Introduction Approaches

Its nature
Discourse Basic notions
analysis

Components Functions and aspects

Conclusion
Introduction
• Since the study of language in use, as a goal of education, a means of
education, and an instrument of social control and social change, is
the principal concern of applied linguistics.
• It is easy to see why discourse analysis has such a vital part to play in
the work that applied linguistics does, and why so much of the work
that has been done over the last few decades on developing the
theory and practice of discourse analysis.
The nature and basic notions of
Discourse Analysis(1)
• The term discourse analysis was introduced by Zellig Harris in 1952 as
the name for ‘a method for the analysis of the connected speech or
writing for continuing descriptive linguistics beyond the limit of a single
sentence at a time and for correlating culture and language’
• focuses on knowledge beyond the word, clauses, phrase and sentence
that is needed for successful communication.
• looks at patterns of language across texts and considers the relationship
between language and the social and cultural context in which it is used.
• considers the ways the use of language presents different views of the
world and different understandings.
The nature and basic notions of
Discourse Analysis(2)
• examines how the use of language is influenced by the relationships
between participants as well as the effects the use of language has upon
social identities and relations.
• considers how views of the world and identities are constructed through
the use of discourse
• examines both spoken and written texts.
What is the discourse analysis?
Wikipedia : Discourse Analysis is a general term for a number of
approaches to analyzing written, spoken, signed language use or any
significant semiotic event.
Brown & Yule (1983): Discourse Analysis says that we take a
primarily linguistic approach to the analysis of discourse.
Stubbs. M (1983) : Discourse analysis is also concerned with
language use in social contexts, and in particular with interaction or
dialogue between speakers. Discourse analysis is sometimes defined
as the analysis of language 'beyond the sentence'.
 Sociology:CA
• An approach to the study of social interaction in everyday life
situation. Focus on conversation.
• Concerned mainly with dialogic, spoken discourse of a fairly
informal character. It addresses :
 How to take turns in conversation
 How to open and close conversation
 How to launch new topics ,close old one and shift topics
 How conversation gradually progress from one utterance to the next
Sociolinguistic Approaches:
• Variation: Theory Developed by Labove(1972)
• Major contribution to the analysis of discourse is description of the
structure of spoken narratives
• Overall structure of narrative of personal experience is:
Abstract,Orientation, Complication, Evaluation, Resolution, Coda.
• Ethnography: Ethnography is concerned with ‘the situation and uses,
the patterns and functions, of speaking as an activity in its own right.
• A central theme: speech event Hymes (1972)
• Speech events include interactions such as a conversation at a party or
ordering a meal, etc.
Linguistic Approaches:Structural-
functional The Birmingham School
• Developed by Sinclair(1975)
• The focus was on the classroom discourse Considering teachers’ question and
pupils’ answer ,unit of pattern was identified (discourse markers that indicates
boundary for starting sth new, such as: then, right, now) which they called
Transaction.
• Next level of pattern consists of question-answer- feedback which is called
Exchange.
• Next level represents single action such as questioning, answering and feeding back
which is called move.
• Finally there are local, micro-actions such as: nominating a student to speak or
acknowledging.
Linguistic Approaches:Systemic
Functional Linguistics (SFL)
• SFL is one variety of functional linguistics
• Its focus is on analysis of texts considering the social context in which
they occur
• The similarity between CA and SFL: Both describe the relationship
between language and its social context
• The difference between CA and SFL: SFL focuses on the way language
is organized to enable conversation to function
• CA focuses on social life and sees conversation as a key to that
 Summary of approaches to discourse

Approaches to Studying Discourse Focus of Research Research Question

Structural CA Sequences of talk Why say that at that

moment?
Variationist Structural categories within texts Why that form?

Functional Speech Acts Communicative acts How to do things with

words?
Ethnography of Communication as cultural How does discourse reflect
Communication behaviour culture?
Interactional Social and linguistic meanings What are they doing?
Sociolinguistics created during communication

Pragmatics Meaning in interaction What does the speaker

mean?
Functions and aspects

• 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.
• DA has two functions:
• Textual(Coherence and cohesion, Cohesive Devices)
• Interpersonal(Conversational Interaction, Co-operative principle,
Background knowledge)
Textual functions
• Cohesion in a text comes from the rules of sentence connection.
Coherence means the degree to which a piece of discourse makes
sense. The following is an example of both cohesion and coherence.
• A: Can you go to Lahore tomorrow?
• B: Yes, I can. (1) : there is a general strike(2).
• In this example second sentence is linked with first in sequential order.
This is cohesion. It is also coherent because B has given an appropriate
response to A.
Interpersonal functions
• Conversational Interaction. The underlying rules of conversation that
people implicitly follow . Conversation is an activity where two or more
people take turns at speaking.
• Co-operative principle. The underlying in most conversational
exchanges assumption seems to be that the participants are in fact
cooperating with each other .
• Background knowledge. Activity of background knowledge
Conclusion
• DA is a view of language in use. (communicative goals, acts, present
themselves
• DA considers how people manage interactions with each other, other
groups, societies and cultures.
• DA focuses on how people do things beyond language, and the ideas
and beliefs that they communicate.