Discourse Analysis

Course Code ENG 429

Section 940
Course Credits 3
Level 8
Assessment Second Mid-Term
Textbook Coulthard, M. (1985). An Introduction to Discourse Analysis
Course Instructor Dr. Abdul Raoof Kanhir
Instructor Office Hours
Monday 14.00-15:00
Tuesday 13.00-15.00
 Concept of Face
Definition
* The concept of face as a sociological term was established by
the American sociologist Erving Goffman.
* Goffman first introduced 'face' into social theory in his 1955
article On Face-work: An Analysis of Ritual Elements of Social
Interactions
* Goffman defines face as 'the positive public image you seek
to establish in social interactions’.
* Individuals are emotionally attached to the face. They feel
good when their face has been protected. In contrast, a loss
of face through criticism, or disagreements can result in
emotional pain or distress.
* In discourse studies, face is our public self-image – or in other
words, our sense of dignity or prestige in social contexts.
 Politeness Principle

* Politeness theory is based on Goffman's concept of

face with a particular focus on how and why we are
polite to others.
* It was developed by Penelope Brown and Stephen
Levinson in the 1970s. The theory works on the
assumption that we have two different examples of
face: Positive face and Negative face.
- Positive face is an individual's desire to be liked and
appreciated by others.
- Negative face is an individual's desire to protect
their personal rights, such as their freedom of
speech and action.
 Face Threatening Acts (FTAs)

Many speech acts constitute a threat to the face of the listener. Such
speech acts are called Face Threatening Acts (or FTAs).

Face-threatening act occurs when communication damages a person's

sense of face. Those acts can be verbal (using words or language),
paraverbal (tone or inflexion), or non-verbal (facial expressions or body
language).

According to Brown and Levinson, face-threatening acts may threaten

either the speaker's or the listener's face (either positive or negative).
 Face Threatening Acts (FTAs)

A Face Threatening Act (FTA) may be made in many ways.

It may be made off record – it is made indirectly so that if challenged, the speaker
can deny that he meant it.

Example
A: Can you change a tyre?
B: I am busy.
A: I was just wondering if you CAN. (denies that he was asking for help)
 Face Threatening Acts (FTAs)

A Face Threatening Act (FTA) may be also be made on record– it is made directly and
in conformity with Grice’s maxims of conversation.

These speech acts further subdivide into FTAs without redressive action and FTA
with redressive action.

FTA without redressive action are made baldly, such as direct imperatives and
warnings.
Example
1. Sit down.
2. Shut up.
3. Don’t come late.
 Face Threatening Acts (FTAs)
FTA with redressive action take account of the listener’s positive face, his need to
feel appreciated. Three strategies that are used to appeal to the positive face of the
listener are:

1. Complement the listener

Example
Nice car. Can I possibly borrow it for a few minutes?

2. Claim common ground

Example
It’s been a long class and we must be hungry. Let’s go eat.

3. Play down disagreement

Example
A: That’s where you live, Riyadh?
B: That’s where I was born.
 Face Threatening Acts (FTAs)
FTA with redressive action also take account of the listener’s negative face, his need to have
freedom of action. Four strategies that are used to mitigate FTAs are:
1. Minimize the content by diminutives.
Example
Can you have a little look at this?

2. Use hedging expressions to minimize the strength or threat of the imposition.

Example
I wonder if you can help me with this exercise.
3. Minimize the speaker’s responsibility by attributing agency to others or to no one.
Example
The students want to put off the test.
All passengers must fasten their seat belts.

4. Acknowledge the imposition and apologize for it.

Example
I am sorry I am coming without an appointment but I need your advice on this.
 Conversation Analysis
Conversation Analysis
Conversation is organized in and through turns – one person speaking at a time.

Conversations are structured in the following ways:

1. An Adjacency Pair
An adjacency pair has two utterances produced successively and in order by two different
speakers. The first part of the adjacency pair often includes a question, a greeting, an
offer, a request, a complaint, an invitation, or an announcement. The second part is
reciprocal, i.e., offers the answer, greeting, justification, apology, etc. Adjacency pairs are
the basic structural units in conversation.
Examples
Hi there.
Hi.

Why did you come late?

I am sorry.
 Conversation Analysis
2. An Insertion Sequence
In an insertion sequence, one pair is embedded in (occurs inside) another pair.
Example
A: Do you know where pizza hut is?
B: Well, where do you live?
A: I live on King Abdulaziz road.
B: It is not far from you.

3. A Side Sequence
In a side sequence, one pair which is irrelevant, is embedded in (occurs inside) another
pair.
Example
A: Do you know where pizza hut is?
B: Let me take this call and I will get back to you.
A: Sure.
B: It is on King Abdullah road.
 Conversation Analysis
4. An Opening Sequence
An adjacency pair used to open a conversation.
5. A Pre-closing Sequence
An adjacency pair used before closing a conversation.
6. A Closing Sequence
An adjacency pair used to close a conversation.

An Extended Example
A: Morning.
B: Morning.
A: Do you have a minute?
B: I am busy. Sorry.
A: Ok.
B: Yeah.
A: See you.
B: See you.
 Conversation Analysis
Features of Naturally-Occuring Conversations
Pauses .. a very short period of silence (e.g., I went to [silence] London.)
Pause Fillers .. sounds or words used to avoid silence in conversations, such as um, er, uh, I mean,
y’know, like (e.g. I went to um London.)
False starts … a start that a speaker realizes is wrong and amends or repairs (e.g., I went ..um..
Indeed my wife and I went to London.)
Recycling … a repaired false start (e.g., Indeed my wife and I in the previous example)
Back channel support … a word or an expression the listener uses to indicate they are following
or indicate interest in the conversation (e.g.,
A: I went to London …
B: Ok.
A: … and had a lot of fun.
Interruption … to stop a speaker from finishing their turn (e.g.,
A: I went to …
B: I have to go now. Bye.
Overlap … happens when two speakers talk at the same time. It may be intentional (when the
listener does not want to listen to the speaker for some reason) and it may be unintentional,
which is often resolved by one of the two participants yielding or offering the floor – giving the
right to the other participant to continue.
 Communicative Competence
Linguistic competence is defined as a speaker-hearer’s ability to
speak and understand language in a grammatically-correct
manner.

Canale and Swain (1980) argue linguistic competence is not

enough and that there is a communicative competence defined
in terms of four components:
1. Grammatical competence the ability to use words and rules
correctly
2. Sociolinguistic competence the ability to use language
appropriately
3. Discourse competence the ability to use language cohesively
and coherently
4. Strategic competence the ability to use appropriate
communication strategies
 Inference
Inference is defined as the information that is not expressed explicitly
by the text but is derived on the basis of the understander’s
knowledge and is encoded in the mental representation of the text.

It is is additional information used by the listener to create a

connection between what is said and what must be meant. Inferencing
is considered as a central component in discourse understanding.

Example:
1- Can I look at your Chomsky?

The listener has to operate with the inference: ‘if X is the name of the
writer of a book, then X can be used to identify a copy of a book by
that writer’

2- Jennifer is wearing Calvin Klein.

 Presupposition
What a speaker (or writer) assumes is true or known by a listener
(or reader) can be described as a presupposition.

Example
Your brother is waiting outside.
Here there is an obvious presupposition that you have a brother.
Why did you arrive late?
When did you stop smoking?
Okay, Mr. Smith, how fast were you going when you ran the red
light?
Questions like this have in-built presuppositions, and they are
useful devices for interrogators or trial lawyers.
 Cohesion & Coherence
Coherence:
“Coherence is a situation in which all the parts of something fit
together well.”
(Oxford Advanced Learners, Dictionary)

Cohesion:
A close relationship based on grammar or meaning between two
parts of a sentence or a larger piece of writing. (Oxford
Advanced Learners’ Dictionary)

‘Cohesion’ is no more structural, it is external, marked by lexico-

grammatical items. (Halliday & Hasan 1976)
 Cohesion
Cohesion is expressed partly through Vocabulary and
partly through grammar.

1.Grammatical Cohesion
(i) Reference
(ii) Substitution
(iii) Ellipsis
2. Lexical Cohesion
 Cohesive Devices

Halliday and Hasan (1976) distinguish five major types of

grammatical cohesive ties:
1- Reference
2- Substitution
3- Ellipsis
4- Conjunction
5- Lexical ties
 Cohesive Devices
1. Reference
The different ways in which things, people, events, etc. are
referred to within texts.

Pronouns, demonstratives, and comparatives may be used as

cohesive links.

Examples:
1. If a student needs help, he can always meet me in office.
2. This is why John is the best footballer in town.
3. This car is good but that one is better.
 Reference

Reference can be sub-categorize as follow

Reference

Exophoric Endophoric

Anaphoric Cataphoric
 Reference

1. Exophoric Reference

Grammatical term used to describe a linguistic feature in a text, which

refers to something outside of that text. These include words such as
there, that, or here, when these are not further elucidated in the text.

Example:
“The book is over there”
 Reference

2. Endophoric Reference

Grammatical term used to describe forms of reference made

within any given text to other elements within the text.

Example:
‘She gave the books, to John. He left the room.
‘He’ is an example of endophoric reference, referring to John.

Endophoric relations are categorized either as

(i) Anaphoric ( Reference back)
(ii) Cataphoric (Reference forward)
 Reference

(i) Anaphoric Reference

Grammatical term used to describe a linguistic feature, which refers
to a previously mentioned element in any given text.

Example:
“The water system is failing because of old pipes and shortage of
qualified technicians to repair them. These are the reasons why
change is necessary”.

‘These’ has an anaphoric function, referring back to the reasons given

in the preceding part of the text.
 Reference

(ii) Cataphoric Reference

Grammatical term used to describe a linguistic feature, which
refers forward to another element in any given text.

Eg:
‘Here are two examples of fossil fuels: Coal and wood’.
The word ‘here’ has a cataphoric function.
 Substitution

2. Substitution
Substitution is the process of replacing a lexical item with
another at the nominal, verbal and clausal levels.

Examples
Nominal: Do you want the apples? Yes, I’ll take one.
Verbal: Did you go? Yes, I did.
Clausal: The students are getting back. Yes, they are.
 Ellipsis
3. Ellipsis
Ellipsis is the process of replacing a lexical item with a
“zero” tie at the nominal, verbal and clausal levels. Words
are deliberately left out of a sentence because they have
already been referred or mentioned.

Examples
Nominal: They are small. Take two (apples).
Verbal: Were you reading? No, I wasn’t (reading).
Clausal: I don’t know how to drive a car. I’ll have to learn
how (to drive a car).
 Conjunction

4. Conjunction
These are linkers used to indicate a relationship between
sentences or parts of a sentence.

Examples
Contrast: I bought ten apples. However, I didn’t eat any.
Causal: Her work was finished, so she turned off the laptop.
Temporal: After the prayer, we went home.
Logical sequence: I lost all my money. Then, I sold my
house.
 Lexical Ties
5. Lexical Ties
Lexical cohesion involves the repetition of a lexical item
(Reiteration). Reiteration may be via repeating the same
word, a Synonym or near–synonym, a super ordinate or a
general word.

Repetition Sue is in the race. I believe Sue will win the race.
Synonymy I saw a young boy. The lad was wearing a T-shirt.
Superordinates I bough carrot. It’s my favorite vegetable.
General word She’s a single mom but a great parent indeed.
 Lexical Ties
E.g.: 2
There’s a boy climbing that tree.
* The boy’s going to fall if he does not take
care.
* The lad’s going to fall if he does not take
care.
* The child’s going to fall if he does not take
care.
* The idiot’s going to fall if he does not take
care.
* In (a), boy is repeated. In (b), the reiteration
takes the form of a synonym ‘lad’. In (c), of the
super ordinate term ‘child’, and in (d), of a
general word ‘idiot’.
 Cohesive Devices

6. Questions and Parallel Structures

Aluminum alloys are now more important in the
automobile industry than ever before. But why are they
important? They are significant because they are light
and fuel efficient in comparison to the heavy, fuel-
consuming steel alloys. The government is pressuring
the industry to replace traditional iron-based alloys with
aluminum-based alloys but apparently the industry is
not willing to. Iron-based alloys are now more
infrequently used in the automobile industry than ever
before.
 Cohesive Devices

An extended example

I saw a boy in the garden. What was he doing? The boy

was climbing a tree but I was not. I was worried about the
child. The poor lad was obviously not up to it. The idiot
was going to fall off the tree. He did. Then, I rushed him
to the nearest hospital. You would not believe this. He
was totally ok. This was a big surprise to me. The boy
promised never to do it again.
 Highlight the cohesive words, using
colour codes.
The student sighed as she handed in the assignment, at
last it was finished. This was the most difficult piece of
writing which she had been set, but she had completed it.
The ‘magnum opus’ was 10,000 words long. This project,
though not quite a dissertation, was still the longest
piece of academic writing she had ever written. She had
thought she would never complete it and it had taken all
her strength to do so.
Reference Cohesive nouns Ellipsis
The student sighed as she handed in the
assignment, at last it was finished. This was
the most difficult piece of writing which she
had been set, but she had completed it. The
‘magnum opus’ was 10,000 words long.
This project, though not quite a dissertation,
was still the longest piece of academic
writing she had ever written. She had
thought she would never complete it and it
had taken all her strength to do so.

Lexis Conjunction Substitution

 Coherence

My father bought a Lincoln convertible. The car driven

by the police was red. That colour doesn‟t suit her. She
consists of three letters. However, a letter isn‟t as fast
as a telephone call.

What is wrong with this text? Is it well-connected

with cohesive ties?
 Coherence
Now, read this text.

My father once bought a Lincoln convertible. He did it

by saving every penny he could. That car would be
worth a fortune nowadays. However, he sold it to help
pay for my college education. Sometimes I think I‟d
rather have the convertible.

How does it differ from the previous one?

 Coherence

Coherence

Coherence is a situation in which all the parts of

something fit together well.

Coherence is the connection of ideas at the idea level

(whereas cohesion is the connection of ideas at the
sentence level).
 Coherence
Coherence is basically concerned with two things:
1-The ways in which the things in the text are mutually connected
2-The textual world

Textual world consists of two things.

1-Concepts
2-Relations

A concept the configuration of knowledge which can be

recovered with unity and consistency in the mind.

Relation refers to the link how the concepts appear together

within a textual world.
 Coherence
The two most common relations are
A- Causality relations
B- Time relations

A- Causality Relations
Causality relation concern the ways in which one situation
affects the conditions for some other one.

1-Cause:
Example; David hit the ball so hard it flew over the hedge.

2- Enablement:
Example: Black cat lay quietly in the sun when Thomas crept
over and pulled her tail.
 Coherence
3- Reason:
Example: Because I have been studying all day, I deserve a rest
this evening.

4- Purpose:
Example: You are reading this to find about text linguistics.

B- Time Relations
Time concerns the arrangement of event in time.

In the case of cause, enablement, and reason, an earlier event

causes enables or provides the reason for a later one (forward
directionality).
In the case of purpose, the later event is the purpose for an
earlier event (backward directionality).
 Achieving Coherence in Paragraphs
We can make paragraphs more coherent by ordering their
supporting ideas according to the patterns of time order,
space order, or the order of importance.

• Time order (or chronological order) means simply that the

supporting elements in a paragraph are arranged in the order
in which they occurred.

• In paragraphs ordered by space the writer organizes the

support in the paragraph according to a spatial arrangement.

Ordering the supports in a paragraph according to their

relative importance is another way to make your paragraphs
coherent.
 Examples
Order of Time: The rehearsal dinner will be on Friday
night. Afterward, we are hoping that many of the guests will help
to clean the area for tomorrow's wedding.

Order of Importance: The company has a clearly laid out

hierarchy. All major decisions go through the president, who
controls the entire operation, but most daily decisions go to the
board. Beneath the board members are the regional managers,
who oversee the branch managers, who run each local branch.

Order of Space: Attached to my back-bedroom wall is a small

wooden rack dangling with red and turquoise necklaces that
shimmer as I enter. Just to the right of the rack, billowy white
curtains frame a large window with a sill that ends just six inches
from the floor.
 Possible Patterns (1)
topic1 comment1

topic2 comment2

topic3 etc.

Lasers have found widespread application in medicine.

One of these applications is the human eye. The eye is
ideally suited for laser surgery because most of the
eye tissue is transparent.
 Possible Patterns (2)
topic1 comment1

topic1 comment2

topic1 etc.

Lasers have found widespread application in medicine.

They play an important role in the treatment of eye
disease and the prevention of blindness. Lasers have
also found application in the food industry.
 Possible Patterns (3)
topic1 comment1 + comment2

topic2 comment3

topic3 comment4

Last evening, I met John and Mary. John was upset

because of the exam result. Mary, however, did not
really care about it.
 Application

Which two sentences in the following text are awkward

(disturb the logical connection between the ideas).
1The ancient Egyptians buried their pharaohs in tombs
called pyramids. 2 The most famous pyramids are in Giza,
near Cairo.3 Some pyramids are made of more than two
million blocks of stone.4 Teams of workers dragged them
into place.5 The pyramids were built to house the body
of the pharaoh.6 Inside each pyramid is a secret chamber.7
The tomb where the mummy of the pharaoh was laid is
this .8 Most of these mummies have been stolen by
robbers.