Discourse Analysis introduction What is discourse and discourse analysis Text and discourse

1. Discourse Analysis

2. 1. verbal communication; talk, conversation
2. a formal treatment of a subject in speech or writing
3. a unit of text used by linguists for the analysis of linguistic
phenomena that range over more than one sentence
4. to discourse: the ability to reason (archaic)
5. to discourse on/upon: to speak or write about formally
6. to hold a discussion
(Collins Concise English Dictionary, 1988)
Discourse

3.  Discourse is linguistic communication seen as a
transaction between speaker and hearer, as an
interpersonal activity whose form is determined by its
social purpose. Text is linguistic communication (either
spoken or written) seen simply as a message coded in its
auditory or visual medium.
 (cited in Hawthorn, 1992: 189)

4.  Michel Foucault comments:
 Instead of gradually reducing the rather
fluctuating meaning of the word discourses, I
believe I have in fact added to its meanings:
treating it sometimes as the general domain of all
statements, sometimes as an individualizable
group of statements, and sometimes as a
regulated practice that accounts for a number of
statements.
 (Foucault, 1972: 80)

5. MICHEL FOUCAULT AND DISCOURSE
 What I have said is not what I think but often
what I wonder whether it couldnít be thought.
 (Foucault, 1979d: 58)

6.  In essence, the sentence communicates that the
speaker's statements might not always reflect
their direct beliefs but rather represent ideas
they believe are worth contemplating. They're
opening up a space for exploration and
consideration of various perspectives, rather than
simply presenting their own viewpoint.

7.  Discourse analysis focusses on the structure of naturally
occurring spoken language, as found in such discourses as
conversations, interviews, commentaries, and speeches.
Text analysis focusses on the structure of written language,
as found in such texts as essays, notices, road signs, and
chapters.
 But this distinction is not clear-cut, and there have been
many other uses of these labels. In particular, discourses
and text can be used in a much broader sense to include
all language units with a definable communicative
function,whether spoken or written. Some scholars talk
about spoken or written discourses; others about spoken or
written texts.
 (Crystal, 1987: 116; emphasis in original)

8. Discourse
 Discourse is any form of extended
language, written or spoken, that has unity,
meaning, and purpose. By extended it
means more than one sentence.
 Discourse refers to both written and spoken
communications

9.  Discourse is a verbal or written communication between people
that goes beyond a single sentence. Importantly, discourse is
more than just language. The term “language” can include all
forms of linguistic and symbolic units (even things such as road
signs), and language studies can focus on the individual meanings
of words. Discourse goes beyond this and looks at the overall
meanings conveyed by language in context. “Context” here
refers to the social, cultural, political, and historical
background of the discourse, and it is important to take this into
account to understand underlying meanings expressed through
language.

10. Features of discourse
 Coherence (quality of being Logical)
 Cohesion
 Discourse Markers (well, oh, but)
They break our speech up into parts and show
the relation between parts
 Paralinguistic Features (body language)
 Ways of conversation (turn taking)

11. Text and discourse
 Text:
 Any set of sentences that cohere in a sequence is
called a text.
 A text is a coherent, complete unit of speech or
writing. It may consist of many sentences. It is
also possible for a text to be one sentence. The
coherence happens through using many features
which connect sentences.

12. Example
 Mobile Phone is often also called “cellular phone”. It is a device
mainly used for a voice call. Presently technological
advancements have made our life easy. Today, with the help of a
mobile phone we can easily talk or video chat with anyone across
the globe by just moving our fingers. Today mobile phones are
available in various shapes and sizes, having different technical
specifications and are used for several purposes like voice calling,
video chatting, text messaging or SMS, multimedia messaging,
internet browsing, email, video games, and photography.

13. Discourse analysis
 Is the analysis of language in its social context.
 The Oxford English Dictionary defines discourse
analysis as: “a method of analysing the
structure of texts or utterances longer than
one sentence, taking into account both their
linguistic content and their sociolinguistic
context”.

14.  According to Wodak (2008) “discourse analysis
provides a general framework to problem-
oriented social research”. Basically, discourse
analysis is used to conduct research on the use of
language in context in a wide variety of social
problems (i.e., issues in society that affect
individuals negatively).

15.  The purpose of discourse analysis is
to investigate the functions of language (i.e.,
what language is used for) and how meaning is
constructed in different contexts, which, to
recap, include the social, cultural, political, and
historical backgrounds of the discourse.

16. The relationship between language and
context
 Discourse occurs within a particular
situation
 There is a relation between linguistics and
non-linguistic behaviors
 Van Dijk argues that context is a subjective
construct

17. Questions Investigated by DA
 Who are the participants in the discourse?
 What is their relationship?
 Are there differences in power or knowledge between
the participants?
 What are their goals?
 What does the text mean?
 What knowledge of context is needed?

18. Speech acts and discourse
 The locutionary act
 The illocutionary act
 Perlocutionary act

19. The locutionary act
 The act of performing words into
utterances that make sense in language
with correct grammar and pronunciation
 Intended communicative action by the
speaker

20. illocutionary act
 An illocutionary act is an instance of a
culturally-defined speech act type,
characterized by a particular illocutionary
force; for example, promising, advising,
warning
 Extra meaning

21. Perlocutionary act
 The effect that utterance has on the
thoughts, feelings or attitudes on the
hearer
 All three acts are used in communication,
they cannot be performed separately

22. Direct and indirect speech acts
 Direct speech describes when something is
being repeated exactly as it was usually in
between a pair of inverted commas.
 Indirect speech will still share the same
information but instead of expressing
someone's comments or speech by directly
repeating them, it involves reporting or
describing what was said.

23. Felicity conditions
 the conditions that must be in place and the criteria that
must be satisfied for a speech act to achieve its purpose.
 Felicity condition is referred to the effectiveness of
speech acts use of the speaker.
 For example, when one is making a promise to another
person, he/she must fulfill the condition that the hearer
or the promisee to have needed something to be
promised, and the speaker or the promiser will have the
intention to fulfill that need; therefore, the act of
promising will be valid to be regarded as felicitous
condition.

24. Types of felicity conditions
 Pre-conditions, the first there is a general conditions
which referred to the participants, for instance, the
language used must be understood by both speaker and
hearer and it is used in serious matter.
 Felicity conditions, Request
 Felicity conditions, Asserting/Stating
 Felicity conditions, Question
 Felicity conditions, Thanking

25.  Felicity conditions: Advising
 Felicity conditions: Warning
 Felicity conditions: Congratulating
 Felicity conditions: Greeting
 Felicity conditions: Promising
 Felicity Conditions: Order
 Felicity Conditions: Offer
 Felicity condition: Refusal of offer

26. Presupposition and discourse
 an implicit assumption about the world or
background belief relating to an utterance
whose truth is taken for granted in
discourse.

27. The co-operative principle and discourse
 The cooperative principle is a principle of conversation
that was proposed by Grice 1975, stating that participants
expect that each will make a “conversational contribution
such as is required, at the stage at which it occurs, by the
accepted purpose or direction of the talk exchange.”
 Cooperative principle describes how people achieve
effective conversational communication in common social
situations that is, how listeners and speakers act
cooperatively and mutually accept one another to be
understood in a particular way.

28. Maxims of co-operative principle
 Maxim of quantity (quantity of information)
 Maxim of quality (quality of information)
 Maxim of relation (Be relevant)
 Maxim of manner
Put what you say in the clearest, briefest, and most
orderly manner