CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION TO
DISCOURSE ANALYSIS
Trương Thị Thanh Hoa
Email: hoattt@hcmup.edu.vn
1. Form and function
•
Components of a language:
- Sounds / sound system
- Vocabulary / word structure / meanings of words
- Sentence structures / grammar
•
Rules / conventions for spoken and written interactions
•
The relationship between form and function
Q1: Is there a one-to-one correspondence between form and
function?
Q2: How can form be interpreted somewhat accurately?
1. Form and function
• There is ……………………………… one-to-one correspondence
between grammatical form and communicative function.
• Grammatical / Phonological forms if examined separately
are …………………………………… of function.
 Decisions about communicative function cannot solely be
the domain of grammar and phonology.
taken together, and looked at in context.
2. Context and Discourse
• Context refers to “the situation giving rise to the discourse, and within
which the discourse is embedded” (Nunan, 1993:7).
• There are a number of key aspects of context that are crucial to the
production and interpretation of discourse:
- ……………………………………: what people know about
what they can see around them.
- ……………………………………: what people know about
each other and the world.
- ……………………………………: what people know about
what they have been saying. (Cutting, 2008)
2. Context and Discourse
“Meaning is not something that is inherent in the
words alone, nor is it produced by the speaker alone or
the hearer alone. Making meaning is a dynamic
process, involving the negotiation of meaning between
speaker and hearer, the context of utterance (physical,
social and linguistic), and the meaning potential of an
utterance.” (Thomas, 1995)
2. Context and Discourse
• In a communicative exchange, interactants rely on their prior
knowledge, which may or may not be shared.
• Shared knowledge is perhaps most important for everyday
communicative exchanges, especially between participants
who are familiar with each other (Celce-Murcia & Olshtain,
2000:11).
Wife:
The reception is in the garden.
Husband: I’m wearing the brown jacket.
2. Context and Discourse
• Context can help:
– ……………………………………
– ……………………………………
– ……………………………………
3. Discourse – Types of discourse
• Discourse: language that has been produced as the result of an act of
communication (Richards et al., 1992).
• Discourse: language in use (Schiffrin, 1994).
• Discourse: stretches of language perceived to be meaningful, unified,
and purposive (Cook, 1989).
 The Garfield cartoon strip in today’s newspaper ?
 The Prime Minister’s speech ?
 Cooking recipe ?
 Final call for Singapore Airlines SQ75 for Bangkok. Passengers
please proceed to Gate 5 for immediate boarding.
 STOP ! / GO ! / WAIT !
3. Discourse – Types of discourse
• Types of discourse
3. Discourse – Types of discourse
• Annie,
Gone to the deli for milk. Back in a tick. Go in and make yourself at
home. Theo
• At times one’s preoccupation with averages can cause one to lose
sight of the fact that the most important decisions are based on
considerations of the extremes rather than on the middle of a
distribution.
• This morning Associate Prof. Dean Wolfe will talk about the science of
music at 11:30, and we’ll hear some fascinating things such as
musicians playing music backwards – but most of it will be played
forward.
• This morning at 11:30, Associate Professor Dean Wolfe will present a
program entitled “The Science of Music”, in which listeners will
experience a number of fascinating things, including music played
backwards – although most will be played forwards!
3. Discourse – Types of discourse
• The use of this method of control unquestionably leads
to safer and faster trains running in the most adverse
weather conditions.
• You can control the trains this way
and if you do that
you can be quite sure
that they’ll be able to run more safely and more quickly
no matter how bad the weather gets .
4. Discourse analysis (DA)
• In 1952, Zellig Harris coined the term ‘discourse
analysis’ when he investigated the distribution
of linguistic elements in extended texts and the
links between the text and its social situation.
• Discourse analysis started to attract much
attention in the late 1960s and 1970s.
–
–
–
–
–
John Austin (1962) & John Searle (1969) – speech act theory
Dell Hymes (1964) – ethnography of communication
M.A.K. Halliday (1973) – functional grammar
Paul Grice (1975) – cooperative principle
Brown & Levinson (1987) – Politeness theory
4. Discourse analysis (DA)
• DA is the study of language in use that extends beyond sentence
boundaries (Celce-Murica & Olshtain, 2000:4).
– Discourse analysis examines (Paltridge, 2012:2):
– patterns of language across texts
– the relationship between language and context
– how language use is influenced by relationship between participants
– the effect of language use on social identities and relations
– how views of the world are constructed through language use.
 “the bigger picture” of language description
 our production and interpretation of language
 our learning and teaching language
4. Discourse analysis (DA)
• Sound system, vocabulary, grammar ?
 They are the raw materials or the ………………………………
of a language, and knowledge of discourse analysis can
help put these domains into action and to achieve
successful communication.
• Discourse must be ……………………………………both in
terms of …………………………………… and
…………………………………….
5. Aspects of consideration
• Speech act theory: how to do things with words.
• Pragmatics and Conversation: the rules or principles
to be observed in conducting a conversation.
• The ethnography of communication: speech events
within the social and cultural context.
• Conversation analysis: exploring conversational norms
and recurring patterns in spoken interactions.
• Genre analysis: typical patterns of text organization.
• Pattern of cohesion, thematic progression: how
elements and ideas of a text are linked together.