English Language - Discourse

• authoritative tone


  mode of address to audience that seems bossy or authoritarian
• cataphoric reference


  a word or group of words that links forward to a reference in a text
• anaphoric reference


  a word or group of words that link backward to a reference in a text
• cohesive features


  phases or words that help the reader associate one part of a text with another and help it glue together
• discourse


  the structure of any text that is longer than a single sentence
• discourse marker


  marks a change in direction in an extended piece of writing or spoken text
• ellipsis


  where words are omitted because the context makes it clear what is meant
• polemic


  a single-sided point of view, strongly argued
• narrative


  any report of connected events, actual or imaginary, presented in a sequence of written or spoken words, or still or moving images
• problem-solution structure

  a discourse structure which illustrates a problem and then presents a solution to that problem
• question-answer structure


  a discourse structure which articulates a question or puzzle and then presents an answer or solution
• repetition


  a literary device that repeats the same words or phrases a few times to make an idea clearer.
• synthetic personalisation


  making it appear as though the text is personally addressed to the reader / listener, even when it is actually to a mass audience
• topic shift


  in a conversation when a speaker changes the subject or topic of the existing conversation
• discursive structure


  a discourse structure that offers a range of perspectives on a topic
• linear


  a text in which the discourse is organised into some sort of sequence; implied expectation that the reader will read the text in the order in which it appears
• non-linear


  a text with no expected sequence for reading - the cohesion may be less obvious and this may be reflected in the layout
• Cohesion


  semantic connections that exist within a text to make it meaningful
• inference


  the writer may assume the reader has prior knowledge and make reference assuming the other person would understand from the context
• logical ordering


  a reasonable or sensible way of sequencing elements
• formatting


  how the text is set out
• Consistency


  formatting and conventions being used in a reasonably predictable manner
• conventions


  the standards or rules that you expect a discourse to follow
• synonymy


  the use of different, but similar words for the same referent
• antonymy


  using lexemes with opposite meanings
• hyponymy


  a word of more specific meaning than a general term
• collocation


  phrases or pairs of words that frequently occur together
• clefting


  dividing a sentence into 2 clauses to shift the focus of interest
• front focused


  placing constituents that are usually at the end of the sentence at the front drawing attention and emphasizing the front
• End focus


  A change in the structure of the sentence to place emphasis on a closing sentence element
• Anaphoric reference


  an expression that refers to something that was previously mentioned
• Cataphoric reference


  an expression that refers forward to another expression following it
• Deictic expressions


  an expression that refers to something beyond the text in the actual environment of the discourse
• Repetition

  repeating of lexemes to reinforce the subject matter
• substitution


  replacing an element in a clause with another
• adverbials


  variety of lexemes or phrases that link clauses or sentences together
• Adjacency pairs

  ritualistic clauses/sentences that are conventionally used
• Overlapping speech


  when 2 interlocutors say something at the same time
• interrogative tags


  reduced questions that are tacked in to the end of declarative sentences
• Discource Particles


  meaningless expressions which play crucial roles in conversation