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DISCOURSE ANALYSIS DISCOURSE ANALYSIS Topics in Applied Linguistics Topics in Applied Linguistics [email protected] [email protected]
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DISCOURSE ANALYSIS

Feb 10, 2016

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Page 1: DISCOURSE ANALYSIS

DISCOURSE ANALYSISDISCOURSE ANALYSIS

Topics in Applied LinguisticsTopics in Applied [email protected]@staff.unnes.ac.id

Page 2: DISCOURSE ANALYSIS

M. Stubbs' textbook (Stubbs 1983:1),M. Stubbs' textbook (Stubbs 1983:1),

discourse analysis is defined as a) concerned with language use beyond the

boundaries of a sentence/utterance, b) concerned with the interrelationships

between language and society and c) as concerned with the interactive or

dialogic properties of everyday communication.

Page 3: DISCOURSE ANALYSIS

Text or Text or DiscourseDiscourseAnalysis?Analysis?

Page 4: DISCOURSE ANALYSIS

Text analysisText analysis

• Needs linguistic analysis• Interpretation is based on linguistic

evidence• Text analysts need the right ‘knife’ to cut

the right ‘bread’• Different ‘knives’ for different ‘bread’

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Discourse analysisDiscourse analysis

• How texts relate to contexts of situation and context of culture

• How texts are produced as a social practice• What texts tell us about happenings, what people

think, believe etc.• How texts represent ideology (power struggle etc.)

Page 6: DISCOURSE ANALYSIS

Text & Text & Discourse AnalysesDiscourse Analyses(Nunan, 1993)(Nunan, 1993)

• Text analysis is the study of formal linguistic devices that distinguish a text from random sentences.

• Discourse analysts study these text-forming devices with reference to the purposes and functions for which the discourse was produced, and the context within which the discourse was created. The ultimate goal is to show how the linguistic elements enable language users to communicate.

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• The term discourse analysis is very ambiguous. • I will use it in this book to refer mainly to the

linguistic analysis of naturally occurring connected speech or written discourse.

• Roughly speaking, it refers to attempts to study the organisation of language above the sentence or above the clause, and therefore to study larger linguistic units, such as conversational exchanges or written texts.

• It follows that discourse analysis is also concerned with language use in social contexts, and in particular with interaction or dialogue between speakers.

Page 8: DISCOURSE ANALYSIS

Definition of Definition of Discourse AnalysisDiscourse Analysis::

• The study of how stretches of language used in communication assume meaning, purpose and unity for their users: the quality of COHERENCE

• A general consensus: COHERENCE does not derive solely from the linguistic forms and propositional content of a text, though these may contribute to it.

Page 9: DISCOURSE ANALYSIS

• COHERENCE derives from an interaction of text with given participants (context)

• Context: participants’ knowledge and perception of paralanguage, other texts, the situation, the culture, the world in general and the role, intentions and relationships of participants.

Page 10: DISCOURSE ANALYSIS

Approaches to DAApproaches to DA

1. Speech Act Theory2. Interactional Sociolinguistics3. Ethnography of Communication4. Pragmatics5. Conversational Analysis6. Variation Analysis7. SFL

Page 11: DISCOURSE ANALYSIS

Speech Act Theory Speech Act Theory (Austin 1955, Searle 1969)(Austin 1955, Searle 1969)

– A logico-philosophic perspective on conversational organization focusing on interpretation rather than the production of utterances in discourse.

– From the basic belief that language is used to perform actions.

– Every utterance can be analyzed as the realization of the speaker’s intent (illocutionary force) to achieve a particular purpose.

– Neither Austin nor Searle were concerned with the analysis of continuous discourse.

Page 12: DISCOURSE ANALYSIS

Speech Act TheorySpeech Act Theory

– Unit of analysis: speech act (SA) or illocutionary force (IF).

– Principal problems: the lack of a one-to-one match up between discourse function (IF) and the grammatical form.

– Provides the insight that the basic unit of conversational analysis must be functionally motivated rather than formally defined one.

– Systemic name : speech function (SF) – central issue in discourse structure.

Page 13: DISCOURSE ANALYSIS

Interactional Sociolinguistics Interactional Sociolinguistics (Gumperz 1982, Goffman 1959-1981)(Gumperz 1982, Goffman 1959-1981)

– Grows out of the work of anthropologists.– Centrally concerned with the importance of context in

the production and interpretation of discourse.– Units of analysis: grammatical and prosodic features

in interactions.– Gumperz demonstrated that interactants from

different socio-cultural backgrounds may “hear” and understand discourse differently according to their interpretation contextualisation cues in discourse. E.g. intonation contours, ‘speaking for another’, alignment, gender.

Page 14: DISCOURSE ANALYSIS

Interactional SociolinguisticsInteractional Sociolinguistics

– Schiffrin (1987): focused on quantitative interactive sociolinguistic analysis, esp. discourse markers (defined as ‘sequentially dependent elements which bracket units of talk).

– Schiffrin’s unit of analysis: turn.– Basic concern: the accomplishment of

conversational coherence. – She argues for the importance of both

qualitative and quantitative / distributional analysis in order to determine the function of the different discourse markers in conversation.

Page 15: DISCOURSE ANALYSIS

Ethnography of Communication Ethnography of Communication (Dell Hymes (1972b, 1974)(Dell Hymes (1972b, 1974)

– Concerned with understanding the social context of linguistic interactions: ‘who says what to whom, when, where. Why, and how’.

– Prime unit of analysis: speech event. – Definition: ‘The speech event is to what

analysis of verbal interaction what the sentence is to grammar … It represents an extension in the size of the basic analytical unit from the single utterance to stretches of utterances, as well as a shift in focus from … text to … interaction’.

Page 16: DISCOURSE ANALYSIS

Ethnography of CommunicationEthnography of Communication

– Speech event refers to ‘activities … that are directly governed by rules or norms for the use of speech’ (Hymes 1972:56)

– Speech event comprises components (Hymes SPEAKING grid).

– Analysis of these components of a speech event is central to what became known as ethnography of communication or ethnography of speaking, with the ethnographer’s aim being to discover rules of appropriateness in speech events.

– Genres often coincides with speech events

Page 17: DISCOURSE ANALYSIS

Ethnography of CommunicationEthnography of Communication

– The ethnographic framework has led to broader notions of communicative competence.

– Problem: Lack of explicitness in Hymes’ account on the relationship between genre and other components of the speaking grid and their expression in language and

– Recognition of the close relationship between speech events and their social/cultural contexts.

Page 18: DISCOURSE ANALYSIS

PragmaticsPragmatics (Grice 1975, Leech 1983, Levinson 1983)(Grice 1975, Leech 1983, Levinson 1983)

– Formulates conversational behaviour in terms of general “principles” rather than rules.

– At the base of pragmatic approach is to conversation analysis is Gricean’s co-operative principle (CP).

– This principle seeks to account for not only how participants decide what to DO next in conversation, but also how interlocutors go about interpreting what the previous speaker has just done.

– This principle is the broken down into specific maxims: Quantity (say only as much as necessary), Quality (try to make your contribution one that is true), Relation (be relevant), and manner (be brief and avoid ambiguity).

Page 19: DISCOURSE ANALYSIS

PragmaticsPragmatics

– Provides useful means of characterizing different varieties of conversation, e.g. in interactions, one can deliberately try to be provocative or consensual.

– Significant problem: it implies that conversations occur co-operatively, between equals where power is equally distributed etc.

– In reality: conversations involve levels of disagreement and resistance; power is constantly under contestation.

Page 20: DISCOURSE ANALYSIS

Conversation Analysis (CA) Conversation Analysis (CA) (Harold Garfinkel 1960s-1970s)(Harold Garfinkel 1960s-1970s)

– Garfinkel (sociologist) concern: to understand how social members make sense of everyday life.

– Sack, Schegloff, Jefferson (1973)tried to explain how conversation can happen at all.

– CA is a branch of ethnomethodology.– Two grossly apparent facts: a) only one person

speaks at a time, and b) speakers change recurs. Thus conversation is a ‘turn taking’ activity.

– Speakers recognize points of potential speekar change – turn constructional unit (TCU).

Page 21: DISCOURSE ANALYSIS

Conversation Analysis (CA)Conversation Analysis (CA)

– CA identified TCU as the critical units of conversation, it has not specified exactly how a TCU boundary can be recognized in any situation.

– Models conversation as infinitely generative turn-taking machine, where interactants try to avoid lapse: the possibility that no one is speaking.

– Contribution: the identification of ‘adjacency pairs’: conversational relatedness operating between adjacent utterances.

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Conversation Analysis (CA)Conversation Analysis (CA)

– Adjacency pair: first and second pair parts.– Major problems: a) lack of systematicity- thus

quantitative analysis is impossible; 2) limited I its ability to deal comprehensively with complete, sustained interactions; 3) though offers a powerful interpretation of conversation as dynamic interactive achievement, it is unable to say just what kind of achievement it is.

Page 23: DISCOURSE ANALYSIS

Variation Analysis Variation Analysis (Labov 1972a, Labov and Waletzky1967)(Labov 1972a, Labov and Waletzky1967)

– L & W argue that fundamental narrative structures are evident in spoken narratives of personal experience.

– The overall structure of fully formed narrative of personal experience involves six stages: 1) Abstract, 2) Orientation, 3) Complication, 4) Evaluation, 5) Resolution, 6) Coda where 1) and 6) are optional.

– Strength: its clarity and applicability.

Page 24: DISCOURSE ANALYSIS

Variation AnalysisVariation Analysis

– Problems: data was obtained from interviews.– Variationists’ approach to discourse stems

from quantitative of linguistic change and variation.

– Although typically focused on social and linguistic constraints on semantically equivalent variants, the approach has also been extended to texts.

Page 25: DISCOURSE ANALYSIS

Functional approach to discourseFunctional approach to discourse

• Roman Jakobson: language performs six functions:Addressor(emotive);Context (referential)Addressee (conative);Contact (phatic);Message (poetic);Code (metalinguistic).

Page 26: DISCOURSE ANALYSIS

Functional approach to discourseFunctional approach to discourse

• Utterances may have multiple functions;• The major concern: discourse analysis can

turn out into a more general and broader analysis of language functions. Or it will fail to make a special place for the analysis of relationships between utterances.

Page 27: DISCOURSE ANALYSIS

Structural-Functional Approaches to Structural-Functional Approaches to Spoken DiscourseSpoken Discourse

• Refers to two major approaches to discourse analysis which have relevance to the analysis of casual conversation

• They are the Birmingham School and Systemic Functional Linguistics.

Page 28: DISCOURSE ANALYSIS

Structural-Functional ApproachesStructural-Functional Approaches

• Major question: What is conversational structure?• Attempt to relate the description of conversational

structure to that of other units, levels, and structures of language.

• Draw on semantic theory (Firth 1957) and Palmer (1968)• Seek to offer functional interpretations of discourse

structure as the expression and dimensions of the social and cultural context.