第7章　语篇分析

1．Define the following terms briefly.

Key:

·Discourse: A general term for examples of language use, i.e. language which has been produced as the result of an act of communication. It refers to the larger units of language such as paragraphs, conversations, and interviews.

·Discourse analysis: Discourse analysis is also called discourse linguistics and discourse studies, or text analysis. It is an area of linguistics which, like pragmatics, is concerned with language in use, although the distinction can be arguably made that while pragmatics is more concerned with meaning, discourse is more concerned with the information structure.

·Given information: Given information is the information that the addresser believes is known to the addressee.

·New information: New information is the information that the addresser believes is not known to the addressee.

·Topic: The topic represents what the utterance is about.

·Cohesion: Cohesion is an important field of studying discourse analysis, which refers to the grammatical and/or lexical relationships between the different elements of a discourse. This may be the relationship between different sentences or between different parts of a sentence.

·Coherence: Coherence refers to the factor that leads us to distinguish connected discourses which make sense from those which do not.

·Discourse marker: Discourse marker (DM) refers to expressions that are commonly used in the initial position of an utterance and are syntactically detachable from a sentence. These expressions comprise a subset of linguistic expressions though not to affect the propositional content of utterances in which they occur.

·Adjacency pair: Adjacency pair refers to a sequence of two related utterances by two different speakers.

·Preference structure: There can be several second parts to one first part, but they are not of equal status. The structural likelihood is called preference. Preference structure divides second parts into preferred and dispreferred.

·Presequence: The opening sequence that is used to set up some specific potential actions is called presequence.

·Critical discourse analysis: Critical discourse analysis (CDA) is a perspective which studies the relationship between discourse events and sociopolitical and cultural factors especially the way discourse is ideologically influenced by, and can itself influence, power relations in society.

2．What is meant by the term “cohesion” in the study of discourses?

Key: Cohesion is an important field of study in discourse analysis. It refers to the grammatical and/or lexical relationships between the different elements of a discourse. This may be the relationship between different sentences or between different parts of a sentence. Actually, cohesion concerns the question of how sentences are explicitly linked together in a discourse by different kinds of overt devices. Such cohesive devices include reference, substitution, ellipsis, conjunction and lexical cohesion.

3．Say what one is replacing in the following text.

A group of people marching on the road should keep to the left. There should be look-outs in front and at the back wearing reflective clothing at night and fluorescent clothing by day. At night the look-out in front should carry a white light and the one at the back should carry a bright red light visible from the rear.

Key: “One” is used to replace “look-out”.

4．Pick out all the instances of discourse reference in the following text.

At one point the Brundtland report states that ‘‘The loss of plant and animal species can greatly limit the options of future generations; so sustainable development requires the conservation of plant and animal species". What, all of them? At what price? ... At another point the Brundtland report says that economic growth and development obviously involve changes in the physical ecosystem. "Every ecosystem everywhere cannot be preserved intact." Well, that’s a relief. But how can it be made consistent with the earlier objective? Does it mean that it is all right to deprive some people in some parts of the world of a piece of their ecosystem but not others? What justification is there for this discrimination?

Key: Pronouns: them, it;

What, all of them?

But how can it be made consistent with the earlier objective?

Demonstratives: that, this;

Well, that’s a relief.

What justification is there for this discrimination?

Article: the；

The loss of plants and animal species….

Others

“Does it mean…a piece of their ecosystem but not others?”

5．Do you think that the following passage is a coherent discourse? Why or why not?

I bought a Ford. A car in which President Wilson rode down the Champs Elysees was black. Black English has been widely discussed. The discussions between the presidents ended last week. A week has seven days. Every day I feed my cat. Cats have four legs. The cat is on the mat. Mat has three letters.

Key: The following passage is obviously not a coherent discourse. Although the writer uses lots of cohesive devices like lexical cohesion through the repetition of the last word of the previous sentence at the beginning of the second one, the meaning of the whole discourse is unclear. The sentences are irrelevant to each other. A coherent discourse is not simply based on connections between the words. The fact we have to know is that by itself, cohesion would not be sufficient to enable us to make sense of what we read or hear. It is easy to create a highly cohesive discourse but which remains difficult to interpret.

6．Find the general words which contribute to the coherence of the following extract, and discuss how each of these words is used.

And what about interviewing, because you interview a number of politicians like, well, the Prime Minister or the Chancellor or the Exchequer. Is that an easy thing to do and how difficult is it when you’re interviewing people that you don’t particularly agree with or who get difficult with you during an interview?

Key: Words that contribute to the coherence of the extract are: and, because, that, it, or.

Conjunction is one important cohesive device as we study the notion of cohesion. Conjunction involves those short linguistic forms that connect clauses and establish various kinds of relations in between, such as and, or, because.

Another cohesive device used here is the reference words. For example, that, it. These words do not have a self-evident meaning, to work out what they mean on particular occasion, we have to refer to something else. In this extract, both that and it refer to “interviewing politicians”.