Discourse Analysis

Introduction: Linguistic forms and

functions

Chapter 1
G.Brown & G.Yule
The functions of language
 The analysis of discourse is necessarily the
analysis of language in use.
 Discourse analysis is committed to an
investigation of what language is used for.
 The two main functions of language are:
1. The transactional function: expressing content,
factual or propositional language.
2. The interactional function: expressing social
relations and personal attitudes.

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The functions of language
 Primarily transactional language is message
oriented. The recipient must get the correct
details.
 Sociologists are concerned with the use of
language to establish and maintain social
relationships (phatic use of language)
 Conversational analysts have been particularly
concerned with the use of language to negotiate
role relationships, peer solidarity, the exchange of
turns in a conversation.
 A great deal of everyday human interaction is
characterised by the use of primarily
interpersonal language.

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The functions of language

 Written language is mainly used for

transactional purposes but there are
written genres to maintain social
relationships.It is permanent.
 Speech is used for the maintenance of
human relationships (interactional use) It
is transitory.
(see Cook Task 14)

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Spoken and written language
 Differences in manner of production:

 Spoken language:
 Paralinguistic cues are an advantage for the
listener.
 In general the speaker has no permanent record
of what came before or what comes next.
 Speaker can observe interlocutor and modify
what he is saying.
 Speaker is pressed for time.

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Spoken and written language
 Written language:
 Writer may look over what he has already
written.
 He can take his time, check his progress,
reorder what he has written and change
his mind.
 He can cross out.
 But has no access to immediate feedback.

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The representation of discourse: text
 A text is the verbal record of a communicative act.
 What problems arise when transcribing a written text?
 There are no standard conventions to represent paralinguistic
features.Pronunciation and accent are lost.
 The perception and interpretation of each text is essentially
subjective.
 The D Analyst presents transcriptions of the spoken text using the
conventions of the written language.for example if the analyst
italicises a word to indicate high pitch he has performed an
interpretation which is equivalent to underlining for emphasis.
 Once the analyst has created a written transcription from a
recorded spoken version, the written text is available to him in the
way a literary text is available to the literary critic. The discourse
analysis of spoken language is prone to over-analysis.
 In a sense the analyst is creating the text which others will read.

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Spoken and written language.
Differences in form.
Spoken:

 Syntax is not so structured. There are

incomplete sentences and little
subordination.Active declarative forms are
used. Few passives, “it” clefts, “wh” clefts.
 In WL connectors are used: when, that,
besides,etc. SL : but, and, then.In SL
rhetorical organisers are rare:firstly, in
conclusion.

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Spoken and written language.
Differences in form

 In SL it is rare to find more than two adj. before a noun.

 In WL sentences have a Subject and a predicate. In SL it is
common to find for example a topic comment structure.
 In SL active constructions are more frequent.
 In SL we can rely on gaze direction to supply a referent.
 In SL the speaker may refine expressions as he goes
along.
 In SL the speaker uses more generalised vocabulary.
 In SL the speaker repeats the same syntactic form.
 In SL the speaker uses prefabricated fillers.

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Different views of language
 Sentence-as-object view: there are no
producers and no receivers. Language need not
be considered in terms of function. This is the
field of sentence grammarians.
 Text-as-product view: cohesion view.
Relationship of sentences in printed text. There
are producers and receivers but analysis does not
say how product is produced or received;it does
not account for principles which constrain
production and those which constrain
interpretation. This is the field of text linguistics.

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Different views of language

 Discourse-as-process view: it considers

words, phrases and sentences which
appear in the textual record of a discourse
as an attempt by a producer to
communicate a message to the recipient.
Its primary area is the comunicative
function of language.
This is the field of Discourse Analysis.

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 The Discourse Analyst treats data as a
record of the dynamic process in which
language was used as an instrument of
communication in a context by a
speaker/writer to express meanings and
achieve intentions.The D Analyst seeks to
describe regularities in the linguistic
realisations used by people to
communicate those meanings and
intentions.
……………………..
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 Discourse Analysis
The role of context in interpretation

Chapter 2
G.Brown & G.Yule
Pragmatics
 There are four areas Pragmatics is concerned with:

 Pragmatics is concerned with the study of meaning as

communicated by a speaker(or writer) and interpreted by a
listener (or reader). It has more to do with the analysis of
what people mean by their utterances than with what the
words mean by themselves. Pragmatics is the study of
speaker meaning.

 This type of study involves the interpretation of what

people mean in a particular context and how the context
influences what is said. Pragmatics is the study of
contextual meaning.

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Pragmatics
 This approach also explores how listeners can make
inferences about what is said in order to arrive at an
interpretation. It explores how a great deal of what is
unsaid is seen as part of what is communicated.
Pragmatics is the study of how more gets
communicated than is said.

 Distance determines the choice between the said and the

unsaid. Closeness (physical,social or conceptual) implies
shared experience.On the assumption of how close or
distant the listener is, speakers determine how much needs
to be said. Pragmatics is the study of the expression
of relative distance.

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Pragmatics and discourse context
 The D Analyst takes a pragmatic approach to the
study of language in use.
 The D Analyst has to take account of the context
in which a piece of discourse occurs.
 Some of the most obvious linguistic elements
which require contextual information for their
interpretation are the deictic forms (here, now, I,
you,this)
 To interpret these elements in a piece of
discourse, it is necessary to know at least who
the speaker and hearer are and the time and
place of the production of the discourse.

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Pragmatic concepts in DA
 Discourse Analysis describes what speakers and hearers are
doing, not the relationship which exists between one
sentence or proposition and another.

 Discourse analysts investigate the use of language in

context by a speaker/writer. They are concerned with the
relationship between the speaker/writer and the utterance.

 Reference , Presupposition, Inference and

Implicature are pragmatic concepts in DA. They indicate a
relationship between discourse participants and elements in
the discourse.

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Pragmatic concepts in DA
 Reference: in the Semantic view words refer to things in
the world. In the Pragmatic view it is the speaker/writer
who refers.Reference is treated as an action on the part of
the speaker/writer.
 Presupposition is defined as the assumptions the speaker
makes about what the hearer is likely to accept without
challenge. Notion of common ground.
 Inference: The DA has no direct access to speaker’s
intended meaning, so he has to rely on a process of
inference to interpret utterances or the connections
between utterances. Inference is based on sociocultural
knowledge.
 Implicature: this notion accounts for what a speaker can
imply, suggest or mean as distinct from what the speaker
literally says.

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Reference
 An act in which a speaker uses a linguistic form
to enable a listener to identify something.It is
what the speaker assumes the listener knows
already.
 Expressions are invested with a referential
function.
 Successful reference is necessarily collaborative.
 Examples:
 You-know-who has arrived.
 Picasso’s on the far wall
 Where’s the cheese sandwich sitting?

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Reference
 In the previous examples our ability to
identify the referents depended on more
than our understanding of the referring
expression. We need the co-text as well.
 Different cotexts lead to different
interpretations:
 The cheese sandwich is made with white bread.
 The cheese sandwich left without paying.
 Interpretation also depends on local
context and knowledge of the participants:
 Your ten thirty just cancelled.
 A couple of rooms complained about the heat.
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Presupposition
 Something the speaker assumes to be the case
prior to making an utterance.
 Kinds of presupposition:
 Lexical: You’re late again < you were late before.
 Structural: When did you post the letter?< you posted
the letter.
 Factive: I’m glad it’s over< it’s over
 Non-factive: I dreamed I was rich< I was not rich.
 Existential: the cat, the Queen, my uncle.

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Implicature

 Conventional implicature is determined by the

meaning of the words used and does not depend
on special context for interpretation. (e.g.Mary
suggested white but I chose black)

 Conversational implicature is derived from the

general principle of conversation and a number of
maxims people normally obey.

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The Cooperative Principle
 The general principle is called the
Cooperative Principle:

“Make you contribution such as is required,

at the stage at which it occurs, by the
accepted purpose or direction of the talk
exchange in which you are engaged”
(Grice, 1975)

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The Cooperative Principle
 Consider the following scenario: a woman sitting
on a park bench and a large dog lying on the
ground in front of the bench. A man comes along
and sits on the bench.
 Man: Does your dog bite?
 Woman: No
(The man reaches down to pet the dog.
The dog bites the man’s hand)
 Man: Ouch! Hey! You said your dog doesn’t bite.
 Woman: He doesn’t. But that’s not my dog.

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The four maxims
 The conversational conventions or maxims, which
support this principle are:
 The maxim of Quantity: make your contribution
as informative as is required. Do not make your
contribution more informative than is required.
 The maxim of Quality: do not say what you
believe to be false.Do not say that for which you
lack adequate evidence.
 The maxim of Relation: be relevant.
 The maxim of Manner: be perspicuous. Avoid
obscurity of expression. Avoid ambiguity. Be brief
(avoid unnecessary prolixity).Be orderly.

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The four maxims
 By providing a description of the norms speakers
operate with in conversation, Grice makes it
possible to describe what types of meaning a
speaker can convey by flouting one of the
maxims:

Example: A: I am out of petrol

B: There is a garage round the corner
(see Cook Task 16)
 The flouting of a maxim results in the speaker
conveying an additional meaning in addition to
the literal meaning.
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Implicature
 Implicatures are pragmatic aspects of meaning
and have certain characteristics:
1. They are partially derived from the conventional
or literal meaning of an utterance.
2. They are produced in a specific context which is
shared by the speaker and the hearer.
3. They depend on a recognition by the speaker
and the hearer of the Cooperative principle and
its maxims.
4. They are necessarily collaborative.

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Types of Implicature
 Generalised conversational implicature:no special
knowledge required to calculate additional meaning.
A:Did you invite Mary and Peter?
B:I invited Peter.

 Particularised conversational implicature: needs

special knowledge to be understood.
A:Coming to the wild party tonight?
B: My parents are visiting.

A:Do you like ice-cream?

B:Is the Pope Catholic?

A:Do vegetarians eat hamburgers?

B:Do chickens have lips?

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The Role of Context
 According to Hymes the role of context is
twofold:

 It limits the range of possible

interpretations

 It supports the intended interpretations.

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The Features of Context (Hymes)
S.P.E.A.K.I.N.G
 The features of context which may be relevant to the
identification of a type of speech event:
 Addressor and addressee
 Audience (overhearers)
 Topic (what is being talked about)
 Setting (time and place)
 Event (e.g: a sermon as part of a church service)
 Channel (speech/writing)
 Code (language/style/dialect)
 Message form (chat/debate/sermon etc.)
 Key ( evaluation)
 Purpose (what the participants intend should come about as
a result of the communicative event)

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Deixis
 Deixis means pointing via language. It is
a form of referring tied to the speaker’s
context.
 Any form used to “point” is called deictic
expression

 Here: located in the context of what the

speaker is talking about. The deictic
centre is where the speaker is.

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Deixis
 Now: the interpretation of this expression
must be determined with respect to the
content of the utterance.
 Examples:
 Clap together now.
 I think you should begin the next chapter
now.
 Now I’m getting older, I really find
policemen look younger.
 From the iron age till now,………

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Types of Deixis
 Person deixis: you/ me.
 I/you shifts in conversation.
 Use of honorifics (to indicate higher status)
 Tu/Vous distinction
 Spatial deixis: here/there
 Temporal deixis: now/then yesterday/tomorrow
 Proximal (near the speaker):this/here/now
 Distal (away from speaker)that/there/then

 Interpretation of deictic forms depends on context and

speaker’s intention.
 They express relative distance.
 They communicate more than is said.

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Deixis
 Examples:

 Would His Highness like some

coffee?(ironic)
 I am not here now. (answering machine)
 Free beer tomorrow.

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Principle of local interpretation

 The hearer does not construct a context

larger than necessary to arrive at an
interpretation.
 The hearer does little processing, only
enough to account for what he judges the
purpose of the utterance to be.

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Analogy
 An individual’s experiences of past events of a similar kind will
equip him with expectations and hypotheses about context.
 Types of experience: assumed normality of the world.
 Finding regularity:everybody finds the same.
 Individual gets a general impression of the whole and on the basis
of this constructs the probable detail.
 The more constrained and ritualised the genre, the more likely we
are to be able to identify the norm.
 It is not the sequence of sentences which represent “coherent
discourse”. It is the reader driven by local interpretation and
analogy who assigns coherence to a set of sentences.
 The principle of analogy provides a reasonably secure framework
for interpretation for the hearer and the analyst. Most of the time
things conform to expectations. However, conventions can be
flouted or upset. Conventions can only be flouted because they
exist.

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 Discourse Analysis
Topic and the representation of
discourse content
Chapter 3
G.Brown & G.Yule
Discourse topic and topic framework
 Discourse topic is not a noun phrase but a
proposition which represents what the whole
fragment talks about.
 Topic frameworkis formed by the activated
features of context (those that have to be
called upon to interpret the text). They constitute
the contextual framework within which the topic
is constituted(see Brown & Yule p. 76)
 The topic framework represents an overlap in the
knowledge which has been activated and is
shared by the participants at a particular point in
the discourse.

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Speaker’s topic
 Speaker’s topic is a personal topic within
the general topic framework.
 Topics are negotiated in the process of
conversing
 Personal topics are frequently introduced
through the 1st person
 It is speakers or writers that have topics,
not texts

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Speaking topically and speaking on a
topic.
 A participant is speaking topically when he
makes his contribution fit closely to the
most recent element incorporated in the
topic framework. This is a feature of
casual conversation.

 Speaking on a topic means concentrating

on a particular entity, individual or issue.
..…………………..

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Bibliography
 Brown, G. and Yule, G. (1983) Discourse
Analysis. C.U.P. (Chapters 1-2-3)
 Cook, G. (1989) Discourse. O.U.P
 Yule, G (1996) Pragmatics O.U.P
 Mey, Jacob (1993) Pragmatics. An
Introduction. Oxford, Blackwell.

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Examples
 See Task 21 for Speech act theory
(Chinese takeaway)
 Cook Task 12 (context)
“The window is open”
1. “Go back to sleep ,will you?”
2. “Don’t worry”
3. “My job’s stacking boxes,mate”
4. “By Jove, Holmes! It was the gardener!”

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Examples
 Explain the following in terms of Syntax,
semantics and Pragmatics:
 “No parking violators will be towed away”
(sign in San Juan, Pto. Rico)

 “We expect 250 people to be killed” see

Mey p34)
 Implicature
A:“What time is it?”
B:”The bus just went by”
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Examples
 Consider the folowing interchanges. What
presuppositions are violated?
 A: Your name isn’t really Misty Beethoven,is it?
 B: You’re right-it’s Teresa Beethoven.

 A:What’s your name?

 B:Betty Skymitch
 A: Spell it, please.
 B: B-E-T-T-Y.

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