Discourse Studies

hagustien@yahoo.com
 Discourse

Definition
 Common concern
 Abstract
 Realised in communication
 Realised by language
 Realised by texs
 Discourse

Definition
 Language use beyond sentence
 Language use in contexts
 Social practice
 Language in a social-semiotic
perspective
 ‘Social semiotic’ as a general ideology
 As an intellectual stance
 As conceptual angle of the subject
 Semiotics

 A general study of signs

 A study of meanings in most general sense
 Linguistics is a kind of semiotics
 Culture is a set of semiotic systems, a set of
systems of meanings, all of which interrelate.
 Examples

 Traffic lights
 Colours
 Language (sounds, letters)
 Interpretation of colours (salted eggs,
navy blue)
 Language as social
semiotic
 Used by a community
 Based on convention
 At all levels: word, phrase, sentence,
text
 Text

 Discourse is realised by texts

 Communication happens in text
 Text is central to discourse analysis
 What is text?
 CULTURE
Genre (Purpose)

Situation

Who is involved?
(Tenor)

Subject matter Channel

(Field) (Mode)

Register

TEXT
 Text

 It is a semantic unit.
 Something is called a text when it is
meaningful.
 It is spoken and written.
 It is not a phonological or a
graphological unit.
 It occurs in a context of situation.
 Context of situation

There are three elements

 Subject matter (field)
 Participants involved (tenor)
 Channel (mode)
 Context of culture

 Every culture produces text types.

 A text type is a genre
 Two general purposes: Transactional
and Interpersonal genres
 Transactional: to get something done
 Interpersonal: for different purposes
of communication
 Basic English genres
 Procedure  News item
 Descriptive  Discussion
 Narrative  Explanation
 Recount  Exposition
 report  Review
 Text analysis

 Needs linguistic analysis

 Interpretation is based on linguistic
evidence
 Text analysts need the right ‘knife’ to
cut the right ‘bread’
 Different ‘knives’ for different ‘bread’
 Discourse analysis

 How texts relate to contexts of situation and

context of culture
 How texts are produced as a social practice
 What texts tell us about happenings, what
people think, believe etc.
 How texts represent ideology (power struggle
etc.)
 Text & Discourse Analyses
(Nunan, 1993)
 Text analysis is the study of formal linguistic devices
that distinguish a text from random sentences.
 Discourse analysts study these text-forming devices
with reference to the purposes and functions for which
the discourse was produced, and the context within
which the discourse was created. The ultimate goal is
to show how the linguistic elements enable language
users to communicate.
 Communication

 Exchange of meanings
 Happens in texts
 See the following diagram onn stratification
and metafunctions
CULTURAL LEVEL

Discourse Semantic Level

Textual
Interpersonal

Lexicogrammatical
Level

Ideational

Phonology/
Graphology
Level
 Stratification

 Discourse semantic level

 Leexico-grammatical level
 Phonological / graphological level

All of these are related by realisation

 Metafunctions
(Abstract Meanings)
 Ideational meanings
 Interpersonal meanings
 Textual meanings
 Logical meanings
 Ideational Meanings
 Meanings about phenomena
 About things and goings on
 About circumstances surrounding the
happenings and doings
 Realised in wordings through Participants,
Processes and Circumstancees
 Centrally influenced by the field of discourse
 Examples

Polar bears eat fish

Participant: Process: Participant:

Actor Material Goal

Polar bears are good hunters

Participant: Process: Participant:
Carrier Attributive Attribute
 The Mountain
Long ago, a great mountain began to rumble and shake.
People came from far and near to see what would
happen.
“A great river will be born,” said one.
“A mighty dragon will come out,” said another.
“A god himself will spring from these rocks,” said a third.
Finally, a small crack appeared in the mountainside. And
out popped a mouse.
 Interpersonal meanings

 Express a speaker’s attitudes and judgements

 For acting upon and with others
 Realised in wordings through MOOD and
modality.
 Most centrally influenced by tenor of discourse
 Examples
(Gerot and Wignell 1995:13)

• Declarative:
 We inspect the growing plants every week
• Imperative:
 Brock, get those plants inspected right now!

Consider the interpersonal relations between speakers.

 examples

 Brock, do you really expect me to believe this

crap?
 Mr. Brock, I find your position unatenable

Consider the degree of informality or formality

 Examples

 Mr. Brock is a fine, upstanding employee.

 Brock is a lazy, incompetent fool.

Consider the attitudinal lexis which express

affect, the degree of like and dislike
 Examples: Modality
 Unfortunately, Brock is an inspector.
 Fortunately, Brock is an inspector.

Consider the Mood Adjunct which reveal attitude or judgment.

• The crop might be inspected.

• The crop should be inspected
• The crop must be inspected

Consider modal operators revealing the speaker’ certainty.

 The Prayer
I pray you'll be our eyes
And watch us where we go
And help us to be wise
In times when we don't know

Let this be our prayer

As we go our way
Lead us to a place
Guide us with your Grace
To a place where we'll be safe
 Love Changes Everything

Love, love changes everything
Hands and faces, birds and sky
Love, love changes everything
How you live and how you die
Love can make the summer fly
Or a night seem like a lifetime
Yes, love, love changes everything
Now I tremble at your name
Nothing in the world will ever be
the same
Love, love changes everything
Days are longer, words mean more
Love, love changes everything
Pain is deeper than before
Love will turn your world around
And that world would last forever
Yes, love, love changes everything
Brings you glory, brings you shame
Nothing in the world will ever be the
same
Love, into the world we go
Planning future, shaping years
Love does its acts suddenly
All our wisdom disappears
Love makes moves on everyone
All the rules we make are broken
Yes, love, love changes everything
Live or perish in its name
Love will never, never let you be the
same
 Textual Meanings

 Express the relation of language to its

environment (including what has been spoken
or written before).
 Realised through patterns of Theme and
cohesion.
 Most centrally influenced by mode of discourse
 The linguistic differences between the following spoken and
written texts below relate primarily to differences in thematic
choices and patterns of cohesion.

 This is yer phone bill and you hafta go to the

Post Office to pay it – uh, by next Monday –
that’s what this box tells ya – or they’ll cut yer
phone off!

 All phone bills must be paid by the date shown

or service will be discontinued.
The relationship between context, meanings
and wordings
Context Text
Semantics Lexicogrammar
(meanings) (wordings)

Field Ideational Transitivity

(what is going on) (Processes, Participants,
Circumstances

Tenor Interpersonal Mood and Modality

(Social relations) (Speech roles, attitudes)

Mode Textual Theme, Cohesion

(Contextual coherence)
 Genre

 It has communicative purpose

 It has generic structure (particular stages;
distinctive beginnings, middles and ends
 It has linguistic features
 Procedure
Tujuan Komunikatif Teks:
Memberi petunjuk cara melakukan
sesuatu melalui serangkaian tindakan
atau langkah. 
Struktur Teks:
· Tujuan kegiatan atau judul;
· Bahan-bahan;
· Langkah-langkah. 
 Procedure
Ciri Kebahasaan:
· pola kalimat imperative, misalnya, Cut, Don’t mix, dsb.
• action verbs, misalnya turn, put, don’t, mix, dsb.

• connectives untuk mengurutkan kegiatan, misalnya

then, while, dsb.
· adverbials untuk menyatakan rinci waktu, tempat,
cara yang akurat, misalnya for five minutes, 2
centimetres from the top, dsb.
 Descriptive
 Tujuan Komunikatif :
Mendeskripsikan ciri-ciri seseorang, suatu benda atau tempat
tertentu. 
 Struktur Teks:

* Pengenalan benda, orang atau sesuatu yang akan dideskripsikan.

* Deskripsi: menggambarkan ciri-ciri benda tersebut,misalnya berasal
dari mana, warnanya, ukurannya, kesukaannya dsb. Deskripsi ini
hanya memberikan informasi mengenai benda atau orang tertentu
yang sedang dibahas saja, misalnya deskripsi tentang ‘My Dog’. Ciri-
ciri ‘anjing saya’ tersebut dapat berbeda dengan anjing yang lain.
 Descriptive
Ciri Kebahasaan:
• nouns tertentu, misalnya teacher, house,my
rabbit, dsb.
• simple present tense.
• detailed noun phrase untuk memberikan
informasi tentang subjek, misalnya She a sweet
young lady.
• berbagai macam adjectives, yang bersifat
describing, numbering, classifying, mis: two
strong legs, two white fangs, dsb.
• relating verbs untuk memberikan informasi
tentang subjek, misalnya, My mum is realy cool,
It has very thick fur, dsb.
 Recount
Tujuan komunikatif:
Melaporkan peristiwa, kejadian atau kegiatan
dengan tujuan memberitakan atau menghibur.
Struktur teks:
* Pendahuluan (orientasi), yaitu memberikan
informasi tentang apa, siapa, di mana dan kapan;
*  Laporan (rentetan) peristiwa, kegiatan yang terjadi,
yang biasanya disampaikan secara berurut;
*  Komentar pribadi dan/atau ungkapan penilaian (jika
ada
 Recount
Ciri kebahasaan:
*  nouns dan pronouns sebagai kata ganti orang, hewan atau benda
yang terlibat, misalnya David, the monkey, we dsb.
* action verbs atau kata kerja tindakan, misalnya go, sleep, run dsb.
*  past tense, misalnya We went to the zoo; She was happy dsb.
* conjunctions dan time connectives yang mengurutkan peristiwa,
kejadian atau kegiatan, misalnya and, but, then, after that, dsb.
* adverbs dan adverb phrases untuk mengungkap tempat, waktu dan
cara, misalnya yesterday, at my house, slowly dsb.
*  adjectives untuk menerangkan nouns, misalnya beautiful, funny, dsb
 Cohesion

 Resources within language that provide

continuity in a text over and above that
provided by clause and clause complex
structure
 Cohesive relations are non-structural relations
which work to help a text hang together.
 Kinds of relationship

 Reference
 Lexical cohesion
 Conjunction
 Reference

 Refers to systems which introduce and track

the identity of Participants through text
 Related to textual meaning, and thus to mode
 Displays different patterns between spoken
and written text
Two Aspects of Reference

 Systems of reference
 Retrieval
 System of Reference

There are three main distinctions to make:

whether the
 Participant is being mentioned for the first time
in the text (presenting), or whether it is a
subsequent mention (presuming)
 Reference is to a generic class or to specific
individual
 Reference is comparative or not.
Systems of Reference
generic
specific

presenting
presuming

+ comparison
- comparison
 Retrieval
 Anaphora: points the reader or listener ‘backwards’ to a
previously mentioned entity, process or state of affairs.
 Homophora: retrieval of identity with reference to the context of
culture / situation, or from within or outside the text. E.g. When
I woke up, the sun was shining. ‘The sun’ is a culturally shared
knowledge.
 Exophora: retrieval from outside the text. E.g. That koala over
there is really sleepy. Esp. in spoken text.
 Endophora: Retrieval from within the text. There are two types:
anaphora and cataphora.
 Endophora
 Anaphora:
Some snakes, though not venomous, are still deadly. They
squeeze their victim to death.

 Cataphora:
It was a venomous one, that small green snake.

 Bridging:
We walk towards the kiosk but the windows were bolted shut.
 Lexical Cohesion
 Refers to the relationships between and among words
in a text
 Primarily related to field
 Field tends to have specialised vocabularies and
tends to engage in specialised activities.
 Reveals interpersonal meanings through use of
attitudinal lexis and qualitative attributes.
 Categories of Lexical Cohesion
 Repetition
 Synonymy: leave, depart
 Antonymy: leave, arrive
 Hyponymy (superordination): flower, rose; rose-
daffodil
 Meronymy (whole-part relation): flower, petals
 Equivalence: the sailor was their daddy.
 Naming: They call their puppy Fluffy.
 Semblance: They could see their white caps
looking like seahorses.
 Conjunction

 Conjunction is the semantic system

whereby speakers relate clauses in
terms of temporal sequence,
consequence, comparison and
addition.