Discourse Analysis
Cohesion
• Ties and connections between texts (look at
p.140 for illustration).
• What kind of words are used to connect
sentences within a text?
- Pronouns
- Lexical connections?
• Is cohesion a necessary condition for
structuring and interpreting a text? Look at
the example on page 141 to answer this
question.
Coherence
• The key concept in coherence is not
something which exists in language but
something which exits in people?
• It has to do with the ability to make sense of
the text.
Cohesion and Coherence
• Is cohesion and index of coherence? Look the
example on page 142 to decide.
Speech Events
• Factors to be considered in the analysis of the
speech:
- Roles of the participants
- Relationship between participants
Conversational Interaction
• What is conversation? “It is an activity where two people or
more take turns at speaking, usually one person speaks at a
time”
• Markers of talk end:
- Questions
- Pauses
• Markers to show interest in turn taking:
- Short sounds
- Body shift
- Facial expression
Cooperative Principle
• Participants in fact cooperate with each other.
The principle of cooperation is supported by
four maxims (Grice Maxims)
1. Quantity: Make your contribution as
informative as is required, but not more or
less, than is required.
2. Quality: Do not say which you believe to be
false or for which you lack evidence.
3. Relation: Be relevant.
4. Manner: Be clear, brief and orderly
Background Knowledge
• It is a piece of information while not explicitly
stated in the text, it is important for its
interpretation.
• This is technically known as schema, i.e.
“conventional knowledge which exists in
memory”
• People are said to have, say, supermarket
schema. They don’t need to be told about
what is in the supermarket.