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Dividing The World of Discourse: Lejla Zejnilović, PHD

This document discusses discourse analysis and the differences between spoken and written language. It defines discourse analysis as the linguistic analysis of connected spoken or written texts. Key aspects of discourse include context, cohesion, coherence, register and genre. Register is determined by the context variables of field, tenor and mode. Genres embody recurring features in culturally embedded social processes involving language. Spoken language differs from written language in its manner of production, form, vocabulary and structure.

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Jasmin Medjedovic
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104 views14 pages

Dividing The World of Discourse: Lejla Zejnilović, PHD

This document discusses discourse analysis and the differences between spoken and written language. It defines discourse analysis as the linguistic analysis of connected spoken or written texts. Key aspects of discourse include context, cohesion, coherence, register and genre. Register is determined by the context variables of field, tenor and mode. Genres embody recurring features in culturally embedded social processes involving language. Spoken language differs from written language in its manner of production, form, vocabulary and structure.

Uploaded by

Jasmin Medjedovic
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© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Dividing the world of

discourse
Lejla Zejnilović, PhD
What is discourse analysis?

 above the sentence analysis


 “the linguistic analysis of naturally occurring

connected spoken or written discourse” (Stubbs 1983:


1)
 Context
 Co-text
 Cohesion/ Coherence
 Register
 Genre
 Context - the knowledge of the physical and social
world, and the socio-psychological factors influencing
communication, as well as the knowledge of the time
and place in which the words are uttered or written.
 Co-text – the context of the text itself.
 Cohesion - the way a text hangs together.
 Coherence – what is it that makes a text make sense.
 Register - the diversity of textual variation in a

language, i.e. the choices of language we make when


we create a text. (Cutting: 2002; Thornbury: 2005)
Context and register
 What factors determine the choices of language we make when we
create a text?
 Halliday (1964) identifies three components of the context that

might impact on the language choices in text production:


 -the what of the situation – what kind of social activity is going

on, and about what sort of topic (what is called the field)
 - the who of the situation – the participants, their relationship and

so on (what is called the tenor)


 - the how of the situation – the means by which the text is being

created, e.g. e-mail, face-to-face talk, broadcast talk, written


monologue and so on (what is called the mode).
(Thornbury: 2005)
Context and register
 These three contextual dimensions – field, tenor and mode –
determine what is called the register of the resulting text. That is to
say, different configurations of these dimensions demand different
kinds of choices at the level of grammar and vocabulary, and these
choices create textual effects that we recognize as being appropriate
to the context of the text’s use.
 Thus, the register of a teenage magazine allows for such words as
prezzie and snog that would be inappropriate in a children’s
encyclopedia or in academic correspondence, for example. By the
same token, you would not expect expressions like ladies and
gentlemen… , are kindly requested to…, we would also be pleased
if…, on a teabag wrapper. (Thornbury:
2005)
Context and register: exemplification
 Identify the field, tenor and mode of the following text and,
on that basis, the possible context in which the text was
situated.
 Dear professor Thornbury,
It appears that we will be including your Forum commentary
in the spring issue. I would greatly appreciate it if you could
send a disk copy of your response for production purposes
to my office at San Francisco State University. Please label
the disk with the word processing program you are using.
Thank you in advance,
Sandra McKay (Thornbury: 2005)
Genres
 We have seen how the context variables of field, tenor and
mode interact to determine the register of the text, realized at
the level of words and grammar. Through repeated use,
certain register combinations become institutionalized and are
called genres.
 Genre- embodies the idea that there may be recurring features
which are prototypically present in particular group of texts.
 The term genre originally came from literary studies, but its
meaning has been extended to mean any frequently occurring,
culturally-embedded, social process which involves language.
(Thornbury: 2005)
Spoken and written language

 Manner of production:
 The speaker has available to him the full range of 'voice quality'
effects (as well as facial expression, postural and gestural systems).
These paralinguistic cues are denied to the writer. Furthermore, the
speaker must monitor what it is that he has just said, and determine
whether it matches his intentions, while he is uttering his current
phrase and monitoring that, and simultaneously planning his next
utterance and fitting that into the overall pattern of what he wants to
say and monitoring, moreover, not only his own performance but its
reception by his hearer. He has no permanent record of what he has
said earlier, and only under unusual circumstances does he have
notes which remind him what he wants to say next. (Brown and Yule:
1983)
Spoken and written language
 Manner of production:
 The writer, on the contrary, may look over what he has
already written, pause between each word with no fear of his
interlocutor interrupting him, take his time in choosing a
particular word, even looking it up in the dictionary if
necessary, check his progress with his notes, reorder what he
has written, and even change his mind about what he wants
to say. Whereas the speaker is under considerable pressure
to keep on talking during the period allotted to him, the
writer is characteristically under no such pressure.
(Brown and Yule: 1983)
Differences in form between written and spoken
language
Spoken language
 the syntax of spoken language is typically much less

structured than that of written language


 spoken language contains many incomplete sentences,

often simply sequences of phrases


  spoken language typically contains rather little

subordination  
 in conversational speech, where sentential syntax can

be observed, active declarative forms are normally


found.
(Brown and Yule 1983: 15)
Spoken vs. written language
 An extensive set of markers exists to mark relationships between
clauses (that complementisers, when/while temporal markers, so-
called 'logical connectors' like besides, moreover, however, in
spite of, etc.) (written language)
 In spoken language the largely paratactically organised chunks

are related by and, but, then and, more rarely, by if.


 The speaker is typically less explicit than the writer: I'm so tired

(because) I had to walk all the way home. (spoken language)


 In written language rhetorical organisers of larger stretches of

discourse appear, like firstly, more important than and in


conclusion. These are rare in spoken language.
 (Brown and Yule 1983: 16)
Spoken vs. written language
 Heavily premodified noun phrases are quite common in written
language.
 Sentences are generally structured in subject-predicate form
(written language).
 Topic-comment structure in spoken language:
the cats + did you let them out.
 The occurrence of passive constructions is relatively infrequent in
informal speech.
 Instead, active constructions with indeterminate group agents are
noticeable, as in:
 Oh everything they do in Edinburgh + they do it far too slowly .
(Brown and Yule 1983: 17)
Spoken vs. written language
 In chat about the immediate environment, the speaker may rely on (e.g.) gaze
direction to supply a referent: (looking at the rain) frightful isn't it.
 The speaker may replace or refine expressions as he goes along: this man +
this chap she was going out with .
 The speaker typically uses a good deal of rather generalised vocabulary: a lot
of, got, do, thing, nice, stuff, place and things like that.
 The speaker frequently repeats the same syntactic form several times over: I
look at fire extinguishers + I look at fire exists + I look at what gangways are
available + I look at electric cables what + are they properly earthed + are
they properly covered.
 The speaker may produce a large number of prefabricated 'fillers': well, erm,
I think, you know, if you see what I mean, of course, and so on.

 (Brown and Yule 1983: 17)


References
 Brown, G. and G. Yule. (1983). Discourse analysis.
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
 Cutting, J. (2002). Pragmatics and Discourse. London

and New York: Routledge.


 McCarthy M. and R. Carter. (1994). Language as

Discourse. London and New York: Longman.


 Thornbury, S. (2005). Beyond the sentence:

Introducing discourse analysis. Oxford: Macmillan.

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