Topic: Discourse Analysis: Definitions and application in the study language of texts
Assessment:
Comments:
ABSTRACT:
‘Discourse analysis is not only concerned with the description and analysis of spoken interaction. In addition to all our verbal encounters we daily consume hundreds of written and printed words: newspaper articles, letters, stories, recipes, instructions, newspapers, comics, billboards, leaflets (‘)’
(MacCarthy, 1991, p. 12)
‘The term discourse (in what is widely called ‘discourse analysis’) signals the view of language in use ‘ as an element of social life which is closely interconnected with other elements. But again, the term can be used in a as well as a general, abstract way ‘ so I shall refer to particular ‘discourses’ (‘)’
(Fairclough, 2003, pp. 3-4)
This assignment will develop a bit of the investigation in discourse analysis. It will be mentioned the type of data that analysts usually analyse, the different type of texts and some analysis of case studies in professional settings.
KEYWORDS: Discourse Analysis, Analysts, case studies, research, types of texts, fields, data
TOPIC OUTLINING
1. Definition of discourse analysis
2. Object of study and type of data in discourse analysis
3. Illustration in case studies in professional settings
4. Investigation in discourse analysis
4.1 Genres
4.2 Register
4.3 Fields
4.4 Types of texts
4.5 Cohesion
4.6 Coherence
5. References
1. Definition of Discourse Analysis
What is discourse analysis?
‘I only said ‘if’!’ poor Alice pleaded in a piteous tone.
The two Queens looked at each other, and the Red Queen remarked, with a little shudder, ‘She says she only said ‘if’- ‘
‘But she said a great deal more than that!’ the White Queen moaned, wringing her hands. ‘Oh, ever some much more than that!’
Lewis Carroll: Through the Looking Glass
(MacCarthy, 1991, p. 5)
Source: https://www.wired.com/2010/02/review-alice-in-wonderland/, retrieved in 09/4/2018
Definition of Discourse Analysis
– Discourse analysis is concerned with the study of the relationship between language and the contexts in which it is used. Discourse analysts study language in use: written texts of all kinds, and spoken data, from conversation to highly institutionalized forms of talk.
(MacCarthy, 1991, p. 5)
– According to The Handbook of Discourse Analysis (p.1), the term ‘discourse analysis’ can be divided into three general categories: 1) the study of language use; 2) the study of linguistic structure ‘beyond the sentence’; and 3) the study of social practices and ideological assumptions that are associated with language and/or communication.
The object of study in these three approaches to discourse is increasingly removed from the research goals of traditional structural linguistics. The study of language focuses on traditional linguistic constructs, such as phrase structures and clause structures, but addresses the problem of why languages have structural variants with nearly equivalent meanings.
(al., 2007, p. 1)
2. Object of study and type of data in discourse analysis
The object of study
‘We shall use the term discourse analysis to cover the study of spoken and written interaction. Our overall aim is to come to a much better understanding of exactly how natural spoken and written discourse looks and sounds.’ (MacCarthy, 1991, p. 12)
Type of data in discourse analysis
The discourse analyst’s ‘data’ is taken from written texts or tape-recordings. It is rarely in the form of a single sentence. This type of linguistic material is sometimes described as ‘performance-data’ and may contain features such as hesitations, slips, and non-standard forms which a linguistic like Chomsky (I965) believed should not have to be accounted for in the grammar of the language (Cook, 1992) (Wodak, 1996) (Coulthard, 1985).
A discourse analyst may regularly work with extended extracts of conversational speech, for example, but he does not consider his data in isolation from the descriptions and insights provided by sentence-grammarians.
(Yule, 1983, p. 20)
3. Illustration of case studies in professional settings
Case study: The experienced patient
The patient is 60 years old and has a stomach complaint. He is to be prepared for an operation in the outpatient ward. The problem that the doctor must solve is one with non-compliance with official procedures: the patient has apparently taken medication on his own initiative. Based on this text (see below), it is possible to analyze strategies of problem-solving, as well as the specific power registers used with an ‘experienced’ patient, i.e. one well used to hospitals and the behavior of medical professionals.
To obtain deeper understanding of the case, it is important to note that an ‘experienced’ patient is the subject here. (Wodak, 1996, pp. 41-42)
Text example:
11 D: as pills from today
P: Yes ‘ and yesterday you
12 D: Well, I hope it works ‘ hmm well
P: didn’t give me any at all.
. . .
31 D: well ‘ but that’s always ‘ that’s only Laxis 80
32 D: you can get that from us ‘ yes as well
33 D: – you know. Or have you also taken
P: I haven’t taken any ‘ no
34 D: an 80 today as well?
P: I haven’t taken any ‘ till now
35 D: It says here Laxis 80 miligrams ‘ as daily
36 D: dose ‘ on the chart. Laxis 80 ‘ yes there was
37 D: a short break. Oh well
P: I didn’t get it till ‘ I didn’t get it till ‘
38 D: mhm
P: Dr X [doctor’s name] was er down here
39 D: yes
P: with me you know. Gave me that er ‘ Novarin. Apart from
40 D: yes, I see ‘ you didn’t
P: that I haven’t had any powders ‘ (”..)
41 D: get them again till today? ‘ Yesterday was
P: Got them
42 D: Very good
P: today and yesterday I took one of my one because
43 P: if you remember ‘ I asked you
44 D: yes, that’s fine ‘ good
P: (”) that I stopped taking those-
45 D: fine you can start taking them again from today-
P: the powders you know.
46 D: Because you don’t need any more infusions.
The doctor begins with an indirect accusation: he accuses the patient of having taken a Laxis 80 tablet on his own initiative, even though he prescribed this drug on the ward anyway (lines 31-43). Possibly, the nurses forgot to give the patient the drug, and for this reason he had to fetch it himself.
In line 33, the patient tries to justify himself, but the doctor does not allow him to take his ‘turn’. It is not until the line 34 that the doctor pauses, enabling the patient to begin his account. In it, the patient reminds the doctor that the doctor had personally instructed him to take his own tablets (lines 42-43). The doctor tries as early as line 42 to interrupt by offering praise and positive comment, but the patient continues. In line 44, the doctor finally manages to interrupt the patient, again with praise, and then ends the discussion (‘fine, good’). The doctor’s discursive strategy has therefore served two purposes: to cover up the institution’s error and to close a potentially embarrassing discussion on an apparently positive note.
(Wodak, 1996, pp. 41-42)
Advertising (case study)
Parallelism in ads, example:
In the opening line of the ad for Sunny Delight orange juice (figure below), there is graphological parallelism between the phrases ‘Good Mother’ and ‘Great Mother’ because both use the same word initial capitals (a repetition which could be perceived even by someone who knew neither English nor the Latin alphabet). (Cook, 1992, pp. 134-136)
Source – http://rachelheathermason.blogspot.pt/2010/05/old-sunny-d-print-ad.html, retrieved in 08/04/2018
‘I FOUND A WAY TO BE A GOOD MOTHER AND STILL BE A GREAT MOM.’
Every time you buy Sunny Delight, you win two ways. You’re still a good mother because you’re giving your kids something healthy. Plus, they’ll think you’re great because they’re getting something delicious. Kids love the refreshing taste of orange, tangerine, and lime. You’ll love the vitamins they get in every glass.
There is also phonological parallelism because, when spoken, both phrases repeat sounds in the same sequence: /g/ /m/ /g/ /m/. There is lexical parallelism: ‘great’ is a synonym of ‘good’ and ‘mother’ of ‘mom’. (Denotationally equivalent, the phrases ‘Good Mother’ and ‘Great Mom’ can be distinguished only by connotation, or discoursal, in terms of who would use them to whom in what situation).
To be a Good Mother = to be a Great Mom
Buy Sunny Delight = win two ways
Being a good mother = giving your kids something healthy
They think you are great = they are getting something delicious
The refreshing taste of = the vitamins they get in every glass
orange, tangerine, and lime
(Cook, 1992, pp. 134-136)
Classroom situation (example):
One influential approach to the study of spoken discourse is developed at the University of Birmingham, where research initially concern itself with the structure of discourse in school classrooms.
Teachers and pupils spoke according to the very fixed perceptions of their roles and where the talk could be seen to conform to highly structured sequences. An extract from their data illustrates this:
(T = teacher, P = any pupil who speaks)
T: Now then’I’ve got some things here, too. Hands up. What’s that, what is it?
P: Saw.
T: It’s a saw, yes this is a saw. What do we do with a saw?
P: Cut wood.
T: Yes. You’re shouting out though. What do we do with a saw?
Marvelette.
P: Cut wood.
T: We cut wood. And, erm, what do we do with a hacksaw, this hacksaw?
P: Cut trees.
T: Do we cut trees with this?
P: No. No.
T: De we cut wood with this?
P: No.
T: What do we do with that then?
P: Cut wood.
T: We cut wood with that. What do we do with that?
P: Sir.
T: Cleveland.
P: Metal.
T: We cut metal. Yes, we cut metal. And, er, I’ve got this here.
What’s that? Trevor.
P: An axe.
T: It’s an axe yes. What I cut with the axe?
P: Wood, wood.
T: Yes, I cut wood with the axe. Right..Now then, I’ve got some more things here ‘ (etc)
(MacCarthy, 1991, pp. 12-13)
This is only a short extract, but nonetheless, a clear pattern seems to emerge (and one that many will be familiar with from their own school days). The first thing we notice, intuitively, is that, although this is clearly part of a larger discourse (a ‘lesson’), it seems to have completeness. A bit of business seems to begin with the teacher saying, ‘Now then”, and that same bit of business ends with the teacher saying ‘Right ‘ Now then’. The teacher (in this case a man) in his planning and execution of the lesson decides that the lesson shall be marked out in some way; he does not just run on without a pause from one part of the lesson to another. In fact, he gives is pupils a clear signal of the beginning and end of this mini-phase of the lesson by using the words now, then, and right in a way (with falling intonation, and a short pause afterwards) that make them into a sort of ‘frame’ on either side of the sequence of questions and answers.
(MacCarthy, 1991, p. 13)
4. Investigation in discourse analysis
Genres
The term genre has been used to refer to culturally recognized ‘message type’ with conventional internal structure, such as a biology research article, or a business memo. Genre studies have usually focused on the conventional discourse structure of texts or the expected socio-cultural actions of a discourse community.
(al., 2007, pp. 7-8)
Genres (cont.)
The term ‘genre’ has been used for many years to refer to different styles of literary discourse such as sonnets, tragedies, and romances. In recent times, functional linguistics have adapted the term to refer to different types of communicative events. In other words, different types of communicative events result in different types of discourse, and each of these will have its own distinctive characteristics. Some events result in sermons, others in political speeches, and yet others in casual conversations. While each sermon, political speech and casual conversation will be different, each discourse type will share certain characteristics which will set it apart from other discourse types.
(Nunan, 1993, pp. 48-49)
Register
The term register (when it is distinguished from genre) has been used to refer to a general kind of language associated with a domain of use, such us ‘legal register’, ‘scientific register’, or ‘bureaucratic register’. Register have usually focused on lexico-grammatical features, showing how the use of words and grammatical features vary systematically in accord with the situation of use (factor such as interactivity, personal involvement, mode, production circumstances and communicative purpose). As such the term register has been associated with the first general approach to discourse.
(al., 2007, pp. 7-8)
Fields
Discourse Analysis has been applied to academic disciplines including biochemistry, biology, computer science, medicine, as well on a variety of academic genres, including university lectures, Master of Science dissertations and text books. There are sections of research articles across a variety of fields: Chemistry articles, biochemistry and medical research articles, Chemical Engineering and Computer science. More recently, professional discourse has also been examined through the lens of move analysis, including legal discourse, philanthropic discourse, direct mail letters and movie reviews.
(al., 2007, p. 29)
Types of texts
Unlike our knowledge of speech, our knowledge of written text has been greatly assisted by the existence of huge computerized corpora of written material such as the twenty-million-word Birmingham Collection of English Text, and corpus building over the years has led to an interest in detailed taxonomies of textual types. We can obtain statistics from library borrowing, or for newspaper sales, and get some idea of what most people read of these ‘mainstream’ text types, but a whole hidden world exists too, of memos, forms, news, tickets, letters, hoardings, labels, mails, etc., and it very difficult to guess just what people’s daily reading and writing is.
List of everyday written texts:
‘ Instruction leaflet
‘ Letter to/from friend
‘ Public notice
‘ Product label
‘ Newspaper obituary
‘ Poem
‘ News Report
‘ Academic article
‘ Small ads
‘ Postcard from friend
‘ Business letter
(MacCarthy, 1991, pp. 147-148)
Cohesion
Halliday and Hasan outline a taxonomy of types of cohesive relationships which can be formally established within a text, providing cohesive ‘ties’ which bind a text together.
A familiar type of explicitly market cohesive relationship in texts is indicated by formal markers which relate what is about to be said to what has been said before ‘ markers like and, but, so and then.
(Yule, 1983, p. 191)
Coherence
We certainly rely on the syntactic structure and lexical items used in a linguistic message, to arrive at an interpretation, but it is a mistake to think that we operate only with this literal input to our understanding.
(3) Self Employed Upholsterer
Free estimates. 332 5862
If we encounter (3), we are expected to understand that the source of the advertisement is the upholsterer and that he or she will provide free estimates of the cost of upholstery work which the reader may need to be done. It is not a random assortment of words and numbers.
The most important of these is the reader’s (or hearer’s) effort to arrive at the writer’s (or speaker’s) intended meaning in producing a linguistic message.
(Yule, 1983, pp. 223-224)
5. References
Bibliography
al., D. B. (2007). Discourse on the move . John Benjamins Publishing Company.
Cook, G. (1992). The Discourse of Advertising . Interface.
Coulthard, M. (1985). An introduction To Discourse Analysis . Applied Linguistics and Laanguage Study .
Fairclough, N. (2003). Analysing Discourse . Textual analysis for social research .
MacCarthy, M. (1991). Discourse Analysis for Language Teachers . Cambridge University Press .
Nunan, D. (1993). Introducing Discourse Analysis . Penguin Books .
Wodak, R. (1996). Disorders of Discourse . Real Language Series .
Yule, B. a. (1983). Discourse Analysis . Cambridge Textbooks in Linguistics .
APPENDIX
e.g. Powerpoint presentation