maxiam is flouted? Examples (Culpeper et
al., 2010, p. 215): Flouts of Grices maxiams
32. [E adores strawberries, and would willingly base her diet entirely on them. A and B, her
parents, aim to restrict how frequently she eats them. A addresses B, with E in earshot.] A:
Shall I get the you-know-whats out of the fridge? What is the implicature of Bs? What
maxiam is flouted? Examples (Culpeper et al., 2010, p. 215): Flouts of Grices maxiams
33. I may be mistaken, but I thought I saw a wedding Which maxim does this speaker seem
to be particularly careful about? Practice (Yule, 2010, p. 152):The cooperative principle
What is the implicature?ring on his finger.
34. Why do you think we need such expressions/forms? Some formulaic expressions, such
as as far as I know, I am not absolutely sure, but, and Now, correct me if I were wrong
(Yule, 2010, p.148) Some tag questions, such as You kind of like her, right? kind/sort
of, as in You kind of dont like her. For example: What would you do if you did not
deliberately flout any maxim of the cooperative principle, but you needed to?Hedges

35. A cover term for them is? Another way to say them: tone-downers We know that we
need to be cooperative in conversation and that what I am going to say may flout the
cooperative principle to some extent. We need them because: What would you do if you
didnt deliberately flout any maxim of the cooperative principle?Hedges
36. Who is John? For example: John is on his way to school. He is worrying about the
English lesson this morning. The importance of backgroud knowledge. Any
intentional/purposeful violation of the cooperative principle can be another clue. Hedges
and tone-downers can be a clue. How does the speaker know how to imply and the hearer
how to infer?Implicatures and Inferences once again
37. For example: taking the train, traveling on an airplane, eating at a restaurant, talking to
someone on the phone Scripts: dynamic schemata/schemas. For example: school,
classroom, supermarket, bus, department store, airport Schemas/schemata: our
conventional knowledge of something In Johns example above, how do we know that what
the sentences are about, what John does, and what could have happened? Types of
Backbround Knowledge
38. A man and his son were crossing the street one day when a car suddenly came towards
them and hit the boy, knocking him down. In less than ten minutes an ambulance came and
took the boy to the nearest hospital. As the boy was being taken into the emergency room,
one of the surgeons saw him and cried out, Oh no. This is my son! This is a version of a
story described in Widdowson (2007). When most people first read this story, they find it
confusing. Can you identify the source of this confusion in terms of background knowledge or
assumptions? Practice: Yule (2010, p. 153, Task E)Background Knowledge
39. Sample conversation, from Culpeper et al. (2009)Conversation Analysis
40. Culpeper, J., Katamba, F., Kerswill, P., Wodak, R., Crystal, David. (2005). How language
works: How babies babble, words change meaning, and language live or die. Penguin
Books: London, U.K.References & Sacks, H., Schegloff, E. A., Jefferson, G. (1974). A
simplest systematics for the organization of turn-taking for conversation. Language, 50, 696735.McEnery, T. (Eds.) (2009). English language: Description, variation and context.
Palgrave Macmillan: Hampshire, England.