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29 views4 pages

Cockroft

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cristhunne
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Cockcroft - Investigating Talk - Chapter 2

Discourse: a unit of language use larger than the individual sentence clause or utterance.

Discourse can be:

-Transactional language: when participants exchange goods and services.


-Interactional language: when speakers are socializing.
-Structured according to the organization of spoken interaction only (structuralist view).
- Structured according to the context of the spoken interaction (functionalist view). Language has
external functions outside the linguistic systems of grammar, lexis and phonology and these
functions influence the way discourse is structured.
-Structured according to the way it differentiates between given and new information.

Discourse Analysis: the linguistic analysis of naturally occurring connected spoken or written
discourse. The study of conversational exchange, dialogue and interaction between speakers in
social contexts.

Utterance: context defined unit of language.

Theories of D.A.:

A) Speech Act Theory (Austin and Searle): language performs communicative acts between
speakers and listeners. These communicative acts can be PERFORMATIVE (you are actually
performing the action as you speak. Ex. ‘I welcome you’). Performative utterances made by a
speaker are called ILLOCUTIONARY SPEECH ACTS, if they affect the listener in any way, they are
called PERLOCUTIONARY SPEECH ACTS.

Illocutionary Speech Acts:


1) Representative: the speaker is committed to the truth of the proposition (I believe, I conclude).
2) Directive: try to get the listener to do something I request, I order).
3) Commissive: the speaker is committed to a course of action (I promise, I guarantee, I swear).
4) Expressive: the speaker expresses a personal attitude (I deplore, I congratulate).
5) Declarative: the speaker alters a situation by their action (I pronounce you man and wife).

Successful speech acts must fulfil certain FELICITY CONDITIONS:


1) You must have AUTHORITY to perform the speech act.
2) You must perform the speech act CORRECTLY.
3) You must perform the speech act SINCERELY.

B) Exchange Structure Theory (Coulthard, Sinclair and Brazil): C & S found out that the
transactional language of each school lesson had the same interactional structure, with each move
consisting of one or more speech acts. Initiation (eliciting = question) - Response (informing =
answer) - Feedback/Evaluation (acknowledging = comment).

Brazil investigated the way intonation communicates meaning in the exchange and selects the tone
unit rather than the clause or utterance as structuring unit.

C) Narrative Structure (Labov): a narrative is a unit of discourse with clear boundaries, linear
structure, and recognizable stages in its development:

1- Abstract: summary of the story.


2- Orientation: context of the story.
3- Evaluation: point of interest in the story.
4- Narrative: story telling.
5- Result: what finally happened.
6- Coda: signals the end.

D) Frame Theory (Goffman, Minsky and Gumperz): we use past experience to structure present
usage.

Gumperz introduced the notion of CONVERSATIONAL INFERENCE: we pick up conversational cues


(or frames) enabling us to recognize the situation and structure our responses appropriately. Thus,
we can interpret the situation and anticipate what will happen.

E) Schema Theory (Deborah Tannen): a SCHEMA is a mental model or knowledge structure in the
memory which has its own patterns of expectation, frames and assumptions.

*Frame and schema theory are important because they offer explanations of how people seem to
‘know’ how to interact in a variety of contexts, adjusting and shifting frameworks and schemas as
required.

F) Pragmatics: focuses on the contexts and purposes of people talking to each other. It studies the
factors that govern our choice of language in social interaction and the effects of our choice on
others.
It takes into account speakers’ intentions, the effects of utterances on hearers, their assumed
knowledge of the world, the effects of context and individual psychological factors that affect
interpretation.

G) Conversational Analysis (Sacks, Schegloff and Jefferson): it derives from sociology. Naturally
occurring spoken language has its own dynamic structure and rules deriving from social
interaction, not from the rules of grammar and syntax.
C.A. investigates features in spoken language such as turn-taking, adjacency pairs, speech markers
indicating openings and closures, phatic communion, topic shifts, topic management, repair
sequences, conversational inferences, contextualization cues, politeness strategies and face saving
devices.

H) Ethnography of Communication (Hymes): describes the patterns of spoken communication as


part of cultural knowledge and behavior.
Speakers of any language intuitively know its norms and variations, its cultural and linguistic
constraints. Each speech act is part of a speech event which in turn is part of a sequenced
interaction defined by the context and the participants in the discourse.
Whatever we say or do is meaningful in the framework of our cultural knowledge.

GRAMMATICAL AND SYNTACTICAL FEATURES OF SPOKEN LANGUAGE:

1- Contracted verb forms.


2- Active rather than passive verbs.
3- Frequent use of imperative and interrogative verb forms.
4- Phrases and NP’s can stand as if they were complete utterances (traffic jam).
5- Simple and short clauses (no embedding).
6- Frequent use of AND as continuation marker.
7- Unusual clause construction (That film it’s amazing).
8- Ellipsis of grammatical features.
9- Deictics.

LEXIS OR VOCABULARY:

1- Concrete, less abstract vocabulary.


2- Simple and general vocabulary.
3- Low lexical density. Higher proportion of function over content words.
4- Context determined lexical choice.
5- Vague language such as fillers (erm, well) and hedging (like, sort of).
6- Use of terms of address.
7- Frequent use of phatic language (polite expressions).

DISCOURSE FEATURES:

1- Use of D.markers indicating interpersonal nature of exchanges (overlaps, interrumptions,


incomplete sentences, tag questions).
2-Repetitions and echoing between speaker.
3- Reformulation of utterances.
4- Back channel features. From the hearer to indicate he’s paying attention (ah-ha, right).
5- Use of disjuncts (comments on the truth/value of what’s being said) Ex. Honestly, frankly.
6- Use of comment clauses (expressing speaker’s feelings) Ex. Tentativeness: I think, certainty: I
know, emotional attitude: I’m afraid.

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