语言学-discourse-analysis.ppt

Chapter 7 Discourse Analysis 语篇分析,Major contents,1.Discourse and discourse analysis 2.Information structure 3. Cohesion and coherence 4.Discourse markers 5.Conversational analysis 6. Critical analysis,1 Discourse and Discourse Analysis,Discourse Language above the sentence or above the clause. (Stubbs,1983:1) Text linguistics/ discourse analysis written spoken Used interchangeably now,1 Discourse and Discourse Analysis,Discourse analysis Discourse linguistics/ discourse studies/ text analysis The study of how sentences in spoken and written language form larger meaningful units such as paragraphs, conversations, interviews, etc. p168,1 Discourse and Discourse Analysis,Language in use Pragmatics: meaning Discourse analysis: information structure Most powerful instrument: Functional Systemic Grammar,1 Discourse and Discourse Analysis,Fertilizers put back what the rain and plants take away. Plastic pots are not just substitutes for clay ones. Pears are a little more temperamental than apples. Supporting and training are not quite the same thing. ,1 Discourse and Discourse Analysis,Pick up a handful of soil in your garden. Ordinary, unexciting earth. Yet it is one of Natures miracles, and one of her most complex products. Your success as a gardener will largely depend upon its condition, so take the first bold step in gardening - get to know your soil. ,1 Discourse and Discourse Analysis,A primary task of DA is to explore the linguistic features which characterize discourse. The goal of DA is to examine how reader or user of a discourse recognizes that parts of a discourse are dependent on others. One of the most important features of discourse is cohesion (衔接),1 Discourse and Discourse Analysis,Topics of DA: Information structure(信息结构) Cohesion(衔接) Coherence(连贯) Discourse makers(话语标记语) Conversational analysis(会话分析),2 Information Structure,How do language users arrange information within discourse? 2.1 Given and new information Alice: Who ate the bread? Tom : Mary ate the bread. Given information: known to the addressee New information: unknown to the addressee.,2.1 Given and new information,Given information can be introduced by one speaker alone: A man called while you were on your break. He said hed call back later. Given information can be something closely related to the mentioned information (e.g. meronymy) （部分-整体关系） Kent returned my car last night after borrowing it for the day. One of the wheels was about to fall off and the dashboard was missing.,2.1 Given and new information,Forms of N/G information: New-information carriers usually receive more stress, and they are commonly more elaborated, e.g. with a full noun phrase, relative clause or adjectival modifier(s). E.g. When I entered the room, there was a tall man with an old-fashioned hat on, quite elegantly dressed.,2.1 Given and new information,Given information is expressed in shorter forms (pronouns/ unstressed noun phrase/omitted): A: Who ate the apple? B: Mary did./ Mary.,2.2 Topic and comment 话题和述题,Topic话题: what the utterance is about. Comment述题: what is said about the topic. Topic is the element of a sentence that functions as the center of attention. Topic is usually the subject, noun phrase. Mary ate the bread.,2.2 Topic and comment,Other elements can take the role too. After tea, will you tell me a story. Mark the topic Place topic in the initial position in English. A beautiful dress she did make. Topic is not necessarily a property of the sentence; it may be a property of the discourse context: Oh, look!,2.2 Topic and comment,Topic-comment vs. given-new information Given-new information: the point of view of the listener. Topic-comment relates to that of the speaker. The given element is that which the speaker presents as already being known to the listener. The topic element represents what the utterance is about.,2.2 Topic and comment,Given information is not always the topic. Mary ate the bread. As for her little sister, she drank the Coca-Cola. new/ topic Peter didnt believe anything the charlatan said. As for Mary, she believed everything he said. given/ comment,2.2 Topic and comment,Topic-comment vs. rheme-theme Rheme-theme: sentence Topic-comment: discourse Rheme-theme: concrete sentence structure (linguistic form) Topic-comment: abstract information structure Mikes house was so comfortable and warm! He really didnt want to leave, but he couldnt afford the rent, you know. And it had such a nice garden in the back!,2.2 Topic and comment,Topics are not so important to the grammar of English. There is only one grammatical structure which marks topics in English. As for me, Im gonna go to bed. Other languages have special forms to mark the topic (Japanese, Korean) Chinese marks topics by word order: 作业终于做完了！,2.2 Topic and comment,In English, marking the topic of a sentence is far less important than marking the subject. There are special forms to indicate the subject: She looks at him.,2.3 Contrast对比,Contrast: a noun phrase occurs in opposition to another noun phrase in the discourse. contrastive A: Did Tom see the ghost? B: No, John did. B: Yes, Tom saw the ghost.,2.3 Contrast对比,One outstanding from all is contrasted with the whole: Of everyone present, only Peter knew what was going on. Adele knew what was going on, and Peter knew what was going on. Contrast is also marked in sentences that express the narrowing down of a choice from several candidates to one.,2.3 Contrast对比,Test for contrast: If a noun phrase can be followed by “rather than”, it is contrastive: A: Did Tom see the ghost? B: No, John, rather than Tom, saw the ghost. B: No, Tom see the angle, rather than the ghost.,2.3 Contrast对比,A single sentence can have several contrastive noun phrases: A: Did Tom see a ghost? B: Yes, Tom saw a ghost, but John saw an entire cast of spirits. Contrast is observed from the discourse context or situational context. Mary likes going to Maine during the winter.,2.3 Contrast对比,Employee: Can I leave early today? Manager: I dont mind. In English, contrastive noun phrase can be marked by pronouncing it with strong stress: You may be smart, but hes good-looking.,3. Cohesion and Coherence 衔接 & 连贯,How sentences are combine to form texts? Its practically impossible to restrain children when they get to grips with technology. Which is why the computer equipment used in schools has to be designed and build to a standard above and beyond the normal call of duty. A standard thats set by Research Machines.,3. Cohesion and Coherence,Which is why the computer equipment used in schools has to be designed and built to a standard above and beyond the normal call of duty. Its practically impossible to restrain children when they get to grips with technology. A standard thats set by Research Machines.,3. Cohesion and Coherence,3.1 Cohesion 衔接 The grammatical and/or lexical relationships between the different elements (sentences or segments) of a discourse. Cohesive devices 衔接手段 A coherent discourse has certain words and expressions in it which link the sentences together. Reference, substitution, ellipsis, conjunction and lexical cohesion.,3.1 Cohesion,A coherent discourse are sentences linked closely. A: Is Jane here? B: No, she isnt. You can lead a horse to water but you cant make him drink. How sentences are explicitly linked together in a discourse?,3.1.1 Reference参照/照应,Reference words: pronouns (it, they), demonstratives (this, that), the definite article (the) and items like such as. e.g. There is a house near the river. That is Johns. I didnt know it was his.,3.1.1 Reference参照/照应,Two types of reference: endophora 内参照: the interpretive source lies in the co-text. exophora 外参照: the interpretive source lies in the context. e.g. (Mary is standing here) I like her.,Endophora(内参照): anaphora回指: the referent lies in the prior text. e.g. Look at the dog, it is dancing! cataphora 后指: the referent lies in the following text. e.g. When I met her, Mary looked ill.,Types of reference,anaphora 回指 endophora Reference 内参照 cataphora 后指 指称 exophora 外参照,3.1.2 Substitution 替代,The process or result of replacing one word by another at a particular position in a structure. A: Ive lost my dictionary. (substituted) B: Get a new one. (substitute) Three types of substitution Nominal substitution (to replace a noun or noun phrase) Verbal substitution (to replace a verb phrase) Clausal substitution (to replace a clause),Reference vs. Substitution,Reference is a relation on semantic level. Noun pronoun/ noun phrase Jack him A group of students those students Substitution is a relation on the lexico-grammatical level, a relation between words and constructions, and they have same function. new watch- new one.,Reference vs. Substitution,As relation between meanings, reference can be anaphoric, cataphoric and exophoric. Substitution is a relation within text, the majority of substitution are highly depending on the linguistic context, and it mainly happens in the later text.,3.1.3 Ellipsis省略,Leaving out a construction of a sentence for reasons of economy, emphasis or style, and the omitted parts can only be recovered by the reader from the previous discourse. Substitution by zero Do you like it? No, I dont (like it). Subtypes: Nominal, verbal and clausal ellipsis,3.1.4 Conjunction连词,An item or a process whose primary function is to connect words or other construction. I was not invited. Otherwise, I would have been there. coordinator并列连词 (and, but) subordinator 从属连词 (because, when) conjunctive adverbs连接副词 (however, indeed ) If you do good, good will be done to you; but if you do evil, the same will be measured back to you. Therefore, lets do good.,Lexical cohesion is cohesion through the use of words, i.e. the writer or speaker relates the text consistently to its area of focus through the selection of lexical items. repetition 重复 Three types: synonym 同义词 collocation 上义词,3.1.5 Lexical cohesion词汇衔接,Repetition: repeat the same words, or general nouns, or other words sharing the majority of semantic features. The donkey died; the poor creature has worked hard all his life. Superodinate: the same word, synonym or near-synonym, superordinate, general words, collocation. I watched a football game last night, and became very upset when the referee pulled out 3 red cards in a minute.,Repetition of lexical items. A repeated item may be a repetition of an earlier item, a synonym or near-synonym, a superordinate, or a general word. There is a boy playing with fire. The boy is going to burn himself if he doesnt take care. (repetition) The lad is going to burn himself if he doesnt take care. (synonym) The child is going to burn himself if he doesnt take care. (superordinate) The idiot is going to burn himself if he doesnt take care. (general word),Collocation搭配：the tendency of certain lexical items to co-occur. A little fat man of Bombay Was smoking one very hot day But a bird called a snipe Flew away with his pipe Which vexed（生气的） the fat man of Bombay,3.2 Coherence连贯 Interestingly enough, the use of cohesive devices alone may not produce texts that “make sense”. Consider the following passage: e.g. I bought a Ford. A car in which President Wilson rode down the Champs Elysees(香榭丽舍大街) was Black. Black English has been widely discussed. The discussion between the presidents ended last week. A week has seven days. Every day I feed my cat. Cats have four legs. The cat is on the mat. Mat has three letters.,从前有座山，山上有座庙，庙里有个老和尚，老和尚在和小和尚讲故事: 从前有座山,Coherence: the relationships which link the meanings of utterances in a discourse or of the sentences in text. It concerns peoples ability to match the text with their experience or their understanding of the word. If a stretch of a language is in line with some experience or their “common sense”, it will be recognized as a meaningful text.,Coherence is sth underlying the text- semantic connections, logical connections or temporal sequence. It is created by our real life knowledge. Cohesion is the verbal realization of coherence in the form of cohesive devices. As we see in the last sample passage.,(50) Student: Ive lost my bunch of keys! Roommate: Its a fine day today. Student: So youve got a free dinner. (p197),George studied law in Cambridge. And he is now a lawyer. George studied law in Cambridge. He is now a lawyer. The absence of the conjunctions “and” in the second sentence does not affect coherence at all. We know from our experience that being a lawyer is a likely outcome of studying law. In summary, there can be no meaning cohesion without coherence, but coherence without cohesion may be perfectly possible.,7.4 Discourse markers 话语标记语,What is the definition of discourse markers? How many types of discourse marker are there?,discourse markers (DM): expressions that are commonly used in the initial position of an utterance and are syntactically detachable from a sentence. conversational particles: well and oh parenthetical lexicalized clauses :yknow, I mean and you see, connective elements so, after all, and moreover.,The main role of discourse markers: to guide speakers interpretations of the utterances. The features of DMs: DMs seem to clarify a texts structural relations for the reader. Despite any differences in their use in different types of discourse, these items share a number of formal and textual features.,7.5 Conversational analysis,The analysis of natural conversation in order to discover what the linguistic characteristics of conversation are and how conversation is used in ordinary life is called conversational analysis (CA).,Three mechanisms in CA,adjacency pairs(相邻语对) preference structure(首选结构) presequences (前序列) It includes the study of how speakers decide when to speak during a conversation, how the utterances of two or more speakers are related, and the different functions that conversation is used for.,7.5.1 Adjacency pairs 相邻语对,Certain turns have specific follow-up turns. Questions take answers. Greetings are returned by greetings, invitations by acceptances or refusals, and so on. Such sequences of turns are called adjacency pairs: a sequence of two related utterances by two different speakers. The second utterance is always a response to the first.,(56) A: You left the light on. B: It wasnt me! the sequence of complaint-denial is an adjacency pair.,Adjacency pairs have five properties: Adjacency pairs consist of two utterances, a first part and a second part. The two parts are spoken by different speakers. The first and second parts belong to specific types, for example, question and answer, or greeting and greeting.,The form and content of the second part depends on the type of the first part. Given that a speaker has produced a first part, the second part is relevant and expectable as the next utterance.,Adjacency pairs come in many types question-answer greeting-greeting invitation-acceptance/non-acceptance offer-acceptance/non-acceptance complaint-apology/denial summons传唤-response assertion-assent赞成 request-acceptance promise-acknowledgement thanks-acknowledgement goodbye-goodbye.,However, not all first parts immediately receive their second parts. It often happens that a question-answer (Q-A) sequence will be delayed while another question-answer sequence intervenes. The sequence will then take the form of Q1-Q2-A2-A1, with the middle pair (Q2-A2) being called an insertion sequence插入语列.,(57) Agent: Do you want the early flight! (=Q1) Client: What time does it arrive? (=Q2) Agent: Nine forty-five. (=A2) Client: Yeahthats great. (=A1),An insertion sequence is one adjacency pair within another. In principle, the number of insertion sequences can be infinite, but the limit of human memory does not allow that. Three or four insertion sequences are common.,(58) A: Are you coming to our party Tuesday evening? (Q1) B: Can I bring a friend along? (Q2) A: Male or female? (Q3) B: What does that matter? (Q4) A: Just a matter of balance. (A4) B: Male. (A3) A: Okey. (A2) B: Ill be there then. (A1),Ex:,1) Son: Can I watch TV, Dad? Father: Have you finished your homework? Son: No. Father: Then you cant. In this example, the father delays his answer to his sons question until he has checked if the necessary condition exists.,2) A: Could you lend me a few bucks? B: What for? A: I need to take a trip to San Francisco to see my girlfriend. B: How much do you want? A: Well uh 50 dollars is ok. B: When are you gonna return? A: Next Monday. B: All right. Wait for me. Ill be right back.,7.5.2 Preference structure 首选结构,An adjacency pair may have different second parts. For example, a question can be followed by a) a question, b) by a partial answer, c) by a statement of ignorance, d) by a denial of the relevance of the question or e) by a denial of its presupposition:,(59) A: What does Joe do for a living? B: a. Do you need to know? b. Oh, this and that. c. Ive no idea. d. Whats that got to do with it? e. He doesnt.,Preference structure divides second parts into preferred and dispreferred. The preferred is the structurally expected next act and the dispreferred is the structurally unexpected next act. The preferred second parts are more usual, more normal and less specific.,(60) A: Have you got a light? B: Yes. (61) A: Have you got a light? B: No, sorry. I dont smoke. Bs reply in (60) is preferred and dispreferred in (61):,7.5.3 Presequences 前序列,(63) Jeff: Mornin, Stan! Stan: Hi. Hows it goin? Jeff: Oh, cant complain, I guess. Ready for the meeting this afternoon? Stan: Well, I dont have much choice!,Greetings exemplify opening sequences, utterances that ease people into a conversation. They convey the message “I want to talk to you”. The opening sequences that are used to set up some specific potential actions are called