Group: “O” Level 1 and “A “ level 1

Topic: Discourse Analysis

What is discourse analysis?
Discourse analysis, or discourse studies, is an approach to the analysis of written, vocal, or sign
language use, or any significant semiotic event. The objects of discourse analysis are variously
defined in terms of coherent sequences of sentences, propositions, speech, or turns-at-talk.
Brown and Yule define discourse analysis as “the analysis of language in use,” and “it cannot be
restricted to the description of linguistic forms independent of the purposes or functions which
those forms are designed to serve in human affairs.”
In short, “discourse analysis” is a research method for studying written or spoken language in
relation to its social context. It aims to understand how language is used in real life situations.
When you do discourse analysis, you might focus on:
 The purposes and effects of different types of language
 Cultural rules and conventions in communication
 How values, beliefs and assumptions are communicated
 How language use relates to its social, political and historical context
 Discourse analysis is a common qualitative research method in many humanities and
social science disciplines, including linguistics, sociology, anthropology, psychology and
cultural studies.

What is discourse analysis used for?

Conducting discourse analysis means examining how language functions and how meaning is
created in different social contexts. It can be applied to any instance of written or oral language,
as well as non-verbal aspects of communication such as tone and gestures.

Materials that are suitable for discourse analysis include:

 Books, newspapers and periodicals
 Marketing material, such as brochures and advertisements
 Business and government documents
 Websites, forums, social media posts and comments
 Interviews and conversations
By analyzing these types of discourse, researchers aim to gain an understanding of social groups
and how they communicate.

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How is discourse analysis different from other methods?
Unlike linguistic approaches that focus only on the rules of language use, discourse analysis
emphasizes the contextual meaning of language.
It focuses on the social aspects of communication and the ways people use language to achieve
specific effects (e.g. to build trust, to create doubt, to evoke emotions, or to manage conflict).
Instead of focusing on smaller units of language, such as sounds, words or phrases, discourse
analysis is used to study larger chunks of language, such as entire conversations, texts, or
collections of texts. The selected sources can be analyzed on multiple levels.

Discourse analysis
Level of What is analyzed?
communication
Vocabulary Words and phrases can be analyzed for ideological associations,
formality, and euphemistic and metaphorical content.

Grammar The way that sentences are constructed (e.g. verb tenses, active or
passive construction, and the use of imperatives and questions) can
reveal aspects of intended meaning.

Structure The structure of a text can be analyzed for how it creates emphasis or
builds a narrative.

Genre Texts can be analyzed in relation to the conventions and communicative

aims of their genre (e.g. political speeches or tabloid newspaper
articles).
Non-verbal Non-verbal aspects of speech, such as tone of voice, pauses, gestures,
communication and sounds like “um”, can reveal aspects of a speaker’s intentions,
attitudes, and emotions.

Conversational The interaction between people in a conversation, such as turn-taking,

codes interruptions and listener response, can reveal aspects of cultural
conventions and social roles.

Discourse Analysis and Grammar (cohesive devices)

What is cohesion?

❖ Cohesion refers to the way we use vocabulary and grammatical structures to make
connections between ideas within a text. Cohesion helps to create coherence.

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▪ Cohesive Devices/Ties

➢ Connectors ➢ Linkers ➢ Transitional words ➢ Discourse markers

▪ Words and phrases like conjunctions, synonyms, pronouns, and transitional phrases.
▪ They are devices permitting to link or bind or relate ideas or words in a sentence as they can
tell the reader what we are doing in a sentence and guides them through our writing piece.
Cohesive devices: Reference Substitution& Ellipsis Conjunction
Reference
• The term reference is used to define the relationship between a word and what it points to, • or
the relationship between two linguistic expressions (Holliday1976).
-References Endophoric,Anaphora, Cataphora Exophoric
Endophoric Anaphora Cataphora
Anaphora (Looking backward=Reference back ) • It is a word which refers back to another
word in the sentence, meaning the same in order to avoid repetition. ➢ E.g. Peter likes ice cream
but I cannot eat it. ➢ E.g. The student saw herself in the mirror. Antecedent . An earlier word,
phrase, clause to which a following pronoun refers to.
Anaphora - My father once bought a Lincoln convertible. He did it by saving every penny he
could. That car would be worth a fortune nowadays. However, he sold it to help pay for my
college education. Sometimes I think I’d rather have the convertible. Convertible: (of a car)
having a folding or detachable roof.
Anaphora- My father once bought a Lincoln convertible. He did it by saving every penny he
could. That car would be worth a fortune nowadays. However, he sold it to help pay for my
college education. Sometimes I think I’d rather have the convertible.
- My father bought a Lincoln convertible. The car driven by the police was red. That color
doesn’t suit her. She consists of three letters. However, a letter isn’t as fast as a telephone call.
In the illustration above, there are many cohesive devices in the text, and the text is very hard to
interpret. We don’t see any coherence but there is a cohesion. “Cohesive doesn’t mean coherent”
Endophoric Anaphora Cataphora

Cataphora (Looking Forward=Reference forward) ❖ When referring to something that is not

mentioned yet. ❖ It is a word in the text that refers to another to invite the reader to go forward
and read to understand. For example, If you want them, there are cookies in the kitchen.
Cataphoric reference.
Cataphora E.g. If you want some, here’s some karish cheese. Examples: E.g. After he had
received his orders, the soldier left the barracks. Postcedent

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Cataphora - She claims Leo Tolstoy as a distant cousin. Now, Tatyana Tolstoy has put pen to
Paper…
Exophoric • refers to something external to the text. Looking outward- outside the text. • It
refers to the reader`s general knowledge. • E.g. The president ordered that people have the right
to free internet connection. ➢ The president is the Exophoric Reference because here we are
expected to know who is the president.
• Some linguists see no real distinction between anaphoric and exophoric reference.
Exophoric - Refers to something external to the text. Exophoric • (Looking outward- outside the
text)
• It is an idea which is outside the text and which we are supposed to know without being
mentioned .
• It refers to the reader`s general knowledge. Refers back to a previous word.
Anaphora • (Looking backward)
• Such as : he/she or them ,it, this, here or there. Refers to something that is not mentioned yet.
Cataphora • (Looking Forward)
• Such as : he/she or them ,it, this, here or there.
Ellipsis and Substitution • It is the leaving out of words or phrases from sentences where they
are unnecessary because they have already been referred to or mentioned.
Ellipsis - It is the omission of elements required by the grammar which the speaker/writer
assumes are obvious from the context and therefore need not be raised. E.g. The children will
carry the small boxes, the adults the large ones. E.g. The man went to the door and opened it.
E.g. John ate the apple and Sara a pear. Verb ellipsis Subject ellipsis
English has three types of ellipsis: nominal, verbal and clausal.

✓ The nominal ellipsis often involves omission of a noun headword. Ellipsis ✓ E.g. Nelly Dean
liked the green tiles; myself I preferred the blue. ✓ E.g. Peter was the first person to leave. I was
the second. Nominal ellipsis ✓ E.g. They are few sheets of paper; take two.

❖ Verbal ellipsis involves two types: echoing and auxiliary contrasting. Ellipsis ▪ E.g. A) Will
anyone be waiting? B) Jim, will • “Auxiliary contrasting” when the helping verb changes. •
“Echoing” repeats an element from the verbal group. ▪ E.g. A) Has she remarried? B) No, but she
will one day.

❖ With clausal ellipsis, individual clause may be omitted. Ellipsis • He said he would take early
retirement as soon as he could and he has. • I don’t know how to work this computer. I’ll have to
learn how. to work the computer
Substitution • 3 types of classification are: • Nominal • Verbal • Clausal
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• In the nominal substitution, the most typical substitutional words are ’’ONE and ONES’’ and
they substitute nouns. • E.g. Do you want the blankets? Nominal Substitution for blankets Yes, I
‘ll take one.
Substitution • E.g. A) Did you find the blankets? B) Only the blue one. Nominal Substitution for
blankets • Secondly, In the Verbal substitution, the most common substitute is the verb ‘Do’. •
E.g. Did you sing? Yes, I did. Verbal Substitution for ’’sang’’
Substitution
• Finally, In the clausal substitution, an entire clause is substituted. • For example, I went to lock
the gate, but I found that somebody had already done so. Verbal Substitution for ’’locked the
gate’’
•Another example- The blankets needed to be cleaned. Yup, they did. Clausal Substitution for
’needed to be cleaned’’
Conjunctions
Conjunctions are part of cohesive devices • The conjunction helps us interpret the relation
between clauses.
Conjunctions

❖ There are several ways to show cause-effect relationship:

• He was insensitive. Consequently, there was bad feeling.
• He was insensitive. As a Consequence, there was bad feeling.
• As a Consequence of his insensitivity, there was bad feeling.
Conjunctions
• The wide use of “and”
• She is intelligent, and she’s reliable.
• I lived here for ten years, and I have never heard of this pub.
• He fell in the river and caught a chill.
• I got up and made my breakfast. Additive Causal Temporal sequence Adversative

Cohesion occurs in a text if it has texture. In other words, a text is cohesive when the stretches of
language are hung together with ties (Hasan, 1968). According to Halliday and Hasan (1976),
these ties could be grammatical or lexical. Therefore, if the text makes sense to the reader, then it
is clear that the writer accomplished the use of cohesive devices.

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Ten Characteristics of Written Text
1. Genre/Form: Genre is the type of text that has a characteristic form or features. It is the
system used to classify fiction and nonfiction texts. There are many types of written
genres that include fantasy, biographies, memoir, realistic fiction, forms, bills, brochures, maps,
magazines articles, etc.
2. Text Structure: Structure is the way the text is organized and presented. The structure of
most fiction and biographical texts is narrative, arranged primarily in chronological order.
Factual texts are organized categorically or topically and may have sections with headings.
Writers of factual texts use several underlying structural patterns to provide information to
readers. The most important are description; chronological sequence; comparison and contrast;
cause and effect; and problem and solution. The presence of these structures, especially when
combined, can increase the challenge for readers.
3. Content: Content refers to the subject matter of the text and the concepts that are important to
understand. In fiction, content may be related to the setting or to the kinds of problems characters
experience. In factual texts, content refers to the topic or focus. Content influences the difficulty
of the text based on the prior experience of readers, i.e. the more a reader knows about the topic,
the easier it is to comprehend the text.
4. Themes and Ideas: Themes are big ideas that are communicated by the writer. Ideas may be
concrete and accessible or complex and abstract. A text may have multiple themes or a main
theme and several supporting themes.
5. Language and Literary Features: Written language is qualitatively different from spoken
language. Fiction writers use dialogue, figurative language, and literary structures such as
character, setting, and plot. Factual writers use description and technical language. In hybrid
texts you may find a wide range of literary language.
6. Sentence Complexity: Meaning is mapped onto the structure of language. Texts with simpler,
more natural sentences are easier to process. Sentences with embedded and conjoined clauses
make a text more difficult.
7. Vocabulary: Vocabulary refers to words and their meanings. The more vocabulary words
known and understood in a text, the easier a text is to read.
8. Words: This category refers to recognizing and solving the printed words in the text. The
challenge in a text partly depends on the number and the difficulty of the words that the reader
must solve by recognizing them or decoding them. Having a great many of the same high-
frequency words makes a text easier to read and understand.
9. Illustrations: Drawings, paintings, or photographs accompany the text and add meaning and
enjoyment. In factual texts, illustrations also include graphics that provide a great deal of
information that readers must integrate with the text. Illustrations are an integral part of a high

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quality text. Increasingly, fiction texts include a range of graphics, including labels, heading,
subheadings, sidebars, photos and legends, charts and graphs.
10.After grade one, texts may include graphic texts that communicate information or a story in a
sequence of pictures and words. As text become more difficult, not all illustrations are referenced
or explained in the written text.