Discourse Analysis

An Introduction

Cris Martnez 2010
What do we mean when we refer to
DA?
DISCOURSE ANALYSIS



TEXTUAL LINGUISTICS CRITICAL DISCOURSE
ANALYSIS

Enouncing Theory Transdisciplinary studies
Textual Grammar
Pragmatics
Sociolinguistics
Psycholinguistics
Some Concepts of Language
Francis Dineen(1965)
LANGUAGE IS
Sound
Linear
Systematic
Meaningful
Arbitrary
Conventional
Creative
Unique
Redundant
Charles Hockett (1965)
KEY PROPERTIES OF LANGUAGE
Arbitrariness
Productivity
Interchangeability
Displacement
Specialization
Duality
Cultural Transmission
Prevarication
Ferdinand de Saussure(1915)
LANGUAGE DICHOTOMIES
Social / Individual
Arbitrary / Conventional
Abstract / Concrete
Static / Dynamic
Pertinent / Non Pertinent
When Language DOES NOT
communicate
Twas brillig, and the sluthy toves
Did gyre and gimble in the wabe.

Colorless green ideas sleep furiously

Eine andere Welt ist mglich!

Tobinskett ska infras och skettenparadisen avskaffas

Dos hechos que repercutirn en las elecciones. Cmo fue la interna
de la Corte. Qu se viene. Qu har el gobierno para diferir otra
sentencia que lo perjudique. Los banqueros presionan al oficialismo,
que no es unnime en la resistencia. Singh pas en silencio. Sus
dudas sobre la poltica y sus certezas sobre la economa. La
defensa oficialista del senador pirmano y sus brechas. El piloto
automtico out of order. (10-03-03)
FUNCTIONALISTS
Mihail Bakhtin (1895-1965)

Roman Jakobson (1896 -1982)

Michael Halliday (1925 - )
Ferdinand De Saussure (1857 -1913)

Emile Benveniste (1902 1976)

John Austin (1911 1960)
John Searle (1932 - )
Paul Grice (1913 -1988)

Mihail Bahktin
- importance to the speaking subject

- language for communication

- language is social/dialogic

- speech genres

Diagram courtesy of Professor Don Keefer, Rhode Island School of Design
http://www.cyberartsweb.org/cpace/theory/luco/Hypersign/Jakobson.html
Jakobsons Poetic Function
The poetic function projects the principle of
equivalence from the axis of selection into
the axis of combination.

Selection: paradigmatic relations
(synomyms, antonyms and so on)

Combination: syntagmatic relations

The Raven
Edgar Allan Poe

Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered, weak and
weary,
Over many a quaint and curious volume of forgotten lore
While I nodded, nearly napping, suddenly there came a
tapping,
As of some one gently rapping, rapping at my chamber
door.
Tis some visitor, I muttered, tapping at my chamber door
Only this and nothing more.
A non-poetic version of The Raven
Once upon a midnight dullness, while I thought, feeble and
tired,
Over many a quaint and curious volume of forgotten
knowledge
While I nodded, nearly sleeping, suddenly there came a
blowing,
As of some one gently knocking, knocking at my bedroom
door.
Tis some visitor, I said, tapping at my bedroom door
Only this and nothing else.
A very practical way of
understanding the Poetic Function
Si te quiero es porque sos
amo
adoro
mi amor, mi cmplice, y todo
media naranja
cmplice
peor es nada
todo
y en la calle, codo a codo
juntos
abrazados
arrimados
somos mucho ms que dos
una pareja
novios
amantes
(Mario Benedetti)
Some more help?
Complete the following:
- Sus ojos se llenaron de
- Los miedos que nos
- A menudo los labios ms urgentes, no
tienen prisa dos despus
- He headed

Guess What?
- Sus ojos se llenaron de amaneceres.
(Man)
- Los miedos que nos miedan.(Ivn Noble)
- A menudo los labios ms urgentes, no
tienen prisa dos besos despus.(Andrs
Calamaro)
- He headed pigwards. (T.S. Elliot)


Michael Halliday
FUNCTIONAL GRAMMAR
Language is the way it is because it serves
different functions...
- ideational function

- interpersonal function

- textual function
Emile Benveniste
(A NeoSaussurean)
Nature of human language
How language becomes discourse
The concept of utterance (the
process/product dialectic)
How is subjectivity built
semiotic vs. semantic


I /YOU
Language becomes discourse when someone
starts speaking and grabs language to make it
his/her own.

Our subjectivity (the building of the self) can only
be built because of the existance of language via
these pronouns.

The notion of time
Adverbs

John Austin/John Searle
(Oxford School /philosophers of language)
How to Do Things with Words (1962)

Speech Act Theory
(Performative verbs, performative speech acts)

Three levels for analyzing utterances:
locutionary level
Illocutionary force
Perlocutionary effect

H.P. Grice
THE COOPERATIVE PRINCIPLE
Four maxims:
Maxim of Manner
Maxim of Quantity
Maxim of Quality
Maxim of Relevance *

* This was later developed in a completely new approach, the Theory of
Relevance by Sperber and Wilson
For communication to be effective,
felicity conditions are necessary
(an adequate context of situation)

If the maxims are broken or flouted,
understanders resort to

Conventional implicatures
Conversational implicatures

THANKS FOR
SHARING THIS
CLASS WITH ME!