GROUP 5

IDENTIFICATION; TRACKING PARTICIPANTS

TABLE OF CONTENT

1. Keeping Track
2. Identifying people
3. Identifying things
4. Where to look
5. Tracking and genre
6. Identification system in full

1. Keeping Track
In order to make sense of discourse, one thing we need is to be able to keep track of who or
what is being talked about at any point. When we first start talking about somebody or
something, we may name them, but then we often just identify them as she, he or it. By this
means our listener/reader can keep track of exactly which person or thing we are talking
about, i.e. which participant in the discourse.
For example, when Tutu first presents Helena’s story, he introduces five participants: the
SABC’s radio team, the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, Helena, her letter and the
reprisals that she fears.
Basic choice identification:
1. How people are introduced and tracked through texts
2. how things are introduced and tracked
3. how we know who or what is being referred to
4. the different ways that people and things can be tracked through whole texts
 2. Who’s who? Identifying people
2.1 Introducing people
Helena’s story has three main characters: Helena and her first and second loves.
Example:
- I met a young man in his twenties
How are these people introduced? As we can see, the basic strategy here is to use “a” to
introduce a a young man. The word ‘a’ tells us that this is someone whose identity we
can’t assume.
- I met another policeman
Another identifies him in two ways. First an is indefinite like ‘a’, so we know we
can’t assume this identity; secondly other tells us that he is different from the first
policeman.
NB: Indefinite pronouns or pronouns are uncertain not to refer to a particular person,
place, or object.
Definite is a certain word, for example 'the'. "The" in definite article is interpreted as
'this' or 'it'. Usually, it is used to indicate an object, idea, or place that has been
identified.
2.2 Tracking People
 Once he is introduced as a young man, the main strategy for tracking his identity
is with pronouns, which refer to him ten times on his own {he and his), and twice
together with Helena {we). He’s also identified twice as a kind of person: my first
love, and that beautiful big, strong person.

2.3 Comparing People

We have seen that participants can be referred to as different from others, w ith
another or someone else. These kinds of resources compare one participant w ith
another, and so are known as comparative reference. Comparative reference may
involve simple contrast, or numbers such as first, second and superlatives such as
best, better:
Example:
- my first love
- someone else
 - another policeman
2.4 possession
Another important resource for identifying participants is possessive pronouns.
These pronouns {my, your, her, his, its, our, their) work like a, some, the, this, that,
these, those, to tell us which participant we are talking about.

3. What’s what? Identifying things

3.1 identifying objects
Concrete objects, that we can touch, taste, hear, see or feel, are identified pretty much like
people.
Example:
- they had some friends over
- he had some milk for Helena

English uses the indefinite plural ‘some’ with things that can be counted like friends, and
things that can’t like milk. Things like milk are ‘masses’. We can package them and then
count the packages (two bottles of milk), but we can’t count a ‘mass’ (*two milks)

3.2 Identifying what people say: text reference

It’s possible to track things people say. This kind of tracking of what was said is called
text reference. As we’ve seen it is used to turn big meanings into smaller, more
manageable ones, so that we can then make some more meanings with them. Meanings
contract, in other words, so that new meanings can expand. The text is breathing, as the
argument moves along.
For example:
He going mad? I can't handle the man anymore! But, t can't get out. He's going to haunt
me for the rest of my life if i leave him. Why, God?' Today I know the answer to all my
questions and heartache.
Analisis: Here Helena refers to her prayers for example as all my questions and
heartache:
3.3 Identifying things in legal and administrative discourse
 In legal and administrative discourse quite a lot of pressure is put on identification
resources in order to be precise. This includes some specialized features which we
can see in the Act which established the Truth and Reconciliation Commission.
3.4 Comparing things: comparative reference
In addition to seeing how things are identified (concrete objects, abstractions, institutions,
and the things that people say) we need to look at the ways that these things can be
compared.
Example:
I finally understand what the struggle was really about.
I would have done the same had I been denied everything.
If my life, that of my children and my parents was strangled with legislation.
If I had to watch how white people became dissatisfied with the best
and still wanted better
and got it.
Analisis:
She begins by presenting the struggle as though we all know what she means, and then
refers to it as the same. Later she presents what white people already had as the best, and
identifies what they still wanted as better. She doesn’t need to say what is better, because
words like better and best are resources for comparative reference, like same, other, else.
So things can be identified by comparing the intensity of their qualities, with words like
better and best.
 Resources for Identifying Things and People

4. Where to Look
4.1 Looking back or forward: anaphoric or cataphoric reference
In writing, the obvious place to look for a presumed identity is the surrounding text. But
we may have to look forward, in order to find out what it means.
At other times, the information assumed isn’t actually in the text, but somewhere outside.
Like something we can see, hear, touch, taste or smell, for example pass the salt.
Alternatively, it might be something virtually present, that we just all know about
because of what we know, for example you should tell the President.
4.2 Looking outside: exophoric and homophoric reference
Homophoric references are a type of reference derived from the general context of a
culture embraced by a particular member of the world. For example, if someone says
"the earth is round", then everyone should pay attention to it and they should know
which earth to talk about because we live on the only earth.
Exophoric references can be retrieved through the context of a direct situation and
are a kind of rendezvous provided outside the text. For example, in the phrase leave
it to him, only people involved in the context know what the word means and he or
she is in that expression because they are at the same time in the same place.
4.3 bridging reference
To this point, the resources we’ve looked at refer directly to the participant they
identify. Less commonly, participants can be presumed indirectly. For example:
- Tshikalanga stabbed first.., and he couldn't get the knife out of the chest of
Mxenge
In this example the identity of the knife is presumed even though it hasn’t been
directly introduced before; but it has been indirectly introduced, since the most likely
thing for someone to stab with is a knife.
This kind of inferred anaphoric reference is called bridging.
4.4 Self-identification: esphoric reference
Esphoric reference occurs when a pronoun, word, or phrase is not mentioned in a
sentence. That is, the person involved in the sentence is not mentioned but the
author / reader has known who the pronoun, word or phrase is. Example:
- I told her that she could find it on a map, but you know how she is

Analisis: She and her refer to a person not ever mention within the sentence. It refers
to a place not ever mentioned within the sentence.

In the example sentence above we do not find who the explanation of the pronoun is
because it is not mentioned in the sentence. The explanation of the pronoun is not
mentioned but the reader / author has known who her, she, and it is.When we do not
find an explanation of the pronoun then the sentence is called Esphoric Reference.
 4.5 Kind of reference

The reference terms we have introduced above were nouns: cataphora, anaphora,
exophora, etc. But each also has an adjective, which is more common than the noun,
including cataphoric, anaphoric, exophoric. Here’s a table summarizing what each
term means. In Table 5.5, esphora is treated as a kind of pointing forward, and
bridging as a type of pointing back. We can refer to the system as a whole as.

5. Tracking and Genre