Presenter: Lee namhee
Date: April 8th, 2012
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* Table of contents
Definition of DISCOURSE
Origin of DISCOURSE
Synonyms of DISCOURSE
DISCOURSE analysis
Topics of DISCOURSE analysis
rhetoric
Political DISCOURSE
Linguistic discourse analysis
Speech act
Four forms of DISCOURSE
DISCOURSE functions
Comprehension Questions
Source of Knowledge
*Definition of DISCOURSE
Noun
verbal communication; talk; conversation
a formal treatment of a subject in speech or writing, such as a s
ermon or dissertation
a unit of text used by linguists for the analysis of linguistic phen
omena that range over more than one sentence
archaic
the ability to reason or the reasoning process
Verb dis·coursed, dis·cours·ing, dis·cours·es
To speak or write formally and extensively
To engage in conversation or discussion; converse.
Archaic To narrate or discuss.
 to communicate thoughts orally; talk; converse.
to treat of a subject formally in speech or writing.
*Origin of DISCOURSE
*Middle English discours, from Medieval Latin &Late
Latin discursus; Medieval Latin, argument, from Lat
e Latin, conversation, from Latin, act of running abo
ut, from discurrere to run about, from dis- + currere
to run
*First Known Use: 14th century
 Noun
conversation, talk, discussion, speech, co
mmunication, chat, dialogue,converse
 speech, talk, address, essay, lecture, ser
mon, treatise, dissertation, homily, oratio
n, disquisition
 Verb
 talk, speak, discuss, debate, confer, con
verse, declaim, hold forth, expatiate
*
* Discourse analysis (DA), or discourse studies, is a general term for a number of
approaches to analyzing written, spoken, signed language use or any significant
semiotic event.
* The objects of discourse analysis — discourse, writing, conversation, communic
ative event—are variously defined in terms of coherent sequences of sentences,
propositions, speech acts or turns-at-talk. Contrary to much of traditional lingui
stics, discourse analysts not only study language use 'beyond the sentence boun
dary', but also prefer to analyze 'naturally occurring' language use, and not inve
nted examples. This is known as corpus linguistics; text linguistics is related. Th
e essential difference between discourse analysis and text linguistics is that it a
ims at revealing socio-psychological characteristics of a person/persons rather t
han text structure.
* Discourse analysis has been taken up in a variety of social science disciplines, in
cluding linguistics, sociology, anthropology, social work, cognitive psychology, s
ocial psychology, international relations, human geography, communication stu
dies and translation studies, each of which is subject to its own assumptions, di
mensions of analysis, and methodologies. Sociologist Harold Garfinkel was anot
her influence on the discipline
*
Topics of discourse analysis include:
* The various levels or dimensions of discourse, such as sounds (int
onation), gestures, syntax, the lexicon, style, rhetoric, meanings
, speech acts, moves, strategies, turns and other aspects of inter
action
* Genres of discourse (various types of discourse in politics, the m
edia, 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 and memory
*
Definition:
* The study and practice of effective communication.
* The study of the effects of texts on audiences.
* The art of persuasion.
* An insincere eloquence intended to win points and manipulate
others.
Etymology:
* From the Greek, "I say"
Definitions of Rhetoric:
* "Rhetoric is the art of ruling the minds of men.“ (Plato)
* "Rhetoric may be defined as the faculty of observing in any give
n case the available means of persuasion.“ (Aristotle, Rhetoric)
* "Rhetoric is the art of speaking well.“ (Quintilian)
*
* Political discourse analysis is a field of discourse analysis whi
ch focuses on discourse in political forums (such as debates,
speeches, and hearings) as the phenomenon of interest.
* Political discourse is the informal exchange of reasoned view
s as to which of several alternative courses of action should b
e taken to solve a societal problem. It is a science that has b
een used through the history of the United States. It is the es
sence of democracy. Full of problems and persuasion, politic
al discourse is used in many debates, candidacies and in our
everyday life.
*
The following are some of the specific theoretical perspectives and analytical approach
es used in linguistic discourse analysis:
* Emergent grammar
* Text grammar (or 'discourse grammar')
* Cohesion and relevance theory
* Functional grammar
* Rhetoric
* Stylistics (linguistics)
* Interactional sociolinguistics
* Ethnography of communication
* Pragmatics, particularly speech act theory
* Conversation analysis
* Variation analysis
* Applied linguistics
* Cognitive psychology, often under the label discourse processing, studying the product
ion and comprehension of discourse.
* Discursive psychology
* Response based therapy (counselling)
* Critical discourse analysis
*
* Speech act is a technical term in linguistics and the philosophy o
f language. The contemporary use of the term goes back to J. L.
Austin's discovery of performative utterances and his theory of l
ocutionary, illocutionary, and perlocutionary acts. Speech acts ar
e commonly taken to include such acts as promising, ordering, g
reeting, warning, inviting and congratulating.
* Speech acts can be analysed on three levels: A locutionary act, t
he performance of an utterance: the actual utterance and its os
tensible meaning, comprising phonetic, phatic and rhetic acts co
rresponding to the verbal, syntactic and semantic aspects of any
meaningful utterance; an illocutionary act: the semantic 'illocuti
onary force' of the utterance, thus its real, intended meaning an
d in certain cases a further perlocutionary act: its actual effect,
such as persuading, convincing, scaring, enlightening, inspiring,
or otherwise getting someone to do or realize something, wheth
er intended or not (Austin 1962).
* Exposition
*Four forms of DISCOURSE
- In the first of these, exposition, the intention is to explain something: for instance, to
make some idea clear to the reader, to analyze a situation, to define a term, to give di
rections. The intention, in short, is to inform.
*
Persuasion
- Persuasion represents power. You persuade somebody to join your political cause, that i
s to accept your body of opinion. You persuade somebody to lend you five dollars till Sa
turday night- that is, however reluctantly in the beginning, to perform an act. We must
realize that a change of opinion or attitude implies a change, potentially at least, in ac
tion. Thus persuasion is always targeted toward action - i.e., power.
*
Description
- In description, the intention is to make the reader as vividly aware as possible of what
the writer has perceived through his senses (or in imagination), to give the reader the "
feel" of things described, the quality of a direct experience. The thing described may b
e anything that we can grasp through the senses, a city street, the face of a person, th
e sound of a voice the odor of an attic, a piece of music.
* Narration
– Narration is the kind of discourse concerned with action, with events in time, with life
in motion. It answers the question "What happened?" It tells a story. As we use the wor
d here, a story is a sequence of events historically true or false -- so -- fictional or nonfictional -- presented that the imagination grasps the action.In narration, the intention
is to present an event to the reader-what happened and how it happened.
*DISCOURSE functions
 Four types of sentence function
Statement
: for conveying information
Question
: seek information though not always.
• Rhetorical questions- no answers expected e.g. who cares?
• Exclamatory questions - express speakers strong feelings and ask hearer
to agree e.g. Wasn’t it wonderful!
• Tag questions - interrogative structure at the end of sentence, and a
yes-no answer expected e.g. It is there, isn’t it?
Directive
: instruct someone to do something; uses: commanding, inviting, warning,
pleading, suggesting, advising, instructing, permitting, expressing good
wishes
Exclamation
: show that one has been impressed or roused by something e.g. Gosh!,
Oh dear!, How nice!
*
* Which one is not related to discoure?
a. Conversation
b. Discussion
c. Christmas
* It is
concerned with action, with events in
time, with life in motion and It tells a story.
What is the kind of discourse?
a. Exposition
b. Narration
c. Persuasion
* Which type of sentence functions below?
e.g. How wonderful!
a. Statement
b. Directive
c. Exclamation
*Steve Jobs' 2005 Stanford Commencement Address
http://cafe.naver.com/macos/10891
http://www.visualthesaurus.com/app/view
*
* http://www.thefreedictionary.com/discourse
* http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Discourse
* http://grammar.about.com/od/d/g/discourseterm.htm
* http://wiki.answers.com/Q/What_are_the_four_forms_of_discourse
* http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/discourse
* http://oxforddictionaries.com/definition/discourse
* http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/discourse
* http://www.tu-chemnitz.de/phil/english/chairs/linguist/independent/kursmat
erialien/exploringEnglish/senttypes.pdf
* http://www.visualthesaurus.com/app/view
* http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rhetoric
* http://grammar.about.com/od/rs/g/rhetoricterm.htm
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