NATIONAL OPEN UNIVERSITY OF NIGERIA

SCHOOL OF ARTS AND SOCIAL SCIENCES

COURSE CODE: ENG 352:

COURSE TITLE: Discourse Analysis

COURSE GUIDE

ENG 352:

Discourse Analysis

Course Developer:

Rotimi Taiwo (Ph.D)

Department of English
Obafemi Awolowo University
Ile-Ife.

Course Writer:

Rotimi Taiwo (Ph.D)

Department of English
Obafemi Awolowo University
Ile-Ife.

Course Editor:

Professor Kunle Adeniran

Ajayi Crowther University,
Oyo State

Programme Leader:

I. Omolara Daniel, PhD

School of Arts and Social Sciences
National Open University of Nigeria

Course Coordinator:

Theodore O. Iyere
School of Arts and Social Sciences
National Open University of Nigeria

National Open University of Nigeria

Headquarters
14/16 Ahmadu Bello Way
Victoria Island
Lagos.
Abuja Annex
245 Samuel Adesujo Ademulegun Street
Central Business District
Opposite Arewa Suites
Abuja.
e-mail: [email protected]
URL: www.nou.edu.ng
National Open University of Nigeria
First Printed: 2010
ISBN
All Rights Reserved
Printed by .
For
National Open University of Nigeria

NATIONAL OPEN UNIVERSITY OF NIGERIA

Contents
1.

Introduction

2.

Course Aim

3.

Course Objectives

4.

Working through the course

5.

Course Materials

6.

Study Units

7.

References

8.

Assessments

9.

Tutor-marked Assignments

10.

Final Examination and Grading

11.

Course Marking scheme

12.

How to get the most from this course

13.

Tutor and Tutorials

1.

Introduction

ENG 209: Discourse Analysis simply refers to the linguistic analysis of connected
writing and speech. The major focus in Discourse Analysis is the use of language in
social context. Discourse Analysis focuses not only on the linguistic symbols used,
but also on all the features that accompany language, which include the
paralinguistic features, such as gestures and kinesics.
Discourse Analysis has to do with the study of language in use, so it is concerned
with the performance of the language user. Such performance may be a monologue,
(soliloquiy) a dialogue, a multilogue

2. What you will learn in the Course?

This course will introduce you to the discipline called Discourse Analysis, as a field
of study. It is designed for you to help you to understand the intricate relationship

between the linguistic and paralinguistic content of human behaviour. You will
learn about how the discipline originates and the different theories and methods of
Discourse Analysis.
This course will take you through the major topics in Discourse Analysis, especially
those that have to do with spoken discourse, such as Ethnomethodology,
Conversational Analysis. We will also examine approaches to analyzing written
discourse. These include the examination of Information and Thematic Structures,
Thematic Progression in text and cohesion and coherence in written texts.
Discourse Analysis also focus on utterance meaning. In this respect, we shall take
you through some basic Pragmatics principles, such as Presupposition, implicature,
Entailment, Speech Acts, Cooperative Principle and Politeness Principle.
In the last section of the course, you will learn about the recent approaches to
Discourse Analysis and how discourse is functions in some specific human
endeavour . You will also see how it is related to other disciplines

2.

Course Aims

This course has twenty-one study units and each of these units has its objectives.
You should ensure that you study the objectives of each unit, so that they can serve
as guides as you go through the units. The general aims of this course are

3.

(i)

to introduce you to the study of discourse;

(ii)

to familiarize you with the major concepts in Discourse Analysis;

(iii)

to help you to understand the relationship between discourse and the

social world;

(iv)

to show you the basic principles that guide human conversation;

(v)

to show how cultural and general norms for human behaviour help to
shape discourse;

Course Objectives

Following the aims outlined above, some objectives for this course are set out
below. These are the things you are expected to be able to do at the end of the
study. These objectives should be able to guide you in knowing how much you have
learnt and where you need to improve on your learning. By the end of this course,
you should be able to:

(i)

describe how the spoken discourse is structured

4.

(ii)

identify how written text is structured in terms of the information

units and thematic units;

(iii)

state the resources that language users use to signify connectedness

in texts;

(iv)

demonstrate the relationship between language and ideology;

(v)

describe how humans use spoken and written discourse enact power;

(vi)

discuss how language specifically relates to culture, gender, racism

and conflict;

(vii)

explain how discourse relates with other disciplines, such as

Sociology, Philosophy, Medicine and Literature.

Working Through the Course

In this course, you have twenty-one study units to go through. In each of the study
units, you are expected to thoroughly study the contents. You are advised to pay
attention to the objectives of each study unit as they will serve as your guide to
knowing what is expected of you. At the appropriate points in each unit, you are
assessed through Tutor Marked Assignments. You are also expected to write a final
examination based on the entire course.

5.

Course Material
(a) Course Guide
(b) Study Units
(c) Textbooks
(d) Assignment Files
(e) Presentation Schedule

6.

Study Units

Unit 1:

Course Guide

Unit 2:

Discourse Analysis: An Introduction

Unit 3:

Major Concepts in Discourse Analysis

Unit 4:

Kinds of Discourse

Unit 5: Ethnonmethodology
Unit 6: Conversational Analysis
Unit 7: Linguistic Anthropology
Unit 8: Information Structure / Thematic Structure
Unit 9: Thematic Progression
Unit 10: The Birmingham School Approach
Unit 11: Text Linguistics
Unit 12: Grammatical Cohesion
Unit 13: Lexical Cohesion
Unit 14: Pragmatics: An Introduction
Unit 15: Speech Acts
Unit 16: Grices Cooperative Principles
Unit 17: Politeness Principles
Unit 18: Critical Discourse Analysis
Unit 19: Discourse in Use (Discourse and The Media)
Unit 20: Discourse in Use (Discourse and Society)
Unit 21: Discourse and Other Disciplines

7.

References

Each unit contains a list of reference materials that you can read in addition to the
study nits. These may be textbooks, journals, websites, and so forth. These
references are meant to help you enhance your better understanding of the course.

8.

Assignment File
7

This file contains all the details of the work you must submit to your tutor for
marks. Note that all the marks obtained in all the assignments you do will be part of
the final assessment scores for you in this course.

9.

Presentation Schedule

The presentation schedule included in your course materials help you to have an
idea of the important dates for the completion of Tutor-marked Assignments and
attendance of tutorials. Note that the dates for the submission of your assignments
must be adhered to.

10.

Assessment

Your assessment in this course will be based on Tutor-marked Assignments

(TMAs) and the final examination, which you will write at the end of the course.

11.

Tutor Marked Assignments (TMAs)

Every unit contains some assignments. You are advised to work through all the
assignments and submit them for assessment. Your tutor will assess the assignments
and select four, which will constitute the 30% of your final grade. The tutor-marked
assignments may be presented to you in separate file. Just know that for every unit,
there are some tutor-marked assignments for you. It is important that you do these
assignments and submit them.

12.

Final Examination and Grading

At the end of the course, you will write a final examination, which will constitute
70% of your final grade. In the examination, which shall last for two hours, you will
be requested to answer three questions out of at least five questions.

13.

Course Marking Scheme

This table shows how the actual course marking is broken down
Assessment
Assignments

Marks
Four Assignments, best three marks of
the four count as 30% of course work
70%
100%

Final Examination
Total

14.

How to Get the Most From This Course

In distance learning, the study units replace the university lecture. This is one of the
greatest advantages of distance learning; you can read and work through specially
designed study materials at your own pace, and at a time and place that suits you
best, Think of it as reading the lecture instead of listening to the lecturer. In the
same way, a lecturer might give you some reading to do, the study unit tells you
when to read, and which are your text materials or set books. You are provided
exercises to do at appropriate points, just as a lecturer might give you an in-class
exercise. Each of the study units follows a common format. The first item is an
introduction to the subject matter of the unit, and how a particular unit is integrated
with the other units and the course as a whole. Next to it is a set of objectives.
These objectives allow you to know what you should be able to do by the time you
have completed the unit. These learning objectives are meant to guide your study.
The moment a unit is finished, you must go back and check whether you have
achieved the objectives. If this is made a habit, then you will significantly improve
your chances of passing the course. The main body of the unit guides you through
the required reading from other sources. This will usually be either from your set
books or form a reading section. The following is a practical strategy for working
through the course. If you run into any trouble, please call your tutor. Remember
that your tutors job is to help you. When you need assistance, do not hesitate to call
and ask your tutor to provide it.

15.

Other Essential Information

1. Read this course Guide thoroughly. It is your first assignment.

Organise study schedule. Design a course overview to guide you through the
course. Note the time you are expected to spend on each unit and how the
assignments relate to the units. Important information, eg: details of your tutorials and
the date of the first day of the semester is available from the study centre. You need to
gather all the information into one place, such as your diary or wall calendar.
Whatever method you choose to use, you should decide on and write in your own
dates and schedule of work for each unit.
Once you have created your own study schedule, do everything to stay faithful to it.
The major reason that students fail is that they get behind with their course work. If
you get into difficulties with your schedule, please, let your tutor know before it is
too late for help.
Turn to Unit 1, and read the introduction and the objectives for the unit.
Assemble the study materials. You will need your set books and the unit you are
studying at any point in time.
Work through the unit. As you work through the unit, you will know what sources
to consult for further information.
Keep in touch with your study center. Up-to-date course information will be
continuously available there.

Well before the relevant due dates (about 4 weeks before the due dates), keep in
mind that you will learn a lot by doing the assignments carefully. They have been
designed to help you meet the objectives of the course and therefore, will help you
pass the examination. Submit all assignments not later than the due date.
Review the objectives for each study unit to confirm that you have achieved them.
If you feel unsure about any of the objectives, review the study materials or consult
your tutor.
When you are confident that you have achieved a units objectives, you can start on
the next unit. Proceed unit by unit through the course and try to pace your study so
that you keep yourself on schedule.
When you have submitted an assignment to your tutor for marking, do not wait for
its return before starting on the next unit. Keep to your schedule. When the
assignment is returned, pay particular attention to your tutors comments, both on
the tutor-marked assignment form and also the written comments on the ordinary
assignments.
After completing the last unit, review the course and prepare yourself for the final
examination. Check that you have achieved the units objectives (listed at the
beginning of each unit) and the course objectives (listed in the Course Guide).

17.

Tutors and Tutorials

The dates, times and locations of these tutorials will be made available to you,
together with the name, telephone number and the address of your tutor. Each
assignment will be marked by your tutor. Pay close attention to the comments your
tutor might make on your assignments as these will help in your progress. Make
sure that assignments reach your tutor on or before the due date. Your tutorials are
important, therefore try not to skip any. It is an opportunity to meet your tutor and
your fellow students. It is also an opportunity to get the help of your tutor and
discuss any difficulties encountered on your reading.

18.

Summary

This course introduces you to the study of discourse. Basically, you will be taken
through the following: (a) how to analyze discourse using the different frameworks
of DA, such as the Birmingham School Approach, The Prague School Approach,
Text Linguistics, Pragmatics and Critical Discourse Analysis, (b) how different
kinds of discourse are structured, and (c) how discourse is used to enact and resist
power. All these are aimed at giving you good background knowledge on discourse
and how it is used by humans.

I wish you every success in this course.

10

COURSE MATERIAL
ENG 352:

Discourse Analysis

Course Developer:

Rotimi Taiwo (Ph.D)

Department of English
Obafemi Awolowo University
Ile-Ife.

Course Writer:

Rotimi Taiwo (Ph.D)

Department of English
Obafemi Awolowo University
Ile-Ife.

Course Editor:

Professor Kunle Adeniran

Ajayi Crowther University,
Oyo State

Programme Leader:

I. Omolara Daniel, PhD

School of Arts and Social Sciences
National Open University of Nigeria

Course Coordinator:

Theodore O. Iyere
School of Arts and Social Sciences
National Open University of Nigeria

NATIONAL OPEN UNIVERSITY OF NIGERIA

11

National Open University of Nigeria

Headquarters
14/16 Ahmadu Bello Way
Victoria Island
Lagos.
Abuja Annex
245 Samuel Adesujo Ademulegun Street
Central Business District
Opposite Arewa Suites
Abuja.
e-mail: [email protected]
URL: www.nou.edu.ng
National Open University of Nigeria
First Printed: 2010
ISBN
All Rights Reserved
Printed by .
For
National Open University of Nigeria

12

MODULE ONE
DISCOURSE ANALYSIS: INTRODUCTORY ASPECTS
MODULE ONE: DISCOURSE ANALYSIS: INTRODUCTORY ASPECTS
Unit 1: Discourse Analysis: An Introduction
Unit 2: Major Concepts in Discourse Analysis
Unit 3: Kinds of Discourse

Unit 1: Discourse Analysis: An Introduction

Contents
1.0 Introduction
2.0 Unit Objectives
3.0 What is Discourse
3.1 What is Discourse Analysis
3.2 Origin of Discourse Analysis
3.3 Self Assessment Exercises
3.4 Earliest Studies of Discourse Analysis
4.0 Conclusion
5.0 Summary
6.0 Tutor-marked Assignment
7.0. References/Further Reading
2.0 Unit Objectives
At the end of this Introductory Unit you should be able to do the following:

define Discourse Analysis,

describe what discourse analysis do,

explain the origin of Discourse Analysis

explain some earliest practices of Discourse Analysis

3.0 Introduction
Prior to the advent of Discourse Analysis (henceforth DA), the predominant practice of
was to analyse language according to the structure without much regards for the context
and other features that shape meaning. DA started by focusing on speech, mainly
naturally-occurring conversation. Contrary to the traditional practice, DA studies

13

naturally-occurring instances of language use beyond the sentence boundary. So, unlike
most traditional linguistic analyses, the text is not invented. This is to underscore the
importance of context in language use.
Linguists have identified two major approaches to language: formalism and
functionalism. Formalism sees language as a mental phenomenon and tends to explain
linguistic universals as deriving from a common genetic linguistic inheritance of the
human species. Formalists are inclined to explain childrens acquisition of language in
terms of a built-in human capacity to learn language. Functionalists regard language
primarily as a societal phenomenon and tend to explain it in relation to the social
institution from where the language derives. The approach to DA is functionalist
approach.
In this Unit, we shall be looking at the concept of discourse, which is what linguists
analyze when they do DA. We shall also look at the origin of the discipline and the
earliest practices in DA.
3.0 MAIN CONTENT
3.1. What is Discourse?
DA has a very strong link with many other disciplines other than language and this
affects the way scholars see the discipline. In this section, we shall examine some views
of DA.
Before trying to define DA, it is important to define the term discourse. Originally the
word 'discourse' comes from Latin 'discursus' which denoted 'conversation, speech'.
Discourse is generally seen as language in use. Johnstone (2002: 2) defines discourse
as actual instances of communication in the medium of language. Discourse can also
be seen as a continuous stretch of spoke or written language larger than a sentence,
often constituting a coherent unit (Pustejovsky 2006). It is also commonly referred to as
as connected speech or writing. The term discourse has several definitions. In the study
of language, discourse often refers to the speech patterns and usage of language,
dialects, and acceptable statements, within a community. It is a subject of study in
peoples who live in secluded areas and share similar speech conventions.
Johnson defines discourse as an institutionalized way of speaking that determines not
only what we say and how we say it, but also what we do not say which can be inferred
from what we say. Initially the term refers to speech, but later, its meaning extends
beyond speech to include every instance of language use
Sociologists and philosophers tend to use the term discourse to describe the
conversations and the meaning behind them by a group of people who hold certain
ideas in common. Such is the definitions by philosopher Michel Foucault, who holds
discourse to be the acceptable statements made by a certain type of discourse
community.

14

For linguists, discourse is an extended stretch of language, such as we find in

conversations, narratives, polemical statements, political speeches, etc., is not just a
string of sentences, one following the other, but rather it exhibits properties which
reflect its organization, coherence, rhetorical force, thematic focus, etc.
3.2 What is Discourse Analysis
DA is generally viewed as language above the sentence or the clause. It is the aspect of
linguistics that is concerned with how we build up meaning in larger communicative,
rather than grammatical units. It studies meaning in text, paragraph and conversation,
rather than in single sentence.
Stubbs (1983:1) describes DA thus:
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 organization 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.

Brown and Yule (1983)) observe that DA examines "how addressers construct
linguistic messages for addressees and how addressees work on linguistic messages in
order to interpret them."
From this description of DA by Stubbs, we can gather some important information
about the discipline:
(a) DA studies naturally-occurring connected speech or written discourse
(b) DA studies language above the sentence or clause
(c) DA is concerned with language use in social context
Every instance of language use is situated in a particular social context, which
determines the kind of meaning communicated. There are contextual features that shape
the kind of language people use. These include: the interactants themselves, their
discourse roles, the physical environment of the discourse, the worldview and cultural
practices in the domain of the discourse, and so forth. DA looks at the language
together with these features in order to interpret meaning. This is why any good DA
will generate data based on observation and intuition of the language users. Discourse
analysts analyze conversations (casual, telephone, gossip, etc), speeches (campaigns,
formal speeches delivered by political figures, etc), written discourse (novels, plays,
news, written speeches, editorials, etc).
Discourse analysis is concerned not only with complex utterances by one speaker, but
more frequently with the turn-taking interaction between two or more, and with the
linguistic rules and conventions that are taken to be in play and governing such
discourses in their given context. The overall goal of any DA is to explain how
language users construct and interpret meaning in discourse.

15

3.3 Origin of Discourse Analysis

The term Discourse Analysis was first use by Zellig Harris in 1952 in a paper he
published then. Harris was an American structural linguist, Harris did not use the term
in the sense it is now commonly used. Later in the 1960s and 1970s, scholars started
using the term to describe an approach to the study of social interaction. The earliest
discourse analysts were ethnographers, anthropologists and sociologists.
Self-assessment Exercises
Describe what in your own words what discourse analysts do.
3.4. Earliest Studies of Discourse Analysis
The earliest studies of discourse analysis were done by people in other disciplines
namely, sociologists, anthropologists and ethnologists. Their major concern was not
language, but social interaction. They developed a method for investigating such
interaction, which they called Ethnomethodology. The proponent of this method is
Harold Grafinkel an American sociologist.
Other scholars who were inspired by ethnomethodologists focused their attention on
how the conversation is ordered and structured. Their method is called Conversational
Analysis. They observe and describe the sequential patterning of conversation. The key
figures in this school of thought are Emmanuel Schegloff, Harvey Sacksand Gail
Jeffesons. We shall examine in details the methods of Enthomethodology and
Conversational Analysis later in this course.
Much later, linguists who perceive language as a social phenomenon got interested in
analyzing discourse from that perspective. They see Linguistics as a sub-branch of
Sociology, as opposed to another school of thought, which sees Linguistics as a subbranch of Psychology (The Transformational Generative grammarians).
The first major attempt to analyze discourse from the perspective of Linguistics was
done by John Sinclair and Michael Coulthard of the University of Birminghan in the
UK. They analysed the language used by teachers and pupils in the secondary school
and proposed a five-point discourse rank scale for analyzing discourse. After these
scholars, other scholars in the Birmingham School have followed their theory.
4.0 Conclusion
Discourse Analysis is the approach to language that focuses on the use of discourse in
society and the role context plays in the interpretation of discourse. Unlike earlier
approaches before it, it examines naturally occurring texts, such as conversation and
written texts. The goal is to bring out the salient discourse features in such texts.
Though started by non-linguists, it has in recent times become a very popular approach
in linguistic analysis. Its use is not only limited to linguists. Scholars in other

16

disciplines also find Discourse Analysis relevant, since discourse is often seen as a
social practice that exists in all facets of human endeavour.
5.0 Summary
Background issues on Discourse Analysis was our focus in this unit. We started by
looking at what we mean by the term Discourse and the discipline Discourse
Analysis. Afterwards, we traced the origin of Discourse Analysis from its earliest
times to Anthropologists and Sociologists, whose goal was just to look at how the
society is organized through the use of discourse. Linguists later got involved in the
practice. Lastly, we examined the earliest practices of Ethnomethodology and
Conversational Analysis.
6.0. Tutor-marked Assignments]
Identify the key figures in Ethnomethodology and Conversational Analysis and discuss
in details the practices of ethnomethodologists and conversational analysts.
7.0 References/Further Reading
Brown, G. and Yule G. (1983) Discourse Analysis. Cambridge: CUP
Johnstone, Barbara (2002) Discourse Analysis. Blackwel Publishers
Pustejovsky, James (2006) Language as Action
Accessed from edu/~jamesp/classes/usem40a06/slides/DiscourseAnalysis.ppt on
January 2 2008.

17

Unit 2: Some Major Concepts in Discourse Analysis

Contents
1.0 Introduction
2.0 Unit Objectives
3.0 Main Content
3.1 Text
3.2 Context
3.3 Self-Assessment Exercises
3.4 Speech and Writing
4.0 Conclusion
5.0 Summary
6.0 Tutor-marked Assignment
7.0 References and Further Reading
1.0 Introduction
In this Unit, we shall be examining some selected basic concepts used in Discourse
Analysis. These concepts will lay the foundations for many other things we shall be
discussing later in the course. We shall be examining two all important concepts: text
and context. Since discourse is both writing and speech, we shall look at the nature of
written and spoken discourse briefly.
2.0 Unit Objectives
At the end of this Unit, you should be able to do the following:

identify some basic concepts in DA

define these concepts and give appropriate examples to support you

definition

differentiate between speech and writing

18

3.0 MAIN CONTENT

3.1 Text
Speech and writing are the primary medium of language use. A text is an instance of
language in use. It ranges from a word to a large chunk of language. Sometimes, people
associate text with just written language, but text is any instance of language use. A text
could be a statement, an utterance, a sentence, a paragraph, a whole chapter, a news
item, a conversation, and so forth. One aspect of Linguistics that studies written text is
called Textlinguistics. Text linguistics tends to focus on the patterns of how information
flows within and among sentences by looking at aspects of texts like coherence,
cohesion, the distribution of topics and comments, and other discourse structures. Much
like syntax is concerned with the structure of sentences, text linguistics is concerned
with the structure of texts.
One of the criteria of a text identified by Haliiday and Hasan (1976) is that it must form
a unified whole. A text may be spoken, written, prose, or verse, dialogue, or
monologue. It may be anything from a proverb to a whole play, form a momentary cry
for help to an all-day discussion on a committee (Halliday and Hasan, 1976: 1). A text
is best regarded as a semantic unit. According to Halliday and Hasan (1976), a text has
a texture and this is what distinguishes it from something that is not a text. It derives its
texture from the fact that it functions as a unity with respect to its context.
3.2 Context
The word context is a commonly used expression, which may mean different things to
different people. Its general meaning is the set of facts that surrounds a particular event
or situation. From the linguistic point of view, context is everything that surrounds the
production of a piece of communication. These include the physical situation in which
the communication takes place, the interactants or interlocutors, the knowledge of the
communicators of their cultural norms and expected behaviour, and the expressions that
precede and follow a particular expression. All these features of context help language
speakers to interpret meaning appropriately.
Linguists are particularly interest in the linguistic context of any form of language use.
Self Assessment Exercises
Discuss the role of context in the construction of a text.
3.3 Speech and Writing
Speech and writing are the primary medium of language use. Speech however is the
oldest form of language use and writing is said to be a derived form of speech. The fact
that there are still a good number of languages that do not have any written form is a
pointer to the fact that speech predates language in human history. Gestures are also
forms of language, but they are seen by linguists as primarily complementing speech.
There is a branch of Linguistics that studies signs, and this branch is called Semiotics.

19

In this section, we shall look through some of the features of speech and writing and
how they are studied in Discourse Analysis.
Speech is the primary medium of human communication. It can be said to be as old as
human existence. Children automatically learn to speak because there is an inbuilt
mechanism in humans that makes them to acquire whichever language is spoken in
their immediate environment. Most people speak more than they write, because every
human society builds relationships through speech. Speech simply refers to oral
medium of transmission of language. It is the meaningful oral sound produced through
the use of our respiratory, phonatory and articulatory system and perceived by our
auditory system. Humans express thoughts, feelings, and ideas orally to one another
through a series of complex articulation, which results in specific, decodable sounds.
Speech is produced by precisely coordinated muscle actions in the head, neck, chest,
and abdomen. Speech development is a gradual process that requires years of practice.
During this process, a child learns how to regulate these muscles to produce
understandable speech. Speech is spontaneous, so it is characterized by repetitions of
speech sounds, hesitations before and during communication, and the prolonged
emphasis of speech sounds. Speech, especially a casual one is susceptible to errors or
slips, hence the expression slip of the tongue. This occurs when we say things we do
not intend to say. Speakers many times self-correct their speech, when they are aware
that they did not produce the correct utterance. Peoples origin and identity are very
often recognized from their speech. They either speak with a particular accent or
intonation. Most times when people speak, one is able to identify their social roles and
gender. Speech is transient and time bound which basically means that when someone
speaks to you, it doesnt really stay in your memory for that long which gives it a
disadvantage. Certain human behaviours aid speech. They include body language,
gesture and facial expressions and people use these modes without even realizing it.
Speaking is as fundamental a part of being human as walking upright but writing is an
optional extra.
Writing, on the other hand is a product of a more careful thought, so it is expected as
much as possible to be flawless. It is not a spontaneous act rather it is a well thought out
process. Children have to be taught how to write any particular language, even their
mother tongue. Unlike speech that uses the medium of phonic substance, writing uses
the medium of graphic substance. Written words can be chosen with greater
deliberation and thought, and a written argument can be extraordinarily sophisticated,
intricate, and lengthy. These attributes of writing are possible because the pace of
involvement is controlled by both the writer and the reader. The writer can write and
rewrite at great length, a span of time, which in some cases can be measured in years.
In writing, there is a time lag between the production and reception, while in speech,
the reception is instant and extralinguistic cues help the listener to interpret. Writing is
more associated with formality than speech. The chances are that we write more often
to people we are less familiar with than the ones we are familiar.

20

4.0 Conclusion
The major concepts in Discourse Analysis discussed in this Unit are meant to help you
to understand what we shall be spending our time discussing in the better part of this
course. They are concepts you will come across from time to time and a good
grounding in them will help you to interpret them whenever you come across them in
future in any of the modules ahead of this.
5.0 Summary
In this Unit, we have examined some major concepts, which are meant to help to be
more grounded in the whole course. Such concepts are widely used in other disciplines,
but what we have been able to do in this Unit is to explain them as they are used in the
field of language study. Text and context are very important concepts in discourse.
While text is what we analyze, context helps us to understand the text better, thereby
having a more accurate interpretation.
6.0 Tutor-marked Assignment
Write a detailed essay with adequate illustrations on the difference between speech and
writing.
7.0 References/Further Reading
Halliday, M.A.K., & Hasan, R. (1985). Language, context, and text: aspects of
language in a social-semiotic perspective. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

21

Unit 3: Kinds of Discourse

Contents
1.0 Introduction
2.0 Unit Objectives
3.0 Spoken Discourse
3.1 Monologue
3.2 Dialogue
3.3 Multilogue
3.4 Conversation
3.5 Written Discourse
3.6 Interpersonal Discourse
4.0 Conclusion
5.0 Summary
6.0 Tutor-marked Assignment
7.0 References/Further Reading

1.0 Introduction
This Unit introduces you to the kinds of discourse we have. The term discourse is so
widely applied that we need to delimit it and identify some of the kinds of discourse
that discourse analysts are particularly interested in. Such types of discourse include:
spoken discourses, such as monologue, dialogue, multilogue and conversation. We
shall also look at written discourse and the different types, and lastly, interpersonal
discourse.

2.0 Unit Objectives

At the end of this Unit, you should be able to do the following:

identify the different kinds of discourse,

explain the peculiarities of each type of discourse,
discuss how spoken discourse is different from written discourse

22

3.0 MAIN CONTENT

3.1 Spoken Discourse
A spoken discourse is any discourse that is verbalized or spoken. It is also generally
referred to as speech. Every language is spoken, so every social activity we are
involved in where speech is used is referred to as spoken discourse. Some examples of
spoken discourse are: casual conversation, sermon, political campaign, symposium,
public lecture, classroom discourse, doctor-patient discourse, telephone exchange,
service encounter, sports commentaries, etc. Though a spoken discourse is essentially
verbal, certain non-verbal behaviour helps speakers to interpret the discourse. They
include, our facial gestures, body movements and other sounds uttered that are not
necessarily regarded as speech.
Spoken discourse takes place in different forms. We have face-to-face discourse in
which the speakers are together physically. Apart from this, we have distance
communication, in which though the speakers are not necessarily together physically,
they are still able to transmit their voice through some other media like: radio,
telephone, and so forth.

3.2 Monologue
Monologue refers to a speech situation in which an individual is doing the talking for a
long time either to himself or to other people who are not responding. The Wikipedia
Dictionary defines monologue as an extended, uninterrupted speech by one person
only. The person may be speaking his or her thoughts aloud or directly addressing other
persons, e.g. an audience, a character, or a reader. Many times, we get carried away
that we express our thoughts aloud even when they are not really addressing some
specific people.
Monologue is also used in drama to make the audience or readers to know the thought
of a character. This is often referred to as dramatic monologue. However, a dramatic
monologue is also called a soliloquy when it refers to a lengthy talk in which a
character, alone on stage, expresses his or her thoughts aloud. Soliloquy is often used to
reveal thoughts or feelings that is delivered by a character in a play to him or herself, or
directly to the audience.

3.3 Dialogue
A general definition of dialogue is a conversation between two persons A dialogue is
a discourse that involves 2 or more interlocutors. The roots of the word Dialogue can be
traced to the Greek "dia" and "logos" which means "through meaning." In a dialogue,
there is an exchange of ideas by the participants. Dialogues have some socio-cultural
characteristics, such as the participants listening while the person who has the floor is
23

speaking, respect for differences, with the believe that everyone has an essential
contribution to make and is to be honored for the perspective which only they can bring
equality of perspectives, and minimization of interruption as much as possible. A
dialogue is not just a situation in which two or more people are interacting, it is a
skillful exchange or interaction between people with shared understanding based on
their cultural practice and shared world-view. For two or more people to be involved in
a dialogue successfully, they must be able to share some sort of understanding about the
Topic in focus.

3.4 Multilogue
Multilogue refers to a situation in which too many people are engaged in conversation
at the same time. This may refer to the situation in which many conversations are
happening at one time within a chatroom. The term is also more commonly used to
describe a situation in which many interactancts communicate using the aid computer
mediated forms, such as online video, message boards, forums, etc.

3.5 Conversation
Conversation simply refers to the use of speech for exchange of ideas by two or more
people. A conversation may be formal or informal. This is determined by the kind of
relationship that exists between the people involved. People involved in a conversation
are referred to as conversationalists or to use a more technical term interlocutors. A
conversation is built on certain conventions, such as:

the people involved do share some common grounds, such as

a culture, a belief or norm,
their conversation is guided by these culture, norms and beliefs
the people know that ideas are being shared, so no one dominates, except
they are allowed by convention or the conversationalists,
the conversationalists respect one anothers views despite their differences

The whole idea of conversation is based on the understanding that turns have to be
taken. We shall soon come to deal more extensively with the term turn taking in
conversation.

3.6 Written Discourse

A written discourse is any discourse in which the thoughts of the producer are
represented graphically on a surface, such as paper and other media. Initially in the
study of discourse analysis, written discourse was not considered. The attention then
was on the spoken discourse. Written discourse as we have seen earlier is quite
different from spoken discourse. It is more carefully constructed and gives a lot of room
for correction and possible reconstruction.
Written discourse is organized in such a way that similar ideas are put together in
sections of the writing called paragraph and each paragraph can usually be summarized
24

in one sentence, which is generally called the topic sentence. Also, each paragraph is
linked with the one directly before it and the one after, and all the paragraphs can be
seen as a unified whole, which can also be summarized in a sentence.
To make written language easy to read, certain marks are used to punctuate it. These
marks are used to indicate where the reader needs to pause for a period of time (full
stop and comma), raise the tone of their voice to either show that they are asking a
question or that they are surprised. These marks are called punctuation marks. They
make the written discourse readable in a meaningful way. When punctuation marks are
not used in any written discourse, such discourse loses the full meaning that it ought to
convey to the reader.
A group of linguists, who developed interest in the study of written discourse in the
tradition of Systemic Linguistics refers to the study of written discourse as
Textlinguistics. They believe written discourse has certain characteristics, which make
them essentially different from spoken discourse. They focus on the textuallity of the
discourse, which is marked by its cohesion and coherence. They also look at the
elements that are thematized in a written discourse and how one paragraph relates to the
other thematically (thematic progression). Examples of written discourse are:
newspaper stories, letters, novels, articles in magazines, editorial in newspapers, etc.

Self Assessment Exercises

Using adequate examples, differentiate between monologue, dialogue and multilogue

3.7 Interpersonal Discourse

Interpersonal discourse is the kind of discourse that involves two or more person. One
of the commonest forms of interpersonal discourse is a conversation. If you will
remember, we earlier dealt with conversation. Interpersonal communication is not
restricted to face to face communication, it may also be a feature of written or even
distance communication, eg, telephone discourse, letters, communication through
electronic media, such as e-mail, mobile phones, SMS texts and so forth. Interpersonal
communication may not necessarily be verbal. They can also be non-verbal, using
movements and body positions, such as kinesics, posture, gesture, eye gaze, etc. It is
important that every human being possess the skills for interpersonal discourse. Such
skills help them to build, manage and sustain intimate relationships with other people
around them. Interpersonal discourse skills also help us to counsel, negotiate for prices
in the market, teach or coach, mentor others and manage conflicts in our relationships
and other peoples relationships.
To engage successfully in any interpersonal discourse, the people involved must use
simple and clear language based on the premise that the other(s) involved in the
discourse will be able to understand. It is more difficult for people from different
cultural background to successfully engage in interpersonal discourse even sometimes
when they share same language. For instance, a Nigerian English speaker and a
Canadian English speaker do not share the same cultural background, yet they speak

25

the same language. When two people from different cultural backgrounds are engaged
in interpersonal discourse, they should not base their discourse on too much
assumption. Every expression that is likely to be misunderstood must be expressed in
simpler terms.

4.0 Conclusion
The kinds of discourse were extensively examined in this Unit. They clearly show that
the discourse analyst is open to a lot of options in his analysis of both spoken and
written discourse. The most essential view of a discourse analyst of these various kinds
of discourse is that they are instances of language use in different social contexts,
therefore, these social contexts play a prominent role in their interpretation. The
discourse analysts do not lose focus of the linguistic peculiarities of the discourse as
they examine how the context informs and shapes such peculiarities.

5.0 Summary
In this Unit, we looked at the different kinds of discourse that we can come across in
any human social context, such as the various kinds of spoken discourse (monologue,
dialogue, multilogue and conversation). Also we examined the kinds of written
discourse. We particularly noted the practice of analyzing written discourse by looking
at the devices used for making the text appear as a unified whole and how themes in
each paragraph progress.

6.0 Tutor-marked Assignment

1.
2.

Identify the key features of a conversation.

How is a multilogue different from a conversation?

7.0 References/Further Reading

Halliday 1985 : Halliday, M.A.K., Spoken and Written Language, Victoria : Deakin
University, 1985.

26

MODULE TWO
APPROCAHES TO DISCOURSE ANALYSIS
MODULE TWO: APPROCAHES TO DISCOURSE ANALYSIS
Unit 1: Ethnonmethodology
Unit 2: Conversational Analysis
Unit 3: Linguistic Anthropology
Unit 1: Ethnonmethodology

Contents
1.0 Introduction
2.0 Unit Objective
3.0 Main Content
3.1 What is Ethnomethodology
3.2 Language and the Social World
3.3 Conducting Ethnomethodological Research
4.0 Conclusion
5.0 Summary
6.0 Tutor-marked assignment
7.0 References/Further Reading

1.0 Introduction
This Unit looks at one of the earliest approaches to discourse analysis. The discussions
in this Unit will help you to understand how the approach to language analysis, which
you are studying emerged. The earliest practitioners of discourse analysis were not
linguists and in contemporary times, discourse analysis is fast adopting a
multidisciplinary approach, which makes it relevant not only to linguists, but also
sociologist, philosophers, psychologists, political scientists and other social scientists.
This Unit will expose you to the earliest ways of studying discourse.

27

2.0 UNIT OBJECTIVES

At the end of this Unit, you should be able to:

Explain the terms Ethnomethodology and Conversational Analysis

Describe how to conduct a research using ethnomethodological approach
Describe how language functions in the social world

3.0 MAIN CONTENT

3.1 What is Ethnomethodology?
Ethnomethodologyis a blend of the words Ethnography and methodology. It is a branch
of Anthropology, which studies people in their environment. Methodology simply
refers to the way of doing things. The major focus is the cultural behaviour of the
people) and the methods involved in doing a particular thing). The term
Ethnomethodology is a sociological term, which describes a discipline that studies how
people make sense of their world. How they are able to understand one another to the
extent that they are able to exist in an orderly social context.
Ethnomethodological approach was developed by a sociologist named Harold
Garfinkel. The approach looks at the organization of practical actions and reasoning,
the organization of talk-in-interaction. Ethnomethodologists are concerned primarily
with Ethnomethodology which is concerned with the how (the methods) by which
social order is produced, and shared. One thing that is of central concern to
ethnomethodologist is context. Their focus is always on the ways in which words are
dependent for their meaning on the context in which they are used.
Ethnomethodology is concerned basically with the following:

The organization of practical actions and practical reasoning: This was

the concern of earliest ethnomethodologists

The organization of talk-in-interaction: This is known in modern times as

Converstional Analysis. We shall be looking at this late in this unit.

Talk-in-interaction within institutional or organizational settings: this is

basically concerned with interactional structures that are specific to
particular settings.

The study of work: The study bof any social activity within the setting in
which it is performed

3.2

Language and the Social World

Language is an essential part of the human social structure. Everyday, we use it actively
to create and shape the world through social interaction. Every language operates in a
social world. Speakers, as part of a society, rely on a corpus of practical knowledge,

28

which they assumed is shared, at least partly with others. This is why a group of
linguists, generally referred to as Functionalists, see language as a social activity being
performed in a social world. The primary concern of such linguists, who belong to the
schools of Sociolinguistics, Systemic Functional Linguistics, Discourse Analysis, Text
Linguistics, Critical Discourse Analysis, and so forth is that language is contextdependent and the general context is the world we live in, while the specific contexts
are the contexts of a particular usage. Context here includes the knowledge of the
speaker of his/her world, the culture, values, expectations and norms.
One way in which language is believed to influence our understanding of social reality
goes back to the ideas of Edward Sapir and Benjamin Lee Whorf. The Sapir-Whorf
Hypothesis stresses that we view and perceive our world in terms of our language. It
also stresses that the social reality we experience is unique to our language, since no
two languages/cultures shares exactly the same social reality. This is why oftentimes
terms for specific phenomena in languages do not have precise counterparts in other
languages.
What we have discussed in this section is really an important guiding principle for our
approach to the analysis of discourse. We can only analyze any particular discourse
effectively if we situate it within the social context or domain of its use. And this will
take into consideration a lot of factors such as, the interlocutors, their role relationships
in discourse, the mode of discourse. All these are used to create the text that will fit
appropriately into the social world of the language users.
3.3.

Conducting Ethnomethodological Research

Ethnomethodological research has its own peculiar characteristics. An

ethnomethodological research is often referred to as a qualitative research. The goal of
a researcher using this approach is to understand local knowledge and practices relating
to the daily life of the people being investigated. Therefore, ehnomethodologists do not
just conduct their research from a distance. They participate in the life of the people and
observe daily interactions among them in formal and informal conversations among the
groups and individuals. This method of doing research is called participant observation
method, and the researcher is called a participant-observer.
The traditional method of doing research that distances the researcher from his field has
been observed to be characterized by normative descriptions. Scholars working from
the perspective of seeing language as a social phenomenon have emphasized the
importance of an interaction between the researcher and the community. This makes the
outcome to be that in which the researcher is present in the text. This is more authentic
than the traditional research method.
Ethnomethodological research demands that the researcher reside in the community he
or she is investigating to facilitate his/her interaction with the people. So, it involves
months and years of fieldwork. It is usually an in depth study of the historical,

29

demographical and cultural norms of the people alongside with the specific issue being
investigated.
One can summarize the features of an ethnomethodological research as follows:

It involves the study of naturally occurring phenomena in their setting

It involves social interaction with the community within their social context
It involves data collection and analysis that takes place at the micro level
It involves discovery through interaction
It involves the study of the local knowledge, ie: identifying terms, concepts
and logic used by individuals and the group to talk about specific subjects

Self-assessment Exercises
Identify the major principles of an ethnomethodological research.

4.0 Conclusion
One of the earliest approaches to research in Discourse Analysis is Ethnomethodology.
Though the study of discourse keeps undergoing changes from time to time, the use of
this approach has remained one of the key approaches to investigating discourse. It
presents a common ground for linguists studying discourse. This is particularly so
because it emphasizes the importance of context in discourse analysis. The two major
ways of collecting data in discourse analysis are really context-dependent. The use of
tape recorder as a data collecting method depends largely on the context of the
discourse. This implies that the researcher has to be present at the setting to do his/her
recording. The other method, which is emphasized in Ethnomethodology is the
participant observation, which requires the researcher to be present in the community
for a period of time.

5.0 Summary
In this Unit, we have looked at a major approach to discourse analysis
Ethnomethodology. We examined its origin and its use in discourse analysis. We
particularly focused attention on the methods of doing Ethnomethodology, with its
emphasis on interaction between the researchers and the people they are investigating.
The emphasis students should note is that language is a social phenomenon And each
time people use language, they are being creative, so, this makes each social event and
situation unique and worthy of being analyzed distinctly by looking at the social factors
that facilitates the creation of the text.

6.0 Tutor-marked assignment

1.
2.

Describe how you would do an ethnomethodological study of the discourse of

motor park touts.
Explain the connection between language and the social world.

30

7.0 References/Further Reading

Poore, S. (2000) Ethnomethodology, An Introduction.
Source: http://www.hewett.norfolk.sch.uk/CURRIC/soc/ethno/intro.htm
Garfinkel, H. (1984) Studies in Ethnomethodology, Malden MA: Polity Press/Blackwell
ublishing. (first published in 1967).
Heritage, J.C. (1987) 'Ethnomethodology'. In: A. Giddens, J.H. Turner, eds. Social
theory today. Cambridge: Polity Press: 224-72

31

Unit 2:

Conversational Analysis

Contents
0.0 Introduction
2.0 Unit Objectives
3.0 What is Conversational Analysis?
3.1 Turn Taking and Turn Allocation
3.2 Insertion Sequences
3.3 Self-assessment Exercises
3.4 Adjacency Pairs
3.5 Error and Repair Mechanisms
3.6 Simultaneous speeches
4.0 Conclusion
5.0 Summary
6.0 Tutor-marked Assignment
7.0 References/Further Reading

1.0

INTRODUCTION

In this Unit, we shall be examining another approach to Discourse Analysis

Conversational Analysis. This approach is concerned with the study of talk in
interaction. We shall be examining such topics as how people allocate and take turns in
conversation (the mechanisms used). This shows that people do not just talk anyhow in
conversation. They are guided by some specific rule. We shall also look at the concepts
of insertion sequences and adjacency pairs. This will show us how conversations are
ordered. There are appropriate responses to specific expressions and when these
responses do not come, then it is either the person responding did not understand the
question or he/she is deliberate in giving such response.. This will then lead us to how
we repair errors in discourse. How simultaneous speech is managed, to the extent that it
does not degenerate into confusion.

2.0

UNIT OBJECTIVES

At the end of this Unit, you should be able to do the following:

define all the terms used in conversational analysis

identify how conversationalists allocate and take turns in discourse
explain the terms insertion sequence and adjacency pairs
32

explain how errors are repaired in conversation

describe how simultaneous speech occurs and how it is managed

3.0

MAIN CONTENT

3.1

What is Conversational Analysis?

Conversational Analysis (CA) is an approach to discourse analysis that is concerned

with the study of talk in interaction. The major aim of CA is to describe how
conversationalists achieve orderliness in their interaction. It studies how interactions are
structured in a sequential manner. CA studies any instance of talk, which may include
institutional discourse, such as, classroom discourse between the teacher and the
students, doctor-patient interaction, antenatal classroom discourse, courtroom
discourse. It also study routine or casual conversation.
CA was a method introduced by Emmanuel Schegloff, Harvey Sacks and Gail Jefferson
in the early 1970s. It was inspired by Ethnomethodology. CA has now become an
established force in sociology, anthropology, linguistics, speech-communication and
psychology.

3.2 Turn Taking and Turn Allocation

Turn taking is a general feature of conversation. It has been observed that people
involved in a conversation do not just talk in a disorderly manner. A person speaks and
after his turn, another person takes the floor. It is not normal in a conversation for one
person to speak all the time while others just listen. It is also the case that people are
aware when it is their turn to speak. There are some clues to when a speakers turn has
finished and when another speaker should commence talk.
Turn taking is a basic characteristic of any normal conversation. Speakers and listeners
change their roles in order to begin their speech (Coulthard, 1985: 59). Turn taking
mechanisms may vary between cultures and languages. Scholars have identifies a set of
rules that govern turn taking in discourse. These are:

When the current speaker selects the next speaker, the next speaker has
the right to and is obliged to commence the turn
If the current speaker does not select the next speaker, any one of the
speakers has the right to self-select and become the next speaker
If neither the next speaker selects the next speaker nor the next speaker selfselects, the current speaker may resume his or her turn
Sacks, Schegloff and Jeffeson (1974:704)

There are signals to turn taking that are called turn-eliciting signals. We have the
Turn Construction Unit (TCU), which is the fundamental segment of speech in
33

conversation. It describes pieces of conversation, which may comprise an entire turn.

The end of a TCU, called a Transition Relevance Place (TRP), which marks a point
where the turn may be go to another speaker, or the present speaker may continue with
another TCU. The change of turn occurs only in the TRP. TRP is the possible structural
completion point of one-word, lexicon, phrase, clause or full sentence.
There are other signals to turn taking. The dominant referring tone, the interrogative
functions of tones and phatic questions serve a role in turn taking. For instance, a
speaker may use a rising tone rather than a fall-rise tone in ending a sentence to hold his
turn by underlining his/her present status as the dominant speaker. This indicates that
the speaker expects to be allowed to go on without an interruption. Story tellers are
fond of using this continuative rising tone (Brazil, 1997:93). Other signals are, the last
speakers gaze direction, the last speaker calling the name of the next speaker, the last
speaker aligning his body towards the next speaker, and so forth.

Self-assessment Exercise
Observe a conversation in a home video and identify the mechanisms for turn taking

3.3 Adjacency Pairs

Adjacency Pair is a unit of conversation that contains an exchange of one turn each by
two speakers. The turns are so related to each other that the first turn requires a range
of specific type of response in the second turn. It is a sequence that contains
functionally related turns. Examples of adjacency pairs are
Question Answer Pair
Q. When will you be home
A. At 5 oclock
Greeting Greeting Pair
G. Good morning Bola.
G: Good morning.
Request Acceptance/Rejection
R: Can I use your pen for one minute.
A: Yes, please have it/ R: I am sorry. Its the only one I have
Inform Acknowledgement
I: You have to see the head of department before he leaves for the
Senate meeting at 4.
A: Okay.

Apology Acceptance/Rejection
App.: I am sorry, I could not make the appointment
Acc.: Thats okay, we can fix another time/ Rej.: You have no excuse.
34

You just kept me waiting for nothing.

Congratulations Thanks
C: Congratulations on your PhD.
T: Oh, thanks
In an adjacency pair, the first pair part invites, constrains, and partially determines the
meaning and range of possible second pair part. If somebody shouts help, it is an
action not language that is required. If the exclamation is 'ouch', it is likely to elicit a
question, 'What's the matter' which in turn starts off an adjacency pair, completed by,
for example, 'I've cut my finger'. Adjacency pairs are normal in conversations, but
sometimes they do not necessarily occur. Some instances may affect the flow of
adjacency pair. For instance, if a person decides to ask another question after being
asked a question, the flow is disrupted. This is called an insertion into what would have
been a normal sequence of conversation. This is called insertion sequence. We shall
treat this in the following section.

3.4 Insertion Sequences

An insertion sequence is a sequence of turns intervenes between the first and second
parts of an adjacency pair. It is a kind of delay in which the response expected is not
given, rather, an entirely different, though related response is given. Conversations
usually occur in pairs, for instance we have question-answer, requestacceptance/rejection, invitation-acceptance/rejection, and so forth. For instance, let us
see a conversation
1.
2.
3.
4.

Bola:
Uju:
Bola:
Uju:

When are you traveling back to London?

Why do you ask?
I would like to send you with a parcel to my auntie in Woolwich.
Okay, I will be going in a weeks time.

In this piece of conversation above, Bola asked a question and expects a direct answer.
But turns 3 and 4 are together an insertion sequence, which separates the earlier
question in turn 1 from the direct answer in turn 4, which comes later. Insertion
sequences occur in situations when people do not want to provide a direct response to
an elicitation until they are sure of the intention of the speaker as we can see in the
conversation piece above.

3.5 Error and Repair Mechanisms

In conversation, we do not always say things the correct ways we desire to say them.
When we did not say what we ought to say, we still have a way of saying them. This is
called error repair.

35

3.6 Overlap in speeches

An overlap in speech occurs when two or more interlocutors are talking at the same
time. It can also be described as occurrences of two or more participants trying to take
their turns at the same time after the previous speaker had finished or is about to finish
his turn. The real overlap occurs when the two participants start their turns
simultaneously and none of them relinquishes the floor for the other. This is not always
the case in a normal conversation. Earlier on we said that conversations are orderly,
because speakers will naturally take turns. An overlap in speech may occur in any of
the following situations:

when a speaker deliberately comes in while another speaker is having

turn,
when a speaker thought another speaker had finished his/her turn and
decided to come in.

4.0 Conclusion
Analyzing a conversation involves how turns are taken and allocated and other features
such as how people correct their errors in speech when they realize them. It also
involves looking at the way some talks are connected despite their seemingly
unconnected nature. Apart form all these, we realize that talks overlap, especially when
the speakers involved are eager to make their points, or when a speaker feels that the
last speaker has finished their turn. All these features of conversation simply tell us that
natural conversation is not always smooth and orderly. Some of the features discussed
above contribute to the naturalness of most conversation. In fact, when a conversation
moves on without any of these features, it seems less natural than when they are
present.

5.0 Summary
In this Unit, we have looked at the features of conversation that discourse analysts look
at when they study the conversation. Such features include: turn taking and turn
allocation, insertion sequences, adjacency pairs, overlap in speech, and so forth. These
features exist in most conversations. Though as we have observed, some of them
feature more in some conversations than others. For instance adjacency pairs is a very
visible feature of any form of interview, such as employment interview or newspaper
interview. It is also important to note that in some kinds of speech, turns are necessarily
allocated by a person who has the social role to do so. For instance in a discussion, a
moderator has such social role. Also in classroom discourse, the teacher determines
who takes up a turn and when they do so.

36

6.0 Tutor-marked Assignment

Select any written play by Wole Soyinka and explain how some of the feature of
conversation discussed in this Unit manifest in the conversations.

7.0 References/Further Reading

Brazil, D. (1977) The communicative value of intonation in English. Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press.
Ten Have, Paul (1999): Doing Conversation Analysis. A Practical Guide, Thousand
Oaks: Sage.
Psathas, George (1995) Conversation Analysis, Thousand Oaks: Sage.
Sacks, H. (1992) Lectures on conversation. 2 vols. Edited by Gail Jefferson with
introductions by Emanuel A. Schegloff. Oxford: Basil Blackwell

37

Unit 3:

Linguistic Anthropology

CONTENT
1.0 Introduction
2.0 Unit Objectives
3.0 Main Content
3.1 Linguistic Anthropology: Introduction
3.2 Speech community
3.3 Speech Situation/Event
3.4 Self-assessment Exercises
3.5 Ethnography of Speaking
4.0 Conclusion
5.0 Summary
6.0 Tutor-marked assignment
7.0 References/further Reading

1.0

INTRODUCTION

In this Unit, you shall be learning about a discipline that is central to your
understanding of the whole idea of discourse analysis Linguistic Anthropology. The
field methods of Linguistic Anthropology are very useful for discourse analysts,
because the latter place a lot of importance on context, as you earlier saw. The whole
idea of analyzing discourse originated from Anthropologists, whose focus was not
really on the language corpus but on how the society is structured through human
interaction. We shall also take you through other notions related to Linguistic
Anthropology, such as the concept of a speech community and Dell Hymes notion of
Ethnography of Speaking..

2.0 OBJECTIVES
By the end of this Unit, you should be able to do the following:

Explain clearly what Linguistic Anthropology is all about.

Define the concept of Speech Community
Use Ethnography of Speaking to describe any particular speech situation
Explain the terms speech community and speech event

38

3.0

MAIN CONTENT

3.1 Linguistic Anthropology: Introduction

Linguistic Anthropology is a branch of Anthropology. The focus of the discipline is on
how language is used in various social contexts. It focuses on speech both ancient and
contemporary ones. Linguistic anthropologists are interested in how many languages
there are, how those languages are distributed across the world, and their contemporary
and historical relationships. It is also the study of the relationship between language and
social relations. So, the concern of Linguistic Anthropology is the diachronic or
historical, evolutionary, and internal structure of human languages in relation to the
context. For instance, a linguistic anthropologist may decide to study the Etymology of
names of places. This will require some historical data on the origin of those places.
Linguistic anthropology is an interdisciplinary field. It draws a great deal from other,
independently established disciplines and in particular from the two from which its
name is formed: linguistics and anthropology. Linguistic anthropologists use
traditional ethnographic methods such as participant-observation and work with native
speakers to obtain local interpretive glosses of the communicative material they record.
They also use elicitation techniques similar to those employed by typological linguists
interested in grammatical patterns. Recently, these methods have been integrated with
new forms of documentation of verbal practices developed in such fields as urban
sociolinguistics discourse analysis, and conversation analysis. The advent of new
technologies for the electronic recording of sounds and actions has broadened the range
of phenomena that can be studied, increased our analytical sophistication, and, at the
same time, multiplied the number of technical, political, and moral problems that a
fieldworker must confront. As we enter this new technological era, it is imperative to
develop a discursive arena in which to examine the pros and cons of the new tools
within a general discussion of methodology for the study of human communicative
behavior.

3.2

Speech community

Speech community is a group of speakers who use language in a distinct way generally
accepted among them. This group of speakers may be located in the same area or
situated in different locations. What is common to them is that they recognize a
language or a dialect of a language as their standard means of communication. For
instance, we can talk about a Yoruba speech community comprising of Yoruba
speakers in the south-western Nigeria and in other parts of the world, such as Benin
Republic, parts of Brazil and USA.
The speech community is the locus of most sociolinguistic and anthropological
linguistic research. Earliest attempts to identify speech communities date back to the
Prague School notion of sprechbond or speech bond, which refers to shared ways of
speaking which goes beyond language boundaries. They also talk about sprachbond

39

language bond, which involves relatedness at the level of linguistic forms

(Romaine, 1994: 23).
Several scholars have defined of speech community in different ways. Below are some
of the definitions.
The speech community is defined by the participation in a set of shared
normswhich may be observed in behaviour and in the uniformity of abstract
patterns of variation.
Labov (1972: 120 ff)
A speech community is made up of individuals who regard themselves as
speaking the same language Corder (1973: 53)
"any human aggregate characterized by regular and frequent interaction by
means of a shared body of verbal signs and set off from similar aggregates by
significant differences in language usage". Gumperz (1971: 101)
"A community sharing rules for the conduct and interpretation of speech, and
rules for the interpretation of at least one linguistic variety... A necessary
primary term... it postulates the basis of description as a social, rather than a
linguistic, entity." Hymes (1972: 54 ff).
"A speech community is a group of people who do not necessarily share the
same language, but share a set of norms and rules for the use of language. The
boundaries between speech communities are essentially social rather than
linguistic... A speech community is not necessarily co-extensive with a language
community." Romaine (1994: 22).

3.3

Speech Situation/Event

A speech event is a communicative event with the main role of a speech component
(planned, organized, controlled, socially significant), eg: meeting, conference, summit,
wedding, funerals, elections, party, primaries. Any social activity in which speech is
used can be seen as a speech event or situation.

3.4 Self-assessment Exercises

Explain the differences between the following kinds of speech community:

a geographical speech community

a social speech community

a virtual speech community

40

3.5 Ethnography of Speaking

The term Ethnography of speaking was originally formulated by Dell Hymes in 1962 to
describe what happens whenever we engage in communication through speech. Since
the use of the term by Hymes, it has been developed to be known as a method in the
social approach to language, which draws on the anthropological field of Ethnography
to explain how we communicate our experiences in our cultures. The concept was
redefined in 1964 as Ethnography of Communication to include the two major means
of communication: speech and writing. Any speech event can be seen as comprising
several components, and the analysis of these is a major aspect of an ethnography of
speaking. Seven types of component or factor can be discerned. Every speech event
involves:
Setting/scene
This refers to the time when a speech takes place and place. Scene does not only refer
to the physical scene, but also the psychological setting. This includes the nature of the
communication, the degree of its formality, which is determined by the institutionalized
cultural way of behaving when engaged in such kind of communication. For instance,
there are ways a priest is expected to behave when conducting a service. Informal
interactions are less rule-governed when compared to formal ones.
Participants
This refers to the speaker and his/her audience in any particular speech situation. The
speaker is the person who is performing a speech act. He/she may be informing,
directing, or eliciting some form of behaviour form his/her audience. The audience is
the people involved in the speech situation, usually, they are being addressed by the
speaker. Participants do not have to be physically present before the speaker. There
instances of communication in which the speaker is far away form the participants, eg:
news, telephone, e-mail, and so forth.
Ends
This refers to the purpose, goal or outcome of the communication. For instance a goal
might be to educate as in the speech situation involving a teacher and his/her students;
to entertain, as in a comedian and his/her audience; to promote a view, as in a political
campaign, an advertisement, etc.
Act Sequence
Every even has a form and an order it follows. This is what is being referred to here.
There are always ways to order ones communication so that they can be meaningful to
the other participants. For instance, a story usually starts with the following phrase
once upon a time, a long time ago, in the year_____, and so forth. This is the point
of departure and it makes the communication a story. Every meeting starts with a
greeting. This is particularly more prominent in formal presentations, where protocols
are observed, that is, some people have to be recognized and greeted in a particular
order (usually, the order of their status).

41

Key
The ways of behaving differs when people are engaged in different speech events. For
instance, we use different tones when we are engaged in different discursive practices.
Our tone and facial expression are serious when we are warning people. When we are
engaged in any form of banter, we are more relaxed in our tone. There are ways we
speaks that will make people laugh and there are ways we speak that will make people
sober or even cry. These are what we mean by key as a component of Ethnography of
Speaking.

Instrumentalities
This refers to the style we adopt in our speech. For instance, when we are engaged in
any casual conversations, our words comprise mostly colloquial expressions. However,
in any formal situation, we choose our words carefully. Two words may mean the same
thing, but each of them is used in different speech style. For instance, the word loo is an
informal expression, while its formal counterparts are gents, ladies or convenience.

Norms
Norms refer to the social rules governing the behaviour of people when they speak.
Such rules govern their actions and reactions in the speech situation. There are norms
for every speech community. For instance, in Yoruba land, when younger male persons
greet older people, they prostrate in addition to what they say. The whole idea of
greeting therefore is not just saying the words, but also performing the gesture that goes
along with the words.
Genre
Genre refers to the kind of speech act being performed. Different speech communities
have different ways of identifying a genre.

4.0

Conclusion

Linguistic Anthropology is a hybrid discipline combining the methods of Anthropology

and Linguistics in its investigation. One typical feature of Linguistic Anthropology is
its dependence on the social context and culture of conversation. It depends on the
practices of a community and the real events that take place while the linguistic
performance is going on. Dell Hymes identified a set of components necessary for the
interpretation of speech, which he called Ethnography of Speaking representing each
letter of the word SPEAKING with another word that describes these components.

5.0

Summary

In this Unit, we looked at the discipline Linguistic Anthropology and some of the
terms used in it. The idea of a speech community is very vital to the discipline because
every linguistic behaviour is not only enacted within a particular speech community. It
is also made to follow the norms and practices in the community. We also noted that a
speech event is a social activity planned and structured in a particular way to be
identified as meaningful. In addition, we also looked at the factors that come to play in
42

any typical speech situation or event. These factors help to shape the meaning of the
event.

6.0 Tutor-marked assignment

(i) Visit a law court and use the components of Ethnography of Speaking to
describe the event.
(ii) How do the following components of Ethnography of Speaking shape meaning?
Participants and Norms.

7.0 References/further Reading

Duranti, A. (1997) Linguistic Anthropology. New York: Cambridge University Press.
Corder, S. Pit. 1973. Introducing applied linguistics. Harmondsworth: Penguin.
Duranti, Alessandro. 1988. "Ethnography of speaking: Towards a linguistics of the
praxis." In FJ Newmeyer ed. 1988 Linguistics: The Cambridge survey, vol. IV.
Language: The socio-cultural context. Cambridge UP.]
Gumperz, John. 1971. Language in social groups. Stanford: Stanford University Press.
Hymes, Dell. 1972. "Models of the interaction of language and social life." (Revised
from 1967 paper.) In Gumperz & Hymes, eds. 1972 Directions in sociolinguistics: The
ethnography of communication. Blackwell:35-71.
Labov, William. 1972. Sociolinguistic patterns. Phila.: Univ. of Pennsylvania Press.
Romaine, Suzanne. 1994. Language in society: An introduction to sociolinguistics.
London: Blackwell.
Saville-Troike, M. () The Ethnography of Communication: An Introduction. Blackwell.

43

MODULE THREE: APPROACHES TO DISCOURSE ANALYSIS I

Unit 1: Information Structure / Thematic Structure
Unit 2: Thematic Progression
Unit 3: The Birmingham School Approach

Unit 1: Information Structure/Thematic Structure

CONTENT
1.0 Introduction
2.0 Unit Objectives
3.0 Main Content
3.1 Information Structure
3.2 The Given
3.3 The New
3.4 Thematic Structure
3.5 Theme
3.6 Rheme
3.7 Marked and Unmarked Themes
3.7 Multiple Themes
Self-assessment Exercices
4.0 Conclusion
5.0 Summary
6.0 Tutor-marked Assignment
7.0 References/Further Reading

1.0 Introduction
In this Unit, we shall examine how information is organized in discourse, using the two
well-known paradigms: Information Structure and Thematic Structure. This Unit will
expose you to how people structure their information in such a way that they are able to
put things considered more important before the others that are considered less
important them and their listeners or readers.

2.0 Unit Objectives

At the end of your study of this Unit, you should be able to do the following:

44

explain the concepts of information structure and thematic structure

differentiate between Give/New and Theme/Rheme concepts
identify instances of multiple themes in texts
analyze texts for instances of information structure and thematic structure

3.0 MAIN CONTENT

3.1

Information Structure

Information structure is all about how speakers arrange the information in their
message. It is natural for the shared message to come before the one not known to the
hearer. The shared message is usually found at the beginning of the clause and it is
called the Given information. The other information is the focus of the speakers
message and it is referred to as the New information. The Given and the New
information make up the information structure of the clause.

3.2

The Given

The Given information is the information that is known to both the speaker and the
hearer. It is normally taken for granted that the listener(s) or reader(s) know the
information. So the speaker takes off from that point to supply the new information. For
example:
8.1.

My younger son travelled to the USA yesterday

In the sentence above, it is assumed that the hearer knows who the younger son is, so
the speaker does not have to mention the name or use any descriptive term beyond the
one he used. The emboldened expression is the Given. The referent therefore is obvious
to both the speaker and the hearer.

3.3

The New

The new information is the rest of the clause It is called New because it is actually what
is new to the hearer or reader. For instance in the sentence above, travelled to the USA
yesterday is the new information. It is what the speaker actually wants the hearer to
know.
In writing the writer usually engages in a carefully thought-out exercise, because he
wants to be understood. So the nature of information structure in writing differs from
that of speaking. In informative texts, sometimes questions are used to elicit the
required information. For example:
8.2.

What is Linguistics?

45

Linguistics is the scientific study of the nature of language

The Given element is put before the New information, because there is an area of
mutual knowledge the writer wants to share with the readers (see Bloor and Bloor
(1995; Taiwo, 2003). Sometimes, authors may not necessarily use question heading.
They may just use an ordinary heading. It is also possible that the whole information in
the clause is new, for example:
8.3.

It is my belief that you are coming tonight.

Since the word it is a dummy or an empty subject, it caries no information, the whole
stretch can be regarded as New information.
Writers may also use ellipsis as a style in writing. Ellipsis is the omission of a word or
a chunk from a sentence in such a way that only the given information is left. This does
not render the text incomprehensible in any way, as the reader can still make up the
omitted part. For example:
8.4.

(a) Bola got up form the bed

(b) rushed to the bathroom
(c) and took her bath.

In (b) and (c) above, all the information are new, because the Given information has
been omitted, but the hearer can still link it to the subject of (a).
In spoken texts, there are more assumptions, since the situation helps the interlocutors
to interpret the message. For instance, in the sentence:
8.5.

Please get me my slippers.

the entire information is new. This is because the speaker shares some information with
the hearer, which include the fact that the hearer knows he/she is the one being
addressed and that the hearer knows where the speakers slippers are., and so forth.

3.4

Thematic Structure

This is similar to what we just finished discussing, but not exactly like it. Thematic
structure refers to the organization of the message in the clause. A special status is
given to one part of the clause that is called the Theme and the other part is called the
Rheme. This simply has to do with what the writer or speaker chose as the starting
point of the clause. Discussions on thematic structure was popularized by scholars in
Systemic Linguistics and The Prague School.

46

3.5

Theme

The theme is the defined as Halliday (1985: 39) as:

the element which serves as the starting point for the message
He went further to say that the Theme is what the clause is all about. In most cases, the
Theme assumes the first position in the clause. For example:
8.6.

The president of Nigeria is from the northern part of the country

The Theme here refers to a person. In other instance, it may refer to places, time,
attitude, and so forth, as we can see in the following examples respectively:
8.6.
8.7.
8.8.

3.6

In Ghana, Nigeria lost a football match

Last week, I went to Cotonou by road
In my own opinion, you are wrong

Rheme

The Rheme is defined by Eggins (1993: 275) as:

that part of the clause in which the Theme is developed.
It is every other part of the clause apart from the Theme. The Rheme is the part of the
clause that contains the real message of the clause. The speaker/writer departs at the
point of the Theme to supply the message to the hearer/reader.

Self-assessment Exercices
Take two newspaper editorials and identify the Themes and Rhemes in theme. Also,
identify the Given and New information in them. Now, compare the differences and
similarities in the Theme/Rheme and Given/New information.

3.7

Marked and Unmarked Themes

A marked theme is the unusual Theme. The usual Theme is the one that occupies the
position of the subject. This shows that in most cases, the subject position and that of
the theme overlap. When there is this overlap, which is often the case, we are said to
have and Unmarked Theme. However, when other elements apart from the subject are
given prominence by being placed in the initial position, they are called Marked
Theme. Examples of Marked Theme are given below:
8.9.

While in school, I was very sickly.

47

8.10. Away it flew.

8.11. Strangely, I could not recognize he.
8.12. Before you arrived, my father had spoken about you.
In the examples above, we can see other elements functioning as Theme apart from the
subject, thereby pushing the subject to a second position in the clause. In 8.9, we have
an adverbial group indicating time. In 8.10, we have a complement. In 8.11, we have a
comment adjunct, while in 8.12, we have a subordinate adjunct of time.

3.7 Multiple Themes

Multiple Themes do sometimes occur in clauses when more than one constituent in the
clause are given thematic status. Halliday (1985) identifies three types of theme that
can feature in the multiple themes. He used the three dimensional metafunctions:
Experiential, Textual and Interpersonal. The three types of theme recognized are the
Textual Theme, the Interpersonal Theme and the Topical Theme. The latter, Topical
Theme is typically unmarked, because it is the usual Theme. Textual Theme are used
mostly in conversation to indicate argument. Interpersonal Themes are used to address
listeners in conversation. They are usually signified by first names (David), terms of
affection (darling), mood adjuncts (maybe), comment adjuncts (fortunately).
Now let us see how multiple themes operate in clauses .

Now

Darling

my aim

TEXTUAL INTERPERSONAL TOPICAL

is to get him to follow me tomorrow

RHEME

4.0 Conclusion
The organization of information in the clause structure is determined by the speaker or
writer. As we have seen in this unit, a speaker may choose to identify and place a piece
of information important to him than others in a position, which ordinarily that piece of
information does not occupy. The whole essence of the organization of information is
to present elements in their priority to the speaker/writer.
In the example above, we can see the textual theme signified by the discourse marker
now, showing the boundary of a conversation and indicating that the speaker is about to
focus on a specific topic. The word Darling is an affectionate term, which indicates the
interpersonal relationship between the speaker and the listener. The topical theme my
aim in the sentence above is usually a constant theme. Even when other kinds of theme
are not there, the topical theme is always present. The rest of the message is the rheme.

48

5.0

Summary

In this Unit, we have examined two related but different aspects of information
organization in the English clause: Information Structure and Thematic Structure. We
looked at how speaker/writers organize the clause in such a way that they are able to
place the information that is important to them before the others. We also identified
different types of Theme in the clause structure. The concept of Multiple Themes was
also examined and we saw how language users can give thematic status to more than
one element. This is a departure from what we had been discussing before, where only
one element of the clause structure took up the thematic position.

6.0

Tutor-marked Assignment
(i) Select two poems each of Niyi Osundare and Wole Soyinka. Identify and
describe how marked themes are used in the poems.
(ii) Use a tape recorder to record any natural conversation and identify and
discuss the multiple themes used in it.

7.0

References/Further Reading

Bloor, T. and Bloor, M. (1995) The Functional Analysis of English, A

Hallidayan Approach. London: Arnold.
Halliday, M.A.K. (1985) An Introduction to Functional Grammar. London:
Edward Arnold.
Taiwo, R (2003) Information Structure and Thematic Structure. In
Lekan Oyeleye and Moji Olateju (Eds) Readings in Language
and Literature. Ile-Ife: OAU Press. (87-101)

49

Unit 2: Thematic Progression

Contents
1.0 Introduction
2.0 Unit Objectives
3.0 Main Content
3.1 Thematic Progression
3.2 The Constant Theme Pattern
3.3 The Linear Theme Pattern
3.4 The Split Rheme Pattern
3.5 Derived Theme Pattern
4.0 Identifying Themes in Discourse
5.0 Conclusion
6.0 Summary
Tutor-marked Assignment
7.0 References/Further Reading

1.0 Introduction
This Unit is a continuation of what we looked at in the last Unit. Thematic structure
deals with how the message is organized in the clause. Some scholars went beyond the
organization of the message in the clause to how thematic choices work in instances of
language use longer than the clause, for instance text. They focus on how the theme is
organized across sentence boundaries, how themes progress from one sentence to
another. This Unit will look at all these
2.0

Unit Objectives

At the end of your study of this Unit, you should be able to do the following:

explain the concept of Thematic Progression

illustrate the different thematic progression patterns

identify any of the TP patterns when you see them in a text

3.0

Main Content

3.1

Thematic Progression

In the last Unit, we looked at the concepts of Theme and Rheme in clauses. We did not
go beyond the clause. However, in looking at Thematic Progression, we will look at

50

how themes in different clauses associate and how the entire text becomes a meaningful
whole through this interaction. Thematic Progression (TP) refers to how one theme
progresses into another from clause to clause. Danes (1974) identified four types of
Thematic Progression. In the following sections, we shall discuss each of these in
succession.

3.2

The Constant Theme Pattern

The first kind of TP is called the Constant Theme Pattern. The constant
theme pattern occurs when a common theme is shared by clauses that follow one
another in a text. The theme of each clause either refers wholly to the first theme or
partly to it. This TP pattern is common in biographical information and other narratives.
Example of Constant TP is
1. Mr Sawyer is my friend. 2. He attended Kings College Lagos. 3. After his
secondary education, 4. he travelled to England, 5. where he was trained as a
lawyer. 6. He was one of the foremost lawyers in Nigeria.
You will see that in all the six clauses in this short text, the themes have something to
do with Mr. Sawyer either directly or indirectly through the use of first person pronoun
he. In the third clause, the expression, his secondary education still refers to Mr.
Sawyer.
3.3

The Linear Theme Pattern

The Linear Theme Pattern is a pattern in which a rheme is taken up as a theme in a

subsequent clause. In other words, the rheme of the last clause becomes the theme of
the following clause. An exampole of this is produced below.
1. The president of the Federal Republic of Nigeria is Umaru YarAdua. 2.
Umaru YarAdua was the last Civilian governor of Katsina State. 3. Katsina
State is one of the states in the North Central Nigeria. 4. The North Central
Nigeria is regarded as the power base of most politicians in the Northern
Nigeria.
In the text above, part of the rheme of the first clause (Umaru YarAdua) is taken up as
the theme for the second clause. Likewise, the nucleus of the rheme for the second
clause (Katsina State) is taken up as the rheme for the third clause, and so forth.
3.4 The Split Rheme Pattern
The third type of TP is called the Split Rheme Pattern. The split Rheme TP is the type
in which the Rheme of the clause has two component and each of the component is
taken in turn as the them of subsequent clause. So, the idea is that the components of

51

the rheme are split and elaborated upon in subsequent clauses. An example of the Split
Rheme TP is produced below.
1. Nigeria can be conveniently divided into three major regions: the Northern,
Western and the Eastern regions. 2. The Northern Region is mainly populated
by Hausa speakers and they are mostly Moslems. 3. The Western Region has
mainly Yoruba people who are well-exposed to Western education and it has a
mixture of Islam and Christianity. 4. The Eastern Region is inhabited mainly
by the Igbo speakers, who can be described as the economic livewire of the
nation.
This text shows clearly that the rheme of the first clause is what is split to develop the
text. The rheme has three major components and each of these components was taken
in turn to develop each of the subsequent clause.
3.5 The Derived Theme Pattern
This kind of TP is a feature of longer text with a variety of topics for discussion. The
author may pick any of the topics earlier mentioned and use it as the theme for a clause.
An example is given below.
1. Lion is one of the most dreaded animals. 2. The large cat is fierce-looking
and always looking ferocious. 3. Its cubs are just like domestic cats. 4. The
mane of male lions makes them look dreadful. 5 Its powerful claws can tear
even the hardest skin 6. and its canines are equally very strong.
The text contains some derived items that have been give thematic positions. They
include its cubs, the mane of the male lion, its canines. All these are themes derived
from the hypertheme lion.

Self Assessment Exercise

Use your own texts to illustrate the four Thematic Progression Patters discussed in this
Unit.
3.6 Identifying Themes in Discourse
There are some specific ways a theme can be identified in a clause. We have seen that
themes are not just chosen. They are chosen to agree with the message and they are
chosen so that the entire text can be seen a unified whole.
One major way a theme can be identified is through identical wording. This means, the
writer of speaker simply repeats the same word as theme in subsequent clauses. For
example:

52

9.1.

Mr. Brown is my boss. Mr. Brown is a very nice man.

In the sentence above the theme Mr. Brown is repeated in the second sentence.
Another way is through the use of synonymous expression, ie occurrence of an element
which communicates information similar in meaning to an expression in the preceding
context, eg:
9.2.

My little boy came home from school weeping. The lad was beaten by a
bully.

The theme can also be identified by semantic inference. Words that are related to the
ones used earlier can still be used as themes of subsequent clauses (see the example
under split rheme)

5.0

Conclusion

The organization of information in any text is essential because it determines the kind
of meaning being communicated. The choice of what element to start with and which
ones to come later show what a writer places emphasis on. Equally important is the way
one theme progresses into another within a larger text, that is texts that flow form one
paragraph to another. Different kinds of Thematic Progression patterns have been
identified to be peculiar to different kinds of writing. For instance, stories will naturally
choose the constant theme pattern, since they are about some individuals or a particular
event. This is to ensure that the story is followed by the listener or reader, as these
persons or events keep recurring in the text.

6.0

Summary

In this Unit, we have looked at Thematic Progression. It is a follow-up to the last unit,
where we looked at the Information and Theme distribution in texts. We observed that
it is important to know how themes progress in larger texts. The progression of themes
has implications for meaning. As we have observed, in some texts, the same theme
dominates the clauses, while in others, the themes are varied. An instance is the
Derived Theme pattern, where other themes are derived from a hypertheme. The rheme
can also be split in such a way that they will lead to the formulation of subsequent
themes in the text, as we saw in the Spilt Rheme pattern.
6.0 Tutor-marked Assignment
(i) Using Chapter One of Things Fall Apart by Chuinua Achebe, identify and
describe the thematic progression pattern in the chapter.
(ii) Pick an editorial in any Nigerian newspaper and identify and discuss the
thematic progression patterns in it.
(iii) Compare the TP patterns in Things Fall Apart and the Editorial you selected.

53

7.0 References/Further Reading

Danes, F. (1974) Functional Sentence Perspective and the organization of Texts.
In Danes, F. (Ed.) Papers in FSP (106-128. The Hague Mouton.
Bloor, T. and Bloor, M. (1995) The Functional Analysis of English, A
Hallidayan Approach. London: Arnold.

54

Unit 3: The Birmingham School Approach

Contents
1.0 Introduction
2.0 Unit Objectives
3.0 Main Content
3.1 Classroom discourse
3.2 Discourse Structure
3.2.1 Lesson
3.2.2 Transaction
3.2.3 Exchange
3.2.4 Move
3.2.5 Classes of Acts
4.0 Conclusion
5.0 Summary
6.0 Tutor-marked Assignment
7.0 References/Further Reading
1.0

Introduction

In this Unit, we shall be examining the trends in the study of discourse that was
introduced by a group of scholars in the University of Birmingham in the early 1970s.
The idea started with the study of classroom discourse and later became a possible
theory for the study of any human interaction. The study undertaken by John Sinclair
and Malcolm Coulthard proposed a scale for the study of the structure of discourse in
the classroom.

2.0

Unit Objectives

By the end of this Unit, you should be able to do the following:

explain the Birmingham School Approach to Discourse Analysis

use these units to attempt analyses of instances of discourse

write a classroom lesson showing different classes of acts used by the

teacher and the students

differentiate the differences between the units of discourse

55

3.0

MAIN CONTENT

3.1

Classroom discourse

Classroom discourse is an institutional discourse that involves the teacher and pupils
interacting and exchanging ideas. The teacher initiates the discourse and ensures that it
follows a particular course, which he/she has pre-determined. The typical structure of
the classroom discourse identified by Sinclair and Coulthard is IRF (Initiation,
Response and Follow-up). This means that the teacher initiates the discourse while the
students supply response to the initiation and the teacher typically gives the feedback.
Though, there are several ways teacher and students exchange ideas, the teacher is the
one saddled with the responsibility of controlling the discourse and determining the
direction it goes. The teacher has a role that is described in discourse as [+ HIGHER
ROLE], while the students have the [ HIGHER ROLE]. With this tenor relationship
between the teacher and the pupils, the classroom discourse is able to run smoothly. In
the next section we will discuss the features of classroom discourse as observed by
Sinnclair and Coulthard (1975)
3.2

Discourse Structure

Sinclair and Coulthards (1976) work represents one of the earliest descriptive work on
classroom discourse as an institutional discourse. The work was based on Hallidays
scale and category. Discourse was seen by them as a level of language higher than
grammar. They did an extensive study of the language used by teachers and pupils in
classroom in Britain and proposed a five scale category of discourse, namely: lesson,
transaction, exchange, moves and acts. These are discussed in the next section.
3.3
Lesson
Lesson is the highest unit in the discourse rankscale. It is everything that happens in the
classroom from the point the teacher enters till he/she leaves. The structure of a lesson
is determined by several factors. These include pupils responses to the teachers
instructions and the teachers ability to respond to the pupils responses. For instance, a
teacher may initiate a discussion that the whole class would be on for the entire lesson.
Good teachers do not rush their lessons with the aim of finishing everything they set out
to do. As they teach, they monitor pupils responses and sometimes repeat and go over
a lesson they had taught earlier.

3.4

Transaction

Transaction is next to lesson. It is the basic unit of interaction. It has to do with minimal
contribution made by the participants in a discourse. Every transaction has an opening,
which is usually a greeting and it possibly closes with a greeting as well.

56

3.5

Exchange

An exchange is the whole dialogue between the teacher and the pupils. It is the
fundamental unit that realizes social interaction (see Taiwo and Salami, 2007: 29). The
structure of a typical exchange is an initiation followed by a response and followed by a
follow-up. Initiation simply refers to the starting up of a topic by the teacher when he
enters the classroom. The teacher expects his/her initiation to elicit a kind of response
from the students. An initiation is usually a question or a comment. Teachers use
questions a lot for initiating responses from their pupils. Then the response will come in
form of an answer to the question. The exchange will not be complete without the
teacher responding as a follow-up to the pupils response. A follow-up may be a
commendation for a good answer, a rejection of the answer, and so forth.
3.5 Move
Move refers to the contribution made by one of the participants in the discourse at a
point in time. Speakers take turns in conversation and when they have the floor, they
speak for a specific period of time before another speaker takes over.
3.7

Act

Act is the smallest unit of the discourse structure. According to Sinclair and Coulthard
(1992: 4), discourse acts are typically one free clause plus any subordinate clauses, but
there are certain closed classes where we can specify almost all the possible realizations
which consist of single words or groups. Acts are defined principally by their
functions. Sinclair and Coullthard recognized 22 classes of act in the classroom
discourse, while Olateju (1998) recognized 24 classes of act. Later in the Unit, we shall
discuss the nature of the classes of act in details.
Self-assessment Exercises
Explain how classroom discourse different from any other kind of institutional
discourse?
3.8

Classes of Acts

To discus the classes of acts, shall present a table showing them, how they are realized
and their functions in discourse.
SN
1

CATEGORY
Elicitation (elc)

Directive (dir)

Informative (inf)

REALIZATION AND FUNCTION

This is realized by a question. Its function is to request
a linguistic response
This is realized by a command. Its function is to request
a non-linguistic response
This is realized by a statement. The function is to

57

Prompt (prm)

Bid (bid)

Re-state(res)

Focus (foc)

Frame (frm)

Repetition (rpt)

10

Demonstration (dem)

11.

Contrastive (con)

12

Illustrate (ill)

13

Expatiate (exp)

14

Additive (add)

S/N

CATEGORY

15

Hearing/check (h/c)

16

Accept (acc)

provide information. The only response is an

acknowledgement of attention or understanding
This is realized by a closed class of items go on,
come on, hurry up, have a guess, etc. Its function
is to reinforce a directive or elicitation by suggesting
that the teacher is no longer requesting a response but
expecting or demanding one
This is realized by a closed class of verbal and nonverbal items sir, miss, teachers name, raised hand,
finger clicking, etc. Its function is to signal a desire to
contribute to the discourse
This is realized by statements that tend to repeat a point
or an idea that had earlier on been mentioned
This is realized by statements which are not strictly part
of the discourse but inform us about what the topic is all
about
This is realized by words that indicate the boundaries in
a lesson, such as right, today, good, well, etc.
This is realized by statements that are repeated to
emphasize the importance of the message in the
discourse
This is realized by statements showing that the teacher
is giving a practical illustration of what is being
presented to the pupils
This is realized by a statement that are opposite of what
had earlier been said. They are usually marked by
expressions such as, in contrast to, on the contrary,
etc.
This is realized by a statement that further explains a
point being discussed
This is realized by a statement that adds to the
information that had already been given
This is realized by a statement, which gives additional
information to the discourse. It is realized typically by
words such as, and, in addition , etc.
REALIZATION AND FUNCTION
This is realized by words such as hen, abi, (Yoruba
expressions for is it so?) or any local language
equivalent, which are meant to check whether the pupils
are following the discourse.
This is realized by a closed class of items such as yes,
no, good, fine, and a repetition of pupils reply, all

58

17

Comment (com)

18

Evaluation (eva)

19

Causative (cau)

20

Reply (rep)

21

React (rea)

22

Nominate (nom)

with neutral low-fall intonation. Its function is to

indicate that the teacher has heard or seen and that the
information, reply, or react was appropriate.
This is realized by a statement or a tag question. It is
subordinate to the head move. Its function is to expand,
justify, and provide additional information.
This is realized by statements and tag questions
including words and phrases such as good, fine, with
high-fall intonation and repetition of pupils reply with
either a high-fall (positive evaluation) or a rise of any
kind (negative evaluation).
This is realized by a statement showing that what is
about to be said is as a result of one thing or the other. It
is typically realized by words such as , so, therefore,
as a result etc.
This is realized by a statement, question or moodless
item and non-verbal surrogates, such as nods. Its
function is to provide a linguistic response, which
appropriates elicitation.
This is realized by a non-linguistic action. Its function
is to provide the appropriate non-linguistic response,
which is appropriate to the directive
This is realized by a closed class consisting of names of
all students. You, anybody, yes, etc.. The function is to
give permission to a student to contribute to the
discourse

We can then illustrate each of the classes of act, using possible excerpt from a
classroom exchange. Note: T = Teacher, while S = Student(s).
Elicitation (el)
T (I): Who can tell me the first civilian president of the Federal Republic of Nigeria?
(el)
S (R): Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe
T (F): Thats not correct. Can somebody else try?
Directive (dir)
T:

Class monitor, can you get me a piece of chalk from the staff room (dir)

S:

(runs out to go and pick the pieces of chalk

59

Informative (inf)
T:
In

Bilabial plosives are produced using the two lips: the upper and the lower lips.
The production of such sounds, the air stream from the lungs is block with the
closure of the two lips and thereafter there is a release of the air, which is
called a plosion. This is why the sound is also called a plosive. (inf)
Examples of bilabial plosives are /p/ and /b/
I hope that is clear to you

S:

Yes.

Prompt (prm)
T:

Can you give me an example of a word in English with the bilabial plosive.

S:

(raising up their hands)

T:

Yes, Daniel

S:

brain, (hesitation)

T:

Yes go on (prm)

Bid (bid)
T:

Yes does anybody want to try to answer that question

S:

(raised their hands) Yes ma (bid)

Re-state
T:

The lungs have very important function in the production of sounds. Why?
Because the air that comes from the lungs are used to shape the quality of
sounds that are eventually produced. Is that clear?

S:

Yes sir (chorus answer)

T:

The lungs perform a very crucial function in shaping the kind of sound we
produce. This is what enables us to classify the sounds (res)

60

Frame
T:
Today,
We shall be looking at the topic manner of articulation of English consonant
sounds
Focus
T:
Now,
Let us stand up and move to the language laboratory for our drills (focus)
S:

(the students filed out of the class)

Note that frame always precedes focus. A frame indicates the boundary in a lesson,
while
a focus starts off on what the speakers is about to do.
Repetition
T:
Please note that the most important articulator in the production of speech
sound is the tongue.
Again, the most the most important articulator is the tongue.(rep)
I hope you noted that.
S:

Yes sir (chorus answer)

Demonstration
T:
Now, look up. I want you to see how I will produce the bilabial sound /p/. (the
teacher pronounced the sound). Can you all repeat after me /p/ (dem)
S:

(the students repeat the sound

T:

Thank you. Let us move on to the next sound

Contrastive
T:
I told you that when producing a stop sound, there is a total blockage of the air
from the lungs.
In contrast to this, when producing fricatives, , there is a partial blockage of the
air form the lungs and this produces a type of hissing sound (con)
Lets try to produce the fricative sound /s/ (con)
S:

ssssssssssss.

T:

Thank you, let us move on.

61

Illustrate
T:
We have just talked about manner of articulation. This helps us to describe the
sound produced.
In addition to this, we also want to look at another way we can describe sounds
and that is the place of articulation or the point of articulation. This refers to
those places in our vocal cavity where our articulators contact before sounds
are produced. (Ill)
Bola, stand up and tell me what I have just said. I noticed you were busy
discussing with your friend.
S:

(Bola stood up and could not talk)

T:

You see what I keep telling you? While I was busy explaining, she was talking.

Expatiate
T: I earlier said some sounds are produced with a plosion and they are called plosive
sound.
What then is a plosion?
A plosion is a forceful sound. It comes out with some force, because there is an
obstruction prior to its production.(exp)
Additive
T: To describe any consonant, your have two ways: the place of articulation and the
manner of articulation
S: In addition to this, we can also describe a consonant using voicing, which is the
vibration or non-vibration of the vocal cord.(add)
Hearing/Check
T:
In this course, you will do a lot of drills, to help you perfect your production of
the sounds. Who can tell me the classes of phonetic sounds we have in English?
Yes,
S:
consonants and vowels
T:
very good, you know we have consonant and vowel letters, hen (h/c)
Or you dont know. Please dont confuse one for the other. Okay (h/c)
Accept
T:
Who can tell us the basic difference between consonants and vowels?
P:
In the[production of vowels, there is free flow of air from the lungs, while in the
production of consonants, there is either a total or partial obstruction of the air
at a point in the vocal cavity.
T:
Excellent! (Acc)
Comment
T:
I taught you about the syllable in the last lesson. Did I?I think I did and maybe
we should revise that before going on to todays topic.(com)
Who can give me a n English word with CCCVCC

62

P:
T:

Stretched
Good! Can you transcribe this on the board and showing the consonants and
vowels. (Hands over the chalk to the student to write)

Evaluation
T:
How many English vowel, letters do we have?
S:
five
T:
Five, good (eva)
Causative
T:
The tongue is the most important articulator.
Therefore, without a tongue we cannot speak (cau)
S:
(listening)
Reply
T:
S:
T:
S:

What did I just say about the tongue?

Sir,
Okay, Bridget
You said it is the most important articulator (rep)

React
T:
(Seeing that a student is sleeping while the lecture is going on, signals that the
student should stand up.
S:
(student stand sup)
Nominate
T:
Tell me, what do you call a sound produced with a plosion?
S:
Sir
T:
Yes, Angela (nom)
S:
A plosive sound
T:
Very good, lets clap for her

4.0

Conclusion

The study of classroom discourse marked the beginning of how discourse is structured
and organized, especially in an institutional setting. Sinclair and Coulthard proposed
what they believe constitute discourse structure, using a rank scale similar to Hallidays
grammatical rank scale. Their study further opened up several attempts on the study of
how the discourse is organized.
5.0 Summary
In this Unit, we have seen an attempt by two scholars to produce a structural analysis of
naturally occurring discourse, drawing a lot of ideas form Hallidays Scale and
Category Grammar. In their observation, discourse is higher than grammar and just like
grammar, it has its own rank scale, which consist of five units: Lesson, Transaction,

63

Exchange, Move and Act. We have discussed each of these units and given you the
appropriate examples. The importance of this is that you should be able to analyze a
classroom interaction using the method we have outlined in this Unit.
6.0

Tutor-marked Assignment

Imagine you are to teach a class for about 40 minutes. Construct a classroom discourse
that has 10 of the classes of act discussed in this unit.

7.0

References/Further Reading

Olateju, M. A. (1977) Patterns of Interaction in the Science and Humanities ESL PhD
Classrooms. Thesis, Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife
Sinclair, J. and Coulthard, M. (1975) Towards an Analysis of Discourse, the English
Used by Teachers and Pupils. Oxford: OUP.
Taiwo, R. and Salami, F. (2007) Discourse Acts in Antenatal Clinic Literacy
Classroom in South-Western Nigeria. Linguistik Online31, 2/2007 (25-40)

64

MODULE FOUR: APPROACHES TO DISCOURSE ANALYSIS II

Unit 1: Text Linguistics
Unit 2: Grammatical Cohesion
Unit 3: Lexical Cohesion

Unit 1: Text Linguistics

CONTENT
1.0 Introduction
2.0 Unit Objectives
3.1 What is Text?
3.2 Textuality
3.3 Sentence Connection
3.4 Self-assessment Exercises
3.5 Cohesion and Coherence
4.0 Conclusion
5.0 Summary
6.90 Tutor-marked Assignment
7.0

Reference/Further Reading

1.0

INTRODUCTION

In this Unit, we shall be looking at the practice in a school of thought within Discourse
Analysis called Textlinguistics, whose sole aim is to examine written texts and how
such texts are meaningful, and the linguistic resources used by writers to achieve
meaning in written texts. With these in view, of central concern to us in this Unit are
the concepts of text, textuality and cohesion and coherence in text.

2.0
UNIT OBJECTIVE
At the end of this Unit, you should be able to do the following:

define and identify what a text is

explain what it means for the sentences in a text to be connected
discuss the concepts of cohesion and coherence in written texts
identify texts that are coherent and the resources that are used for such
coherence

65

3.0

MAIN CONTENT

3.1

What is Text?

A text can simply be described as a type of written or spoken discourse or a sequence of

paragraphs that represents an extended unit of speech. A text is not just a random
collection of sentences. A text must be meaningful, in the sense that the ideas of the
communicator of the text must be understood by the communicatee. A text must be
seen as a unified whole, whose meaning can be summarized. Halliday and Hasan
(1976) describes a text as a semantic unit. Typicaly in any text, every sentence except
the first exhibits some form of cohesion with the preceding (Halliday and Hasan 1976:
292).
Texts are classified into genres on the basis of the intent of the communicator.
Although there are different ways of classifying texts, six text types are generally
recognized , and they are: recount, report, procedure, explanation, exposition, and
experimental report. Each of these text types has different linguistic structures and
features. For instance, a report is written in the past tense since it is an account of
something the communicator had experienced sometime ago.
3.2

Textuality

A text is said to have textuality if it has unity with respect to its context. What
distinguishes a written text from a random collection of sentences is the quality of
textuality. It is also referred to as connexity or connectivity. Every text has certain
resources that enable the reader/listener to identify that it is a text with respect to the
context in which it is produced. Let us look at a stretch of sentence to explain more
clearly what we mean by textuality.
I bought two pairs of shoes when I went to Lagos yesterday. They were both black.
One was made in Italy, while the other was made in England. I hope to wear both
on alternative days to work.
Any good speaker of English should not have any problem with the stretch above.
There are some elements in the four sentences that signal meaning and unity.

The word they refers back to the another group of words two pairs of shoes
One refers implicitly to a pair of the shoes
The other refers the other pair of shoes
The word both refers to the two pairs of shoes.

It is not difficult to identify all these references in the text. That is why we can easily
say there is texture because those items signify that we have a text before us and not
just a collection of unconnected sentences. Textuality therefore is those things that
make a collection of sentences to qualify as a text rather than just a collection of
sentences. Shortly, we shall look in details into the technicalities involved texture.

66

3.3 Sentence Connection

Sentence connection is a term used to describe how sentences are connected in larger
texts and the resources used to signal such connection. Every collection of sentences
cannot be seen as being connected unless they possess some elements that signal their
connection. Sometimes the term is referred to as inter-sentence connection to
differentiate it from intra sentence connection the way words in a sentence are
connected as opposed to the way sentences in a text are connected. The whole of this
Unit and two others that will follow are all about sentence connection
3.4 Self-assessment Exercises
Select a short story and discuss how the text is connected.
3.5 Cohesion and Coherence
Cohesion is a term used to describe the relation of meanings that exist within a text.
According to Halliday and Hasan (1976: 4), cohesion occurs where the interpretation
of some element in the discourse is dependent on that of another. They went further
define cohesion as:
A set of possibilities that exists in the language for making text hang together:
The potential that the speaker or the writer has at his disposal Thus, cohesion
as a process always involves one item pointing to another; whereas, the significant
property of the cohesive relation is the fact that one item provides the source
for the interpretation of another. (P.19)

This happens in the sense that the occurrence of one element presupposes the other.
That is that element cannot be effectively decoded without recourse to the other
element. For instance, in the text we looked at earlier in Section 11.4, the words they,
one, the other, both are elements that one cannot effectively interpret without recourse
to the text that has gone before them. Cohesion in the text is expressed through the ties
of reference. Items referring to others are used to signal cohesion in a text. The
interpretation of these words cannot just stop by looking at them, but by looking
beyond them to other words in the text. This may not be the case with some other
words in the text, such as shoes, black, days, and so forth whose meanings are
completely interpreted by just looking at them. Cohesion is signaled both by
grammatical and lexical items in a text.
Coherence works together with cohesion. Coherence refers to the continuity of ideas in
a text and the relations between them. When sentences, ideas, and details fit together
clearly, readers can follow along easily, and the writing is coherent, ie, the ideas tie
together smoothly and clearly. A text is coherent when the ideas are seen to hang
together and present the text as a united whole. Coherence goes beyond just the
connection of the sentences, but that of the whole idea. The two terms, cohesion and
coherence are the two primary ways of signaling textuality. Some ways of signaling

67

cohesion in a text are through the use of pro-forms that indicate co-reference, definite
articles, ellipsis, repetition, connectives or conjunctions, substitution and so forth. In the
next two units we shall examine these.

4.0 Conclusion
A collection of sentences that are well connected are said to be cohesive and coherent.
Textuality is a property of such collection because it is what shows that what we have is
not just a random collection of sentences, but a well-connected piece. Cohesion and
coherence are the two technical terms used to describe the connectedness of sentences
and ideas in a text. Cohesion is signaled by the use of certain items that cannot be
decoded without recourse to what had gone before them.
5.0

Summary

In this Unit, we examined text and textuality. We looked at the concepts text and
textuality and how one relates to the other. We saw that textuality is what makes a
text to be qualified to be describes as one and it is signaled by the use of items within
the text. We looked particularly at cohesion and coherence and how these two essential
qualities determines textuality.
6.0 Tutor-marked Assignment
(i) Explain the terms Cohesion and Coherence.
(ii) Use the text in the first page of Elechi Amadis The Concubine to explain the
concepts of cohesion and coherence.

7.0 Reference/Further Reading

Halliday, M.A.K. and Hasan, R. (1976) Cohesion in English. London: Longman.
de Beaugrande, R. and Dressler, W. (1981) Introduction to Text Linguistics. London:
Longman

68

Unit 2: Grammatical Cohesion

Contents
1.0 Introduction
2.0 Unit Objectives
3.0 Main Content
3.1 What is grammatical Cohesion
3.2 Reference
3.2.1. Personal Reference
3.2.2. Demonstrative Reference
3.2.3. Comparative Reference
3.3 Substitution
3.4 Ellipsis
3.5 Identification
Self-assessment Exercises
4.0 Conjunction
4.0.1. Additive Conjunction
4.0.2. Adversative Conjunction
4.0-3. Temporal Conjunction
5.0. Tutor-marked Assignment
6.0. Conclusion
7.0. Summary
8.0. References/Further Reading
1.0

Introduction

This Unit is a follow up to the previous unit, which was its introduction. In this Unit,
we shall be looking at in greater details at cohesion at the grammatical level and how it
is signaled in texts. We shall examine the devices used for grammatical cohesion, such
as Reference, Ellipsis, Substitution, Identification, and Conjunction.
2.0

Unit Objectives

At the end of this Unit, you should be able to do the following:

define each of the grammatical cohesive devices to be treated

analyze a text and bring out the elements that signal grammatical cohesion

69

differentiate between substitution, ellipsis and identification as grammatical

cohesive devices

3.0 MAIN CONTENT

3.1

What is Grammatical Cohesion

Grammatical cohesion is a means of creating links between sentences in a text through

the use of the grammatical resources of the language, ie, items that are grammatical in
nature, as opposed to the ones that are lexical in nature, such grammatical resources
include: Reference, Substitution, Identification, Conjunction, and Ellipsis.
3.2

Reference

Reference is a grammatical device commonly used for cohesion in texts. A reference

item is an item that cannot be interpreted semantically in its own rights. It has to be
interpreted by looking at other elements that have been used before it or the ones that
will be used after it. Reference is typically signified through the use of pronouns, such
as personal pronouns (he, she, it, they, them, we, etc) and comparative pronouns (this,
that, these, etc). Reference is typically signified through phoric relations. Reference can
generally be divided into two different types:
Endophoric (Textual) Reference
Exophoric (Situational/Contextual) Reference
Endophoric Reference is also known as Textual Reference. It is a kind of reference that
is within the text. For endophoric reference, we can find the referent (what it refers to)
within the text. Such a referent can either be anaphoric or cataphoric.
An anaphoric reference is a reference whose referent precedes it, ie, the reference is to
the preceding text. This kind of reference is the most common in any form of text. For
example
3.1.

The man came yesterday, but he did not meet me.

In the text above, the pronoun he is anaphoric in nature because it refers back to another
item in the text the man. Pronouns are typically anaphoric in English. However,
sometimes, they could be cataphoric, when the referent precedes the reference, ie the
item that refers comes before what it refers to, eg:
3.2.

He walked into the room looking haggard. The man stood by the door to
my living room and I was wondering who he was. His look was
expressionless, so I kept looking at him. I later beckoned to him to come
in. It took me some time to recognize Mr. Adams. But much later, I was
able to identify some of his old features that I used to know when we
were at the Teachers College. I quickly embraced him. Sit down Mr.

70

Adams, I am sorry, I did not quickly recognize you, I said. He sat

down and we started talking.
The first sentence in the text starts with a third person personal pronoun he, and
continues using pronouns to refer to somebody not identified until the fifth sentence
and seventh clause. By the end of the text we can see clearly that the pronoun refers to
Mr. Adams, who was an old classmate of the writer at Teachers College. This is a
cataphoric reference. Cataphoric references are sometimes employed for literary effects
to create suspense in the mind of the reader as you can observe in the text. If you will
notice, you will realize that anaphoric references are also used to refer to the same
person in sentences six, seven and the last sentence.
We also have Exophoric Reference, which is a reference to the context of situation and
not any element within the text. An example of Exophoric Reference is produced
below.
3.3. Will you come here and let me have that.
In the text above, the words her and that are exophoric items. We can only get their
meanings by looking at the context in which they are produced. For instance, here will
refer to somewhere close to the speaker and that will refer to something with the
addressee.
Halliday and Hasan (1976) recognized three types of reference: Personal Reference,
Demonstrative reference and Comparative Reference. Each of these are discussed
below
3.2.1 Personal Reference:
This is defined by its function in the speech situation
3.4.

The girls just returned from the party. They are all very tired.

3.5.

My father is a consultant to many oil companies in Nigeria. He will be

returning from Denmark where he went to represent one of his clients.

3.6.

Bola just came back from the youth camp. I saw her yesterday.

The Personal References are: they in 3.4; he and his in 3.5; I and her in 3.6.
3.2.2 Demonstrative Reference
This is reference by means of location. The writer or speaker locates this kind of
reference along a scale of proximity defined in terms of selective participation and
circumstances that define the textual occasion (Halliday and Hasan, 1976: 37).
Examples are:

71

3.7.Leave the book on the table and come here

3.8. Please bring the red apples. Those are my favourite.
3.9.He said something just before we left his office. That I cant remember.
The Demonstrative References are: her in 3.7; those in 3.8 and that in 3.9.

3.2.3 Comparative Reference

This is a form of indirect reference that is established by means of identity. Examples
are:
3.10 I love those oranges. Can I have more.
3.11. The little cats are very playful. But one is not as playful as others.
3.12.You have taken enough apples. Other people will also need some.
The Comparative References are: more in 3.10; one and others in 3.11; some in 3.12.
Halliday and Hasan emphasize the uniqueness of reference by pointing out that:
What distinguishes reference from other types of cohesion is that it
is overwhelmingly nominal in character. With the exception of
demonstratives and some comparative adverbs, all reference items
are found within the nominal group. (p. 43)
3.3 Substitution
Substitution simply refers to the replacement of one item by another in a text that has
the same meaning. Initially, Substitution and Reference may appear to be similar but
they are not. Reference is a relation between meanings. For instance, the reference
items he, she, they are related to some nouns in terms of the meaning connections they
have. The relationship between these reference items and their referents lies in the
semantic identity between the reference and the referent. Substitution however is a
relation in wording, between linguistic items such as words and phrases. A substitute is
a sort of counter used in place of repetition of a particular item. Examples of substitute
are given below:
3.13 My notes are not complete. I need to get an up to date one.
3.14. You dont seem to like bread, but I do
3.15. Many people think reducing your age gives you the advantage of more time in the
civil service. But I dont think so

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In 3.13 3.15, we have words that are used as substitute for others one in 3.13; do in
3.14, and so in 3.15. These substitutes represent the three types of substitute
recognized in Halliday and Hasan (1976) Nominal, Verbal and Clausal Substitution
respectively. Nominal substitution refers to the use of a nominal substitute to replace a
nominal item. Verbal substitution is the use of a verbal substitute, typically do to
replace a verbal item and clausal substitution is the use of a substitute to replace an
entire clause. Other items used as substitute are cardinal numerals, as in the text below.
3.16.There are seven oranges in the bowl. Can I have two?
Here the word two is a cardinal numeral used as a substitute for orange.
3.4 Ellipsis
Ellipsis is the omission of a lexical item, which is usually easily recoverable form the
linguistic context of the text. Halliday and Hasan define ellipsis as substitution by
zero (p. 89). This means Ellipsis a kind of Substitution. Unlike in Substitution, where
something is used to replace an item, in Ellipsis, nothing is used to replace the item, yet
the reader or hearer is able to identify the zero element. In Ellipsis, something is not
said, yet it is understood. In Ellipsis, there is a structural slot with missing information,
which is not misunderstood in spite of the missing information. It is important to note
that by Ellipsis, we are not referring to every instance in which something is not said. If
this were to be so then that would apply to every sentence ever spoken or written. We
are referring here to only instances of sentences, clauses, etc, whose construction leaves
us to presuppose some missing items.
Just like Substitution, there are three types of Ellipsis: Nominal, Verbal and Clausal. In
Nominal Substitution, there is an ellipsis within the nominal group, eg:
3.16.

He came in quickly had his bath and rushed out.

In the text above, the pronoun he is conspicuously missing, but we are still able to
understand that it is the same person who came in quickly, who had his bath and rushed
out. We do not have to keep repeating the pronoun he to communicate meaning in the
text.
Verbal Ellipsis is ellipsis within the verbal group, eg,
3.17.

He may come or may not

3.18.

Some were sweeping and others mopping the floor.

In 3.17 and 3.18, we can see two different types of Verbal Ellipsis. In 3.17, the ellipsis
affected the lexical verb come, hence it can be tagged lexical verb ellipsis. In 3.18, the

73

ellipsis affected the operator, which is an auxiliary verb were. This may be regarded as
operator or auxiliary ellipsis.
There is also clausal ellipsis, ie: the omission of a whole clause or at least a substantial
portion of the clause. This is very common in conversation, where there are enough
contextual clues to help in the comprehension of meaning, eg,
3.19. A:
B:

What are you doing Cynthia?

Reading.

3.20. A:
B:

Will you go home now?

Yes.

In 3.19, a substantial part of the clause is omitted, yet the meaning is not lost. In 3.20,
the whole clause is omitted. The word yes has rendered redundant any other thing B
may want to say.
3.5.

Identification

Identification is the use of determiners to point out that their noun phrase is coreferential with some earlier item, usually a noun or noun phrase (Aremo, 2004: 629).
Identification is different from Reference, because reference makes use of pro-forms,
while Identification, as the name goes, identifies a nominal item/group through the use
of determines and a nominal item. Determiners used include the definite article the and
demonstrative adjectives, such as this, that, those, etc. Examples of texts with
Identification are given below.
3.21.A man came to my office yesterday. The man was sent by my uncle.
3.22.I have heard a lot of terrible stories about kidnapping in Lagos. Those
stories made me afraid whenever I visit the city.
3.23.She is married to a well-respected man in the country. That man is
generous and humble.
3.24.When he came yesterday he asked me where he could get a young girl to
play with. The question keeps bothering me because I do not consider him
that irresponsible.
In the three texts above, the nominal groups the man, those stories, that man and the
question are elements signifying identification, because they identify the nominal
groups in the clauses that precede the ones in which they occur. Sometimes, the
identifying element may be more complex than just a determiner and a noun. It may
include some adjectives, as in the example below:

74

3.25.You walked out on me yesterday because I called you to order at the

meeting.
Your irresponsible behaviour may get you sacked if you dont exercise
some caution.
The expression your irresponsible behaviour is an identification of what the addresses
did to the speaker the previous day. The word irresponsible is used to qualify the
addressees behaviour.
Self-assessment Exercises
Using your own adequate and copious examples, explain the differences between
Reference, Substitution and Identification
4.0 Conjunction
Conjunction is an explicit marker of meaning connection between two clauses. Though
the term is used generally to include any linker or connector, in this Unit, we are using
it in the sense of items used to link clauses and sentences together. According to
Halliday and Hasan (1976), conjunctive elements are not cohesive in themselves but by
virtue of their specific meanings; they are not primarily devices for reaching out into
the preceding (or following) text, but they express certain meanings, which presuppose
the presence of other components in the discourse (p. 226). There are several
conjunctive items for signaling meaning in sentence connection.
Halliday and Hasan (1976) identify four categories of conjunctive relations. They are
Additive, Adversative, Causal and Temporal. We shall discuss each of them below.

4.0.1 Additive Conjunction

This is a conjunction that introduces an addition to the erstwhile clause. The most
prominent Additive Conjunction is and. Other Additive Conjunctions are yet, so,
further, moreover, etc. Examples of texts with Additive Conjunction are:
3.26.He drove 800 kilometres, and he was very tired after his arrival
3.27.The thieves were caught, yet they denied being thieves.
3.28.I was so tired last night, so, I could not visit Gbade as promised
3.29.Bisola does not need the scholarship. Moreover, she is got full sponsorship
for her PhD.

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4.0.2 Adversative Conjunction

This signals a relationship contrary to expectation. The proposition expressed in the
second clause is contrary to what is stated in the preceding clause. Adversative
Conjunctions are signaled by words such as; but, however, instead, rather, etc, as can
be seen in the following example:
3.30.He took the money, but he denied it.
3.31.The bus broke down somewhere very lonely. However, we miraculously
found a mechanic to fix it before we continued with the journey.
3.32.You were planning to go to Lagos before. Instead, please go to Abuja as I
would need something urgent from our client there.
4.0.3 Causal Conjunction
Causal relation expresses that something caused another to happen. It signifies, result,
purpose or reason for the erstwhile proposition. It is signaled by words such as: so,
hence, therefore, consequently, etc. Examples are seen in the following texts:
3.33.He lost his money, so he could not travel again.
3.34.She got late to school. Consequently, he was punished.
3.35.The Lord is my Shepherd, therefore, I shall not want

4.0.4 Temporal Conjunction

Temporal Conjunction is a relation between two successive sentences in sequence of
time. This could be sequential (then, next), simultaneous (simultaneously, at the same
time), preceding (earlier, previously), immediate (at once, immediately), durative
(meanwhile). Examples:
12.36 I found the money on the grass. Then I reported to the police.
12.37 My father died in June last year. Earlier he had been in and out of the
hospital.
12.38 He got the news of his shortlisting for the interview. Immediately, he
started preparing for it.
12.39 I was busy planning for my wedding. Meanwhile, my mother-in-law was
busy arranging for how my fianc would travel to go and meet a boy she
would prefer her to marry.

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5.0 Tutor-marked Assignment

Select a Nigerian newspaper editorial and discuss the different kinds of conjunction
used to achieve cohesion in the editorial.

6.0 Conclusion
Grammatical cohesion is one of aspects of cohesion important for signaling text
connectedness. It includes the use of Reference items,, such as pro-forms that serve the
purpose of coreferentiality. It also includes the use of substitution, replacing a word
with another, and ellipsis. Ellipsis is particularly interesting because it is a kind of
substitution in which there is no explicit element. Identification is like Reference in the
sense that a combination of determiner and noun refers to a nominal item/group.
Conjunction is also the use of explicit conjunctive items to signal meaning relations
between clauses that are related.
It is important to be able to identify these devices discussed in any text and explain how
they signal the connectedness of the text. It is also important to identify how Reference,
Substitution and Identification differ from one another.
7.0 Summary
In this Unit, we have examined the grammatical cohesive devices used in English to
signal text connection. We examined five cohesive devices, namely: Reference,
Substitution, Ellipsis, Identification, and Conjunction. We also gave adequate examples
to illustrate these different categories and sub-categories of grammatical cohesive
devices. We expect that you will be able to produce your own examples and identify
instances of these devices when you come across them in any written or spoken text.
8.0 References/Further Reading
Halliday, M.A.K. and Hasan , R. (1976) Cohesion in English. London: Longman.
Aremo, B. (2004) An Introduction to English Sentences I and II. Ibadan: Scribo
Publishers.
Adedeji, E. (2005) grammatrical Ties in English Discourse. In Perspectives on
Language and Literature. Ile-Ife: Obafemi Awolowo University Press. (157-166).

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Unit 3: Lexical Cohesion

Contents
1.0 Introduction
2.0 Unit Objectives
3.0 Main Content
3.1 What is Lexical Cohesion?
3.2 Reiteration
3.3 Synonymy
3.4 Antonymy
3.5 Hyponymy
Self-assessment Exercises
3.2 Meronymy
3.3 Collocation
4.0 Conclusion
5.0 Summary
6.0 Tutor-marked Assignment
7.0 References/Further Reading

1.0 Introduction
This Unit is a continuation of what we started in Unit 11. In Unit 1, we started looking
at the idea of a text and the properties of a text. You learnt about the textuality, which is
what makes a text not just a random collection of sentences, but a collection of related
ideas and, which has meaning as a whole. The two most important properties of a text
we examined are cohesion and coherence.
In Unit 12, we looked at the five grammatical cohesive devices. In this Unit, we shall
be looking at the lexical cohesive devices, which are six in number.
2.0

Unit Objectives

Since this Unit is all about lexical devices used for achieving cohesion, by the end of it,
you should be able to do the following:

explain clearly what is meant by the term lexical cohesion

make a clear distinction between grammatical and lexical cohesion
identify any instance of lexical cohesion in a written or spoke text
analyze a text to bring out and explain the lexical cohesive devices
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3.0
3.1

Main Content
What is Lexical Cohesion?

Lexical cohesion is the use of lexical items to connect and unify a text. The connection
of a text through the use of lexical items is sometimes referred to as a lexical chain. A
lexical chain is a sequence of related words in the text, spanning short (adjacent words
or sentences) or long distances (entire text). A chain is independent of the grammatical
structure of the text and in effect it is a list of words that captures a portion of the
cohesive structure of the text. A lexical chain can provide a context for the resolution of
an ambiguous term and enable identification of the concept that the term represents.
Lexical cohesion involves the selection of a lexical item that is in some way related to
one occurring previously. It is established through the structure of the lexis or
vocabulary. Lexical cohesion or chain may be achieved by repetition of the same
lexical item or reiteration. It could also be achieved through the use of lexical items that
are similar or nearly similar in meaning. Other ways of achieving cohesion through the
selection of lexical item are hyponymy (use of general and specific items), meronymy
(part-whole relationship), and collocation (habitual lexical co-occurrence). We shall be
discussing each of the lexical devices, one after the other in the following sections of
the Unit.
3.2

Reiteration

Another word for reiteration is repetition. Reiteration is the clearest way to show that
two lexical items are related. The whole idea is that the writer or speaker keeps
repeating a particular word each time he needs to make reference to it in a text.
Sometimes Repetition can be boring to the reader and the listener, therefore some
scholars do not see it as a very effective means of signaling lexical connectedness.
Examples of texts with lexical reiteration are:
13.1. Kunle is my friend. Kunle and I attended the same primary and
secondary school. Kunle was the best student in my set in the secondary
school.
13.2. Man is a social animal. The biblical account spells it out that man was
created to have dominion over all other animals. Man in the 20th
century has really maintained dominion over the world. One significant
things that has happened to man in the century is the invention of
computer.
From the two text produced above, we can see clearly instances of repetition. In 13.1,
Kunle is repeated in the three sentences in the text. Likewise in 13.2, man keeps
recurring in each of the sentences. These are clear instances of use of reiteration or
repetition to achieve cohesion.

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3.3

Synonymy

We mentioned earlier that Repetition sometimes can make a text boring. As a result,
sometimes, rather than repeating the same word, a writer/reader may vary his/her use
by selecting a synonymous item to replace the one being referred to. Synonymy as a
lexical device is a device that employs the use of words that have similar meaning
interchangeably in a written or spoken text. It is also referred to as Equivalence
Relation. Sometimes, writers or speakers create synonymy rings (a list of synonyms or
near synonyms that are used interchangeably. For example, a writer may use any of the
following terms interchangeably:
speech disorder, speech defect, defective speech, speech problem, disorder of
speech, etc.
Mundane, earthly, secular, temporal, worldly, etc.
Energy, drive, strength, vigour, stamina, zeal, power, etc.
Flimsy, shallow, superficial, weak, trivial, etc.
Ancient, primitive, archaic, obsolete, pristine, antiquated, old, etc.
Now, let us look at instances in which synonymy is used to achieve lexical cohesion in
texts, using some of the synonyms we have identified above.
13.3. When asked why he came late, he gave a flimsy reason. His weak
reason did not in any way absolve him from punishment.
13.4. Christianity discourages adherents from engaging in worldly pleasures,
as such earthly practices will perish with the world. They are temporal.
13.5.

His ideas are always archaic. I guess he got such obsolete ideas from
his grandfather, who brought him up. He grew up in the village, where
primitive ideas are still celebrated in the name of culture and
tradition.

13.6. My children are always full of energy. Sometimes I wonder where they
get the strength from. They play with so much vigour during the day
that when they sleep, they sleep like log of wood.
3.4

Antonymy

Antonymy as a lexical device is the use of relationship of oppositeness to signal

cohesion in a text. Examples of antonyms are listed below.
quick, fast and slow, sluggish

80

big, large, enormous, mighty and small, little, tiny, petit

happy, glad, joyful and sad, dejected, unhappy
rich, affluent, wealthy and poor, indigent,
strange and familiar
Now, let us construct texts that portray the use of antonymy as lexical device for
connection.
Note: That no two words are absolutely synonymous in every context of use, likewise,
no two words are absolutely antonymous.
13.7.

Goliath was a mighty man. Despite that David was a little shepherd boy, he
was not intimidated by Goliaths enormous size.

13.8. The man was so unhappy when he got sentenced to six months imprisonment.
However, a few weeks later, when he was set free he was so joyful.
13.9. In Lagos, the places where you find the affluent are Ikoyi, Victoria Island,
Victoria Garden City, Ikeja GRA, and so forth. The indigent are found in parts
of Ajegunle, Mushin, and Agege
13.10. The twins have different traits. Taiwo is fast, though oftentimes shoddy in doing
things. However, Kehinde is sluggish, but always comes out perfect in most of
the things he does.
3.5

Hyponymy

Hyponymy is a relationship of inclusion. In Hyponymy, the meaning of a lexical item is

includes in the meaning of another one. Hyponymy operates in such a way that there is
an item regarded as the general item, also technically called the superordinate, which
subsumes other words, which are the hyponyms. Readers/listeners are able to connect
hyponyms and superordinates in texts, even when there is no proximity in their
occurrence within the text.. Examples of some English words that have relationship of
hyponymy are listed below.

vegetable lettuce, okra, cabbage, water leaf, beans, potato, carrot

insect grasshopper, cockroach, termite, praying mantis
computer laptop, desktop, palmtop, digital wrist watch, mobile phone
cat pussy cat, tiger, puma, leopard, lion, cheetah

81

clothes shirt, trousers, blouse, skirt, coat, cardigan,

flower hibiscus, rose, daffodil, rose periwinkle, lilly
Now, let us use some of these hyponyms in text to signal cohesion.
13.11. My mother loves flowers. Her favourite ones are rose and lilly.
13.12. A lion is such a fearful animal. Nobody dares to stand without shaking
at the first sight of the big cat.
13.13

Most of my clothes are now dirty. I hardly get a clean shirt to wear to
work. I still manage the trousers because of their dark colours. The cold
weather has really helped me, as I often put on cardigans. They help to
cover my dirty shirts.

13.14

Computers are indispensable for every average person. One needs a

desktop for the home and possibly the office. You also need a laptop to
help you work anywhere you find yourself. And of course, our mobile
phones are needed for communication without boundary.

Self-assessment Exercises
Identify and discuss the lexical cohesive devices used in Scene One of The Trials of
Brother Jero by Wole Soyinka.
3.6

Meronymy

Meronymy is the technical name coined by Raquiya Hasan to refer to a Part-whole

relationship. In this kind of relationship, a lexical item represents the part and the other
or others represent the whole. Just like Hyponymy, it is a relationship of inclusion.
However, while Hyponymy involves general items and specific ones, Meronymy
involves whole items and part ones. Below are some examples of Part- whole
relationship.
Car dashboard, fender, rear light, bonnet, boot, tyre, radiator, throttle
Computer monitor, CPU, keyboard, mouse,
House living room, bedroom, kitchen, bathroom, toilet, pantry, balcony
Tree trunk, leaves, branch, stem
Book preface, foreword, chapter, index, cover, contents

82

Examples of lexical cohesion, using meronymy in texts:

13.15. My driver took the car out yesterday. After his return, I discovered that
the bumper had been dented and the mirror at the passengers side had
cracked.
13.16. When I checked the computer supplied by the company yesterday, I
discovered that the mouse was missing. The keyboard was also
defective, because it is very stiff. However, the monitor met our
specification.
13.17. The house is quite a big one. Each of the bedrooms has its toilet and
bathroom. The living room is massive. I also love the design because of
the courtyard.
13.18. Our new book came out yesterday. We were commended for the
contents, which covers a wide range of issues in the discipline of
Discourse Analysis. A renowned professor of English at the University
of Lagos wrote the foreword. It has all together twenty chapters.

3.7

Collocation

Some words frequently occur together than others. Most times, when you mention a
particular lexical item, another one usually associated with it comes to the mind of your
listener. This shows that words keep company of one another. This habitual cooccurrence of words is generally referred to as Collocation. According to J.R. Firth,
who first talked about collocation, you know a word by the company it keeps.
Collocation is one of the most important lexical devices used for cohesion. Any good
text can be said to reflect the writers/speakers choice of the right kinds of words
words that collocate. Only such combinations can form a unified text. The following
pair of words are said to collocate in English:
shoulder shrug
car accident
bed sleep
sports stadium
dark night

pharmacy drug
class teacher
wardrobe clothes
king palace
fan air

hospital doctor
fish swim
zoo animal
book read
key door

One can go beyond the pairs we have above to provide a range of words that a
particular word will naturally co-occur with in English. Find the examples below.
Library read, silent, borrow, catalogue, book, shelves,
Car drive, road, engine, garage, mechanic, highway, seat belt, petrol,

83

Hospital patient, doctor, ward, out-patient, theatre, nurse, casualty,

diagnose
Computer program, word-process, Internet, document, Microsoft,
flash drive, CD, type
Newspaper headlines, editor, advert, editorial, news, report, beat,
proof-read, vendor
Language tongue, speak, write, conversation, communication linguist,

4.0

Conclusion

This unit is the conclusion of what we started in Unit 11. Apart from the grammatical
devices used for achieving cohesion in texts, which we discussed in Unit 12, we
identified also the lexical devices in this Unit. Six lexical devices were discussed in this
Unit Reiteration, Synonymy, Antonymy, Hyponymy, Meronymy, and Collocation.
Any good text is made up of a carefully chosen series of lexical items that are related in
any of the ways we have identified. It is the relatedness of the items in meaning that
makes a text to be cohesive and coherent.

5.0

Summary

Cohesion is a very important attribute of any well-constructed text. Cohesion is

achieved either through the use of any of the grammatical or lexical devices we have
discussed in the unit. It is important that you are able to identify in any text written or
spoken, any of the following devices we have discussed and explain how you have
come to recognize the link.
6.0

Tutor-marked Assignment

(i) Explain the difference between Meronymy and Hyponymy.

(ii) Select a feature article in a newspaper and discuss the lexical cohesion in the feature
article.
7.0 References/Further Reading
Halliday, M.A.K. and Hasan , R. (1976) Cohesion in English. London: Longman.

84

MODULE FIVE: APPROACHES TO DISCOURSE ANALYSIS III

Unit 1: Pragmatics: An Introduction
Unit 2: Speech Acts
Unit 3: Grices Cooperative Principles
Unit 4: Politeness Principles
Unit 1: Pragmatics: An Introduction
Contents
1.0 Introduction
2.0 Unit Objective
3.0 Main Content
3.1 What is pragmatics?
3.2 Some Basic Pragmatic Principles
3.2.1 Presupposition
3.2.2 Entailment
3.2.3 Implicature
3.2.4 Deixis
3.3 Utterance and Context
3.4 Self-assessed Exercises
4.0 Conclusion
5.0 Summary
6.0 Tutor-marked Assignment
7.0 References/Further Reading
1.0

Introduction

The use of language in a social situation is a major concern of linguists in contemporary

times. This is a departure from the earlier practice that concentrated so much the forms
of language and neglects the functions the language performs in the social context in
which it is used. Our concern in this Unit will be on the functions that language
performs when it is used. A discipline emerged in the 1970s to adequately account for
this, and it is generally referred to as Pragmatics. Pragmatics looks at the aspect of
meaning and language use that are dependent on the speaker and the addressee. It
focuses on the context of the utterance, and the generally observed principles language
users obey to be able to cooperate in any speech situation. The major focus of

85

Pragmatics is to examine how language functions in the social situations in which it is

used.
2.0

Unit Objective

At the end of this Unit, you should be able to do the following:

explain clearly what Pragmatics is

identify the basic principles of Pragmatics in any natural conversation
show how utterances can be explained with reference to the context in
which they are produced

3.0

MAIN CONTENT

3.1

What is pragmatics?

Pragmatics is a sub-field of Linguistics, which, as mentioned earlier emerged in the

1970s. The major proponents were philosophers, who took the position that when we
make utterances, such utterances are used to perform certain acts (See Austin, 1962 and
Searle, 1969). They also believe that since our utterances are situated in a particular
context, such context affect what we produce. We can only produce utterances that
obey the principles that guide speech behaviour in the context of our speech. As we will
soon see in this module, there are principles that guide our cooperation with other users
of language when we use language. Such principles help us to produce relevant
utterance to the situation. We can only be understood if our utterances are relevant to
the situation.
Pragmatics distinguishes two intents or meanings in each utterance or communicative
act of verbal communication. One is the informative intent or the sentence meaning,
and the other the communicative intent or speaker meaning (Leech, 1983; Sperber
and Wilson, 1986). Speakers of any language possess what is called pragmatic
competence, ie, his/her knowledge of the social status of the speakers involved in an
utterance, knowledge of the social distance between the speakers, knowledge of the
culture, such as politeness, knowledge of how one can infer from an utterance the
intended meaning of the speaker as opposed to the surface form produced, and so forth.
Pragmatics is the study of how contextual factors interact with linguistic meaning in the
interpretation of utterances.
As we mentioned earlier, the whole idea of Pragmatics has philosophical origin. One of
the earliest references to Pragmatics in Philosophy can be found in the work of Charles
Morris (1938), who defined it as the study of the relations between signs and their
interpreters; however, it was the philosopher Paul Grices William James lectures at
Harvard in 1967 that led to the real development of the field. Grice introduced the
notion of implicature. According to Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, an
implicature is something meant, implied, or suggested distinct from what is said.
Implicatures can be part of sentence meaning or dependent on conversational context,

86

and can be conventional or unconventional. Conversational implicatures have become

one of the principal subjects of pragmatics. We will discuss more on this in the sections
that follow.

3.2 Some Basic Pragmatic Principles

In this section, we shall be looking at some basic concepts in Pragmatics. These
concepts are so central to Pragmatics that they represent the foundations for the study
of Pragmatics. They are the basic issues that underlie the study of Pragmatics. They
include concepts like utterance, context, entailment, implicature, deixis and
presupposition. They are discussed in the sub-sections below.
3.2.1 Utterance and Context
An utterance is a unit of speech generally but not always bounded by breaths and
pauses. It may also be described as a complete unit of talk, sometimes bounded by the
speakers silence. Every utterance is made within some specific context. By context, we
do not just refer to the physical context, but to everything that surrounds the making of
the utterance. These include what is going on in the place where the utterance is made,
the knowledge of the speaker and the addressee of the culture in which they are
operating (cultural context), knowledge of the expectations and discursive practices of
the people among whom the utterance is being made, especially as it relates to the
social roles and relationships (social context) Context also includes the knowledge of
the world of the speaker (epistemic context) and the utterances that precede and
follows the one under consideration (linguistic context). According to Taiwo (2007: 2),
studying an utterance without consideration for the context in which it is produced is
like studying the cardio-vascular system as a complete separate entity from any other
part of human or animal anatomy. Language creates contexts and contexts creates the
possibilities for interpretation and remove multiple ambiguities that utterances would
have had if they had occurred in isolation.
3.2.2

Entailment

Entailment is also known as logical implication. For most utterances we made to be

properly interpreted, we made need the knowledge of entailment, Entailments are
deductions and inferences we have about particular utterances that make us to interpret
them appropriately. For instance, two sentences are related in the sense that the truth of
one requires the truth of the other. For instance, utterance:
4.1.

The President was assassinated yesterday.

entails that:
4.2.

The President is dead

87

If 4.1.is false, then 4.2. will necessarily be false and vice versa. So, the addressee will
know that the fact that somebody was assassinated means that the person is dead.
3.2.3

Implicature

An implicature is something meant, implied, or suggested as distinct from what is said.

Implicatures can be part of sentence meaning or dependent on conversational context.
The term implicature, was coined by Paul Grice, one of the earliest scholars of
Pragmatics. An implicature is anything that is inferred from an utterance, but is not
necessarily a condition for the truth of the utterance. This is where implicature differs
from entailment. For an entailment, what is inferred must be a condition for the truth of
what is uttered. But in implicature, the truth of a statement only suggests that of the
other and does not necessarily require it.
Let us look at an utterance, such as this:
4.3:

Have you got some cash on you?

The conversational implicature is not found in the plain message before us. Rather, the
speaker possibly implies that he would want the addressee to lend him/her some money
because he/she does not have enough at the time of uttering the statement. Implicatures
are arrived at by looking at the following:

the usual linguistic meaning of what is said

the shared or general knowledge
the assumption that the speaker is obeying what Grice calls the cooperative
principle.

We shall look at what we mean by the cooperative principles in units that follow.

3.2.4

Deixis

Deixis simply means the use of reference items in utterances. Such reference items
depend greatly on the context of the utterance (the extralinguistic context). Words that
are considered deictic include I, you, now, here, that, there, etc. There are different
kinds of deixis:
Discourse Deixis: A discourse deictic refers to a portion of the discourse relative to the
speakers current location in the discourse. Example:
3.3 I hope you enjoyed that story.
14.5.

The vocal cord vibrates when some vowels are pronounced.

These are called voiced sounds

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Personal Deixis: Personal Deixis are used to refer to the participant roles of the
referent in a discourse, such as speaker and addressee. Personal deixis include first
person deixis (I, me, we, us, mine, myself, ourselves, etc), second person deixis (you,
your, yours, yourself, yourselves), third person deixis (he, she, they)
14.6.

Tola can come this evening. She must make sure she sees me
before leaving.

14.7.

Can you see that book with him? The book is mine.

Place Deixis: Place deixis is deictic reference to a location relative to the location of a
participant in the speech event, typically the speaker, eg: this, that, here, there.
14.8.

Please bring the box here. (the location of the speaker)

14.9.

Once I was blind, but now I see. This is my story.

Time Deixis: This is a deixis that refers to time relative to a temporal reference point. It
typically points to the moment of the utterance. Examples are now, then, tomorrow,
yesterday, etc. These are also called temporal adverbs.
14.10
In 1969, my uncle graduated from the university as a medical
doctor. I was
very young then.
14.11.

Please come to my office tomorrow.(determined by the time the

speaker uttered the statement)

Social Deixis: Social deixis refers to the social characteristics or distinctions between
the participants in a discourse. Examples are Your Highness, Mr. President, His
Excellency, His Royal Highness, our mentor, etc.

3.2.5

14.12.

Your excellency, we welcome you to this historic occasion.

14.13.

Today, we are honouring a man who has helped to shape our

destiny, our mentor, Prof. Promise Brown.

Presupposition

A presupposition is background belief relating to an utterance. A presupposition must

be mutually known or assumed by the speaker and the addressee for the utterance to be
considered appropriate in the context in which it is uttered. A presupposition is
generally based on implicit assumptions, which are arrived at through the process of
inference. Presupposition is a common daily occurrence in language use. It is the

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mechanism used implicitly to make assumption in day-to-day language. Let us look at

some English utterances and the possible presuppositions they have.
UTTERANCE
PRESUPPOSITION
Nobody in their right senses would talk
1. The utterance of someone is bad
that way
2. Anyone who disagrees in the speakers
opinion is not in his right senses
I want to tell you more about poultry
1. The addressee knows some things about
farming.
poultry farming
2. The speaker is more knowledgeable in
poultry farming than the addressee
I will arrange for some extra money for
1. Some money has already been arranged
your expenses
for the addressees expenses.
2. The money arranged was not sufficient.
3. The speaker has control over the money
being spent.
How close are you to Lagos?
1. The addressee is close to Lagos.
2. The addressee is on his way to Lagos.
Bola has lost her enthusiasm for the less
1. Bola used to have enthusiasm for the
privileged.
less-privileged.
2. Something made Bola to lose her
enthusiasm
I am making a lot of progress on the
1. The speaker has an ongoing project.
project. You need to come and see it.
2. The addressee knows what the project
is.
3. The progress the speaker is making is
beyond the ordinary one.

Self-assessed Exercises
(i)
(ii)

4.0

Select any of Obasanjos speeches when he was the president of the nation
and discuss the presuppositions in the speech.
Also discuss the use of deixis in the speech.

Conclusion

Utterances are made by language users with a lot of assumptions, yet communication
goes on smoothly, because there are some naturally designed means by which
utterances are understood. Through these means, people can understand even what is
not said by using contextual cues, relying on their shared knowledge with the
speaker(s) and their general world view. Pragmatics has made us to understand how we
arrive at meaning of utterances by relying on the context of such utterances.

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5.0

Summary

In this Unit, we have been able to look at an introductory aspect of Pragmatics.

Through our study in this unit, we have been able to lay the foundations for the other
concepts we shall be examining later in the module. One key concept in Pragmatics is
context. It underlies every other concepts that we may one to examine. It is the basis for
arriving at any presupposition, entailment, and implicature. It is also the basis for the
effective use of deixis in discourse.

6.0 Tutor-marked Assignment

(i)
(ii)

7.0

Discuss what you understand by the term Pragmatics.

Differentiate between, Implicature, Entailment and Presupposition using
adequate examples.

References/Further Reading

Austin, J. L. (1962) How to Do Things with Words, Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard

University Press.
Leech, G. N. (1983) Principles of Pragmatics. Longman.
Mey, J. (1993) Pragmatics. Balckwell.
Morris, C. W. (1938). Foundations of the Theory of Signs. Chicago: University Press
Searle, J. (1969). Speech Acts: An Essay in the Philosophy of Language. New York,
Cambridge University Press
Sperber, D. and Wilson, D. (1986): Relevance. Communication and cognition. Oxford:
Blackwell.
Taiwo, R. (2007) Tenor in Electronic Media Discourse in South Western Nigeria.
Nordic Journal of African Studies 16 (1), 75-89
Yule, G (1996) Pragmatics. Oxford University Press.

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Unit 2: Speech Acts Theory

Contents
1.0 Introduction
2.0. Objectives
3.0. Main Content
3.1.Speech Acts: An Introduction
3.2.Performative Verbs
3.3.Locutionary, Illocutionary and Perlocutionary Acts
3.4.Self-assessed Exercises
3.5.Felicity Conditions
3.6.Direct and Indirect Speech Acts
4.0. Conclusion
5.0. Summary
6.0. Tutor-marked Assignment
7.0. References/Further Reading
1.0. INTRODUCTION
The Speech Act Theory is one of the earliest theories proposed in Pragmatics. J.L.
Austin in his popular book How to do Things with Words observes that whenever we
make any utterance, we are performing an act. Such acts may include requesting,
questioning, commanding and so forth. In general sense, we can know the act
performed by a sentence when it is uttered. In this Unit, we shall be looking at how we
perform acts through our utterances. We shall also look at some types of speech act.
2.0. UNIT OBJECTIVES
At the end of this Unit, you should be able to do the following.

explain what we mean by speech act

identify performative verbs when you see them in an utterance
differentiate between direct and indirect speech act

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3.0

MAIN CONTENT

3.1

Speech Act

Every sentence we make is designed to perform certain functions. Such functions

include, just informing people about something, warning, ordering somebody or a
group of people to do something, questioning somebody about a fact, thanking
somebody for a gift or an act of kindness, and so forth. When we utter statements, we
expect our listeners to recognize and understand the functions such statements are
meant to perform. For instance, when we ask a question, we expect our addressee to
realize that we are requesting for information. If they failed to appreciate our intention,
then we can say they have misunderstood us. This is what is termed as speech act.
The theory of speech act therefore states that whenever we utter a statement, we are
attempting to accomplish something with words (see Austin, 1962 and Searle, 1969).
Below, we have a table indicating some utterances and their forms and their functions.
Utterance
Did you see him yesterday?
My son is a medical doctor
Shut the door please

Form
Interrogative
Declarative
Imperative

Function
Question
Statement
Command

Other examples of utterances that perform some speech act.

15.1. I pronounce you husband and wife (uttered by a pastor when joining a
couple together)
15.2. I hereby sentence you to ten years in jail (uttered by a judge in a court)
15.3. I promise to pay you by month end (uttered by a debtor to a creditor)
3.2 Performative Verbs
Performative verbs are verbs used to indicate that certain acts are meant to be
performed by the utterance. For instance each of utterances 15.1 15.3 above has a
performative verb pronounce (15.1); sentence (15.2), and promise (15.3). There are
several other verbs in English that can be considered as performative verbs. They
include the following:
Appoint
Thank
Warn
Congratulate
Announce
Guarantee
Request
Offer

I appoint you as the director of the institute.

I thank you for you kind gestures.
I warn you to desist from that act.
I congratulate you on call to the Bar.
We hereby announce the death of our grandfather.
I guarantee you that the product will last.
I hereby request for my transcript
I offer you the job on a monthly salary of N10,000

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Looking at the structural pattern of these utterances, you can see that the performative
verbs have a special place in the utterances fitting into the sentence frame like this
I (hereby) [verb] you [complement].
Such utterance we have above are also referred to as performative utterances.

3.3 Locutionary, Illocutionary and Perlocutionary Acts

Austin identifies three kinds of acts that are performed when a language is used. He
made a distinction between locutionary act, illocutionary acts and perlocutionary
acts. Locutionary acts are considered as acts of speaking acts involved in the
construction of speech. They include using particular words in conformity with the
particular rules of a language and with certain senses and references as determined by
the rules of the language from which they are drawn. (Sadock, 2006:54).
Illocutionary acts are acts done in speaking acts that are the apparent purpose for
using a performative utterance, such as promising, sentencing, guaranteeing, thanking,
and so forth.
Perlocutionary acts are the consequences or the by-product of speaking. They produce
some effect upon the thoughts, feelings and actions of the addressee and the speaker.
3.4 Self-assessed Exercises
(i)
(ii)

What is Speech Act?

Select a written short play and discuss the use of speech acts in it.

3.5 Felicity Conditions

Felicity conditions are the conditions that have to be fulfilled before an utterance can be
said to be successful. They are the conditions that have to be met before one can say
that a speaker has made a sincere statement. For instance, for A to request B to shut the
door, the following conditions must be met:
a.
b.
c.
d.

A must believe that B has the ability to shut the door.

A must have the desire that B should shut the door.
A must believe that B will shut the door, if requested.
A must have good reasons for B to shut the door.

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3.6. Direct and Indirect Speech Acts

A direct speech act is one whose proposition is clearly represented in the utterance and
understood by the addressee. For instance, the statement:
15.4.

Please put on the fan.

Is a direct speech act because it is clearly seen as a request that the addressee do
something put on the fan. Some speech acts are not this direct in their proposition,
yet the addressee will still through inference and implicature understand the intention of
the speaker. For example, the statement:
15.5.

Its hot in here.

May be an indirect counterpart of 15.4. The addressee will by inference understand that
being hot is uncomfortable. So the addressee will recognize the utterance as an indirect
speech act that is making a request of him to put on the fan. Even though the utterance
is a statement, its function is that of a command. It is also possible for the speaker to
accomplish his intention by using the utterance:
15.6.

Do we have to stay in this heat all day?

which is a question, but still achieving the same purpose of indirectly requesting the
addressee to put on the fan. The addressee would not have understood the speakers
intention if he/she had taken 15.4 as a mere statement of fact or 15.6 as a Polar or
Yes/No question.
4.0 Conclusion
Each time we make an utterance, we are using them to perform certain acts. Such acts
may be directly stated by the speaker or indirectly stated. Certain verbs are used to
explicitly signal that an utterance is meant to perform an act. They are referred to as
performative verbs, while the utterance in which they occur are called performative
utterance. For any utterance to be judged as sincere, it has to fulfill certain felicity
conditions. The meaning of utterances is not always directly reflected in their surface
forms. Some utterances have surface forms that differ from the intention of the speaker.
These are called indirect speech acts.
5.0 Summary
In this Unit, we looked at the theory of speech act as proposed by J.L. Austin and .R.
Searle. We examined performative verbs used in performative utterances, the types of
speech act, and the felicity conditions that have to be met before a speech act can be
successful. Lastly, we looked at direct and indirect speech acts. Indirect speech acts are
particularly considered as being important because their meaning is arrived at through
inference, since the surface form does not indicate the meaning.

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6.0 Tutor-marked Assignment

Record a casual conversation and discuss the speech acts used in it.
7.0 References/Further Reading
Austin, J. L. (1962) How to do things with words. Claredon press.
Searle, J. (1969) Speech Acts. Cambridge University Press.

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Unit 3: Grices Cooperative Principles

Contents
1.0 Introduction
2.0. Unit Objectives
3.0 Main Content
3.1 Cooperative Principles: General Formulation
3.2 Maxims of the Cooperative Principles
3.3 Maxim of Quantity
3.4 Maxim of Quality
3.5 Maxim of Relevance
3.6 Maxim of Manner
Self-assessed Exercises
4.0. Conversational Implicatures
5.0. Conclusion
6.0. Summary
7.0.Tutor-marked Assignment
8.0.References/Further Reading

1.0 Introduction
In this Unit, we shall be learning about the principle that H.P. Grice identified as what
we follow whenever we are engaged in an conversation. When we are engaged in any
conversation, there is a basic underlying assumption we make in the sense that we try to
cooperate with one another to construct meaningful conversation. This assumption is
known as Cooperative Principle. This assumption is what will be our concern in this
unit. Within the assumption, Grice identified four maxims that we try to observe. We
will also discuss these maxims.
2.0 Unit Objectives
At the end of this Unit, you should be able to do the following:

explain what is meant by Cooperative Principle

identify in any conversation the observation of any of the maxims of the
cooperative principle

3.0 Main Content

3.1 Cooperative Principle: General Formulation
Speakers try to contribute meaningful, productive utterance to further whatever
conversation they are involved in. Listeners also assume that their conversational
partners are doing the same. The summary of cooperative principle according to Grice
(1975) is:

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Make 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

Speech errors are often ignored in conversation as long as the meaning the speaker is
trying to get across is clear. Likewise, we often find that meaning in some statements
on the surface seem ridiculous and unrelated, eg, sarcasm, metaphors, hyperbolic
statements and so forth, because we assume that speakers who use them are trying to
get across some meaning. This is what the whole idea of cooperative principle is all
about.
3.2 Maxims of the Cooperative Principle
Grice came up with four general maxims that speakers and listeners obey in
conversations. The maxims are like a rule of thumb. They are not hard and fast rules,
but speakers try to observe them in most conversations. The observance of Cooperative
Principle allows for the possibility of implicatures. Implicatures as treated earlier are
meanings that are not explicitly conveyed in what is said, but they can still be arrived at
through inference
3.3 Maxim of Quantity

Make your contributions as informative as required.

Do not make your contribution more informative than is required

This is what language users do in conversations when they make sure that they go
straight to the point by providing only the necessary information. People who provide
too much detail than necessary in conversation end up discouraging other speakers
because they would have taken too much time saying what they would have said in a
short period. Most people will frown at such things in conversation. This shows that we
are always conscious of this maxim.
3.4 Maxim of Quality

Do not say what you believe to be false.

Do not say that for which you lack adequate evidence.

People who always provide false and unsubstantiated information in conversation are
not usually liked. This is why lying is not an acceptable speech behaviour in any human
culture. In any normal conversation, people try to provide truthful information to
maintain their integrity. Once a person is known to be a liar by people around him/her,
people will not always believe his/her utterances.

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3.5 Maxim of Relevance

Be relevant
Every utterance in any conversation is meaningful only in relation to other utterances
made earlier before it. Those who make statements that are not relevant to the
conversation are either seen as not following the conversation well enough to make
meaningful contributions or they are, in extreme cases, seen as people who need to
have their head examined. It is generally believed in most human cultures that it is
better to keep quiet and follow a conversation than to make irrelevant utterances.
3.6 Maxim of Manner

Avoid obscurity of expression

Avoid ambiguity
Be brief
Be orderly

The maxim of manner is one of the ways people collaborate to build an intelligible
conversation. Utterances must no be obscure, that is, as much as possible the meaning
should not be hidden to the extent that the addressee would not be able to decode it.
Likewise, ambiguous statements are always avoided. It could be frustrating listening to
people whose utterances are full of ambiguous expressions.
It is also important for our utterances to be brief and orderly. Brevity is one of the skills
we try to acquire whenever we converse with others. We will not always have all the
time to say all that we need to say. Since we know we have limited time to speak at any
time, we organize our speech in such an orderly manner that we are still able to capture
everything we need to say within the limited period available to us.
Self-assessed Exercises
Discuss Grices Cooperative Principle.
4.0 Conclusion
Whenever people are engaged in a conversation, they are engaged in a cooperative
venture. They have a sense of how long they should talk and the kind of things they
should say that will make their speech meaningful to their addressee. They also know
what is meaningful to say in any context and how they should say it. These are the
things H.P. Grice summarized under his Cooperative Principle. Cooperating in
conversation is done naturally as part of an average speakers competence.

9.0 Summary
In this Unit we have examined the Grices Cooperative principle. The principle
comprises of four maxims, which state how we cooperate whenever we are engaged in

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a conversation. For instance, we do not say more than we ought to say .We also ensure
that we say is informative. We try to say only what is true and we ensure the relevance
of our speech to the ongoing situation.
6.0 Tutor-marked Assignment
Using Grices Cooperative Principle, discuss the conversations in Scenes 1 and 2 of
The Trials of Brother Jero by Wole Soyinka.
7.0 References/Further Reading
Grice, H. P. (1975) Logic and Conversation In Cole, P. and Morgan, J.P. (Eds.)
Syntax and Semantics 3: Speech Acts. Academic Press.

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Unit 4: Politeness in Conversation

Contents
1.0 Introduction
2.0 Unit Objectives
3.0 Main Content
3.1 What is Politeness?
3.2 Face and Politeness
3.3 Politeness Strategies
3.4 Self-assessed Exercises
3.5 Politeness Principle
Self-assessed Exercises
4.0 Conclusion
5.0 Summary
6.0 Tutor-marked Assignment
7.0 References/Further Reading

1.0

Introduction

Politeness is one of the most important factors in language use. Users of every language
practice politeness in one form or the other. In our daily interactions, we have ways of
speaking to and addressing people that shows that we have some form of respect for
them. There are ways we speak to our friends and there are ways we speak to people we
are not familiar with. We are more polite in our use of language in informal settings
than in formal settings.
This Unit looks at the whole idea of politeness in conversations. The idea of politeness
in the study of Pragmatics is closely tied to the concept of face. Some scholars have
identified some politeness strategies and maxims generally used by speakers. We shall
be examining these and other issues connected with politeness in conversation and
writing.
2.0

Unit Objectives

By the end of this Unit, you should be able to do the following:

explain the whole concept of politeness in discourse

show how politeness and face relate

101

use the politeness principles identified to analyze a text for occurrences of

politeness or otherwise

3.0

Main Content

3.1

What is Politeness?

Politeness is a kind of disposition we have towards other people that makes us not to
want to hurt their feelings or do things that we know will make them feel unwanted.
When we speak to others, we try to be polite in the kinds of things we say to them by
carefully choosing our words. We are tactful and nice in what we say, even when we do
not sometimes mean it. We choose our words to fit the different occasions we
experience everyday. Even when we say things that are not too polite, especially when
they are not said deliberately, we try to apologize. We are quick to recognize it when
people are not polite in their speech because we have a sense of what it means to be
polite when we address other people. For instance, respect is a form of politeness. In
the Yoruba culture, greeting is considered as part of politeness, especially when we are
meeting people for the first time in a day or after a very long time, or even people we
have never met before. We are more polite with people we are meeting people for the
first time than we are with people we are familiar with. We are also more polite in
formal situations than in informal ones. We are more polite when we speak with people
older than us than we are with people who are our contemporaries or people who are
junior to us. It is important to note that what constitutes politeness differs from one
culture to another. For instance, it is impolite for a child to speak where adults are
speaking in the Yoruba culture unless such a child was permitted to do so. However, in
the English culture it may not be necessarily seen as an impolite act
3.2

Face and Politeness

The most relevant concept in politeness is face. Face refers to the respect an individual
has for himself or herself. According to Brown and Levinson ( 1986), speakers develop
politeness strategies to maintain their self esteem. Ones face is ones public self-image.
Every person has an emotional sense of self that they want every other person to
recognize. So when we are polite, we have shown awareness of another persons face.
If you say things that make people embarrassed or uncomfortable, or something that
threatens another persons self image, you are said to have employed a face
threatening act (FTAs). Politeness strategies are developed to deal with FTAs. For
instance, if one uses a direct imperative to demand something from somebody, the
impression you are creating is that you are better placed socially than the person, ie,
you have a more superior social power than the person. It is alright to use direct
imperative for people who have lower social power than to use the same for people one
is not socially superior to. To do the later is to use a FTA. On the other hand, when you
say something that lessens possible threat to another persons face, you are said to be
performing a face-saving act.

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Everybody has what Brown and Levinson call a negative face and a positive face. A
negative face is the tendency in a person to be independent and have freedom from
imposition. When a speaker says I am sorry to bother you for instance to someone he is
trying to make an enquiry from, then he/she has used a face-saving act that emphasizes
the addressees negative face. A face-saving act that emphasizes the addressees
positive face draws attention to a common goal, eg, such a person is likely going to
make a statement such as: You and I have a common problem or We can do it together.
3.3 Politeness Strategies
Brown and Levinson (1987) identified four major types of politeness strategies, namely

bald on record
negative politeness
positive politeness, and
off-the-record or indirect strategy.

Bald on record strategies are strategies that do not attempt to minimize the threat to the
hearers face. It is commonly used by speakers who know their addressees very closely.
With the bald on record strategies there is a direct possibility that the audience will be
shocked or embarrassed by the strategy. For instance, a bald on record strategy might
be to tell your brother to wash the car, by saying its your turn today.
Positive politeness will attempt to minimize the threat to the hearers face. This strategy
is most commonly used in situations where the interlocutors know each other fairly
well. In many instances attempts are made to avoid conflicts. For example, a positive
politeness strategy might be the request such as, I know you are very busy now, but
could you please spare me five minutes.
Negative politeness presumes that the speaker will be imposing on the listener. It is the
desire to remain autonomous. For Instance, a speaker may request this way I know
you just paid your childrens school fees, but plesae can you lend me N1,000 till the
weekend? The addressee is likely to acceed to the request if he/she has the means
because the request shows a respect for their ability to maintain autonomy.
The final politeness strategy outlined by Brown and Levinson is the indirect strategy.
Here the language is indirect, but the intention is usually clear from the context. For
instance, a request can be made this way Is there any eatry und the corner? by
someone who is hungry and wants to eat. This question insinuates that the speaker is
hungry and would want to go and eat, but it is not put so directly.

Self-assessed Exercises
(i)
(ii)

Discuss in details how the concept of face is related to politeness.

Describe how you would politely make at least ten different requests.

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3.4 Politeness Principle

Politeness Principle is a set of maxims, just like the Cooperative Principle discussed in
the last unit. These maxims were proposed by Geoffrey Leech. Leech observes that
participants in social interactions try to interact in an atmosphere of relative harmony.
Below are the maxims.
Tact Maxim: minimize cost to other, maximize benefit to other. The first part of this
maxim aligns with Brown and Levinsons strategies of minimizing imposition, while
the second part reflects the positive politeness strategy of attending to the hearer's
interests, wants, and needs. For example: Can you spare me just two minutes please.
Generosity Maxim: Minimise benefit to self; maximize cost to self. This maxim
makes it clear that to really express politeness in conversation, the speaker should put
others first before him/her. For instance: Dont worry, its my pleasure to serve you.
Or Never mind, Ill do it.
Approbation Maxim:. Minimise dispraise of other; maximize the expression of beliefs
which express approval of other This maxim implies that we should make others feel
good by giving them complements and we should not praise ourselves, but rather allow
others to do so. This also implies that we should as much as possible avoid
disagreement with others. For instance: I know you are good at electronics, can you
check what the matter is with this tape recorder?
Modesty Maxim: Minimise praise of self; maximize praise of others. We should find
opportunities to praise others, while we dispraise self. For example: Im so stupid, can
you imagine that I forgot my pen. Do you have an extra one for this exam? I will get
one immediately after the paper
Agreement Maxim: Minimise disagreement between self and other; maximize
agreement between self and other. This is in line with Brown and Levinsons positive
politeness strategy. In expressing politeness in conversation, we should avoid
disagreement with other people. For example: I thought we agreed that you would
have to call before setting out to see me.
Sympathy Maxim: Minimise antipathy between self and other; maximize sympathy
between self and other. One way of expressing politeness is to identify with people by
congratulating them, commiserating with them or expressing condolences when they
are bereaved. These, according to Brown and Levinson shows that we are interested in
the welfare of other people. For example: I am sorry to hear about your mothers
demise.
3.5 Self-assessed Exercises
Visit any shop where there is service-encounter, like a post office or restaurant and
observe how the people at the counter observe or disregard politeness principle.

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4.0 Conclusion
It is natural for us as we interact to be sensitive to the social situation in which the
interaction takes place. One way of being sensitive to the social situation and cultural
practices is to be polite in our interaction. Politeness is one phenomenon we observe in
our daily interactions. Pragmatists have identified the strategies we use when being
polite and the maxims we observe in the process. Some of such pragmatists include
Brown and Levinson and Leech.
5.0

Summary

In this Unit, we examined politeness in conversation. Politeness is a form of behaviour

that helps us to establish and maintain comity and engage in actions in an atmosphere
of harmony. We examined the concept of face and how it relates to politeness. We
also looked at four politeness strategies identified by Brown and Levinson (1987).
Lastly we learnt that politeness principle has a set of maxims we adhere to when we are
being polite in conversation.
6.0

Tutor-marked Assignment

Watch a home video and discuss the politeness principle and strategies used in the
conversations.
7.0

References/Further Reading

Brown, P. & Levinson, S. (1987). Politeness: Some universals in language usage.

Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Goffman, E. (1967). On facework: an analysis of ritual elements in social interaction,
in Jawrski, A.,and Coupland, N. (eds.) The Discourse Reader, London, Roterledge, pp.
306-321.
Leech, G.N. (1983) Principles of Pragmatics. Arnold

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MODULE SIX: LATER APPROCAHES TO DISCOURSE ANALYSIS

Unit 1: Critical Discourse Analysis
Unit 2: Discourse in Use (Discourse and The Media)
Unit 3: Discourse in Use (Discourse and Society)
Unit 4: Discourse and Other Disciplines
Unit 1: Critical Discourse Analysis
Contents
1.0 Introduction
2.0 Unit Objectives
3.0 Main Content
3.1 What is Critical Discourse Analysis?
3.2 Critical Discourse Analysis and Critical Linguistics
3.3 Language and Ideology
Self-assessed Exercises
3.4 Conducting Critical Discourse Analysis Research
4.0 Conclusion
5.0 Summary
6.0 Tutor-marked Assessment
7.0 References/Further Reading

1.0 Introduction
Our speeches and writings are not always neutral. They are products of our social
identities, relationships and ideologies leanings. Language is not an abstract entity. It is
related to the world in which it is produced in the sense that meaning is derived from
the historical, social and political contexts in which a text is produced. The discipline
we shall be looking at in this unit, looks at language beyond the surface text. Critical
Discourse Analysis (CDA), as it is referred to draws attention to power imbalances,
social inequities and the manipulative tendency people have in discursive practice. In
this unit, we shall examine what CDA is, how language is related to ideology and how
we can conduct research in CDA.

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2.0 Unit Objectives

At the end of this unit, you should be able to do the following:

discuss explicitly what we mean by Critical Discourse Analysis

identify the link between language and ideology
describe how we can conduct research using Critical Discourse Analysis

3.0 Main Content

3.1

What is Critical Discourse Analysis?

Critical Discourse Analysis is an approach to doing Discourse Analysis that emphasizes

the study of language and discourses in social institutions. It draws on poststructuralist
discourse theory and critical linguistics to focus on how social relations, identity,
knowledge and power are constructed through written and spoken texts in different
linguistic contexts. CDA is founded on the idea that there is unequal access to linguistic
and social resources. The discipline developed within several disciplines in the
humanities and social sciences, such as Pragmatics, Linguistics Sociolinguistics,
Sociology, Psychology, Stylistics, Anthropology and Ethnography. CDA produces
insights into the way discourse reproduces (or resists) social and political inequality,
power abuse or domination. CDA focuses on the ways discourse structures enact,
confirm, legitimate, reproduce or challenge relations of power and dominance in
society. Several scholars have worked within the CDA framework on areas such as
media discourse, political discourse, gender discourse, and various institutional
discourse, such as hospital discourse, office discourse and so forth. Later in the course
of this module, we shall look at how to conduct a research using the CDA theory.
3.2 Critical Discourse Analysis and Critical Linguistics
CDA has a strong historical link with an approach developed by a group based at the
University of East Anglia in the 1970s (Fowler, 1981; Fowler, et al, 1979) led by Roger
Fowler. This group was strongly influenced by the work of Systemic Linguistics,
combined with stylistic approaches borrowed from Chomskyan Transformational
Generative Grammar and the works of Roland Barthes and early French semiotics. The
earliest and one of the most influential linguistically-oriented critical approaches to
discourse analysis is called Critical Linguistics. It was concerned with reading the
meanings in texts as the realization of social processes, seeing texts as functioning
ideologically and politically in relation to their contexts. This was very much an
approach in which discourse was text, but there was little emphasis on the production
and interpretation of texts, a too ready assumption of the transparent relationship
between textual features and social meanings and a neglect of discourse as a domain of
social struggle or of the ways in which changes in discourse might be related to wider
process of social and cultural change (Threadgold, 2003).

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CDA therefore, draws on poststructuralist discourse theory and critical linguistics. It

focuses on how social relations, identity, knowledge and power are constructed through
written and spoken texts. The techniques of CDA are derived from various disciplinary
fields, such as Pragmatics and Speech Acts theory, Systemic Functional Linguistics and
Critical Linguistics. Pragmatics and Speech Acts theory see texts as forms of social
action that occur in complex social contexts. Systemic Linguistics shows how linguistic
forms can be systematically related to social functions. CDA uses analytical tools from
these disciplines to address issues on class, power, gender, race and culture.
3.4

Language and Ideology

Scholars working within the field of CDA see a very strong relationship between
language and ideology. The word Ideology is used in many disciplines with different,
but overlapping shades of meaning. Ideology simply refers to attitudes, set of beliefs,
values and doctrines with reference to religious, political, social and economic life
which shape the individual's and group's perception and through which reality is
constructed and interpreted. It is the belief of scholars in CDA that every instance of
language use is produced from an ideological perspective. According to Taiwo (2007),
in most interactions, users bring with them different dispositions towards language,
which are closely related to their social positioning. Kress (1990) also stresses that the
defined and delimited set of statements that constitute a discourse are themselves
expressive of and organized by a specific ideology.
Self-assessed Exercises
(i)
(ii)

3.5

Discuss extensively what you understand by the term Critical Discourse

Analysis.
In what way is Critical Discourse Analysis different from Discourse
Analysis?

Conducting Critical Discourse Analysis Research

Conducting a research in CDA is not exactly like conducting a research in other

disciplines. One thing that should always be behind the mind of a CDA researcher is
that a text, either spoken or written is not neutral. What the CDA researcher seeks to
unveil is the ideology behind every text.
A researcher doing a CDA research is also concerned with the way social power is used
in interactions. Generally, the research is concerned with the way social power is
abused to reflect dominance, manipulation, discrimination and every form of inequality.
They are also concerned with how the dominated resist dominance linguistically. The
enactment and resistance of power is central to any research in CDA.
Data collection in CDA research follows the ethnographic methods - the use of tape
recorder and participant observation. For spoken discourse, the tape recorder is used to
collect utterances, which will later be transcribed for the purpose of the research. It is

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important for the researcher to observe the interaction. This will enable them to take
observational notes, which would normally help in the interpretation of the data.
CDA researchers always focus on areas such as feminist discourse, which they have
observed reflects gender inequality. One of the key areas to focus on are power
differences in everyday conversation between interactants of different gender, verbal
sexual harassment, stereotype and sexual representations of women in male-dominated
discourse, gender inequalities in bureaucratic and professional talk, the representation
of women in the press, and so forth.
Another area is political discourse. Scholars have observed that political discourse, such
as campaigns, parliamentary debates, speeches are full of expressions that show the
enactment, reproduction and legitimization of power and domination. Interactions that
reflect inter-ethnic relations are also studied. Scholars, such as Teun van Dijk have
done a lot of empirical work on discourse and racism showing how discourse shows
one form of resentment or another against racially or ethnically defined Others.
Other discourse genres that have been studied from a critical point of view are medical
discourse, courtroom exchange, education and science, and corporate texts.
Data for any CDA study is subjected to critical analysis looking beyond the words used
to see how the text reflects power dynamics in the society. The researcher, using the
utterances looks at the context that produces the text. The context includes the historical
dimension and the cultural practices that are typically associated with that form of
social action.
4.0 Conclusion
The enactment of power in discourse is considered very important as it has implications
for the participants and the interpretation of the discourse. CDA recognizes that those
who are privileged to have access to social power through their wealth, status,
knowledge, age, gender often abuse it in discourse when they interact with people
without such power. This has been shown in gender, political, racist, legal and medical
discourse. The goal of CDA is to establish this fact in discourse.
5.0 Summary
In this unit, we have examined the discipline Critical Discourse Analysis. We looked at
how it originated and the practices. Tracing its origin to the Systemic Functional
Linguistics, we identified CDA as having a very strong link with Critical Linguistics.
The concept of ideology is very important in CDA because texts are linked to the
ideology behind their presentation. We also looked at the various areas that CDA has
employed over the years and how to conduct research in CDA.

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6.0 Tutor-marked Assessment

Pick 5 different newspaper headlines on the same news item and discuss them using the
Critical Discourse Analysis method.

7.0 Summary
In this Unit, we examined CDA, a sub-discipline of Discourse Analysis. We started by
examining what is meant by CDA. We traced the origin to Critical Linguistics, which
started in East Anglia and other disciplines that use the social approaches to analysis.
The relationship between language and ideology was looked at, since our attitudes,
beliefs and orientation cannot be separated from the language we use. A very important
aspect of this unit is the one that outlined how to do a research using the CDA
approach.

8.0 References/Further Reading

Luke, A. Theory and Practice in Crit ical Discourse Analysis. In L. Saha (ed)
International Encyclopedia of the Sociology of Education, Elsevier Science Ltd.

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Unit 2: Discourse in Use

Contents
1.0 Introduction
2.0 Unit Objectives
3.0 Main Content
3.1 CDA and Written Discourse
3.2 Newspaper Discourse
3.3 Ideology in Newspaper Discourse
3.4 Discourse and Power in newspaper
Self-assessed Exercises
3.5 Applications of CDA to Newspaper Reports
4.0 Conclusion
5.0 Summary
6.0 Tutor-marked Assignment
7.0 References/Further Reading
1.0 Introduction
The last unit was a kind of introductory one on Critical Discourse Analysis. This unit
builds on the last one by examining in details an aspect of CDA, which focuses on
written discourse, specifically newspaper discourse. A newspaper is a product of the
social system in which it is published. It is therefore expected to mirror the societal
values. Despite the claims of objectivity by journalist, news items are known to be
written from the writers angle of judgement. In this unit, we shall see how news also
reflect the enactment and reproduction of social power.
2.0 Unit Objectives
At the end of this unit, you should be able to do the following:

explain the whole idea of newspaper discourse

show how ideology is reflected in newspaper discourse
discuss how women are represented in the Media
identify how power is enacted in newspaper discourse

3.0 Main Content

3.1 CDA and Written Discourse
Discourse Analysis generally is sometimes associated with speech. But this should not
be so, since language is not just speech. It is also writing as well as non-verbal.
Discourse analysis takes care of everything significant both linguistically and
extralinguistically. Written discourse as we earlier observed is more carefully
constructed. Critical Discourse analysts are interested in written discourse such as
newspapers, other literature and electronic discourse, such as e-mail, chats, text
messages, and so forth. Power is not only enacted in spoken discourse. Written
discourse also reflects the societal power structure. Since writing is meant for others to

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read, and in most cases, the writer may not be with the reader, writers try to be explicit.
Writing reflects the mind of the writer and this is not always neutral, because every
writer writes from a point of view, which may not be obvious unless a critical analysis
is done. In this unit, we are concentrating on newspaper discourse, which critical
discourse analysts have found to be a genre rich in what they look for in texts.

3.2

Newspaper Discourse

Newspaper discourse covers a wide range of issues that are connected with newspaper.
It includes such aspects of newspapers as headlines, news reports, editorials,
advertisements, announcements, features and so forth. Any of these aspects can be
subjected to a critical analysis with the view to knowing how much they reflect the use
of social power and the ideologies that underlie their construction.
Newspaper headlines are particularly of importance to critical discourse analysts.
Headlines are constructed to catch the attention of readers, so they employ the use of
catchy lexicon selected to arouse the emotion of the reader to read the news. Any study
of different newspaper headlines on a particular issue in the news will note that each
newspaper constructs headlines from different points of view. For instance, let us see
the following likely newspaper headlines on an issue:
19.1

Kano boils again! Twenty killed in Religious Riots

19.2

Religious Riots Erupts in Kano

19.3

Twenty killed in Religious Riots in Kano

19.4

Panic Among non-indigenes in Kano as 20 died in Religious Riots

A critical analysis of these headlines shows that all of them set out to arouse the
attention of readers, but with focus on different aspects of the news. 19.2 will not
arouse much emotion as the other three because it is silent on the number of casualties.
In 19.1, the use of the word again is an indication that riots are regular features in
Kano. Note the use of dramatic expressions like boils, erupts, panic, etc. 19.4 has
another dimension to it by focusing on non-indigenes who are typically the targets of
religious riots. This kind of headline may evoke retaliation in other parts of the country
by a people against the group perceived to have attacked their own people in Kano.
In news reports, biases can also be identified, such biases may be in form of the
manipulation in the choice of expressions to either obscure a group or magnify another.
A group may also be painted in bad light, while others are a given a positive image. For
instance, some scholars have observed that womens image in the media is not always
as positive as that of men. For instance, women are said to be portrayed more as sex
objects and dependants in advertisements, while men are often portrayed as
breadwinners and strong people.

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Newspaper editorials are the opinions of the newspaper on happenings in the location
where the newspaper is published. They are written with some form of bias, which
shows the ideological stand of the owners of the newspaper. An editorial tries to
balance issues, but at the end of the day it is still clear where the interest of the
newspaper lies. Just like headlines, editorials on the same issues can be critically
analyzed to determine the ideological standpoints of each newspaper on such issues and
how they have been able to pas across these using some specific linguistic resources.
3.3

Ideology in Newspaper Discourse

Every instance of language is a reflection of the prevailing discursive and ideological

systems in the society where it is used. Newspaper editors use different linguistic
devices to project their ideological viewpoints and to suit the ideological expectations
of their audience. What then is ideology? Ideology in this context will be defined as a
set of ideas or beliefs, which are held to be acceptable by the creators of a media text.
Ideologies are based on a set of beliefs and attitudes shared by a group, class or society.
Such ideologies can be projected in the media through news, advertisement, editorials
and features. For instance, some writings are regarded as expressing gender imbalance
since they tend to portray the female gender in the negative light.
3.4

Power in Newspaper Discourse

Power in newspaper are expressed is expressed through the news writer and the
editorial board. The news writer expresses his power through their choice of linguistic
resources of the language. One major power expressed through newspaper is the power
of persuasion, which is often used in the construction of headlines. Some headlines are
so emotionally-laden that they could spark up riots as soon as readers set their eyes on
them. Editorials also express some form of power as the board of the newspapers view
their opinion on public issues and debates. Some newspapers are considered elitist, that
means they represent the interest of the elites. Others are considered populist
newspapers, representing the interest of the general public, particularly the lessprivileged. Some are pro-government, while others are considered anti-government.
Most anti-government newspapers will always carry headlines that are antigovernment. While pro-government newspapers will carry only news that will paint the
government in positive light.
The power of persuasion is also enacted in advertisements. Advertisers are careful to
choose words that will portray their mind set. Their goal is to persuade people to buy
their products or patronize their services. Due to competition, they either emphasize
what makes their products preferable or what makes other products less preferable.
When advertisers focus on Others, their aim is to ensure that the image of others
diminishes while that of theirs increases. This is clearly an enactment of power to show
superiority over Others.

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Paid advertisements are particularly known to struggle for the expression of power.
This is particularly striking in obituaries and remembrance adverts. Since the media
space is open to all those who can afford to pay for its use, some advertiser want to
show that they are different from Others, by looking for striking status symbols. For
instance, it is common in Nigeria to see obituaries that will list all the children of the
deceased and their locations, usually outside Nigeria., such as UK, Germany, Australia,
USA, and so forth. Colour may also be used to portray power. Full colour
advertisements are costlier than black and white ones. Glossy pages are costlier than
newsprint pages. Some Nigerian magazines like Ovation are published in glossy pages
with full colour making them affordable to only the Rich. The news focus is also the
Super Rich. Such magazines are published to celebrate the affluent.
Self-assessed Exercises
Select 5 newspaper headlines on similar theme and identify how they differ in their
reflection of the ideological stands of the writers.
3.5

Gender Representation in the Media

Scholars in Media Studies have identified the typical ways women are represented in
the Media. Women are often represented as being part of a context (family, friends,
colleagues) and working/thinking as part of a team. In drama, they tend to take the role
of helper. or object, passive rather than active. Often their passivity extends to
victimhood. In addition, representation of women across the Media tend to highlight the
following: beauty, sexuality and emotion. Discussion of women in the media tends to
focus a lot on physical beauty to the near-exclusion of other values. This is clearly seen
as stereotyping women in the media, while the male gender is portrayed in positive
light. There is a general belief that the society is largely patriarchal in nature and until
in the recent times women have been marginalized in everything, including their
representation in discourse.
When compared with the representation of women, representation of men in the media
seems to be more positive. Representations of men across all media tend to focus on the
following: strength, power, sexual attractiveness, physique and independence. Male
characters are often represented as isolated, as not needing to rely on others (the lone
hero).
Though our focus in this section is on the representation of gender, it is important to
mention that there are other groups represented in the media, which have caught the
attention of scholars. Some other focus on representation in the media in addition to
gender are class, age, race or ethnicity, religion, ability, and so forth. For instance,
media scholars believe that the entertainment industry tend to exaggerate affluence and
under-represent the working class. Likewise ethnic minorities are often stereotyped,
while the majority is more favoured in media reports.

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4.0 Conclusion
Research into the discourse of newspaper has shown that the written discourse is also
one area well explored by scholars. Written discourses are not ideologically neutral.
Newspaper discourse ranges from headlines to news and advertisements have their
features that make them to be labeled sometimes as stereotyped discourse against a
particular social group. Groups that have been found stereotyped in the media are
women, ethnic minorities, people of a particular religious belief, the physically
challenged, such as the blind, the deaf, the lame, the uneducated, and so forth.
5.0 Summary
This unit examined how the newspaper, just like any other form of discourse is used as
a forum for enactment of social power in the society. We examined the different aspects
of newspaper where such power imbalances are expressed, such as in advertisement,
news reports, editorials, and features. We particularly focused on gender representation
in the media to show the way the media portray men and women in newspapers.
6.0 Tutor-marked Assignment
Identify and select two newspaper features that you think are biased in their
representation of the female gender. Discuss the linguistic features that portray the
writings as gender-biased writings.
7.0 References/Further Reading
Fairclough, N. (2000) Language and Power. New York: Longman.
Huckin, T.N. (1997) Critical Discourse Analysis. In T. Miller (Ed.) Functional
Approaches to Written Tests.
Van Dijk, T. (2000) Critical Discourse Analysis and Conversational Analysis.
Discourse and Society 10 (4)
Kress, G. (1990) Critical Discourse Analysis, Robert Kaplan (Ed.) Annual Review of
Applied Linguistics II.
Taiwo, R (2007) Language, Ideology and Power Relations in Nigerian Newspaper
Headlines. Nebula 4.1. March, 2007.

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Unit 3: Discourse in Use (Discourse and Society)

Contents
1.0 Introduction
2.0 Objectives
3.0 Main Content
3.1 Discourse and Culture
3.2 Discourse and Gender
3.3 Discourse and Racism
Self-assessed Exercises
3.4 Discourse and Conflict
4.0 Conclusion
5.0 Summary
6.0 Tutor-marked Assignment
7.0 References/Further Reading

1.0 Introduction
In Unit 19, we looked at discourse in newspapers and how it is used to represent the
imbalance of power in the society. Discourse is a social phenomenon, so the meaning
of any form of discourse can only be traced back to the society in which it evolves. This
unit will examine the various ways discourse is used to reflect and discriminate against
the people who belong to the same culture, gender and race. In addition, we shall also
see how discourse is used to engage in conflict and how it can be used to resolve
conflict.
2.0 Unit Objectives
At the end of this unit, you should be able to do the following:

show how discourse is used to reflect gender and how it is used to

discriminate against a particular gender
identify the link between discourse and gender
explain the use of discourse to show bias for people of different race
discuss the relationship between discourse and conflict

3.0 Main Content

3.1 Discourse and Culture
Discourse and culture are very close in terms of relationship, because discourse is used
to express culture in so many ways. It is always the case that a group of language
speakers constitute a discourse community and their discourse reflects their agreed

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ways of life. This is why discourse varies for instance with the context in which it is
practiced. We can therefore on the basis of this identify various kinds of discourse. The
classroom discourse, which takes place between the teacher and the pupils is
characterized by certain discursive practices that set it apart from other kinds of
discourse. For instance, the classroom culture demands that the teacher initiate the
lesson and the pupils respond to their initiation, while the teacher gives the feedback
(see Unit 10). The culture of some discourse types demands strictly that turns are
properly taken, while others do allow interruption.
A group of people who have the same ethnic background share and express the same
culture when they participate in discourse. That is why the Yoruba culture constrains
the speaker to behave in a particular way when they practice their discourse. For
instance the norms for greeting differs form one language to another. In Yoruba , the
norm is that a younger male person prostrates when greeting adults, while a younger
female person kneel when greeting adults.
From our discussion so far, we have seen that cultural practices are closely intertwined
with discursive practices. Cultural practices are sometimes expressed verbally, like in
the Yoruba use of the honorific forms or yin for adults or people they are not too
familiar with. Culture can also be expressed in discourse non-verbally through gestures.
For instance, gaze direction. In the Yoruba culture, young persons being scolded are not
expected to look straight into the eyes of the adult who is scolding them. Likewise,
young children are not expected to stay where adults are discussing or even contribute
to the discussion.
3.2. Discourse and Gender
The study of discourse is oftentimes not complete without examining how Gender
affects discourse and how discourse is used to portray gender (representation of gender
in discourse). Scholars on Feminist Discourse and Gender Studies have identified
different ways Gender shapes discourse.
One way of looking at Gender and discourse is to look at the speech of men and
women. Women and men do not speak the same way in the sense that what they talk
about is different. For instance, women often talk about feelings and relationships, their
work, and their family. On the other hand, men talk most often about practical matters,
like their latest computer update, how to repair their car, or even business.
Another way is to look at how women are represented. The general feeling of scholars
on Media and Gender Studies is that women are stereotyped in discourse especially in
the Media. Oftentimes they are presented as sex symbols with the display of sensitive
parts of their bodies like their busts, thighs in adverts. Representations of women across
all media tend to highlight the following: beauty, sexuality, emotions and relationship.
Women are often represented as being part of a context (family, friends, colleagues)
and working/thinking as part of a team. In drama, they tend to take the role of helper or
object, passive rather than active. Often their passivity extends to victimhood.

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Men on the other hand are represented with focus on the following aspects of
masculinity: sex, power, physique and independence. With these stereotyping,
Feminists scholars believe that women are most times misrepresented and this amounts
to discrimination against the female gender. Men are provided with a larger number of
opportunities to present their viewpoints and shown in diverse role in all areas like
administration, law, business, science and technology. Representation of women varies
from negligible to total exclusions and women in certain accepted professions are
interviewed and talked about in the Press. For example women educationists or women
doctors. If they are interviewed for achieving success in a male profession, then the
article often goes to great pains to point out her feminity.

3.3. Discourse and Racism

Racism is the expression of any form of prejudice, denial or discrimination against a
person or a group of people on the basis of the colour of their skin, language, customs,
place of birth or any factor that supposedly reveals the basic nature of that person.
Racism is also seen as a belief that race accounts for differences in human character or
ability and that a particular race is superior to others. Racism is often expressed by
discriminatory or abusive behavior and practices towards the members of the supposed
inferior races or denial of certain rights to them on the basis that they are inherently
inferior to another or other races.
Though racism is often expressed through actions, such as violence, oppression and
denial of legal rights, it has been observed that racism is also expressed through
discourse. Critical discourse analysts have labeled any discourse that has discriminatory
tendencies towards people of other race(s) as racist discourse. Racist discourse is not
only practised by individuals. It is practised by institutions, such as government,
corporations and educational institutions, which have power to influence the lives of
many individuals. Scholars like Teun van Dijk has been working extensively on Racism
and discourse since 1981. His focus has been on the reproduction of Racism in the
Media, representation of immigrants, racism in elite discourse, the representation of
ethnic minorities in the Press, and so forth.
3.4. Self-assessed Exercises
Discuss at length the relationship between Discourse and Culture
3.5. Discourse and Conflict
The relationship between discourse and conflict is considered to be very important
mainly because conflicts are better managed when discourse is tactically used by those
involved in it and the mediators. On the other hand, conflicts get out of hand when tact
is not employed in the use of discourse for resolution. A major focus of CDA is the

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enactment of power in discourse. Since words are said to be very powerful, they could
be used to change behaviour and societal orientation towards issues.
Conflicts arise from time to time among individuals and groups of people. For instance,
ethnic conflicts are quite rampant all over the world. Conflicts arise in the face of
perceived opposition of needs, values and interest. The idea of conflict ranges from
minor disagreement over issues to conflicts that involve the use of force, termed
armed conflict. Though scholars in the area of conflict studies have identified some
possible ways of handling conflicts, such as collaboration, compromise and
accommodation, none of these can be done without the use of discourse. Engaging in
dialogue and negotiation around conflict is a major way of resolving conflicts. To
dialogue means to tactically use language or discourse to resolve issues.

4.0 Conclusion
Discourse is a very powerful tool for individuals and the society. It is the means by
which we engage in all forms of social practices. Our discourses represent our
individualistic tendencies and they help us to shape our society. The use of discourse
involves the use of different tact to manage our feelings and those of our listeners.
5.0 Summary
In this Unit, we have examined how we use discourse in the society. Some of the issues
addressed are the ways we use discourse to express our culture, how our gender feature
in our discourse, how gender is represented in discourse, how our prejudices about
others who belong to another races are expressed in discourse and how discourse is
used to handle different kinds of conflicts.
6.0 Tutor-marked Assignment
How can discourse be used to resolve conflicts?
7.0 References/Further Reading
Van Dijk, T. (1999)Discourse and Racism. Discourse & Society, Vol. 10, No. 2, 147148 (1999)
Van Dijk, T. and Wodak, R. (1988) Discourse, racism and ideology. Special issue of
TEXT, 8(1).
Van Dijk, T. (2004) Racist Discourse. In Ellis Cashmore (Ed.), Routledge
Encyclopedia of Race and Ethnic Studies. (pp. 351-355). London: Routledge, 2004.

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Unit 4: Discourse and Other Disciplines

Contents
1.0
2.0
3.0

Introduction
Unit Objectives
Main Conternt
3.1 Discourse and Sociology
3.2 Discourse and Philosophy
3.3 Discourse and Medicine
3.4 Discourse and Literature
Self-assessed Exercises
3.5 Discourse and Politics
3.6 Discourse and Education
4.0 Conclusion
5.0 Summary
6.0 Tutor-marked Assignment
7.0 References/Further Reading
1.0 Introduction
We will not have done justice to this course without looking at how discourse relates
with other disciplines. As we noted earlier in the course, Discourse Analysis, though
recognized as a branch of Linguistics has its origin in the social sciences. Discourse
Analysis encompasses a wide range of activities. It is at the intersection of discipline as
diverse as Sociolinguistics, Psycholinguistics, Philosophical Linguistics and
Computational Linguistics. We shall look at the interplay between Discourse Analysis
and some of these allied courses. Also of particular interest is the interplay between
Discourse and Medicine, Literature, Politics and Education.
2.0 Unit Objective
At the end of this unit, you should be able to: do the following:

show how discourse relates with Sociology;

identify some features of discourse in medical interactions;
explain the role of discourse in Education practice;
show the relationship between discourse and literature.

3.0 Main Content

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3.1 Discourse and Sociology

Discourse has a great deal in common with Sociology. Sociology is the study of human
beaviour as they interact in the society. The society helps to shape human behavour.
Sociologists study every aspect of human beaviour in the society, including linguistics
behaviour. However, their goal is to be able to describe the role the society plays in the
observed behavioral patterns. Linguists however study human language and explain
how the society shapes the language. The field of Sociolinguistics is a hybrid discipline
that brings together the methods of linguists and sociologists. The focus is to study how
language is used in the society for social interaction. (Hudson, 1980: 1). It will be right
to say that Discourse Analysis as a discipline originates from Scociolinguistics, whose
major concern is language in use.
The whole idea of discourse is a societal phenomenon. Discourse is a social practice,
therefore the methods of investigating it is closely related to those of investigating
Sociology. The approach is such that the investigator takes the context as a very
important factor therefore the researcher must be present in the field for observation
and data collection. The field method is common to both disciplines.
3.2 Discourse and Philosophy
Discourse and Philosophy are also very much related. As we have seen earlier in the
course in Module Five in the approach of Pragmatics. Philosophy is a discipline that
enquires about such issues as life, knowledge and beliefs and discourse cannot be
separated from these issues.
Linguistic philosophers have seen the connection between our words and our acts in the
Speech Acts Theory. Whenever we utter a statement, we are performing an act,
especially when we use performative verbs such as pronounce, as the priest will use
while conducting a wedding: I pronounce you husband and wife from this day.. They
also try to explain the logic of language use, for instance, how we come to interpret
utterances that do not have direct meaning. Philosophers also explain how we cooperate
in ensuring that our discourse is successful.
Our knowledge of culture, norms and beliefs, especially as they relate to our language
is explained by philosophers. We usually take these things for granted when we use
language, this means that they are presupposed, and most times we have to derive
meaning by entailment and inference.
3.3 Discourse and Medicine
The use of language in medical practice is one area that discourse analysts have
investigated extensively. Medical interactions as they take place between doctors and
patients during consultation period, interaction with pregnant women during the
antenatal and postnatal clinics, and medical classroom interactions have been studied
by various scholars (Coulthard and Ashby, 1976; Taiwo and Salami, 2007; Odebunmi,

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2005) and so forth. Some other scholars have presented their observations on the broad
topic discourse and medicine (Ainsworth-Vaughn, 2003; Fleischman, 2003).
Since medical practice involves a lot of interaction between the practitioners, who are
the experts and the non-practitioners, the non-experts, such interactions have relevance
for discourse analysts. Discursive practices, such as turn taking, turn allocation,
elicitation techniques in clinical interviews have revealed a lot about the nature of
medical discourse when compared with other forms of discourse. For instance, medical
practitioners by virtue of their [+HIGHER] role will dominate any encounter with nonmedical people.
3.4 Discourse and Literature
Discourse and Literature are allied disciplines in the sense that language is the vehicle for
literature and every literary work is seen as a form of discourse. Stylistics is an area of
language study where Literature and language meet. Any of the genre of literature is seen
as a form of discourse, which can be analyzed using discourse analytic approach.
Critical Linguistics, introduced by Roger Fowler, is a critical. linguistically-oriented
examination of literary texts. It was concerned with reading the meanings in texts as the
realization of social processes, seeing texts as functioning ideologically and politically in
relation to their contexts.
Self-assessed Exercises
Explain how Philosophy is related to Discourse.

3.6

Discourse and Politics

Politics is strongly associated with language. Language plays a central role in politics
Politicians interact with the people in various ways before they are elected and when they
have taken up political post. According to Schaffner (1996), any political action is
prepared, accompanied, controlled and influenced by language (p. 210). Aspects of
political communication include (but is not limited to) statements made by politicians,
writings of politicians, political speeches, election campaigns, parliamentary debates, and
political interviews.
One aspect of political language use that scholars have studied is the use of deixis in
political speeches. Deixis are reference items used in speech and writing. How politicians
refer to themselves and others in their speeches is very important. It goes a long way to
show how they enact power in discourse.
In politics, words are very powerful and politics is concerned with power the power to
control other peoples behaviour, influence their thought and determine their values.
Discourse analysts study how politicians produce, and maintain social power in
discursive practices. For instance, how effectively a politician can persuade the

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electorate, to large extent, determines how successful he/she will be in controlling or

keeping power. Politicians also use discourse to coerce their opposition and legitimize
their positions. Politicians explore the creativity nature of language by making use of
metaphors, and specific lexis that will drive home their points.
3.6 Discourse and Education
Apart from language being the tool for instruction in schools, different languages are also
studied as school subjects at various levels of education. Language plays a very important
role in education. The use of the appropriate language at different levels of education will
determine the success of learning. For instance, the mother tongue has been recognized as
the most appropriate medium of instruction in the early childhood education, ie, the
primary school (Afolayan, 1976; Fafunwa, 1977). The argument is that concepts are
better formed in the mother tongue than in a foreign or second language. At the higher
levels, English can be used in a country such as Nigeria. Since English is the official
language, it plays a vital role as the medium of instruction in schools. It is also a
compulsory school subject at every level of education.
One other aspect of relationship of discourse to education is in the area of classroom
discourse. Classroom discourse has been studied by scholars and according to Sinclair
and Coulthard (1975), it is well structured in such a way that the scholars proposed a
rank scale that can be used to describe what is happening in classroom discourse (for
details on this, please refer to Unit 10). Teachers and pupils obey some basic rules of
interaction in their discourse, for instance, in a typical classroom exchange there is an
initiation by the teacher, a response from the students and a follow-up by the teacher.
There are also different classes of act used by the teacher and the pupils in the course of
classroom discourse.
6.0 Conclusion
Discourse Analysis is not an isolated discipline. Its origin and its current practice show
that it is connected in an intricate way with several other disciplines. The discipline
originated from the work of ethnographers and later became a discipline in language and
social sciences. Now, scholars have shown the relevance of discourse to other disciplines
by demonstrating how discourse is used in these disciplines.
5.0 Summary
In this Unit we examined the relationship of Discourse with other disciplines. We
specifically looked at Sociology and Discourse. We noted that they have similar approach
to analysis. Language being a social phenomenon, it is governed by social norms that
guide the general human behaviour. We also examined Discourse and Philosophy, and
we saw that Philosophy probes into how we understand language and interpret meaning
in discourse. Discourse and Medicine was also examined, looking at how Discourse is
used in medical interaction.
6.0
Tutor-marked Assignment

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1. Any political action is prepared, accompanied, controlled and

influenced by language. Discuss this statement using adequate
examples of the language of politics to justify your stand
2. Discuss the interface between language and Education.
7.0 References/Further Reading
Afolayan, A. (1976) The Six year primary project in Nigeria. In Ayo Bamgbose (Ed.)
Mother Tongue Education. London: Hodder and Stoughton
Ainsworth-Vaughn, N. (2003) The Discourse of medical Encounters. In Deborah
Schiffrin, Deborah Tannen and Heidi Hamilton (Eds.) The Handbook of Discourse
Analysis. Blackwell Publishers.
Coulthard, M. and Ashby, M.C. (1976) A Linguistic Description of Doctor-patient
Interviews. In Wadsworth, M. and Robinson, D. (eds.) Studies in Everyday Medical
Life. Martin Robertson: London.
Fafunwa, A. B. (1977) Education in the mother tongue: a Nigerian experiment the sixyear (Yoruba Medium) Primary Education Project at the University of Ife. West African
Journal of Education, 19 (2).
Fleischman, S. (2003) Language and Medicine In Deborah Schiffrin, Deborah Tannen
and Heidi Hamilton (Eds.) The Handbook of Discourse Analysis. Blackwell Publishers
Hudson, R. (1980) Sociolinguistics. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Odebunmi, A. (2005) Cooperation in Doctor-patient Conversational Interaction in
South-Western Nigeria In M. Olateju and L. Oyeleye (Eds) Perspectives on Language
and Literature. Ile-Ife: OAU Press.
Schaffner, C. (1996) Political Speeches and discourse analysis. Current Issues in
Language and Society 3 (3) 201 204.
Sinclair,J. Mc H and Coulthard, M. (1975) Towards an Analysis of Discourse, the
English Used by Teachers and Pupils. Oxford: OUP.
Taiwo and Salami (2007) Discourse Acts in Ante-natal Clinic Literacy Classroom in
South-Western Nigeria. Linguistik Online31,2

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