DISCOURSE ANALYSIS (DA)
 The co-operative principle (cp)
 Speech act theory (sat)
 Text
 Coherence
 Cohesion
 Reference
DA is a way of understanding social interactions or language in use in real life situations.
Language in society performs two major functions, transactional and interactional functions.
Transactional function: involves conveyance of information to other members of society
about developments/events in various areas of human endeavour. (CONTENT)
Interactional function: involves conveyance of information to other members of society in
order to control or manipulate their behaviour. (PERSONAL ATTRIBUTES/SOCIAL
RELATIONS)
For example, in almost all human societies, rules and regulations seek to control the
behaviour of the public, while the language used in political campaigns and advertising seek
to manipulate the behaviour of society. It is the case, therefore that language in use either
informs, controls or manipulates.
DA is therefore a linguistic concept referring to a critical analysis of language in use beyond
a sentence in real life situations. It focuses on investigating connected, naturally occurring
spoken or written language. Sentences and utterances are considered in relation to the context
in which they are made.
The major concern of discourse is patterns that appear in language in units larger than the
sentence. Discourse considers complete and authentic texts within context. It shows how an
utterance follows another in a rule-governed manner.
Most of the problems that language learners encounter involve inter-sentential relations of
one kind or another, and thus the study of Discourse Analysis (DA). In studying DA, several
approaches have emerged over the last few decades, the most significant of which are
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i)
The analysis of conversation
ii)
Illocutionary patterns in the text (relationship between sentences/clauses in terms
of proposition, modification, ...)
iii)
Grammatical and lexical ties within a text (Cohesion)
There are various facets of DA, in this study however, we shall consider only the following
i) THE CO-OPERATIVE PRINCIPLE (CP)
Definition: CP is a rule of conversation (postulated by Grice 1975), stating that participants in
a conversation should each “make your [their] conversational contribution such as is required,
at the stage at which it occurs, by the accepted purpose or direction of the talk exchange in
which you are engaged” Yule (1995:110) A conversational exchange is a sequence of
interrelated remarks which are borne out of the co-operative behaviour of the participants.
Each of them recognises that there is a mutually accepted direction or purpose in which the
conversation is to proceed. In conversation, it is assumed that there is co-operation
between/among participants to that conversation. Grice postulates four conversational
maxims in support of this principle namely quantity, quality, relation and manner.
The quantity maxim
• Make your contribution as informative as required
• Do not make your contribution more or less informative, than is required
The quality maxim
Try to make your contribution one that is true
• Do not say what you believe is false
• Do not say that for which you lack adequate evidence
The relation maxim
Be relevant
The Manner maxim
Be perspicuous (clearly expressed and therefore easily understood.)
• Avoid obscurity of expression
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• Avoid ambiguity
• Be brief (avoid unnecessary prolixity/wordiness/verbosity)
• Be orderly
The CP, along with the conversational maxims, partly accounts for conversational
implicatures). Participants assume that a speaker is being cooperative, and thus they make
conversational implicatures about what is said. E.g. When a speaker makes an apparently
uninformative remark such as “War is war,” the addressee assumes that the speaker is being
cooperative and looks for the implicature the speaker is making. Some possible implicatures
could be;
- All war is undifferentiated and therefore evenly unjust.
- This is the way war is, so stop complaining.
- In war all is fair, so get on with it and hope not to be a casualty.
There are conversations where the CP does not seem to be functional, and they are many. The
general description of the normal expectations of conversation helps to explain features in the
way people speak. “For example, a number of common expressions like Well, to make a long
story short... and I won’t bore you with all the details ... seem to be indicators of the
awareness of the Quantity maxim.” Ibidem.
Awareness of the Quality maxim seems to come out in the way some conversational
contributions begin, e.g. ‘As far as I know..., Now, correct me if I am wrong..., I am
absolutely sure but ...’, I stand to be corrected ..., and we often take care to indicate that what
we report is something we think and feel (not know), is possible or likely (not certain), may
or could (not must) happen.” Consider the difference between
a. Mukango has gone to see the Principal. (Assumed to have good evidence for the
statement)
and
b. I think it’s possible that Mukango may have gone to see the Principal. (Assumed not
to have good evidence for the statement)
Considering that we operate with the CP, some answers which on the surface appear
unrelated to the question, could be interpreted. Consider the following discourse
Carol: Are you coming to the party tonight?
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Laura: I‘ve got an exam tomorrow.
Laura’s response does not appear to be an answer to the question, its neither ‘Yes’ nor ‘No’’
yet Carol would understand it to mean ‘No’ Yule (1995:111) asks the question “How can we
account for this ability to grasp one meaning from a sentence which , in literal sense, means
something else? It seems to depend on the fact that Laura is being ‘relevant’ and
‘informative’. ... ‘examination tomorrow’ conveniently involves ‘study tonight’ and ‘study
tonight’ precludes ‘party tonight’ ” Laura’s response, apart from being a statement about
tomorrows activities, contains an implicature concerning tonight’s activities. Our background
knowledge (about exams, studying and partying) plays a part in correctly interpreting
discourse. (Yule,1995)
Flouting of a maxim by a conversational participant in the course of a conversation generates
“implicatures”. In such instances, a participant violates a maxim trying to keep the CP intact.
A resultant feature of this is a generation of a double message. Two meanings are derived – a
literal meaning which fails to observe at least one of the four maxims and an indirect or nonliteral meaning, which maintains the CP. Conversational implications can be evidenced from
irony, circumlocutions, ambiguities, In such a case, the listener is faced with the challenge of
deciding how to deal with the violations: Is the speaker observing CP, if so what are the
intentions in flouting any one of the maxims? In order to carry on with the conversation, it
becomes necessary for the listener to work out the implicatures and proceed accordingly.
The quantum of communication should not be too much, nor too little. The contributions to
the entire discourse should be truthful. Statements which lack adequate evidence should not
be made. The utterances made in a particular context should be relevant.
The role of the maxims
• Specifying what participants have to do in order to converse in a maximally efficient,
rational and co-operative way
• Participants ought to speak sincerely, relevantly and clearly, while providing enough
information
Interpretation principles following the maxims
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• People tend to interpret what has been said as conforming to the maxims on at least some
level
• Inferences arise to preserve the assumption of co-operation Implicatures
Inferences made based on
• What has been said (conventional content?)
• Specific assumptions about the co-operative nature of ordinary verbal interaction (the
communication maxims)
• The linguistic and extra- linguistic context
ii) SPEECH ACT THEORY (SAT)
A speech act is an utterance that serves a function in communication. It might contain just
one word, as in "Sorry!" to perform an apology or several words or sentences such as "I’m
sorry I forgot your birthday, it slipped my mind." Therefore, speech acts are performed when
we offer an apology, convey a greeting, a request, a complaint, extend an invitation, give a
compliment, or a refusal. Speech acts include real-life interactions and require not only
knowledge of the language but also appropriate use of that language within a given culture.
Speech act is at times used to refer just to the same thing as the term illocutionary act. By
saying something, we do something", as when a minister joins two people in marriage saying,
"I now pronounce you husband and wife."
Speech act theory (SAT) therefore is a theory that links utterances to the acts performed.
Certain linguistic ‘forms’ accompany certain ‘functions’, for example
Form
Function
Hi John
Greeting
Shut up, will you?
Command
Can you pass the milk?
Request
You ate the food
Statement
Sorry for that
apologizing
The theory proposes a shift in meaning according to a change in the context or situation. The
speaker and listener conform to certain rule based behaviour, etiquettes and norms of
communication which move along three dimensions
i)
knowledge of the rules of the sender
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ii)
recipient’s conformity to the rules
iii) Extent to which the recipient either conforms or deviates (intentionally or
unintentionally) in a particular context.
In context of rule conforming behaviour, it is vital to keep two factors in mind: relevance and
coherence of the topic being discussed.
Relevance implies making utterances in a particular context according to the need and
necessity of the moment. Coherence means adherence to a set of logically and sequentially
arranged utterances which necessarily follow one another. This again is based on conformity
to certain rules.
Examples
1. Greeting (in saying, "Hi John!", for instance), apologizing ("Sorry for that!"), describing
something ("It is snowing"), asking a question ("Is it snowing?"), making a request and
giving an order ("Could you pass the salt?" and "Drop your weapon or I'll shoot you!"), or
making a promise ("I promise I'll give it back") are typical examples of speech acts or
illocutionary acts.
2. In saying, ‘Watch out, the ground is slippery’, the speech act of warning one to be careful
is performed. In ‘I will try my best to be at home for dinner’, the speech act of promising to
be at home in time is performed. In saying, ‘Ladies and gentlemen, may I have your
attention, please?’, the audience is requested to be quiet. In saying, ‘Can you race with me
to that building over there?’, a challenges is made.
A speech act is an act that a speaker performs when making an utterance
3. Greeting: "Thomas, how are things going?"
4. Request: "Could you pass me the salt, please?"
5. Complaint: "I’ve already been waiting three weeks for the computer, and I was told it
would be delivered within a week."
6. Invitation: "We’re having some people over on Saturday evening and wanted to know if
you’d like to join us."
7. Compliment: "Hey, I really like your watch!"
8. Refusal:
"Oh, I’d love to see that movie with you but this Friday just isn’t going to
work."
Speech acts may be difficult to perform in a second language because learners may not know
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the idiomatic expressions or cultural norms in that second language or they may transfer their
first language rules and conventions into the second language, assuming that such rules are
universal. Given that the natural tendency for language learners is to fall back on what they
know to be appropriate in their first language, it is important that these learners understand
exactly what they do in that first language in order to be able to recognize what is transferable
to other languages. Something that works in English might not transfer in meaning when
translated into the second language. For example, the following remark as uttered by a native
English speaker could easily be misinterpreted by a native Chinese hearer:
Sarah: "I couldn’t agree with you more.”
Cheng: "Hmmm…." (Thinking: "She couldn’t agree with me? I thought she liked my idea!")
An example of potential misunderstanding for an American learner of Japanese would be
what is said by a dinner guest in Japan to thank the host. For the invitation and the meal the
guests may well apologize a number of times in addition to using an expression of
gratitude … for instance, for the intrusion into the private home, the commotion that they are
causing by getting up from the table … and also for the fact that they put their host out since
they had to cook the meal, serve it, and will have to do the dishes once the guests have left ….
American guests might think this to be rude or inappropriate and choose to compliment the
host on the wonderful food and festive atmosphere, or thank the host for inviting them,
unaware of the social conventions involved in performing such a speech act in Japanese.
Although such compliments or expression of thanks are also appropriate in Japanese, they are
hardly enough for native speakers of Japanese -- not without a few apologies!
III. TEXT
“Text is something that happens, in the form of talking or writing, listening or reading. When
we analyse it, we analyse the product of this process, and the term 'text' is usually taken as
referring to the product...” Halliday 1994: 311
“an instance of language in use, either spoken or written: a piece of language behaviour
which has occurred naturally, without the intervention of the linguist...
In lay language (i.e. non-specialist usage), the term text is generally applied exclusively to
written material and sometimes more specifically to a course book, for example: a teacher
might ask her/his students to bring their 'texts' to the next lesson. However, when we talk
about text as linguists, we are using it with a much broader meaning. For us, text shall be
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taken to mean any stretch of language in use on which we choose to focus; it can be of any
length and spoken or written. In this sense, the huge novel War and Peace is a text, Things
Fall Apart by Achebe, The Government Inspector by Gogol, Milton's' sonnet On his
Blindness, an academic essay by a student, etc. are texts. What you are reading now is a text.
But so is a bill, a receipt, an advertisement, a road sign saying ‘Halt’, a note on a door reading
‘Closed’. A lecture is a text, as is the verbal exchange that takes place when you buy
something, or the exchange of greetings: 'Hello, there!' 'Hi! or a single cry of Help!
We may speak of a complete text to refer to the whole of the language event (for example, a
whole essay by a student, Things Fall Apart by Achebe, an entire letter, an entire book, a
complete lecture); or we may speak of a text fragment (a paragraph from Things Fall Apart
by Achebe, five minutes of a one hour lecture, and so on). But the distinction between a text
and a text-fragment is not very precise, and often the simple term text is applied to any piece
of actual language regardless of its completeness. As such, while bearing this in mind, we
shall use the term ‘text’ to refer to both a complete text and a text fragment.
Further, the term text may be applied to the ongoing discourse process such as a sales
transaction as it occurs, the lecture as it is being given (like this one), etc. or to a written or
electronic record of the event (a transcript or a tape-recording of the lecture).
IV. COHERENCE
Coherence deals with the systematic or logical connection or consistency of ideas expressed
in a text. When sentences, ideas, and details fit together clearly, readers can follow along
easily, and the writing is said to be coherent. The ideas tie together smoothly and clearly.
It is a property of unity in a written text or a segment of spoken discourse that stems from the
links among its underlying ideas and from the logical organization and development of its
thematic content. Coherence is the connection of ideas between sentences or the meaning and
relevance that utterances have in context of those around them (cotext). “The key to the
concept of coherence is not something which exists in the language, but something which
exists in people. It is people who ‘make sense’ of what they read or hear” Yule (1995:106)
coherence: the way meanings are understood
To establish the links that readers need, the following methods can be used
Repetition of a Key Term or Phrase
This helps to focus your ideas and to keep your reader on track.
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Example: The problem with contemporary art is that it is not easily understood by most
people. Contemporary art is deliberately abstract, and that means it leaves the viewer
wondering what she is looking at.
Synonyms
Synonyms are words that have essentially the same meaning, and they provide some variety
in your word choices, helping the reader to stay focused on the idea being discussed.
Example: Myths narrate sacred histories and explain sacred origins. These traditional
narratives are, in short, a set of beliefs that are a very real force in the lives of the people who
tell them.
Pronouns
This, that, these, those, he, she, it, they, and we are useful pronouns for referring back to
something previously mentioned. Be sure, however, that what you are referring to is clear.
Example: When scientific experiments do not work out as expected, they are often considered
failures until some other scientist tries them again. Those that work out better the second time
around are the ones that promise the most rewards.
Transitional Words
There are many words in English that cue our readers to relationships between sentences,
joining sentences together. See the handout on Transitional Devices (Connecting Words).
There you'll find lists of words such as however, therefore, in addition, also, but, moreover,
etc.
Example: I like autumn, and yet autumn is a sad time of the year, too. The leaves turn bright
shades of red and the weather is mild, but I can't help thinking ahead to the winter and the ice
storms that will surely blow through here. In addition, that will be the season of chapped
faces, too many layers of clothes to put on, and days when I'll have to shovel heaps of snow
from my car's windshield.
Sentence Patterns
Sometimes, repeated or parallel sentence patterns can help the reader follow along and keep
ideas tied together.
Example: (from a speech by President John F. Kennedy) and so, my fellow Americans: ask
not what your country can do for you--ask what you can do for your country
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Cohesion is the ‘glue’ that holds a piece of writing together. In other words, if a text is
cohesive, it sticks together from sentence to sentence and from paragraph to paragraph.
Cohesive devices certainly include transitional words and phrases, such as therefore,
furthermore, or for instance, that clarify for readers/listeners (audience) the relationship(s)
between/among ideas in a piece of writing. However, transitions aren't enough to make
writing cohesive. Repetition of key words and use of reference words are also needed for
cohesion.
Repetition of Key Words
We can tie sentences or paragraphs together by repeating certain key words from one
sentence to the next or from one paragraph to the next. This repetition of key words also
helps to emphasize the main idea of a piece of writing.
For example, in the following paragraph, notice how many times the words owned and
ownership are repeated:
Nobody owned any part of the land. Chansonso's father owned many cattle, and if
the cows continued to produce calves, he might as well become the next chief.
Old Grandmother owned the beautifully tanned animal skins she used as coverlets
in winter. And Chansonso owned his polished hard-wood assegais. But the land
belonged to the spirits who governed life; it existed forever, for everyone, and was
apportioned temporarily according to the dictates of the tribal chief and senior
headman. chansonso's father occupied the hillside for the time being, and when he
died the older son could inherit the loan -- land, but no person or family every
acquired ownership.
By repeating the words owned and ownership throughout the paragraph, the writer has tied
each sentence to each other and has clearly indicated what the main idea of the paragraph is.
In this case, the main idea is ownership of something. And what exactly is being (or not being)
owned? By repeating the word land, the author shows us that the entire main idea is
ownership of land.
Use of Reference Words
Another way of tying sentences and paragraphs together involves using reference words that
point back to an idea mentioned previously. Among the many reference words that can be
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used to tie one sentence to another or one paragraph to another are words like this, these,
those, such, and that.
These reference words should not be used by themselves but should be combined with the
important words and phrases from previous sentences or paragraphs. In the following
paragraphs, we can see how reference words are used not only to tie sentences and
paragraphs together, but also to emphasize the main idea.
Writing a paper is often difficult and many times rewarding. First, I don't always know what
to write about, so I often need to research, talk to people, and think about what I know before
I come up with a strong topic. In addition, writing a paper takes time and energy. Time is
needed to select and narrow a topic, to generate information and structure ideas, to knock out
draft after draft, and to edit for my usual typos and mechanical errors. Besides the time
involved, energy (and lots of food to produce it) is needed so I can produce my best work.
Although writing a paper is sometimes difficult, it can be very rewarding. I enjoy seeing
words which say exactly what I want them to. l also feel proud when everything "clicks."
Finally, knowing that I've done my best work and earned a good grade too are strong personal
rewards.
Many words are repeated from one sentence to the next and from one paragraph to the next as
well. Can you identify the main ideas of each paragraph based on the words that are often
repeated?
Collocation
1.
Co-occurrence of words: the association between two words that are typically or
frequently used together
2. Closeness of things: an arrangement in which things are placed next to each other or close
together
Encarta ® World English Dictionary © & (P) 1998-2004 Microsoft Corporation. All rights
reserved.
Cohesion by itself is insufficient for readers to make sense of a text. It is possible to have a
text that is highly cohesive with several connections between sentences but difficult to
interpret. Consider the following
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My father bought a Lincoln convertible. The car driven by the police was red.
That colour doesn’t suit her. She consists of three letters. However, a letter isn’t
as fast as a telephone call. (Yule 1995:106)
The above excerpt serves to show that the ‘connectedness’ we encounter in our interpretation
of normal text is based on something beyond ‘connectedness’ of words. “There must be some
other factor which leads us to distinguish connected texts which make sense from those that
do not. This factor is usually described as coherence. (Ibid)
Contrast the above excerpt with the following
My father bought a Lincoln convertible. He did it by saving every penny he could.
That car would be worth a fortune nowadays. However, he sold it to help pay for
my college education. Sometimes I think I’d rather have the convertible. (Ibid:
105)
VI. REFERENCE
In general, a reference is a relation between objects in which one object designates by linking
to another object. Such relations as these may occur in a variety of domains, including logic,
time, art and scholarship. The nature of reference as a role in language and thought has been
around since the 19th Century. During this time, applying itself as an important topic of
discussion. An object which is referred to as a reference (where the reference leads) is called
a referent.
In semantics, reference is generally construed as the relation between nouns or pronouns and
objects that are named by them. Hence the word John refers to John. The word it refers to
some previously specified object. The item/thing/object referred to is called the referent of
the word. Sometimes the word-object relation is called denotation; the word denotes the
object. The converse relation, the relation from object to word, is called exemplification; the
object exemplifies what the word denotes. (c.f. Ostensive definition) In syntactic analysis, if a
word refers to a previous word, the previous word is called the antecedent.
SUMMARY OF ASPECTS OF REFERENCE
REFERENCE
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EXOPHORIC
ENDOPHORIC
(Situational)
(Textual)
ANAPHORIC
CATAPHORIC
(Preceding text)
(Following
text)
Anaphoric reference
Reference backwards within the text. A personal pronoun, for example, often has anaphoric
reference, i.e. you have to look at the preceding context to see what it refers to. In the two
examples, ‘she’ anaphorically refers to Christina and Mercy
1. Christina was studying for her exams. She found it difficult to concentrate.
2. Mercy looked out of the window. The sky looked threatening, so she decided to take an
umbrella.
Cataphoric reference
Forward references within the text.
Anaphoric and cataphoric references constitute endophoric reference. Also, the term
Exophoric reference names situations where the referent does not appear in the utterances of
the speaker, but instead in the real world i.e outside the text.
1. It’s easy to make mistakes.
2. It was such an eye opener, the Teaching practice.
3. They will get their fair share of the profits. The workers put in a lot of effort in the
project.
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