1. Estudios del Discurso
U.T.R.V.T – Prof. José Legrand - 2008

2. Contents
 What’s language ?
 Discourse vs. Text
 Sentence vs. Utterance
 The creation of texture
 Presuppositions
 Coherence and cohesion

3. What’s Language?
 “Language is a purely human and
non-instinctive method of
communicating ideas, emotions
and desires by means of
voluntarily produced symbols.”
– Sapir (1921) Language. Harcourt
Brace.
Edward Sapir. Photograph by
Florence M. Hendershot,
Chicago, Ill.

4. Language
 “A language is a system of
arbitrary vocal symbols by means
of which a social group co-
operates.”
– Bloch and Trager. Outline of
Linguistics Analysis. Linguistic
Society of America/ Waverly
Press.

5. Language
 “Language is the institution
whereby humans communicate
and interact with each other by
means of habitually used oral-
auditory arbitrary symbols.”
– Hall. (1968)An Essay on
Language. Chilton Books.
http://edwardthall.com/

6. Language
 “From now on I will consider a
language to be a set of
sentences, each finite in length
and constructed out of a finite set
of elements.”
– Chomsky. Syntactic Structures.
The Hague: Mouton.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Noam_
Chomsky

7.  Linguistics approaches language
through meaning, discourse,
semiotics (or social signification),
as well as through existing
narrative and grammatical
structures.

8.  Theoretical linguistics is mostly
concerned with developing models
of linguistic knowledge. Main
fields:syntax, phonology,
morphology, and semantics.

9.  Applied linguistics : an
interdisciplinary field of study. It
identifies, investigates, and offers
solutions to language-related real
life problems.
Major branches : conversation
analysis, language
assessment, discourse
analysis, language
pedagogy, sociolinguistics, sec
ond language
acquisition, pragmatics, forensi
c linguistics, and translation.

10. WHAT WOULD YOU SAY IS
THE DIFFERENCE
BETWEEN DISCOURSE AND
TEXT?

11. A continuous stretch of language
larger than a sentence, often
constituting a coherent unit, such
as a sermon, argument or
narrative.√
(Crystal 1992: 25)

12. A stretch of language interpreted
formally, without context.√
(Cook 1989: 158)

13. A piece of naturally occurring
spoken, written, or signed
discourse identified for purposes
of analysis. It is often a language
unit with a definable
communicative function, such as a
conversation or a poster.√
(crystal, 1992:72)

14. Stretches of language to be perceived
to be meaningful, unified and
purposive.√
(Cook, 1989:156)

15. •Text: any written record
of a communicative event .
The event may itself
involve oral language or
written language .

16. •Discourse : it refers to
the interpretation of the
communicative event in
context .

17. DISTINCTION BETWEEN WHAT SENTENCES MEAN,
AND WHAT PEOPLE MEAN BY UTTERING THOSE
SENTENCES.
study of sentence/linguistic meaning =
SEMANTICS
study of utterance/speaker meaning =
PRAGMATICS
Sentences have invariant/context-independent
properties—an invariant meaning in virtue of the
meaning of the words.
Utterances are fairly concrete things: they happen;
they’re spoken; they’re heard; they’re out there in the
world. The meaning of an utterance is context-
dependent, in that it depends on the context in which
it is used and the intentions behind its use.

18. • THE CREATION OF TEXTURE

19. • Structural
– Thematic structure
– Information structure
Cohesive
Reference
Ellipsis and substitution
Conjuction
Lexical cohesion

20. • REFERENCE • INFERENCE
An act by which a It’s the listener’s use of
speaker uses a word ,
or words, to enable a additional knowledge
listener to identify to make sense of what
someone or is not explicit in an
something. (Yule, George utterance. (Yule, George –
– 1996:17) 1996:17)

21. Referring expressions
• PROPER NOUNS ( Mr. Burns)
• NOUN PHRASES (The singer /
a nice place)
• PRONOUNS (he, them, its,
yourself)
• DEMONSTRATIVE
PRONOUNS (this, those)

22. • Using reference is tied to all members of a
community who share the same language
and culture.
• There is a pragmatic connection between
proper names and objects.
Ex: Pass me the Shakespeare, will you?
(meaning the book whose author is the famous English play writer)

23. Pragmatics
It’s the study of the choices of
language persons make in social
interaction and of the effects of
these choices on others (Crystal,
1987).

24. • The co-text is the linguistic environment in
which the referring expression is
immersed.
• The context then is the physical
environment.

25. Cohesion is the grammatical and lexical relationship
within a text or sentence.
Cohesion can be defined as the links that hold a text
together and give it meaning.
There are two main types of cohesion:
grammatical: it refers to the structural content
lexical: it refers to the language content of the
piece.

26. A cohesive text is created in many different
ways. In Cohesion in English, M.A.K.
Halliday and Hasan identify five general
categories of cohesive devices that create
coherence in texts:
REFERENCE
CATAPHORIC ANAPHORIC
PERSONAL
DEMONSTRATIVE
COMPARATIVE

27. The president is undergoing a serious crisis.
She is not giving any conferences. Her whole
cabinet is split. This has put the country
under alert.

28. Gorbachev could have become a
cautios modernizer in the
Chinese fashion, promoting
economic reform and sponsoring
new technology while holding
firm against political change.
This did not happen.

29. A: Would you like these
seats?
B: No, as a matter of fact, I’d
like the other seats.

30. SUBSTITUTION AND ELLIPSIS
NOMINAL CLAUSAL
VERBAL

31. CONJUNCTION
ADDITIVE
CAUSAL
ADVERSATIVE
TEMPORAL

32. Soccer as a sport can be very
dangerous. What’s more, fans can be
rather aggressive when the team is
not playing well.

33. Tea is a blend mostly accepted in
Japan. First, it is ground to a dust.
Then it is usually cooked to high
temperatures.

34. I’m awfully bored. However, I will do the
effort and smile.

35. Chinese tea is becoming popular. This is
because it is believed to have health-
giving properties.

36. Other examples of substitution
Nominal
These apples are rotten. These ones are rotten,
too.
Verbal
A. She always studies at night.
B. So do I.
Clausal
A: Are you going to the movies?
B: I think so.

37. Other examples of ellipsis
ELLIPSIS OF SUBJECT + FINITE
A: Marcel isn't here.
B: Never is at this time. Far too early for him.
ELLIPSIS OF SUBJECT + FINITE + PREDICATOR
A: How many are you talking about?
B: About half a dozen.
ELLIPSIS OF RESIDUE
A: Has the jury reached a verdict?
B: We have, your Honor.

38. LEXICAL COHESION
REITERATION COLLOCATION
REPETITION
It’s based on a
tendency of items to
SYNONYM
co-occur in certain
contexts.
SUPERORDINATE
HYPONYMY
ANTONYMY
MERONIMY

39. The newspaper is the best way
to be updated. The newspaper
is concise and popular.

40. You could try by reversing the car up
the slope. The incline isn’t so steep.

41. We were in town today shopping for
furniture. We saw a lovely table.

42. daffodil: n. A very common bell-shaped
pale
yellow flower of early spring.
Longman Dictionary

43. Love can
forgive
everything and
hate nothing.
Hate can’t
forgive
anything and
love
nothing.

44. At its six-month check-up, the brakes had to be
repaired. In general, however, the car was in
good condition.

45. A drug, “angel dust”, is believed to
produce violent reactions in animals and
people. The tranquiliser was used
yesterday to sedate wild bears. Drugging
and releasing the animals is a procedure
followed in inhabited areas. No research
has been done into the effects of giving
other animals repeated doses of
phencyclidine.

46. Verb form Consider Parallelism
also …

47. IT’S THE RELATIONSHIP THAT EXISTS
BETWEEN WORDS AND THINGS.(LYONS.
1992)
REFERENCE
Semantic relationship
IT’S SOMETHING A PERSON USES TO REFER TO
SOMETHING. (STRAWSON’S POINT OF VIEW)

48. i. Theme ( different approaches
to a definiton of theme)
ii. Theme and rheme
• Theme and Rheme
iii. Thematization
iv. Types of themes in functional
linguistics • Given and New
v. Staging
Information
vi. Given and new information
vii. The ethnography of
communication
• Conversational Analysis
viii. Ethnomethodology
ix. Sociolinguistics and the
sociology of discourse
x. Conversational analysis
xi. Turn - taking system
xii. Conversational structure

49. It’s the starting point of the clause message. It
sets up the local context for each clause.
A formal grammatical category, the left-most
constituent of the sentence.
“it’s the discourse process by which a referent
comes to be developed as the central subject of
the discourse.” (Perfetti and Goldman)
 A formal grammatical category which refers
to the initial element in the clause around which
the sentence is organized.

50. THEMATIZATION
The linear organization of the text.
It’s a discoursal process.
~
STAGING
For Clements it’s a dimension of prose
structure. It includes rethorical devices
(lexical selection, alliteration, etc.)

51. THEMES - Points of departure
The president is not willing to give up her position.
What will be the economic consequences for the country?
Fetch me the glass of water, please.

52. For functional linguistics we can
consider three types of themes:
TOPICAL (they have to do with the information
conveyed in the discourse)
INTERPERSONAL (it reveals something of the
attitude of the speaker)
TEXTUAL (it links a clause to the rest of the
discourse)
(Halliday) Language has certain
functions in society.

53. Theme Rheme
Accidentally, when Jason reached number 41 he stopped
Interpersonal Textual Topical
Theme Rheme

54. John kissed Mary.
Rheme
Everything that follows the starting point. It’s
what the speaker states about the starting
point of the utterance.

55. GIVEN AND NEW INFORMATION
GIVEN NEW
• IT’S RELATED TO • IT’S INFORMATION THAT IS
INFORMATION THAT HAS INTRODUCED FOR THE
ALREADY BEEN FIRST TIME.
INTRODUCED OR IS • IT APPEARS BY THE END OF
PRESSUPOSED. THE SENTENCE OR
• IT COMES FIRST IN THE UTTERANCE.
ORDER OF THE SENTENCE. • IT CARRIES TONIC
• IT OCCURS THROUGH PROMINENCE.
PRONOUNS WHEN IT IS IN
CONTEXT.

56. THE THEME TAKES
SPEAKER-
ORIENTED
PROMINENCE. THE NEW ELEMENT HAS
LISTENER-ORIENTED
PROMINENCE.
THEME IS WHAT I
AM TALKING
ABOUT. IT’S WHAT I’M ASKING YOU TO
ATTEND.

57. •The victorious footballers stepped off the plane.
a. Cheering fans immediately swamped them.
b. They were immediately swamped by the cheering fans.
c. They were immediately buffeted by the wind.
d. The wind immediately buffeted them.
e. All the journalists were immediately smiled at by them.
f. They immediately smiled at all the journalists.
What would be the most common choice between the previous
options ?

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U.T.R.V.T – Prof. José Legrand - 2008