discourse 3 topic (2013).ppt

1、Explanation 2 (in English and European languages, usually, but not always):,Subjects: topics; Predicates: comments 1） John ran away. subj./ topic but: 2）That new book by Thomas Guernsey I havent read yet. topic /object subject According to transformational generative grammars, the topic in 2) is mov

2、ed from the original place. The structure of 2) is topicalization（主题化）. Topic is a term which identifies a sentence constituent.,Explanation 4(a general pretheoretical notion):,Topic is What is talked about or written about. Comment: In describing the information structure of sentences, a term for t

3、hat part of a sentence which names the person, thing, or idea about which something is said. E.g. As for your drycleaning, I will bring it tomorrow. topic (idea) comment (Longman dictionary of applied linguistics),The authors opinion,If we say the topic means what is being talked about in a conversa

4、tion, this type of topic is unlikely to be identifiable as one part of a sentence. As for your drycleaning (topic), I will bring it tomorrow. as for your drycleaning is not any part of the sentence.,Experiment for a topic in a discourse,Subjects（受试人）: (unknown) Discourse material: constructed texts

5、for specific purpose, few lexical cues to guess what is about Process/method of experiment: subjects read (3), comprehend, recall. (Ss read it aloud, tell whats about?) Aim: to demonstrate that the comprehension of English texts depends not only on knowledge of the language, but also on extra-lingui

6、stic (语言外的) knowledge, related to contexts.,Result of the experiment,The comprehension and recall is significantly better when topic is provided to subjects. Topic of a text in this experiment is equivalent to the title. But, there may be several titles for one text which equally facilitate comprehe

7、nsion.,possible titles For (3),Washing clothes,How to do the laundry,A guide to getting your clothes cleaner,Doing laundry as a philosophy of life,Analysis of the discourse,Lexical connections /ties(词汇连接结): repetition of nine, women, colors, magic; anaphoric reference of pronoun I-I-I-I-I, that-it-i

8、t-they. (see the passage in the next slide),Topic: A stitch in time saves nine.,(thought-disordered speaker:) Oh! Thats because all women have a little bit of magic to them I found that out and its called its sort of good magic and nine is sort of a magic number + like Ive got yellow, green, blue, g

9、rey, orange, blue, and navy and Ive got black and Ive got a sort of clear white the nine colors to me they are the whole universe and they symbolize every man, woman and child in the world +,Conclusion:,topic is a natural criterion for distinguishing between the connected yet incoherent discourse of

10、 thought-disordered speakers and the coherent discourse of normal speakers. I.e. topic is a principle to organize a coherent discourse for a normal speaker (function of topic).,A story: “smoke the house”,(5) P76, topic: to explain the meaning of smoke the houses (a response to a request for informat

11、ion). Content (in the telling): 1) object the taw, trolley, people; 2) process putting the smoke into houses + smoke came out of the window or door; 3) events: the use of taw, making smoke in and out of houses, get and use trolley, etc.,The first few lines contribution to the topic,There are a few l

12、ines about the background of how the speaker saw in his childhood people use a two-wheel trolley (instead of fire engine) to put out the fire. Some elements are mentioned: time ( in those days when we were children) + place (here) + person (speakers childhood),Part of the physical context,The beginn

13、ing lines in discourse (5) represent part of topic framework: a conversation between 2 participants + time + location (see P78) They may not all physical contextual features, but they are the activated contextual features in this discourse. They serve as a co-text and form part of the domain of disc

14、ourse（话语范围).,Domain of discourse （话语范围),People Place Entities（实体) Events Facts,partial topic framework,Ks Hanover Street (of Edinburgh),P91-92 (12),A: but youd have telephones around B: mm oh yes oh aye oh aye Ive had the telephone since nineteen thirty eight ,A: mentions telephone B: explains telep

15、hone (B assumes: telephone and radio is within the existing framework: time, place, personal indices unchanged) - version 1: what I think we are talking about.,Analysis:,P91-92 (12),A: cause there was a man in my fathers in the Scouts B: oh yes he was is he still A: hes a county commissioner now B:

16、oh is he ah ha ,(in 2nd part): A: introduces new element by personal reference my father and Scouts. B: follows up because B assumes As father is related to telephone and radio, within the framework of their conversation. Still Version1: what I think we are talking about. Language features of follow

17、ing-up: yes he was ; oh is he etc.,P91-92 (12),A: and eh one of his oldest scoutmasters wa- ha- was reaching his hundredth birthday B: is that so A: so father was . B: aha,(in the 3rd and 4th part): A: continues to talk about her father and his writing (personal topic). B: waits to see version 2: wh

18、at you are talking about.,P91-92 (12),A: to give him and he was writing just . B: oh yes A: ah a book that had B: very interesting yes A: or whatever you know and within his lifetime the telephone had been invented B: had it really fancy,A: continues to talk about her father and his writing (persona

19、l topic). B: waits to see until A connects his father with telephone (related to the existing topic) Language features: B just makes some noise (aha,) to encourage A to go on, makes no meaningful linguistic contributions (personal topic) to their conversation.,What I think we are talking about,Turn

20、1-turn 4: on the preceding topic: going cycling around Edinburgh. In the 5rd turn: Cs word rough leading to Ds misunderstanding and his personal topic (well there are no cobbles as far as I remember-). Ds assumption of what were talking about is the rough road and so comments on cobbles,In the 6th 8

21、th turns: C accepts Ds topic rough road as what we are talking about and continues their talk until C finishes his comment. In the last two turns: C returns to her attempted topic rough people (not rough road), D realizes what we are talking about and gives answer.,Summary (1),In (13), Ds contributi

22、on on rough road is based on his assumption of our topic. And C makes a compromise and accepts this assumption. The conversation is carried on a result of negotiation. In (12), Bs noise shows he accepts (passively) speaker As personal topic about his father. Thus conversation is also a result of neg

23、otiation. In (11), L didnt accept Ms personal topic, M returns to their general topic: beautiful effect of restoring buildings.,difference between the two follow-ups,Different functions: Evaluation for “very good, ” Acknowledgement for “Thank you, ”,Function of three-move exchanges in doctor-patient

24、 interviews,Doctor: How long have you had those for? Patient: Well I hadm a week last Wednesday. Doctor: A week last Wednesday. (repetition),Doctor: How long have you had these quick pains on the right side of your head? Patient: Well again when this trouble started. Doctor: again for about two year

25、s. (interpretation ),The response is different from that in classroom, no commenting on the quality of patients reply.,C: Do you get the bus? B: Yeah. C: The bus? (follow-up) B: And the tube. As C finds Bs response hard to believe, he reinitiates the question to seek confirmation.,C: Are you sure yo

26、u dont want a cigarette? B: No, I couldnt take your last but one. C: Well, the last one actually that would be my last one. B: No thanks. C: Go on, have it Rob. (re-offer) B: No, no Im not having it, Id feel too bad. C: Okay. (follow-up move, accept the refusal),Difference in acceptance in follow-up

27、,A: You wan me bring you anything? B: No; no; nothing. A: Aw; kay. (follow-up) (A happily accepts Bs rejection of his offer.),M: So so do you want me to pick you up, are you in your office now? X: No, Im going to the h- Im at the Great Hall, I have to go to the heads office. M: Alright, maybe afterw

28、ards. (follow-up) (M minimizes Xs rejection to save his face.),3.6 Topic boundary markers (话题边界标记 ),Significance: To recognize topic-shift To divide a long discourse into smaller units Two boundary markers suggested by the authors: Paragraphs for written forms Paratones (语段音谱) for conversations,Para

29、graphs,Paragraphs as boundary are usually marked by indentations （首行缩进）. But paragraph division varies with genres. Journalistic paragraph is determined by appearance (Hinds,1977) narrative discourse is divided by the change of setting (time or place) and theme (person or thing talked about) (Grimes

30、,1975). Participant orientation (Hinds,1977): one person one paragraph,4. A thematic participant paragraph division (Longacre,1979) Authors: participant oriented paragraph division is limited to narratives or obituary（讣告). And obituary can extend to five paragraphs in newspaper. A novel of hundreds

31、of paragraphs may be about one individual.,Paragraph division of extract (14) to see markers of topic-shift,Longacre(1979): markers are adverbial expressions (general class 大的类别, initially in a sentence句首) indicating temporal sequence in narratives. Adverbials classification by Quirk et. al. (1972):

32、 adjuncts, conjuncts, disjuncts.,adjuncts (附加语),adverbs of time, place, frequency, degree, manner, etc. They are part of the basic structure of a clause /sentence, modifying verbs. (= circumstantial adjuncts to Halliday) e.g. He lives in England. I have almost finished. I put it carelessly in the du

33、stbin yesterday.,Conjuncts (连接语),Conjuncts are not part of the basic structure of a clause or sentence. They connect two or more sentences /utterances / clauses.(= conjunction to Halliday) e.g. Altogether, it was a happy week. However the weather was not good. If not, then burn it.,Disjuncts (分离语）=m

34、odel adjuncts (in functional grammar),disjuncts are adverbs which show the speakers attitude to or evaluation of what is said in the rest of the sentence. It is also called sentential adverbs. e.g. Naturally, I paid for my own meal. I had to pay for my own meal, unfortunately. Disjuncts is equal to

35、modal adjuncts in Hallidays functional grammar.,3 topic shift markers,By the end of the week (conjunct) After shes finished eating (conjunct) Generally (disjunct) They break the passage into 4 paragraphs of 4 different topic-oriented content.,Rationale of paragraph - breaking,After the first few day

36、s: introducing a general description of the relationship between I and Birdie. By the end of the week: introducing a particular activity carried between I and Birdie - I treat Birdie with cage open. After shes finished eating: introducing a series of actions of Birdie ( see a series of verbs ). Gene

37、rally: introducing a conclusion of Birdies habit right-footed in eating.,Functions of other three adverbials,At first but then: connects two actions / sentences one of the events within by the end of this week, is an internal construction. Then: introducing a final action in a temporal sequence of a

38、ctions, seperating a conclusive paragraph introduced by a style disjunct. Also: adding more detail to support the general conclusion, a part of internal structure.,Paratones (语段音谱): speech paragraph,One suggestion to indicate the division of spoken discourse is to use speech paragraph or paratone. A

39、 start of a paratone marks the topic-shift. A beginning of a paratone: an introductory expression ( clause/sentence) with raised pitch（高音）on phonologically prominent syllables. The end of a paratone: marked by very low pitch, a loss of amplitude and a lengthy pause（低音，无振幅，长停顿）. raised pitch on phono

40、logically prominent syllables varies with areas.,I found my drink was a great problem with them because _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ 1st high pitch low pitch At that time I drank whisky and lemonade + and I (0.5sd pause) + but + and in your drink + + (short pause) (low pitch, 1.6 second long pause) marker of top

41、ic shift,Possible shift of topic if other speaker takes turn,Representations of proposition,So, there are many different views on the notion of Proposition: objective entity; subjective or psychological entity; When in use, a proposition is identified as: 1) declarative sentence; 2) statement; 3) Th

42、e meaning of (declarative sentence) In the text-analysis literature, propositions are represented as the relationship between a predicate and its arguments (see (18),Etc,Propositions as relationships between a predicate and its arguments,E.g. John hit Mary. One proposition (semantic content) Interpr

43、etation: or in semantic representation（语义表达为） Hit (John, Mary) predicate arguments (who did, to whom) (谓词) （论元）,van Dijks theory: to express a topic is to reduce, organize and categorize semantic information of sequences as wholes (Dijk,1977). sentence (20) is the summary of a five paragraphs (reduc

44、ed). Authors comment: this is just like a school childs summary and there may be different summaries (P110). Dijks formula is only a possible topic of a discourse.,(21): 4 propositions,Romulus took the women by force Romulus found Rome Romulus is legendary founder The women are the Sabines,(TOOK, RO

45、MULUS, WOMEN, BY FORCE) (FOUND, ROMULUS, ROME) (LEGENDARY, ROMULUS) (SABINE, WOMEN),Romulus, the legendary founder of Rome, took the women of the Sabine by force.,relationship between propositions is represented in a hierarchical way,2 (Romulus found Rome) 1(Romulus took the women by force) 3 (Romulus is legendary founder) 4 (The women are the Sabines) Proposition 1 contains proposition 2,3 and 4.,(Topic p.),(22): 8 propositions,1. Cleopatra fell down because she trust the figures 2. Cleopatra fell down 3. Cleopatra trust figures 4. Her trust was foolish 5. The figures are