UNIT 1

DISCOURSE

Introduction to Discourse Analysis

The origins of Discourse Analysis

Discourse Typology: Spoken/Written, Formal/Informal

Levels of Analysis

Linguistic Approach: Pragmatics

Reference

Force and Effect

Context and Schema

Negotiation of meaning
Introduction to Discourse Analysis

Discourse analysis focuses on knowledge about language beyond the word, clause,
phrase and sentence that is needed for successful communication. It looks at patterns of
language across texts and considers the relationship between language and the social
and cultural contexts in which it is used.

We have two different kinds of language as potential objects for study:

1. An abstracted kind of language in order to teach a language or literacy, or to study

how the rules of language work;
2. A kind of language which has been used to communicate something and is felt to
be coherent.

The second kind of language is called discourse; and the search for what gives discourse
coherence is discourse analysis.

 Discourse may be composed of one or more well-formed grammatical sentences,

but it does not have to be.
o It can have grammatical mistakes in it, and often does.
 Discourse treats the rules of grammar as a resource, conforming them when it
needs to, but departing from them when it does not.
o What matters is not its conformity to rules, but the fact that is
communicates and is recognized by its receivers as coherent.
o There is a degree of subjectivity in identifying a stretch of language as
discourse.

The Origins of Discourse Analysis

It is not accurate to regard discourse analysis as something totally new. The first know
students of language, the scholars of Greece and Rome, divided grammar from rhetoric.

 Grammar is concerned with the rules of language as an isolate object.

 Rhetoric deals with how to do things with words, to achieve effects, and
communicate effectively in particular contexts.

In twentieth-century linguistics, there have also been influential approaches which

studied language in its full context, as part of society and the world.
In North America, work on language was conducted by people which involved in research
into the languages and societies of the native Americans.

In Britain, J.R. Firth saw language as part of a culture, which is in turn responsive to
the environment.

There are many other disciplines (philosophy, psychology, sociology, etc.) which examine
their object of study through language, and are thus carrying out their own discourse
analysis.

o The most useful distinction is to think of other disciplines as studying something

else through discourse; whereas discourse analysis has discourse as its prime
object of study.

It was a sentence linguist, named Zellig Harris, who both coined the term discourse
analysis and initiated a search for language rules which would explain how sentences
were connected within a text by a kind of extended grammar.

 He analyzed an advertisement for hair tonic, and set about searching for
grammatical rules to explain why one sentence followed another. His conclusions
are interesting.
o One of the possible directions for discourse analysis was: continuing
descriptive Linguistics beyond the limits of a single sentence at a time.
o Another possible direction was: correlating culture and language.

“In every language it turns out that almost all the results lie within a relatively short
stretch which we may call the sentence . . . Only rarely can we state restrictions across
sentences”

Zellig Harris

We must look beyond the formal rules operating within sentences, and
consider the people who use language, and the world in which it happens.

Discourse Typology: Spoken/Written, Formal/Informal

General differences between spoken and written discourse

 1. Grammatical intricacy
2. Lexical density
3. Nominalization
4. Explicitness
5. Contextualization
6. Spontaneity
7. Repetition, hesitations, and redundancy

Written Discourse Spoken Discourse

Grammatical  Structurally complex  Structurally simple

Intricacy  More elaborate  Less elaborated

 Sentences are longer  Sentences are short and simple
and more complex  NOT less organized
 It has its own kind of complexity
 Clauses are long and spread out

Lexical Density  More lexically dense  Less lexically dense

 Content words seem to  Content words tend to be
It refers to the ratio of be tightly packed into spread out over a number of
content words to individual clauses clauses
grammatical or
function words within
a clause.

Nominalization  High level of  Low level of nominalization (i.e.

nominalization (i.e. more verbs than nouns)
It refers to presenting more nouns than  Shorter noun groups
actions and events as verbs)
nouns rather than as  Longer noun groups
verbs.

Explicitness  More explicit  Less explicit

 This is not always true

 It depends on the purpose of the text
 A writer/speaker can state something explicitly or infer it
 depending on many variables.

Contextualization  More decontextualized  More attached to context

 Depends on a shared
It refers to the extent situation and background
knowledge of context for interpretation
is needed to interpret
a text.
 It may not be true in all types of spoken discourses
 Some types of written discourse may show high dependence
on shared contextual knowledge (e.g. letters)

Spontaneity  Organized  Lacks organization

 Grammatical  Ungrammatical
 More uncompleted and
reformulated sentences
 Topics can be changed
 There is interruption and
overlapping

Repetition,  No hesitations, repetitions,  More repetition,

hesitation, and or redundancy hesitations, and

 Produced in advanced redundancy
redundancy
 No pauses or fillers  Produced in real time
 There are pauses and fillers

Levels of Analysis: Pragmatics, Phonology, Phonetics, Morphology,

Semantic, and Syntax

Pragmatics

It is a branch of linguistics concerned with the use of language in social contexts and the
ways in which people produce and comprehend meanings through language.

Phonology
Phonology is a branch of linguistics concerned with the systematic organization of
sounds in languages. It has traditionally focused largely on the study of the systems of
phonemes in particular languages, but it may also cover any linguistic analysis either at
a level beneath the word or at all levels of language where sound is considered to be
structured for conveying linguistic meaning.

Phonetics

Phonetics is a branch of linguistics that comprises the study of the sounds of human
speech. It is concerned with the physical properties of speech sounds: their physiological
production, acoustic properties, auditory perception, and neurophysiological status.

Morphology

It is the identification, analysis and description of the structure of a given language's

morphemes and other linguistic units or implied context.

Syntax

Syntax is the set of rules, principles, and processes that govern the structure of
sentences in a given language, specifically word order. The term syntax is also used to
refer to the study of such principles and processes.

Semantic

Semantics is the study of meaning. It focuses on the relation between signifiers, and
what they stand for; their denotation. Linguistic semantics is the study of meaning that
is used for understanding human expression through language.

Linguistic Approach: Pragmatics

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 what the words and phrases in those
utterances might mean by themselves.

 It involves the interpretation of what people mean in a particular context and how
the context influences what is said.
 It explores how a great deal of what is unsaid is recognized as part of what is
communicated.
o What determines the choice between the said and the unsaid?
 Distance.
  Closeness, whether is 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 relationships between linguistic forms and the users of
those forms.

 Only pragmatics allows humans into the analysis.

 The advantage of studying language via pragmatics is that:
o One can talk about people’s intended meanings, their assumptions, their
purposes or goals, and the kinds of actions that they are performing when
they speak.
 It is more appealing because it’s about how people make sense of each other
linguistically, but it can be a frustrating area of study because it requires us to
make sense of people and what they have in mind.

Reference

Acts of communication can be pragmatically effective in three ways. First, the language
can be used to talk about something to express a proposition of some kind. This involves
making a connection with context in such a way as to make an appropriate reference.

The taxi will be here in a quarter of an hour.

 The definite article the provides a contextual connection since it signals that what
is being referred to is common knowledge between the people engaged in the
conversation.
 The adverb here locates the utterance in a particular context of place.
 The prepositional phrase in a quarter of an hour locates the utterance in a
particular time.
o To the extent that the conversationalists recognize the coordinated,
appropriate reference is achieved.

Illocutionary force refers to the intention of the utterance of being a promise, advice, or
anything else. It will depend on the context of knowledge and assumption that speaker
assumes to be share.

Perlocutionary effect happens when the speaker is doing something else than just saying
an expression connected with the context. The speaker is not just acting, but acting
upon the other person, to bring about a certain state of mind or course of action. In
performing an illocutionary act, the speaker is also bringing about a perlocutionary
force.

I promise he will do everything OK.

 Illocutionary force: promising.

 Perlocutionary effect: reassuring the other person that everything will be cool.

Context and Schema

Context

When we receive a linguistic message, we pay attention to many other factors apart from
the language itself. These are the paralinguistic features of a spoken message. This may
exist in written messages too, influenced by handwriting or typography.

 These factors take us beyond the study of language, in a narrow sense, and force
us to look at other areas of inquiry –the mind, the body, society, the physical
world-, at everything.

In linguistics, there have been several schools of thought which believe that context
should be rules out of language analysis as far as possible. In this way, linguists will be
able to make discoveries about the language itself, and its system of rules which exist
quite independently of particular circumstances.

 We characterize it as sentence linguistics, because it confines its inquiries to what

happens within sentences.
o They either invent their examples for analysis, using their own intuitive
knowledge as native speakers, or they take language which people have
actually used and remove all the features which they believe to be irrelevant
to their purposes.

By removing these sorts of features – hesitations, false starts, social or regional dialects –
sentence linguists would argue that we take away what is incidental and variable in
language and leave what is permanent and invariable.

Yet, for the discourse analyst it may be exactly these transient and variable features
which enable us to understand the meaning of what is said, and the reason why the
order of sentences proceeds in the way that it does. The language learner needs to be
able to handle language which is not idealized –language in use.

We have two approaches to language: sentence linguistics and discourse analysis. They
both have an invaluable contribution to make to the understanding of language, and
they need each other.

SENTENCE LINGUISTICS DATA DISCOURSE ANALYSIS DATA

Isolated sentences Any stretch of language felt to be unified
Grammatically well-formed Achieving meaning
Without context In context
Invented or idealized Observed

Schema

A schema is a construct of familiar knowledge, to the extent that schematic assumptions

are socially shared by a particular community, we can say that they are indeed cultural
constructs.

The process of making sense by taking schematic bearings applies to the interpretation
of all texts. You cannot make sense of anything without bringing it within the confines of
what is preconceived as familiar. Everything new has to be related to what is given.

Sometimes, it is easy to accommodate new information into existing schemata,

sometimes difficult, but some accommodation needs always to be made.

Negotiation of Meaning

All but the most constrained interactions are the result of the joint efforts of the
participants to make sense to each other. This is reflected in the amount of negotiation,
which is required in order for the conversational participant to ensure that their
messages are being received in the way they intended, and for the listeners to ensure
that they are interpreting what they hear correctly.

 Speakers and listeners do conversational ‘work’ to ensure that there is mutual

comprehension.
 The second language acquisition process is enhanced by classroom tasks in which
the learners are required to negotiate meaning.
 When learners are put into a position where they have to negotiate meaning in
order to make themselves comprehensible to their interlocutors, they will be
pushed to the limits of their competence, and that this will ‘fuel’ the acquisition
process.
o Problem-solving and information gap tasks, in which learners are required
to exchange and share information in order to complete the task, stimulate
the maximum amount of negotiation.
UNIT 2
DEIXIS AND DISTANCE

Person, Spatial, and Temporal Deixis

Dexis and Grammar

Presupposition and Entailnment

Types of Presupposition

The Projection Problem

The Cooperative Principle

Hedges

Conversational Implicature

Scalar Implicatures

Properties of Conversational Implicatures

Conventional Implicatures
Person, Spatial, and Temporal Deixis

Deixis is a technical term for one of the most basic things we do with utterances. It
means ‘pointing’ via language. Any linguist form used to accomplish this ‘pointing’ is
called a deictic expression.

Deictic expressions are also called indexicals. They are among the first forms to be
spoken by very young children and can be used to indicate:

o People via Person Deixis

e.g. me, you
o Location via Spatial Deixis
e.g. here, there
o Time via Temporal Deixis
e.g. now, then
 These expressions depend, for their interpretation, on the speaker and hearer
sharing the same context.

Deixis is clearly a form of referring that is tied to the speaker’s context, with the basic
distinction between deictic expressions being ‘near speaker’ or ‘away from speaker’.

 The near speaker, or proximal terms, are ‘this’, ‘here’, ‘now’.

 The away from the speaker, or distal terms, are ‘that’, ‘there’, ‘then’.
o Proximal terms are typically interpreted in terms of the speaker’s location, or
the deictic center.
o Distal terms can simply indicate away from the speaker.

Person Deixis

Any expression used to point a person is called a person Deixis.

e.g. I, you, he, she, me, him

 Person Deixis concerns the person involved in an utterance, such as:

o The person directly involved (i.e. the speaker and the addressee)
e.g. I am going to bazaar.
o The person not directly involved (i.e. those who hear the utterance byt are
not being directly addressed)
e.g. Would you like to have dinner?
o The people mentioned in the utterances
 e.g. They tried to hurt me, but he came to rescue.
 Social Deixis is concerned with the markers of relative social status.
o It involves the circumstances which lead to the choice of one of these forms
rather than another form.
o It communicates something about the speaker’s view of his or her
relationship with the addressee.
 Spanish words tú/usted
 French words tu/vous

Place or Spatial Deixis

Any expression or word used to point to a location is called Spatial Deixis.

Spatial Deixis concerns with itself with the spatial locations relevant to an utterance.

The locations may be those of the speaker and the addressee or those people or objects
being referred to, such as:

 Here
 There
 Where
 Yonder

For example:

 I enjoy living in this city.

 Here is where we met last month.
 She was sitting over here.

Spatial Deixis may be of two types:

PROXIMAL PLACE DEIXIS DISTAL PLACE DEIXIS

This That
These Those
Here There

Speaker’s location regarding location

The location from the speaker’s perspective can be fixed mentally as well as
physically.
  Physically distant: speaker’s continue to use ‘hear’ to mean the home location,
when they are actually not there.
o Speaker’s also project themselves into other locations prior to actually being
in those locations. This is called deictic projection.
 e.g. I will come later. (this means that the speaker is not there now)
 Psychologically distant: physically closed objects will tend to be treated by the
speaker as psychologically close.
o Something physically distant will generally be treated as psychologically
distant.
 e.g. The man over there.
o When a speaker wishes to mark something that is physically close as
psychologically distant.
 e.g. I don’t like that.

Temporal Deixis

Temporal Deixis concerns itself with various times involved in and referred to in an
utterance.

e.g. tonight, last week, yesterday, before, after, now, then, soon

It has only two basic forms, the present (proximal) and the past (distant)

 Temporal reference expressions:

o Deictic: these expressions depend on their interpretation of knowing the
relevant utterance time.
 e.g. tomorrow, today, tonight
“Back in an hour”
“Free beer tomorrow”
o Non-Deictic: these are elaborate systems of temporal reference such as
calendar time and clock time
 e.g. November 22nd, 1963
Dinner at 8:30 on Saturday?
o Choice of verbs: the present tense is the proximal form and the past tense is
the distal form:
 I live here now.
 I lived there then.
  The past tense is always used in English in those if
clauses that mark events presented by the speaker as not
being close to present reality.
o e.g. If I had a yacht,…
If I was rich,…
 Psychological distance and temporal Deixis
o We can treat temporal events as things that move towards us (into view) or
away from us (out of view)
 e.g. towards us: the coming week, the approaching year
 away from us: in days gone by, the past week

Dexis and Grammar

The basic distinctions presented for person, spatial, and temporal Deixis can all be seem
at work in one common structural distinction in English grammar: direct and indirect
(reported) speech.

e.g. Are you planning to be here this evening?

I asked her if she was planning to be there that evening.

 The proximal forms presented in the first case have shifted to the corresponding
distal forms in the second case.
 The regular difference in English reported discourse marks a distinction between
the ‘near speaker’ meaning of direct speech and the ‘away from speaker’ meaning
of indirect speech.
 Deictic expressions and their interpretation depend on the context, the speaker’s
intention, and they express relative distance.
o Deictic expressions always communicate much more than what is said.

Presupposition and Entailnment

Presupposition and entailment are used to describe two different aspects of what it is
communicated but not said.

A presupposition is something the speaker assumes to be the case prior to making an

utterance. Speakers have presuppositions.

An entailment is something that logically follows from what is asserted in the utterance.
Sentence have entailment.
  Presupposition in treated as a relationship between two propositions.
o P >> Q Proposition ‘p’ presupposes proposition ‘q’
 e.g. Mary’s cat is cute (p) >> Mary has a cat (q)
 Constancy under negation: the presupposition of statement will remain constant
even when that statement is negated.
o Mary’s cat isn’t cute (Not p) >> Mary has a cat (q)

Types of Presupposition

Presuppositions are associated with the use of large numbers of words, phrases, and
structures.

These linguistic forms are considered as indicators of potential presupposition, which

can become actual presuppositions in context with speaker.

TYPE OF WORD, PHRASES,

DEFINITION EXAMPLES
PRESUPPOSITION OR STRUCTURES
Entities named by  Noun phrases The Cold War has
the speaker and  Possessive ended.
EXISTENTIAL
assumed to be constructions Tony’s car is new.
present.
The presupposed Verbs like: She didn’t realize he
information following  Know was ill. >> He was
FACTIVE some verbs can be  Realize ill.
treated as facts.  Regret We regret telling
him. >> We told him.
In using one word,  Stopped You are late again.
the speaker can act  Still >> You were late
as if another  Again before.
LEXICAL
meaning will be  Managed Mary stopped
understood. running. >> She
used to run.
It is the assumption Wh-Questions When did she travel
associated with the constructions to the U.S.? >> She
STRUCTURAL
use of certain travelled.
structures.
NON-FACTIVE It is the assumption Verbs like: I dreamed I was
referred to  Dream rich. >> I am not
 something that it is  Imagine rich.
not true.  Pretend
It is the assumption Conditional If you were my
that what it is structures daughter, I wouldn’t
COUNTERFACTUA
presupposed is allow you do this. >>
L
untrue and contrary You are not my
to the facts. daughter.

The Projection Problem

This occurs when the meaning of a whole sentence is a combination of the meaning of
its parts.

We expect the presupposition of a simple sentence will continue to be true when those
simple sentences become part of a more complex sentence. However, the meaning of
some presuppositions (as ‘parts’) doesn’t survive to become the meaning of some
complex sentences (as ‘wholes’).

e.g. 1

 George regrets getting Mary pregnant. (=p=

 George got Mary pregnant. (=q)
 p>>q
 George regrets getting Mary pregnant, but he doesn’t get her preguntant (=p &r)
 p & r >> NOT q

e.g. 2

 Nobody realized that Kelly was ill. (=p)

 Kelly was ill. (=q)
 I imagined Kelly was ill. (=r)
 Kelly was not ill. (=NOT q)
 r>> NOT q
 I imagined that Kelly was ill and nobody realized that she was ill.
 r&p>>NOT Q
o At this point, after combining r & p, the presupposition q can no longer be
true.
o You have a presupposition q and an entailment Not q.
Entailment

It is not a pragmatic concept, but a purely local concept. It is symbolized by ll-.

e.g. Robert chased three squirrels. (=p)

 Something chased three squirrels. (=q)

 Robert did something to three squirrels. (=r)
 Robert chased three of something. (=s)
 Something happened. (=t)

TYPES OF ENTAILMENT

BACKGROUND ENTAILMENT FOREGROUND ENTAILMENT

Logical concept of entailment. The speaker can communicate, usually by
A very large number of them exist for an means of stress, more important for
utterance. interpreting intended meaning than any
other.

 Making the main assumption:

o Robert chased three squirrels.
 Robert chased a certain number of squirrels.
o Robert chased three squirrels.
 The focus shifts to Robert and the main assumption is that something
chases three squirrels.
o ‘it-cleft’ structure has a similar function:
 It wasn’t me who took your money.

The Cooperative Principle

Speakers and listeners involved in conversation are generally cooperating with each
other. Collaboration is a necessary factor.

 This sense of cooperation is one in which people having a conversation are not
normally assumed to be trying to confuse, trick, or withhold relevant information
from each other.
The cooperative principle: It makes your conversational 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.

It has four sub-principles, which are called maxims:

1. Make your contribution as informative as is

required.
QUANTITY
2. Do not make your contribution more
informative than is required.
QUALITY 1. Do not say what you believe to be false.
Try to make your contribution one 2. Do not say that for which you lack adequate
that is true. evidence.
RELATION Be relevant.
1. Avoid obscurity of expression.
MANNER 2. Avoid ambiguity.
Be perspicuous. 3. Be brief.
4. Be orderly.

Implicatures are primary examples of more being communicated than is said, but in
order for them to be interpreted, some basic cooperative principle must first be assumed
to be in operation.

Hedges

There are certain kinds of expressions speakers use to mark that they may be in danger
of not fully adhering to principles. These kinds of expressions are called hedges.

When making a statement, certain expressions are used to indicate the degree of
certainty concerning the information given.

 The importance of the maxim of quality may be best measured by the number of
expressions we use to indicate that what we are saying may not be totally
accurate.
o As far as I know, they are married.
o I may be mistaken, but I thought I saw a wedding ring on her finger.
o I couldn’t live without her, I guess.
  Caution notes can also be used to show that the speaker is conscious of the
quantity maxim.
o As you probably know, I am terrified of bugs.
o So, to cut a long story short, we grabbed our stuff and run.
 Markers tied to the expectation of relevance for the maxim of relation, can be
found in the middle of speakers’ talk.
o I don’t know if this is important, but some of the files are missing.
o This may sound like a dumb question, but whose handwriting is this?
 The awareness of the expectations of manner may also lead speakers to produce
hedges.
o This may be a bit confused, but I remember being in a car.
o I’m not sure if this makes sense, but the car had no lights.

Conversational Implicature

The basic assumption in conversation is that the participants are adhering to the
cooperative principle and the maxims.

e.g. Charlene: I hope you brought the bread and the cheese. (=b & c?)

Dexter: Ah, I brought the bread. (=b)

 In this case, the husband did not mention the cheese.

 He must intend that his wife infers that what hadn’t been mentioned was not
brought.
 The husband has conveyed more than what he has said via conversational
implicature.
 b & c?
b (+> NOT c)

Scalar Implicatures

These occur when certain information is communicated by choosing a work which

expresses one value from a scale of values.

From the highest to the lowest:

 All, most, many, some, few.

 Always, often, sometimes.

e.g. I am studying linguistics and I’ve completed some of the required couses.
  “Some of the required courses” -> The speaker created an implicature (+> not all/
+> not many/ +> not most)
 The basis of the scalar implicature is that when any form in a scale is asserted,
the negative of all forms higher on the scale is implicated.

Properties of Conversational Implicatures

All the implicatures taken into consideration are part of what is communicated and not
said.

Speakers can always deny that they intended to communicate such meanings.

Conversational implicatures:

 They can be explicitly denied (or reinforced) in different ways.

o e.g. You have won only five dollars! (+> ONLY five)
 It is easy for a speaker to:
 suspend the implicature +> only using the expression ‘at least’
You’ve won at least five dollars!
 Cancel the implicature by adding further information, often
following the expression ‘in fact’
You’ve won five dollars, in fact, you’ve won ten!
 Reinforce the implicature with additional information
You’ve won five dollars, that’s four more than one!
 Implicatures can be calculated by the listeners via inference.
 Conversational implicatures can be calculated, suspended, cancelled, and
reinforced.

Conventional Implicatures

Conventional implicatures are NOT based on the cooperative principles or the maxims.

 They don’t have to occur in conversation.

 They don’t depend on special contexts for their interpretation.
 Conventional implicatures are associated with specific words and result in
additional conveyed meanings when those words are used.

English words: but, yet, even.

e.g. Mary suggested black, but I chose white.

  In this sentence, ‘Mary suggested black’ is contrasted, via the conventional
implicature of but, with me choosing white.

e.g. Dennis isn’t here yet.

 In uttering this statement, the speaker produces an implicature that he/she

expects the statement ‘Dennis is here’
 The conventional implicature of yet is that the present situation is expected to be
different, or perhaps, the opposite, at a later time.

e.g. Even John came to the party.

 When even is included in any sentence which is describing an event, there is an

implicature of ‘contrary to expectation’ to those events.
 UNIT 3
SPEECH ACTS AND EVENTS

Speech Acts

Illocutionary Force Indicating Devices

Felicity Conditions

The Performative Hypothesis

Speech Acts Classification

Direct and Indirect Speech Acts

Speech Events
Speech Acts

Actions performed via utterances are generally called speech acts and are commonly
given more specific levels, such as:

 Apology
 Complaint
 Compliment
 Invitation
 Promise
 Request

These descriptive terms for different kinds of speech acts apply to the speaker’s
communicative intention in producing an utterance.

 The speaker normally expects that his or her communicative intention will be
recognized by the hearer.

On any occasion, the action performed by producing an utterance will consist of three
related acts.

 Locutionary act
 The basic act of utterance.
 The production of a meaningful linguistic expression.
o If people have difficulty in forming the sounds and words to create a
meaningful utterance in a language, then those people fail to produce
a locutionary act.
 Illocutionary act
 It is performed via the communicative force of an utterance.
 We form an utterance with some kind of function in mind.
o We might utter something to make a statement, an offer, an
explanation, or for some other communicative purpose.
 It is also known as the illocutionary force of the utterance.
 Perlocutionary act
 We create an utterance with a function always intending it to have an effect.
 People perform utterances on the assumption that the hearer will recognize
the effect they intended.
o It is also known as the perlocutionary effect.
 The most discussed dimension is the illocutionary force.
 o The illocutionary force of an utterance is what it ‘counts as’.
o The same locutionary act may count as a prediction, a promise, or a
warning.
 e.g. I’ll see you later.
(I predict that)
(I promise you that)
(I warn you that)

How can speakers assume that the intended illocutionary force will be recognized by the
hearer?

 Illocutionary Force Indicating Device.

 Felicity Conditions.

Illocutionary Force Indicating Devices (IFIDs)

Illocutionary Force Indicating Devices are supposed to be elements or aspects of

linguistic devices which indicate either that an utterance is made with a certain
illocutionary force, or else that it constitutes the performance of a certain illocutionary
act.

In English, for example:

 Performative verbs
Can I talk to Mary?
No, she’s not here.
I’m asking you – Can I talk to her?
And I’m telling you – SHE’S NOT HERE!
o Each speaker has described, and drawn attention to the illocutionary force
(‘ask’ and ‘tell’) of their utterances.
 Intonation
a. You’re going!
o (I tell you that you are going)
b. You’re going?
o (I request your confirmation)
 Word Order
Are you going?
o (I ask you if you are going)
 The Interrogative Mood
 It is supposed to indicate that the utterance is (intended as) a question.
 The Directive Mood
It indicated that an utterance is (intended as) a directive illocutionary act.
e.g. an order, a request.
 Stress, voice quality, the mood of the verb, punctuation

Felicity Conditions

The Felicity Conditions cover expected or appropriate circumstances for the performance
of a speech act to be recognized as intended.

e.g. I sentence you to six months in prison.

 The performance will be infelicitous (=inappropriate) if the speaker is not an

specific person (in this case, a judge in a courtroom)

Classification of Felicity Conditions

General They presuppose the participants’ knowledge of the language being

1
Conditions use and his non-playacting.
Content They concern with the appropriate content of an utterance.
2
Conditions
Preparatory These deal with differences of various illocutionary acts (e.g. those of
3
Conditions promising or warning)
Sincerity These count with the speaker’s intention to carry out a certain act.
4
Conditions
These combines with a specification of what must be in the utterance
Essential
5 content, the context, and the speaker’s intentions, in order for a
Conditions
specific act to be appropriately (felicitously) performed.

e.g. Promise and warning

1. General conditions: they understand the language.

2. Content conditions: the content of the utterance is about future events.
3. Preparatory conditions:
a. Promise:
i. The event will not happen by itself.
ii. It will have a beneficial effect.
b. Warning:
 i. The hearer knows that the event will happen.
ii. The speaker thinks that the event will happen.
iii. No beneficial effect.
4. Sincerity conditions:
a. Promise:
i. The speaker will do the action in the future.
b. Warning:
i. The future event won’t have a beneficial effect.
5. Essential conditions:
a. Promise:
i. It changes the state from non-obligation to obligation.
b. Warning:
i. It changes the state from non-informing of a bad future event to
informing.

The Performative Hypothesis

Speech acts are performed via utterances are to assume that underlying every utterance
(U) there is a clause, containing a performative verb (Vp, which makes the illocutionary
force explicit.

I (hereby) Vp you (that) U

For example:

a. Clean up this mess!

b. I hereby order that you clean up this mess.
c. The work was done by Elaine and myself.
d. I hereby tell you that the work was done by Elaine and myself.

 Examples like b and d, normally without ‘hereby’, are used by speakers as explicit
performatives.
 Examples like a and c are implicit performatives, sometimes called primary
performatives.

Technical disadvantages:

1. Uttering the explicit performative version of a command (e.g. in the case of b and
d), has much more serious impact than uttering the implicit version.
 2. It is difficult to know exactly what the performative verb (or verbs) might be for
some utterances.
e.g.
i. You are dumber than a rock.
ii. ? I hereby insult you that you are dumber than a rock
Although the speaker and hearer might recognize the utterance in i as an
insult, it would be very strange to have ii as an explicit version.

Speech Acts Classification

Priest: I now pronounce

Speech acts that Speaker
you husband and wife.
DECLARATIONS change the world causes a
Jury Foreman: We find
via utterance. situation.
the defendant guilty.
Speech acts that
a. The earth is flat. Speaker
state what the
REPRESENTATIVES b. It was a warm, believes in a
speaker believe to
sunny day. situation.
be the case or not.
Speech acts that Speaker
a. I’m really sorry.
EXPRESSIVES state what the feels a
b. Congratulations!
speaker feels. situation.
Speech acts that
a. Could you lend me a Speaker
speakers use to get
DIRECTIVES pen, pleas? wants a
someone to do
b. Don’t touch that! situation.
something.
Speech acts that
Speaker
speakers commit a. I’ll be back
COMMISIVES intends a
themselves to some b. We will not do that.
situation.
future actions.

Direct and Indirect Speech Acts

Whenever there is a direct relationship between a structure and a function, we have a

direct speech act.

Whenever there is an indirect relationship between a structure and a function, we have

an indirect speech act.
For example:

Direct Speech
Move out of the way! 
Act
The basic function of all
Indirect
Do you have to stand in front of the TV?  utterances is a
Speech Act
command/request
Indirect
You’re standing in front of the TV. 
Speech Act

 One of the most common types of indirect speech act in English has the form of an
interrogative, but it is not typically used to ask a question (i.e. we do not expect
only an answer, we expect an action)
e.g.
Could you pass the salt?
Would you open this?
 Indirect speech acts are associated with greater politeness in English than direct
speech acts.

Speech Events

A speech event is an activity in which participants interact via language in some

conventional way to arrive at some outcome.

 It may include an obvious central speech act, such as ‘I don’t really like this’, as in
a speech event of ‘complaining’, but it will also include other utterances leading up
to and subsequently reacting to the central action.

For example:

Him Oh, Mary, I’m glad you’re here.

Her What’s up?
Him I can’t get my computer to work.
Her What’s it doing?
Him I don’t know. Do you have a minute?
Her Sure.
Him Great! Thanks.
This extended interaction may be called a requesting speech event without a central
speech act of request, as there is no actual request from ‘him’ to ‘her’ to do anything.

 We might characterize the question ‘Do you have a minute?’ as a pre-request.

 We might characterize the answer ‘Sure’ as a willingness to perform an unstated
action.
 UNIT 4
LINGUISTIC ELEMENTS IN DISCOURSE

Cohesion

Referential Cohesion

Substitution and Ellipsis

Conjunction

Lexical Cohesion

Information Structure

Units of Analysis in Discourse

Given and New Information

Genre

Rhetorical Patterns

Propositional Analysis
Cohesion

Cohesion is the grammatical and lexical relationship within a text or sentence. Cohesion
can be defined as the links that hold a text together and give it meaning.

It is the first standard of textuality; it refers to the surface relations between the
sentences that create a text and to create connected sentences within a sequence It
helps the reader /hearer to sort out the meaning and uses.

There are five types of cohesion:

1. Reference
2. Substitution
3. Ellipsis
4. Conjunction
5. Lexical cohesion.

Referential Cohesion

The term reference is traditionally used in semantics to define the relationship between a
word and what it points to in the real world.

In the textual sense, though, reference occurs when the reader/listener has to retrieve
the identity of what is being talked about by referring to another expression in the same
context.

Types of Reference

 Anaphoric reference: It points the reader or listener “back ward” to a previously

mentioned entity, proses or state of affairs.
 Cataphoric reference: It points the reader or listener forward – it draws us further
into the text in order to identify the elements to which the reference items refer.
 Personal reference: It is expressed through pronouns and determiners.
o They serve to identify individuals and objects that are named at some other
point in the text.
o It keeps track of function through the speech situation using noun
pronouns like “he, him, she, her”, etc. and possessive determiners like
“mine, yours, his, hers”, etc.
 Example:
 The prime minister has resigned. He announced his decision this
morning.
 Demonstrative Reference: It is expressed through determiners and adverb.
o These items can represent a single word or phrase, or much longer chunk of
text – ranging across several paragraphs or even several pages.
o It keeps track of information through location using proximity references
like “this, these, that, those, here, there, then, and the”.
 Example:
Recognizing that his country had to change, Gorbachev could have
become a cautious modernizer in the Chinese fashion, promoting
economic reform and sponsoring new technology while holding firm
against political change. This did not happen.
 Comparative Reference: It keeps track of identity and similarity through indirect
references using adjectives like “same, equal, similar, different, else, better, more”,
etc. and adverbs like “so, such, similarly, otherwise, so, more”, etc.
o Example:
 A: Would you like these seats?
B: No, as a matter of fact, I’d like the other seats.

Substitution and Ellipsis

Substitution refers to the action of replacing a word, phrase or clause with another one.
The words that are used to replace can only be interpreted in relation to what has gone
before the substitution. Also, it is largely limited to the immediately preceding clause.

Types of Substitution

 Nominal Substitution
o For example:
 There are some new tennis balls in the bag. These ones’ve lost their
bounce.
 Verbal Substitution
o For example:
 A: Annie says you drink too much.
B: So do you.
 Clausal Substitution
o For example:
 A: Is it going to rain?
  B: I think so.

Ellipsis occurs when some essential structural element is omitted from a sentence or
clause and can only be recovered by referring to an element in the preceding text.

Types of Ellipsis

 Nominal Ellipsis
o For Example:
 My kids play an awful lot of sport. Both (my kids) are incredibly
energetic.
 Verbal Ellipsis
o For example:
 A: Have you been working?
 B: Yes, I have (been working).
 Clausal Ellipsis
o For example:
 A: Why’d you only set three places? Paul’s staying for dinner, isn’t he?
B: Is he? He didn’t tell me (he was staying for dinner).

Conjunction

Conjunction is achieved to have grammatical cohesion in texts which show the

relationship between sentences. They use features to refer to the other parts of the text
in order to make relationship between sentences extremely understood.

It is a cohesive device because it signals relationships that can only be fully understood
through reference to other parts of the text.

Types of Conjunction

Types of
Description Examples
conjunction
Adversative The information in the second  Yet
sentence of each text moderates or  Though
qualifies the information in the  But
first.  However
 Nevertheless
 Whereas
 In fact
  Actually
Additive They signal the presentation of  And
additional information.  In addition
 Moreover
 For example
 Such as
Temporal Temporal relationships exist when  To start with
the events in a text are related I  Next
terms of the timing of their  In conclusion
occurrence.  Previously
 At this point
 From now on
 In the meantime
 As a result
 For this purpose
 Under the circumstances
Causal The relationship is one of cause and  As a result
consequence.  In consequence
 That being the case
 Otherwise
 Therefore

Lexical Cohesion

Lexical cohesion occurs when two words in a text are semantically related in terms of
their meanings.

Major categories of Lexical Cohesion

Reiteration

Reiteration includes repetition, synonym or near synonym, superordinate, and general

word.

 Reiteration fulfils a similar semantic function to cohesive reference.

 Repetition
o For example:
  What we lack in a newspaper is what we should get. In a word, a
‘popular’ newspaper may be the winning ticket.
 Synonym
o For example:
 You could try reversing the car up the slope. This incline isn’t all that
steep.
 Superordinate
o For example:
 Pneumonia has arrived with the cold and wet conditions. The illness is
striking everyone from infants to the elderly.
 General word
o For example:
 A: Did you try the steamed buns?
 B: Yes, I didn’t like the things much.

Collocation

Collocation includes all those items in a text that are semantically related. Sometimes,
this makes difficult to decide whether a cohesive relationship exists or not.

The problems arise because collocation is expressed through open rather than closed
class items: “Closed” lexical items include all grammatical words – such as pronouns,
conjunctions and preposition – membership of which is finite. In contrast, there is no
limit to the items that can be used to express collocation. This means that it is difficult
to establish set of regularly co-occurring word and phrases.

An additional problem is that lexical relationships are texts and context bound.

 This means that words and phrases that are related in one text may not be related
in another.
o For example:
My neighbor has just left one of this tree falls into my garder. And the
scoundrel refuses to pay for the damage he has caused.
 Neighbor and scoundrel are not related at all, but, in this case,
they are synonyms.

The background knowledge of the reader or listener plays a more obvious role in the
perception of lexical relationships than in the perception of other types of cohesion.
  For example: Collocational patterns will only be perceived by someone who knows
something about the subject at hand.

One problem that arises in analyzing these relations in text has to do with how many
“steps” away an item can be in a word class and still contribute to cohesion.

 Rose and flower seem more closely related than rose and plant.
 Mosquito and insect can be accepted, but one wonders about mosquito and animal.
 Various lexical relationships between the different sentences making up a text
provide a measure of the cohesiveness of the text.
o The centrality and importance to the text of any particular sentence within
the text will be determined by the number of lexical connections that
sentence has to other sentences in the text.

Information Structure

Information structure refers to the ways in which information is organized within and
beyond the sentence. It concerns with the way in which information is arranged within a
sentence will be affected by the pattern of the sentences within the text as a whole.