Discourse

• Text


  A written form of communication information, which is a non-interactive nature
• Discourse


  Can be form spoken, written, visual and audial form, communicating information that is interactive in nature
• Discourse structure


  The way in which an entire text is organized, e.g. how language is used in a poem, in a newspaper article, or in a speech designed to read aloud
• Text coherence


  • John hid Bill's car keys, He was drunk
  • John hid Bill's car keys, He likes junk food
  • George Bush supports big business, He's sure to veto House Bill 1711
• Coherence


  The reader can easily understand the text, everything is logically arranged and connected, and relevance to the central focus is maintained throughout
• Discourse segmentation


  The process of determining the types of structures that will be used in large amounts of discourse, critical for applications such as information retrieval, text summarization, and information extraction
• Rhetorical structure theory


  A descriptive theory of the organization of natural text, characterizing structure primarily in terms of relations that hold between parts of the text
• Grosz and Sidner's theory

  Discourse structure that stresses the role of purpose and processing in discourse, composed of linguistic structure, intentional structure, and state of focus of attention
• Cohesion


  The sense of connection and flow as one sentence leads into the next, involving the tying together of old and new information
• Cohesion ties

  • Words/phrases used to link different parts of writing, e.g. 'This position complements', 'Rather', 'For example', 'Conversely'
• Cohesive relations


  Ties or binds between components in texts, such as between a personal pronoun and an antecedent proper noun
• Types of cohesive ties

  • Grammatical (reference, substitution, ellipsis, conjunctions)
  • Lexical (reiteration, collocations)
• Critical discourse analysis (CDA)


  A multidisciplinary approach to analyzing language use in social and cultural contexts, examining how language is used to reflect and perpetuate power imbalances, social inequalities, and ideologies
• Principles of CDA


  • Social and political issues are constructed and reflected in discourse
  • Power relations are negotiated and performed through discourse
  • Discourse both reflects and reproduces social relations
  • Ideologies are produced and reflected in the use of discourse
• Doing CDA


  Includes description in context and explanation of why and how discourse works, considering framing, foregrounding, topicalization, and agent-patient relations
• CDA and genre


  • Hong Kong government's promotion of 'Asia's World City'
• CDA and framing


  Examining how the content of a text is framed
• CDA and multimodality


  Analyzing how texts are constructed not just by words but by the combination of words, pictures, films, video images, and sounds
• CDA and identity


  Examining how identity is constructed in discourse
• CDA and the World Wide Web


  Using texts from the World Wide Web for CDA, considering issues of source, authority, author, and going beyond just words
• Criticisms of CDA


  • Should include discussion with producers and consumers of texts
  • Does not always consider the role of the reader
  • Does not provide detailed and systematic analysis of texts
  • Analyst should be more critical and demanding of the tools of analysis
  • Relies too much on the analyst's interpretation
• Corpus linguistics


  A methodology involving computer-based empirical analyses of language use in large collections of naturally occurring texts, to identify linguistic characteristics and patterns
• Post-structuralism


  A theoretical framework that challenges the structuralist approach, emphasizing the instability and plurality of meaning, and how language constructs and deconstructs social realities, identities, and power relations
• Advantages of corpus-based discourse analysis

  • Empirical foundation
  • Quantitative analysis
  • Comparative studies
  • Replicability and transparency
• Critical social constructivist research


  Examines how language constructs social reality, identities, and power relations, emphasizing the role of discourse in shaping social norms, practices, and inequalities
• Mann and Thompson’s Rhetorical structure theory(1988)- a descriptive theory of a major aspect of the organization of natural text. It is a linguistically useful method for describing natural texts, characterizing their structure primarily in terms of relations that hold between parts of the text.
• Grammatical


  Established with the use of grammatical elements of the text expressing the semantic relation within and between the sentences
• Reference


  Linguistic forms which identify or refer to something
• Types of Reference


  • Personal Reference
  • Demonstrative Reference
  • Comparative Reference
• Personal Reference


  I, me, mine, it, he, she, her, etc.
• Demonstrative Reference


  This, that, those, etc.
• Comparative Reference


  Refers by means of identity or similarity through the use of such words as same, equal, etc.
• Substitution


  The replacement of a word or phrase with a "filler" word to avoid repetition
• Types of Substitution