Faculty of Linguistics and Cultures of Faculty of Linguistics and Cultures of

English speaking countries/ ULIS_VNU English speaking countries/ ULIS_VNU

1. What is Discourse?
I found
myself
discourse
Lecture 3: Discourse analysis useless.

hated
enjoying
sentence
hated,
I actually felt tired of phrase enjoying

y
sitting doing nothing.
And I hated enjoying

nl

nl
the unemployment enjoy,
benefit. I found myself word -ing

eo

eo
useless. Then I decided
to look for a job.
us morpheme

us
al

al
ern

ern
Main issues Example: Is this a discourse?
nt

nt
ri

ri
1. What is Discourse ?
• A: The grass needs cutting.
fo

fo
2. What is Discourse Analysis? • B: It’s nearly 10 o’clock.
• A: He’ll wait.
3. How is DA different from Pragmatics? • B: Like last week and the week before.
• A: The Robinsons are coming tomorrow.
4. Some key concepts in DA?
• B: It’s starting to rain anyway. (R.Bolitho)

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Faculty of Linguistics and Cultures of Faculty of Linguistics and Cultures of
English speaking countries/ ULIS_VNU English speaking countries/ ULIS_VNU

In short, 2. What is DA?

• Discourse is language in use (Brown and Yule, • Discourse analysis is an approach to the
1983) analysis of language that examines
• Discourse is language above the sentence or
patterns of language across texts and
above the clause (Stubbs, 1983),
considers the relationship between
language and the social and cultural
y

y
contexts in which it is used.
nl

nl

• DA studies both spoken and written

eo

eo

discourse
us

us
al

al
ern

ern

Discussion
nt

nt

• Given a letter of recommendation, what can

ri

ri

• DISCOURSE: a general term for examples of you study using discourse analysis?
fo

fo

language use, i.e. language which has been

• Think of another discourse that you are
produced as a result of an act of communication.
interested in. Think of some topics of research
• Discourse refers to units of language larger than to analyze your discourse using DA
sentence such as paragraph, conversation, and
interview.
=> Discourse is language above the sentence or above
the clause (Stubbs, 1983)

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Faculty of Linguistics and Cultures of Faculty of Linguistics and Cultures of
English speaking countries/ ULIS_VNU English speaking countries/ ULIS_VNU

3. How is DA different from Example: Do these texts have cohesion and

Pragmatics? coherence?
Discourse analysis Pragmatics
- Can you give me a lift?
Both DA and Pragmatics study the same language phenomena,
but from a different perspective. - Sorry, I’m visiting my sister now.
DA emphasizes the language Pragmatics emphasizes the
phenomena at and above the impact of users, context and - My father bought a Lincoln convertible.
sentence level as they are sociological factors on meaning
The car driven by the police was red. That color

y
influenced by co-text and

nl

nl
sociological phenomena doesn’t suit her. She consists of three letters.
DA is closer to linguistics Pragmatics is closer to
However, a letter isn’t as fast as a telephone

eo

eo
sociolinguistics and sociology.
us call.

us
al

al
ern

ern
4. Some key concepts in DA Cohesion and Coherence
nt

nt
Cohesion Coherence
• Cohesion
ri

ri
Cohesion is concerned with Coherence is concerned with
• Coherence
fo

fo
formal surface structures the sequencing of the
(syntax and lexis) to interact configuration of the concepts
with underlying semantic and relation of the textual
relations or underlying world which underlie and are
functional coherence to realised by the surface text
create textual unity

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How is coherence created? Reference

• Cohesion.
• The way discourse is structured. • Reference: The principle of reference
• Relevance. within texts is that the reader / listener can
• Context.
• Use of resources, determined by
only make complete sense of the word or
– 1. speaker’s purposes structure they are looking at if they look
– 2. cultural, discourse strategies
elsewhere in the text to get a fuller
y

y
– 3. social context
– picture.
nl

nl
4.charateristics of conventionalized types of discourse
– 5. cultural framework, values.
eo

eo
us

us
al

al
ern

ern

How is cohesion created?

nt

nt

REFERENCE
Cohesive devices
ri

ri

Reference
fo

fo

EXOPHORIC ENDOPHORIC
Substitution
REFERENCE REFERENCE
Ellipsis

Conjunctive cohesion
ANAPHORIC CATAPHORIC
Lexical cohesion REFERENCE REFERENCE

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Faculty of Linguistics and Cultures of Faculty of Linguistics and Cultures of
English speaking countries/ ULIS_VNU English speaking countries/ ULIS_VNU

Reference Reference

• exophoric reference: Where a reference • cataphoric reference: if it is referring to

item moves us outside a text so that we something coming later.
can only make full sense of the text by • E.g.:
referring to its context.
They pressed round him to take their
Eg: The government are to blame for

y
money. Andy, Dave, Bob, Phil and

nl

nl
unemployment. Stephen.

eo

eo
us

us
al

al
ern

ern
Reference Ellipsis
nt

nt
• anaphoric reference: If a reference is
ri

ri
• ellipsis: the omission of elements
referring back to something normally required by the grammar which
fo

fo
• E.g.: the speaker / writer assumes are obvious
Some people think that they can become from the context and therefore need not
rich without working hard. That’s a big be raised. So the structure has a “missing”
mistake. element which is supplied by the context.

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Faculty of Linguistics and Cultures of Faculty of Linguistics and Cultures of
English speaking countries/ ULIS_VNU English speaking countries/ ULIS_VNU

Ellipsis Substitution

• Eg: • Eg:
You label and I’ll stack 1. I don’t like this vase. Give me the black
(two people labelling and stacking documents) one.
2. - John does smoke?
- How much does it cost you? - I’m sure he does.
y

y
nl

nl
- 60 dollars 3. - I want to go home
eo

eo

- Me too.
us

us
al

al
ern

ern

Substitution Conjunction
nt

nt
ri

ri

• substitution: the device to show the

relationship between sentences and at the • conjunctions: powerful sentence
fo

fo

same time avoids repetition. connectors. They demonstrate the logical

relationships holding between sentences,
• Substitution is similar to ellipsis in that
thus creating or expressing cohesion.
there is also a missing element. But here,
the deleted element is replaced by
another item.

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Faculty of Linguistics and Cultures of Faculty of Linguistics and Cultures of
English speaking countries/ ULIS_VNU English speaking countries/ ULIS_VNU

Conjunction Lexical cohesion

Find instances of conjunctions in the following • reiteration: the repetition of a lexical item
texts:
in order for a lexical item to be recognized
Tourism creates employment. It is as repeated.
estimated that in the Lake District, for
Eg: The White House insists that North Korea
instance, 30 percent of jobs can be directly
disarm its nuclear program. However, North

y
attributed to tourism. But the fact that

nl

nl
Korea says they will only do so if their conditions
visitors spent their money in a variety of are to be observed by the White House.

eo

eo
ways affect other things, too.
us

us
al

al
ern

ern
Conjunction Lexical cohesion
nt

nt
There are also many problems concerning • synonymy: Lexical cohesion results from
ri

ri
tourism in the Lake District. Many roads in the use of synonyms or near synonyms to
fo

fo
the region are extremely narrow. avoid repetition.
Moreover, because car park fills up during Eg: The US began dropping out of the
busy periods, many visitors park across program in 1977. France shut down its
gateways. The result is inevitable commercial Phoenix breeder in 1990. Germany
congestion. abandoned its completed reactor in 1991. Last
week, Britain cancelled its fast breeder program.

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Lexical cohesion
• antonymy: Cohesion may also result from
the use of antonyms, especially when
there is a contrast between two subjects in
a discourse.
Eg: Today’s men complaint about the
y

absence of women in the home. Women, on the

nl

other hand, are enjoying more freedom to take

eo

part in social work.

us
al
ern

Lexical cohesion
nt

• association: refers to instances of lexical

ri

cohesion which exist between two or more

words of one and the same semantic field,
fo

possessing some common semantic

properties.
Eg: Military conflicts in Middle East are
nothing new. Armed forces are present
everywhere. Civilians sometimes cannot
distinguish different units in the streets.

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