Discourse Analysis
Discourse Analysis
Lecture # 23
•
Linguistics leads to the development and critical
maintenance of a sensitive attitude to language
•
The problems of stylistic reconstruction involves
all aspects of language: sounds, vocabulary,
morphology, syntax and semantics.
•
‘Stylistics of word’ or lexical stylistics will explore
the expressive resources available in the
vocabulary of a language.
Review of Lecture 22
Review of lecture 22
•
Word formation – an important source of
particular literary effects.
•
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Why analyse discourse?
Some (many?) things happen primarily (only?) in
language
From (say)
promising
to come to dinner
To (say)
telling someone you love them
(Or indeed: talking to the dog)
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(
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•
A particular unit of language (above
the sentence), or discourse in
structure;
•
A particular focus on language use,
discourse as function.
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?
•
Problem:you can have a unit which looks like a sentence
but doesn
’
t mean anything
•
e.g. Colourless green ideas sleep furiously
•
…
but on the other hand the units in which people speak
do not always look like sentences.
•
e.g. You can run a hou- whatcha- now whatcha you can
run a house-you can run a house a- and do the job,
which is important, y
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want it to be
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?
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e.g. “what’s the time?”
•
Phatic function (opens a contact)
•
Emotive function (conveys the need of the speaker)
•
Conative function (asks something of the addressee)
•
Referential function (makes reference to the world
outside the language)
•
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(
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Discourse – written and spoken
Discourse
Speaker/
writer
Hearer/ reader
Context
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•
‘Discourse’ refers to any utterance which is
•
meaningful. These texts can be:
•
- written texts
•
- oral texts (‘speech’/’talk’)
•
- mixed written/oral texts (e.g. Internet chat)
•
Discourse does not depend on the size of a text
•
(“P” and “Ladies” can both be analysed as
•
discourse)
•
Definitions of ‘discourse’ (3)
(a)
A set of terms, metaphors, allusions, ways of talking, references and
so on, which constitute an object
(b)
A to-and-fro of exchanges in talk (or text) that performs social
actions
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Scope
•
Influences
•
Approaches
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•
Discourse analysis is not a discipline which exists on
its own. It is influenced by other disciplines and
influences them as well. It is a two-way process …
•
For this reason discourse analysis examines spoken
and written texts from all sorts of different areas
(medical, legal, advertising) and from all sorts of
perspectives (race, gender, power)
•
Discourse analysis has a number of practical
applications - for example in analysing communication
problems in medicine, psychotherapy, education, in
analysing written style etc.
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sociolinguistics
Discourse Analysis
psycholinguistics
computational
linguistics
pragmatics
other non-
linguistic
disciplines
other linguistic
disciplines
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•
Deborah Schiffrin “Approaches to Discourse”
•
(1994) singles out 6 major approaches to
•
discourse:
•
the speech act approach;
•
interactional sociolinguistics;
•
the ethnography of communication;
•
pragmatic approach;
•
conversation analysis;
•
variationist approach.
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Founders of the speech act theory: John Austin & John
Searle.
There are different types of speech acts:
•
e.g. “speak louder” (directive)
•
“Oxford Street is a shopper’s paradise“ (assertive)
Although speech act theory was not first developed as a
means of analyzing discourse, particular issues in speech
act theory (indirect speech acts, multiple functions of
utterances) led to discourse analysis
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Represents the combination of three disciplines:
anthropology, sociology, and linguistics.
Focuses on how people from different cultures may share
grammatical knowledge of a language but contextualize
what is said differently to produce different messages.
e
.
g
.
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The way we communicate
depends a lot on the culture we
come from. Some stereotypes:
Finnish people: the hardest
nation for communication, quiet
and serious?
Turkish people: very talkative and
friendly?
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P
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H. P. Grice: the cooperative principle and conversational
maxims.
People interact by using minimal assumptions about
one another.
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•
e.g.
A: This is Mr. Smith may I help you
•
B: I can
’
t hear you
•
A: This is
Mr. Smith
•
B:
Smith.
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d
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c
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s
e
•
•
How do you
analyse
discourse?
•
Various ways. Depends on what sort of
discourse you’re interested in.
•
Constituting an object vs realising a social
action
•
Constituting an object
•
Usually some cultural object (marriage, crime, obesity
etc)
•
Data:
•
Media texts (eg news reports, magazine articles,
newspaper features)
•
Personal accounts (eg in interviews, diaries)
•
Ecuador’s capital Quito is 9,300ft above sea
level, giving their footballers a home
advantage when they play in the thin air.
•
They were a Spanish colony until they seized
their independence in 1822. Out of a
population of 14 million, 3,000 Ecuador fans
are in Germany. Football is the No1 sport but
they also love basketball and bullfights.
•
The main exports are coffee and bananas.
•
The language is Spanish. But let’s hope their
fans get no chance to shout Olé against
England in Stuttgart on Sunday.
Other facts
not chosen?
Inevitable Spanish-
speaker behaviour?
Who’s ‘us’?
•
PRESIDENT BUSH sought to
repair his tattered reputation in
Europe yesterday, talking of his
“deep desire” to close the
Guantanamo Bay prison camp
and conceding that his response
to the 9/11 terrorist attacks had
not been understood by much of
the continent.
Assumes it is
tattered
Compare
expressing his
deep desire
Assumes
(someone) has
made an
accusation
•
Discourse as language-in-interaction
•
Language in interaction comes through in a sequence,
in turns. Each turn has an implication for the next.
•
An example analysis: doctors delivering diagnoses.
•
Do they tell the patient immediately?
•
Dr. is telling mother about son
Notice that Dr. describes test results first
Dr. moves from test to treatment without explicit diagnosis
•
What does this results-first practice achieve?
(a)
Gives patient the sight of the evidence first
(b)
Shows that the diagnosis when given is well-
founded
(c)
Allows the patient to guess or predict what is to
come
(d)
Allows them to voice it themselves
•
Some worries & objections
•
It’s not quantitative, so is it ‘subjective’?
-
not particularly; argument still has to convince readers,
editors etc., by appeal to established findings & theory
Is it useful?
-
reveals how objects get constituted & unmasks the
interests that serves (and perhaps could be resisted)
-
shows how mundane interaction achieves its business
(and perhaps could be improved)
Why you shouldn’t do Discourse Analysis
•
recording the data (other than media texts)
isn’t always easy
•
transcribing the data is laborious
•
mastering the craft of explicating what’s going
on, without over-interpreting it or merely
describing it, is hard
•
or a survey of the incidence of A is X in Y
population etcetera
•
Why you might do Discourse Analysis
•
-
you get close to the data
-
the data (eg video recordings) are of life as it’s lived
-
you uncover the subtle organisation of language, the
prime medium of our social lives (and selves)
-
You plug in to social practices that - at the grandest -
constitute reality and our place in it
•
Other reasons why discourse analysis might
interest you
-
it might be connected to your life (job, family,
friends and so on)
-
it can go on your cv
-
if you get interested in the subject you might want
to take it further (specialization)
•
so it’s worth starting to think about what
you are interested in (linguistically)
This discourse analysis lecture delves into the stylistic aspects of language, including word formation and sentence structure, highlighting the expressive resources available in vocabulary and syntax. The review of previous lectures emphasizes the critical attitude necessary for language analysis and the importance of understanding linguistic functions. The discussion also raises questions about analyzing language units that may not conform to typical sentence structures.
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Presentation Transcript
Discourse Analysis Lecture # 23
Review of Lecture 22 Linguistics leads to the development and critical maintenance of a sensitive attitude to language The problems of stylistic reconstruction involves all aspects of language: sounds, vocabulary, morphology, syntax and semantics. Stylistics of word or lexical stylistics will explore the expressive resources available in the vocabulary of a language.
Review of lecture 22 Word formation an important source of particular literary effects. Stylistics of sentences or syntactic stylistics will express the expressive values of syntax at three superimposed planes: components of the sentence (individual grammatical forms, passages from one word-class to another), sentence- structure (word order, negation etc.), and the higher units into which single sentences combine (direct, indirect and free indirect speech, etc.)
Why analyse discourse? Some (many?) things happen primarily (only?) in language From (say) promising to come to dinner To (say) telling someone you love them (Or indeed: talking to the dog)
Definitions of Discourse (1) A particular unit of language (above the sentence), or discourse in structure; A particular focus on language use, discourse as function.
Discourse as structure ? Problem:you can have a unit which looks like a sentence but doesn t mean anything e.g. Colourless green ideas sleep furiously but on the other hand the units in which people speak do not always look like sentences. e.g. You can run a hou- whatcha- now whatcha you can run a house-you can run a house a- and do the job, which is important, y can t y- a man can t do it himself, and a woman can t do it himself w- if y want it to be successful. In most cases. How do you analyse something which is not a sentence?
Discourse as a System of functions ? e.g. what s the time? Phatic function (opens a contact) Emotive function (conveys the need of the speaker) Conative function (asks something of the addressee) Referential function (makes reference to the world outside the language) PROBLEM: Discourse analysis may turn into a more general and broader analysis of language functions.
Definition of Discourse (2) Discourse written and spoken Speaker/ writer Hearer/ reader Discourse Context
Objects of discourse Discourse refers to any utterance which is meaningful. These texts can be: - written texts - oral texts ( speech / talk ) - mixed written/oral texts (e.g. Internet chat) Discourse does not depend on the size of a text ( P and Ladies can both be analysed as discourse)
Definitions of discourse (3) A set of terms, metaphors, allusions, ways of talking, references and so on, which constitute an object (a) A to-and-fro of exchanges in talk (or text) that performs social actions (b)
Doing discourse analysis Scope Influences Approaches
The scope of discourse analysis Discourse analysis is not a discipline which exists on its own. It is influenced by other disciplines and influences them as well. It is a two-way process For this reason discourse analysis examines spoken and written texts from all sorts of different areas (medical, legal, advertising) and from all sorts of perspectives (race, gender, power) Discourse analysis has a number of practical applications - for example in analysing communication problems in medicine, psychotherapy, education, in analysing written style etc.
Influences on discourse analysis psycholinguistics sociolinguistics other non- linguistic disciplines other linguistic disciplines Discourse Analysis computational linguistics pragmatics
Approaches to Discourse Deborah Schiffrin Approaches to Discourse (1994) singles out 6 major approaches to discourse: the speech act approach; interactional sociolinguistics; the ethnography of communication; pragmatic approach; conversation analysis; variationist approach.
Approaches to Discourse (1) The Speech Act Approach Founders of the speech act theory: John Austin & John Searle. There are different types of speech acts: e.g. speak louder (directive) Oxford Street is a shopper s paradise (assertive) Although speech act theory was not first developed as a means of analyzing discourse, particular issues in speech act theory (indirect speech acts, multiple functions of utterances) led to discourse analysis
Approaches to Discourse (2) Interactional sociolinguistics Represents the combination of three disciplines: anthropology, sociology, and linguistics. Focuses on how people from different cultures may share grammatical knowledge of a language but contextualize what is said differently to produce different messages. e.g. yeah, bring them down here. I ll flog them for you (Australian English)
Approaches to Discourse (3) The ethnography of communication The way we communicate depends a lot on the culture we come from. Some stereotypes: Finnish people: the hardest nation for communication, quiet and serious? Turkish people: very talkative and friendly? Ethnography investigates speaker culture
Approaches to Discourse (4) Pragmatics H. P. Grice: the cooperative principle and conversational maxims. People interact by using minimal assumptions about one another.
Approaches to Discourse (5) Conversation analysis e.g. A: This is Mr. Smith may I help you B: I can t hear you A: This is Mr. Smith B: Smith. Conversational analysis is particularly interested in the sequencing of utterances, i.e. not in what people say but in how they say it
Summary of approaches to discourse Approaches to Studying Discourse Focus of Research Research Question Structural CA Sequences of talk Why say what at what moment? Variationist Structural categories within texts Why that form? Functional Speech Acts Communicative acts How to do things with words? How does discourse reflect culture? Ethnography of Communication Communication as cultural behaviour Interactional Sociolinguistics Social and linguistic meanings created during communication Meaning in interaction What are they doing? Pragmatics What does the speaker mean?
How do you analyse discourse? Various ways. Depends on what sort of discourse you re interested in. Constituting an object vs realising a social action
Constituting an object Usually some cultural object (marriage, crime, obesity etc) Data: Media texts (eg news reports, magazine articles, newspaper features) Personal accounts (eg in interviews, diaries)
Ecuadors capital Quito is 9,300ft above sea level, giving their footballers a home advantage when they play in the thin air. They were a Spanish colony until they seized their independence in 1822. Out of a population of 14 million, 3,000 Ecuador fans are in Germany. Football is the No1 sport but they also love basketball and bullfights. The main exports are coffee and bananas. The language is Spanish. But let s hope their fans get no chance to shout Ol against England in Stuttgart on Sunday. Other facts not chosen? Who s us ? Inevitable Spanish- speaker behaviour?
PRESIDENT BUSH sought to repair his tattered reputation in Europe yesterday, talking of his deep desire to close the Guantanamo Bay prison camp and conceding that his response to the 9/11 terrorist attacks had not been understood by much of the continent. Assumes it is tattered Compare expressing his deep desire Assumes (someone) has made an accusation
Discourse as language-in-interaction Language in interaction comes through in a sequence, in turns. Each turn has an implication for the next. An example analysis: doctors delivering diagnoses. Do they tell the patient immediately?
Dr. is telling mother about son Notice that Dr. describes test results first
What does this results-first practice achieve? (a) Gives patient the sight of the evidence first (b) Shows that the diagnosis when given is well- founded (c) Allows the patient to guess or predict what is to come (d) Allows them to voice it themselves
Some worries & objections It s not quantitative, so is it subjective ? - not particularly; argument still has to convince readers, editors etc., by appeal to established findings & theory Is it useful? - reveals how objects get constituted & unmasks the interests that serves (and perhaps could be resisted) - shows how mundane interaction achieves its business (and perhaps could be improved)
Why you shouldnt do Discourse Analysis recording the data (other than media texts) isn t always easy transcribing the data is laborious mastering the craft of explicating what s going on, without over-interpreting it or merely describing it, is hard or a survey of the incidence of A is X in Y population etcetera
Why you might do Discourse Analysis - you get close to the data - the data (eg video recordings) are of life as it s lived - you uncover the subtle organisation of language, the prime medium of our social lives (and selves) - You plug in to social practices that - at the grandest - constitute reality and our place in it
Other reasons why discourse analysis might interest you - it might be connected to your life (job, family, friends and so on) - it can go on your cv - if you get interested in the subject you might want to take it further (specialization) so it s worth starting to think about what you are interested in (linguistically)
