DISCOURSE

Discourse can be defined as language beyond the sentence.

Discourse Analysis: is typically concerned with the study of language in text and
conversation. It studies the effect of context on meaning of the utterances.

Components of Discourse
A) Cohesion: is the syntactic and linguistic relations between sentences.

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.
• There are connections present here in the use of words to maintain reference to the
same people and things: father-he-he, I-my, Lincoln-it-that car-convertible
• However, by itself cohesion would not be sufficient to enable us to make sense of
what we read.

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 phone
call.
In this text above, there are also connections : Lincoln-the car, red- the color, her-she,
letter-a letter... But the text is not meaningful.
 Cohesive Devices
1) Reference: It is the relationship that holds between a word or expression and
the objects it refers to.

a)Endophoric Reference: references to elements in the text. (anaphora, cataphora)

Anaphora : referring backto a previous word that has already been mentioned.
The students studied really hard for their tests.
Antecedent anaphora

Cataphora: referring to an entity mentioned later in the text.

It has four legs. The cow is a domestic animal.
Cataphora

b)Exophoric Reference: The referent is not stated in the text.

Did you see that?
I like it.
2) Conjunction: the words that link or connect words, phrases in sentences to
reach a connectedness in the linguistic text.
She didn't want to drink alcoholic drinks every day. However, beer is her favorite
drink, so she drinks non-alcoholic beer every day.

3) Ellipsis: lefting out the previously used word, phrase or clause in order not to
repeat unnecessarily. The context of what has been saif or written makes the
meaning clear without the words being there.

R E
- They were going to have a big wedding but they’ve decided not to have a big

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wedding.

A AŞ
- I went shopping in the morning and went to the doctors in the afternoon.

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U N
A: Will you come to the party with me?

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- B: I will. Come to the party with you.

A
4) Substitution: replacing a word that is previously used, with another word.
Common words to do is: do, does, one, ones, there, here, then..

- He’s sure he’ll pas the exam, but I don’t think so

- I’m sure you’ll finish before I do.
- He’ll go next month. I think I’ll go then too.
- A new theme park has opened near me but I’ve never been there.
- I really loved your biscuits. Can I have another one?

5) Lexical Cohesion: Cohesion in a text can also be constructed by employing

lexical units.
a) Reiteration: involves the repetition of same word or phrase, a synonym or
near-synonym, hyponym
Henry has bought a new jaguar. He practically lives in the car. (hyponym-
superordinate)
There is a boy climbing that tree. The lad is going to fall if he doesn’t take care.
(near synonym.)
There was an old structure. The building collapsed. (synonym)
b) Collocation: is the way in which particular words tend to occur or belong
together.
I ate butter and bread.

B) Coherence: is semantic relatedness and logical order of the statements.

Her: That’s the telephone.

Him: I’m in the bath.
Her: OK.
She makes a request of him to perform. He states the reason why he cannot comply
with the request. She undertakes to perform action.
* Even if these sentences do not have any cohesive links, they are meaningful.
Language-users must have a lot of knowledge of how conversation works that is not
simply ‘linguistic’ knowledge.
Conversation Analysis:
Conversation analysis (CA) is an approach to the study of social interaction,
embracing both verbal and non-verbal conduct, in situations of everyday life.

1) Turn-taking: refers to the process by which people in a conversation decide

who is to speak next.
2) Adjacency Pairs: It is a particular type of turn-taking. The turns are
functionally related to each other in such a way that the first turn requires a
certain type of second turn.
Request-Acceptance or Refusal
Offer/invite- Acceptance or refusal
Question-answer
Assessment-Agreement or Disagreement
3) Completion Point: is the signal to indicate that someone has finished talking.
4) Filled Pauses: Any spoken sound or word used to fill gaps in speech. Uh, um,
and well are common filled pauses.
The Co-operative Principle
Make your conversational contribution such as is required, at the stage at which
occurs, by the accepted purpose or direction of the talk exchange in which you are
engaged. (Paul Grice)

Maxim of Conversation/Gricean Maxims

1) The Quantity Maxim: Make your contribution as informative as is required,
but not more or less than is required.
-Where are you going?
- I am going to the library.

2) The Quality Maxim: Do not say that which you believe to be false or for which
you lack adequate evidence.

3) The Relation Maxim: be relevant

4) The Manner Maxim: be clear, brief and olderly. Avoid obscurity, ambiguity
Violations of Maxims:
The earth is square. (violation of maxim of quality)

A: What do you think about the political news on TV today?

B: They are Ok. ( violation of maxim of quantity.)

A:Do you like sports?

B:I like my school. ( violation of maxim of relevance)

I don’t want to see my son with glasses. ( violation of maxim of manner)

Hedges:can be defined as words or phrases used to indicate that we’re not really
sure that what we’re saying is sufficiently correct or complete.
As far as I know...
I may be mistaken, but...
I’m not sure if this is right, but...
Correct me if I am wrong, but...
**These are examples of hedges on the quality maxim.
Implicature: It is an additional conveyed meaning. That is the possible implications
or inferences that can be taken out of the text/the utterance.
A: Are you going to the party tonight?
B: I’ve got an exam tomorrow.
**Even if B does not explicitly say that he is not coming, A can deduce it.

Background Knowledge: is an information that is not in a text, but is used from

memory by a reader to understand the text.
In order to describe this term, the concepts of schema and script are used.

Schema: is a general term for a conventional knowledge structure that exists in

memory.
Ex: Supermarket schema ( food displayed on shelves, arranged in aisles, shopping
carts and baskets etc.)
Script: is essentially a dynamic schema.
Ex: going to the supermarket, going to the dentist, eating in a restaurant
---------- refers to omitting a word or word phrase in a linguistic context without any
meaning loss in the message in order not to repeat unnecessary parts.
Choose the alternative that best completes the given statement.
A) Elision
B) Substitution
C) Deletion
D) Ellipsis
E) Co-text

Paul: I don’t think I can manage the task alone. Can you help me?
Sarah: Why not?
What is the function of the question asked by Sarah in the given dialogue?
F) Responding positively to a suggestion
G) Asking for permission
H) Seeking another’s opinion
I) Challenging another’s opinion
J) Making a suggestion
Which of the following is not an element of Grice’s Co-Operative Principle?
A) Quantity
B) Quality
C) Relevance
D) Implicature
E) Manner

Grice’s cooperative principle is elaborated further in four basic maxims of

conversation: quality, quantity, manner and relevance.
Which of the following statements is not required by these maxims?
F) Avoid ambiguity and obscurity
G) Make appropriate contributions to the conversation, giving requested
information
H) Do not say what you believe to be false
I) Do not make your contribution longer even when it is required
J) Do not make your contribution more informative than is required
 NEUROLINGUISTICS
It is the study of the neural mechanism in the human brain that control the
comprehension, production, and acqusition of language.

LANGUAGE AREAS IN THE BRAIN

The Localization View: Specific aspects of language ability can be accorded specific
locations in the brain.

1) Hypothalamus: is involved in different daily activities like eating or drinking, in

the control of the body's temperature and energy maintenance, and in the
process of memorizing and in stress control. It also modulates the endocrine
system.
2) Amygdala: controls emotional responses and helps your brain store
memories.

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3) Frontal Lobes: are important for voluntary movement, expressive language
and for managing higher level executive functions. Executive functions refer to

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a collection of cognitive skills including the capacity to plan, organise, initiate,

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self-monitor and control one's responses in order to achieve a goal.

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4) Corpus Callosum: The two hemispheres in your brain are connected by a thick

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bundle of nerve fibres called the corpus callosum that ensures both sides of

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the brain can communicate and send signals to each other.
5) Cerebellum: receives the information from sensory systems and then
organizes and regulates motor movements. It coordinates voluntary
movements such as posture, balance and coordination. It takes part in motor
learning.
Lateralization:
The lateralization of brain function is the tendency for some neural functions or
cognitive processes to be specialized to one side of the brain or the other.

Contralateral Brain Function: The hemispheres of the brain control the contralateral
sides of the body. So the left side of the brain controls the right side of the body and the
right side of the brain controls the left side of the body.
Plasticity of the Brain:
It is the ability of hemispheres to take care of each other’s responsibilities when the
person is young. Brain loses its plasticity after a certain age.

The Ciritical Period Hypothesis:

During childhood, there is a period when the human brain is most ready to receive
input and learn a particular language. This is called as Critical Period or Sensitive
Period.

R E
The critical period for first language acquisition lasts from birth until puberty.

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If a child does not acquire language during this period, for any one of a number of

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reasons, then s/he will find it almost impossible to learn language later on.

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* After the critical period, the brain loses its plasticity. That’s why the right brain

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cannot take care of language skills on behalf of the left brain.
Dichotic Listening:
The right hemisphere of the brain controls the left side of the body and the left
hemisphere of the brain controls the right side of the body. ( contralateral brain
function) So a basic assumption would be that a signal coming in the right ear will
go to the left hemisphere and a signal coming in the left ear will go to the right
hemisphere. Dichotic listening is a study conducted to prove this fact.

A person sits with a set of earphones on and s/he is given two different sound
signals simultaneously, one through each earphone. When s/he asked to say what

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was heard, s/he more often correctly identifies the sound that came via right ear

Z İ R
because left hemisphere is responsible for language ability and the right ear signals

Ş
will go to the left hemisphere. This is called ‘right ear advantage’ for linguistic
sounds.

N A TA
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In dichotic listening, it can be shown that non-verbal sounds (music, cough, traffic

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noises, birds singing) are recognized more often via the left ear.

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So, among the specializations of the human brain, the right hemisphere is the first
choice for non-language sounds and the left hemisphere specializes in language
sounds among other things.
Split-Brain: removing the Corpus Callosum that connects the right and left
hemisphere.
Split-brain patients are the people who have had their hemispheres surgically
seperated as a treatment for epilepsy. Some studies are conducted on these
people.
When they are asked to read a word with their left eyes, they can not. However
when they are asked to read it with their right eyes, they can read it Becase the left
brain is responsible for language and the right side of the body controls the left
brain.
It is a proof for brain lateralization and contralateral brain functions.

APHASIA:
It is the neurological term for any language disorder that results from brain damage
caused by disease or trauma. Damage to different parts of the brain results in
distinct types of aphasia.

A) Broca’s Aphasia ( Motor Aphasia/Agrammatic Aphasia)

It is seen after a damage to the Broca’s area( the front part of the left hemisphere)
in the brain.
Broca’s Aphasia causes:
-omission of the function words (articles,pronouns)
-having problem with the production: slow, hesitant, effortful speech
-difficulty with syntax
-comprehension is better than the production
Ex: I eggs and eat and drink coffee breakfast

B)Wernicke’s Aphasia: (jargon aphasia/sensory aphasia)

It results from damage to the Wernicke’s area (posterior speech cortex)
People suffering from Wernicke’s aphasia:
-can produce fluent speech which is diffciult to make sense of
-have difficulty in finding the correct word (anomia)
-cannot form coherent sentences

C)Conduction Aphasia:
Results from the damage to the arcuate fasciculus.(the part that connects Wernicke’s
area and Broca’s Aphasia).
-mispronouncation of words
-fluent but hesitant speech with pauses
-repetition of a word or word phrase is the major problem
Dyslexia:
Dyslexia is a learning disorder that involves difficulty reading due to problems
identifying speech sounds and learning how they relate to letters and words. Also
called reading disability, dyslexia affects areas of the brain that process language.

Dysgraphia:
Dysgraphia is a neurological disorder of written expression that impairs writing
ability and fine motor skills. People suffering from dysgraphia have difficulties with
spelling, poor organization of written language, problems of holding the line.

Anomia:
Anomia is a mild, fluent type of aphasia where individuals have word retrieval
failures and cannot express the words they want to say (particularly nouns and
verbs).
INSTANT SPEECH ERRORS
1) The Tip of The Tongue Phenomenon:
TOT is the failure to retrieve a word from memory. ( we know the word but it just
won’t come to the surface). We can get the initial soun correct and mostly know the
number of syllables in the word. This mainly occurs with uncommon words.
When we mistake in this retrieval process, we produce words that have strong
phonological similarities with the target word.
Ex: fire distinguisher-fire extinguisher , photographic memory-photogenic memory
** This types of mistakes are called malapropism.

2) Slips of the Tongue/Spoonerism:

Spoonerism is an error in speech which generally involves interchanging of two
initial sounds or two words.
Long story short- long shory stort, use the door to open the key

3) Slips of the Ear:

Slips of the ears are misperceptions of an intended speech signal.
Hearing the ‘gray tape’ as ‘great ape’