Analyzing written
language
Text and discourse analysis
• „The value of having some explicit knowledge of the grammar of written
language is that you can use this knowledge, not only to analyse the texts
but as a critical resource for asking questions about them”- (Halliday 1966)
• Methods of text and discourse analysis help explain language in its context
of use
Discourse
• Totality of interaction between humans within a given sphere or context
(e.g. political discourse: speeches, editorials in newspapers, books about
politics, comments by politicians in public arenas)
Discourse analysis
• Analyzes not just the text, but also relevant background from the wider
discourse, such as what other texts have had to say, what the relationships
among participants, etc.
Discourse analysis
• Methods focus on text, although they are in no way confined to it, and
include ways of analyzing how text is organized beyond the level of the
sentence as well as at the level of the sentence and below
Topics of interest
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Genres of discourse (various types of discourse in politics, the media, education, science,
business, etc.)
The relations between discourse and the emergence of syntactic structure
The relations between text (discourse) and context
The relations between discourse and power
The relations between discourse and interaction
The relations between discourse and cognition
Critical discourse analysis (CDA)
• The analysis of texts in their social context
Research questions in CDA
• Why was this text constructed at all?
• To whom is it addressed, and why?
• Does the writer of speaker have hidden purposes, and what are they?
• What hidden assumptions and biases underlie the text?
Topics
• Unequal power relations determined by gender, ethnicity, nationality, age,
wealth, education and culture
• Not only does discourse reflect and illustrate these inequalities: it creates
them
CDA in law
• The law of the land is created and implemented linguistically in courtroom
dialogue, written statutes and other texts
• The legality or illegality of e.g. slavery is determined through such textual
processes
• The phenomen of racism is inseparable from its textual manifestations
Ideology
• CD analysts believe that ideology underpins most discourse and that in
order to critically deconstruct a text, it is necessary to make the ideology
explicit
• E.g. racist utterances are often prefaced by a denial of bigotry (‘I’m not a
racist but…’) and sometimes this denial and the expression of prejudice can
take a much more subtle form
CDA
• Examines any features of the text that will shed light on its meaning,
especially on those aspects that are hidden
• Lexical choices, presuppositions, implicatures, metaphors, cohesive ties,
politeness pehnomena, grammatical options, stance and appraisal
CDA fields of interest
• Racism and related forms of discrimination
• Economic globalization
• Gender studies
• Discourse of advertising
CDA in legal contexts
• Discourse-based injustices suffered during the trial by e.g. rape victims,
child abuse victims, aboriginal Australians charged with crimes, etc.
Genre analysis
• Examines texts which are considered members of a genre to describe their
typical configuration in terms of their features, such as layout and
organization of concepts, and their use of vocabulary and grammar (their
lexicogrammar)
• Texts take on certain characteristics which allow us to identify for whom
they were written and for what purposes
• Another clue is the subject matter of the text
Exercise: identify the following texts in terms of where you think it
would be found, what its purpose is, who is writing for whom, what
might have come immediately before it and what might come
immediately after
• Text 1: Preheat oven to 180 degrees. Grease one 9x13 inch pan.
• Mix the flour, baking soda, baking powder, white sugar, brown sugar,
cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg, and salt in a large bowl until well blended. Beat
the eggs, oil, and vanilla in a separate bowl until smooth. Fold in the flour
mixture, then stir in the pumpkin.
Text 2
• Mary has also been involved this year as a volunteer ESL teacher in our
Community English Language program. This program provides free English
language instruction for members of the community, and classes ate taught
by our university students. Mary has brought to the program an incredible
amount of enthusiasm and insight, and her students enjoyed having her as a
teacher, and also felt that they had learned quite a bit of English.
• Mary’s enthusiasm, willingness to work hard, and ability to communicate
with people are all qualities which have been of great nenefit to our campus.
Text 3
• Last summer, I worked as a receptionist at the Northern Hospital Health
Clinic. My position involved me in greeting and helping patients, scheduling
appointments, and handling insurance bulling under the guidance of the
office manager.
• I hope you find that my background and skills would be beneficial to your
practice.
Text 4
• Once upon a time, there was a little girl who lived on the edge of the forest.
Text 5
• Discussion
• Ellis and Mellsop (1985) concluded that de Clerambault’s syndrome is an
aetiologically heterogeneous disorder. Theories of aeiology have
encompassed alcholism, abortion, post-amphetamine depression, epilepsy,
head trauma and neurological disorders. None of these is relevant in this
case.
Genre
A staged, goal-oriented, purposeful activity in which speakers engage as
members of a culture
• While there is variation within a given genre, as genres are not fixed, they
tend to follow a series of ‘moves’
• E.g. Academic articles: Introduction – methods – results – discussion conclusion
Genre
• Letter of recommendation:Recommendation, willingness to provide further
information if needed
• Job application:Declaration of intention, willingness to provide more
information and attend an interview, along with contact details
• Recipies: list of ingredients, step-by-step procedure
Recognizing Genre
• These staged moves help us recognize genres and form the basis for our
own writing in recurring situations, allowing us to participate in
communicative situations in a way which others will recognize as targeted
toward a communicative purpose
• In addition, we can recognize genres by the lexicogrammatical choices text
producers make
Discourse community
• A group of people with a set of shared goals and purposes for
communicating, which leads to a type of communication which tends to be
replicated in similar ways
• Many studies within genre-based research include descriptions of the
context in which the genres are embedded
Textual patterns
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Labov’s analysis of spoken interview data:
Narrative structure:
Abstract (What was this about? – optional element)
Orientation (time, persons, place, situation)
Complication (a crisis point, turning point)
Evaluation (the teller’s attitude; not a separate step, pervades the whole narrative)
Result (What happened? Resolution to crisis)
Coda (optional way of finishing by returning listeners to present)
Textual patterns
• Problem/solution pattern:
• Situation
• Problem
• Response
• Evaluation/result
Sample analysis: situation, problem, response,
result
• So often in my teaching, I find students whose English is communicatively
strong, and possibly accurate too, until pen hits paper. Many are badly let
down and held back by their spelling. U decided to find out how I could help
these learners imrove this skill. There is very little EFL material on the
subject, so I also researched spelling for native speaker children and adults.
The results of that research have led to the following ideas on how to learn
spelling, some ways to teach it and some games to revise itl
Other patterns
• Problem – solution (unable)
• Goal – achievement (want to, would like to, in order to)
• Opportunity – taking pattern (taking advantage of)
• Desire - fulfillment pattern (attractive, helpful)
• Gap in knowledge-filling pattern (in the absence of, given the lack of…)
Decide which pattern best describes the texts
below
• If you would like to have a nice vacation in a Branson cabin rental we have
some of the nicest vacation rentals and cabins available anywhere
Lexical signaling
• Patterns in text are often signaled by the word choices we make