ENG 306: Discourse Analysis Full Notes

Introduction to Discourse analysis

Discourse analysis can also be said to be analysis of

discourse.

What is Discourse? Speech, text or spoken

1. Language in use

2. Verbal or written communication

We use discourse interchangeably with word 'Text'

(spoken/written text)

Analysis of language in use -: the most basic or layman

definition of discourse analysis.

What is the focus of discourse analysis?

Structure/strategies/process.

We also investigate and examine how language, meaning

and society interrelate.
DEFINITION

Discourse analysis deals with connected sentences or

speech. The focus is on language social context (language
usage in social situation).

DISCOURSE TEXT AND CONTEXT

A text is ordinarily something that is written (text message)

Text is used in connection with what is written. Discourse

is related to what is spoken. Therefore voice message =
spoken text.

Text and discourse are used interchangeably. Context has

to do with situation under which something happened.

We have political discourse, classroom discourse,

religious market discourse.
Kinds of discourse

Ordinarily discuss could be either written or spoken.

Types of spoken

1. Dialogue - Discussion between two people, engagement

between buyers/sellers .

2. Monologue - Discussion between oneself. It could be

with your inner self.

3. Multilogue - Two people discussing at the same time :

rowdy situation.

4. Conversation : A dialogue and multilogue can be

conversation.

Written discourse involves writing, texting. All thoughts

are written.

1. Spoken discourse is spontaneous. It is not organized.

Written discourse is not spontaneous.

Spoken discourse comes first.

Types of context

1. Physical context : Things you can see, touch or interact

with.

2. Socio-cultural context

3. Psychological context : The thought, process and state

of mind of speaker or listener.

Discourse strategies

The series of tactics (linguistic) or means by which you

present your idea. E.g sounds, words, topic and phrases.

These things are needed in order to communicate

effectively. It could even be your facial expression or
through gesture.

Your choice of word is important too as part of the

strategies.

Definition

Discourse strategies are all those linguistics moves that

competent language users make from several possible
choices in order to achieve their aim in what they consider
to be the most efficient an effective or appropriate way.

Two perspective

1. As an individual Enterprise : what you engage in as an

individual.

2. Discourse being a joint effort : two individuals or more

than two.

3. Purposeful social interaction : it's involves more than

one or more person.

New Topic : Language and social world

Language is an integral part of social structures. And

everyday, we make use of language to actively create our
world.

Speakers rely on practical knowledge of the society. Each

society has its own culture and norms. In short, our
Language influences our world and our Language
influences our world and reality i.e not to individual
experiences the world in the same way.

Features of context

1. Field

2. Tenor

3. Mode

1. Field of discourse

Purposeful activities of the subject matter. (The content

of the utterance)

2. Tenor

The role relationship between participants : what is the

relationship between the participants?

3. Mode

The Text : the language used, the symbol, rhetorical

channel, their sentence is temporary, prepared or
spontaneous?

Halliday meta function

Halliday identified three

1. Ideation : simply what is the idea?

2. Interpersonal: relationship

3. Textual: grammar

Dell Hyles (1964)

There are 6 major features

1. Participants: speakers, listeners, writer and reader,

encoder and decoder.

2. Topic : every interaction has a focus i.e subject matter

3. Setting: where is this interaction taking place?

4. Channel: medium being used

5. Code: language being used as style employed

6. Message form : is it a chat, debate or sermon, letter?

Approaches to Discourse analysis

1. Ethno methodology
2. Conversational analysis

3. Linguistic anthropology

Ethno methodology simply refers to the cultural behavior

of the people and the methods involved in doing a
particular thing.

New Topic : COHESION AND COHERENCE

Cohesion is a term used to describe the relation of

meanings that exist within a text. Coerence works
together with cohesion.

Coherence refers to the continuity of ideas in a text and

the relation between them. A collection of sentences that
are well connected are said to be cohesive and coherent.

Cohesion and coherence at the two technical term used

to describe the connectedness of sentences and ideas in
a text.
 Grammatical Cohesion

Grammatical cohesion is a means of creating links

between sentences in a text through the use of the
grammatical resources of the language.

Reference

Reference is a grammatical device commonly used for

question in text. The reference item is an item that cannot
be interpreted semantically in its own rights.

References typically signified through the use of pronouns,

such as personal pronouns and comparative pronouns.

Reference can be divided into two: endophoric (textual)

reference and exophoric (situational/contextual).

Substitution

It simply refers to the replacement of one item by another

in a text that has the same meaning.

Example

My notes are not complete, I need to get an up-to-date one.

Ellipsis

This is the omission of the lexical item, which is usually

easily recoverable from the linguistic context of the text.

Identification

This is the use of determiners s to point out that their

noun phrase is co-referential with some earlier item
usually noun or noun phrase.

Example

A man came to my office yesterday. The man was sent by

my uncle. She's married to a well respected man in the
country. That man is generous and humble.

Lexical cohesion

This is the use of lexical items to connect and unify a text.

The connection of a text through the use of lexical items
are sometimes referred to as a lexical chain. Lexical
cohesion involves the selection of the lexical item that is
in some way related to one occurring previously.

Reiteration

This is the clearest way to show that two legal items are
related.

Using your own adequate and copious examples, explain

the difference between reference, substitution and
identification.

Reference
Reference creates cohesion by creating links between
elements.Reference refers to system which introduces
and track the identity of participant through text. Certain
items of language in English have the property of
reference. That is, they do not have meaning themselves,
but they refer to something else for their meaning. The
linguistic level of reference is semantic. For example, Mrs
Thatcher has resigned. She announced her decision this
morning. The pronoun 'she' points to Mrs Thatcher within
the textual world itself. Mrs Thatcher has resigned. This
delighted her opponents. The reader has to go back to the
previous stretch of discourse to establish what 'This'
refers to
Substitution
In substitution, a word is not omitted but is substituted for
another, more general word. For example, "Which ice-
cream would you like?" - "I would like the pink one" where
"one" is used instead of repeating "ice-cream." This works
in a similar way to pronouns, which replace the noun. For
example, 'Ice-cream' is a noun, and its pronoun could be 'It'.
'I dropped the ice-cream because it was dirty'. One should
not mix up the two because they both serve different
purposes: one to link back and one to replace. Substitution
is somewhat different from reference in that another word
takes the place of the thing that is being discussed. The
linguistic level of substitution is Grammatical.
Identification
Identification serves to specify or clarify a particular
person, place, thing, or idea within the context, making the
reference clear and explicit. It provides precise details or
names to distinguish the specific entity being referred to,
thereby removing any ambiguity. Unlike reference, which
often uses pronouns or implicit pointers, and substitution,
which replaces a word or phrase with another to avoid
repetition, identification clearly establishes the identity of
the subject in question. For example, I saw a cat in the
garden. The cat was chasing a butterfly, There’s a new
restaurant in town. The restaurant serves Italian
cuisine.We bought a new television. The television has a
4K display.She wore a beautiful dress. The dress was red
and sparkly. He found a rare coin. The coin was from the
18th century.

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New Topic: CLASSROOM DISCOURSE

The rank scale

1. The lesson

2. Transaction

3. Exchange

4. Move
5. Act

The lesson is made up of several transactions (the

structure of a lesson)

Transaction is everything that happened throughout the

lesson. I.e what constitutes the rest of rank scale

Transaction can also be called negotiation in the structure

of an exchange, we have opening, medial and closing.
Verbala nonverbal.

LOOK INTO THE LECTURERS MATERIAL FOR MORE

UNDERSTANDING

Compiled by Oreoluwa Ibukun Tuneli