Slide presentation Approaches to Discourse

Discourse Analysis

Approaches to
Discourse
Supervisor: Prof. Nguyễn Hòa
Group 9: Đặng Thị Phương Mai
Vũ Thị Mẫu
Hoàng Trà My
Bùi Thị Nga


Outline
1. Functional vs. formal paradigms
2. Pragmatics theory
3. Interactional sociolinguistics


6 approaches to DA
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.

Speech Act Theory
Interactional Sociolinguistics
The Ethnography of Communication
Pragmatics
Conversation Analysis
Variation Analysis

6 approaches to DA
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.

Speech Act Theory
Interactional Sociolinguistics
The Ethnography of Communication
Pragmatics
Conversation Analysis
Variation Analysis


Functional vs. formal
paradigms
2 paradigms in linguistics provide
different assumptions about the
general nature of language and
the goals of linguistics.
Hymes (1974) contrasts Formal and
Functional approaches.


Formal

Formal vs. Functional
approaches
Functional

Structure
of
language Structure of speech (act,
(code) as grammar.
event) as
ways of
speaking.
Analysis of code prior to Analysis of use prior to
analysis of use.
analysis of code.
Referential function.

Stylistic or social functions.

All languages necessarily All
languages
not
(potentially) equal.
necessarily
(potentially)
equal.
Fundamental
concepts Fundamental
concepts
taken for granted.
taken a problematic and to

be investigated.


Formal vs. Functional
approaches
Leech (1983) suggests other
ways of
differentiating formalism and
functionalism.

Formal

Language
as
phenomenon.

a

Functional

mental Language
as
phenomenon.

a

societal

Linguistic universals as deriving Linguistic universals as deriving
from

a
common
generic from the universality of the
linguistic inheritance of the uses to which language is put in
human species.
human society.
Children’s
acquisition
of
language in terms of a built-in
human
capacity
to
learn
language.

Children’s
acquisition
of
language in terms of the
development of the child’s
communicative
needs
and
abilities in society.

Language as an autonomous Language in relation
system.
social function.

to

its


Pragmatics theory
This approach entails a description of
what the speaker/writer and
hearer/reader are doing and not
the relationship that exists between
one sentence or proposition and
another.
(Nguyen Hoa, 2000: 54)


Some basic concepts
REFERENCE
E.g.: I hope Linda will still be working
when I retire next year. She has been
working here for almost 20 years.
ENTAILMENT
E.g.: He was killed in an accident
Somebody died.


Some basic concepts
PRESUPPOSITION
E.g.: Have you stopped beating your wife?
IMPLICATURE
E.g.: He is an Englishman, he is, therefore,

brave.
INFERENCING
E.g.: If it’s sunny, it’s warm.
It’s sunny.


Bases for inferencing
According to Leech (1984), inferencing
implicatures can be made on the basis of
a.The conventional conceptual meaning of
the utterance.
b.The assumption that the speaker is observing
the co-operative principles, and assuming
the hearer to assume that too.
c.Relevant background knowledge.
d.Informal reasoning.


The co-operative
principle
Grice (1975) says:
“Make your conversational contribution
such as required, at the stage at which
it occurs, by the accepted purpose or
direction of the talk exchange in which
you are engaged.”
(cited in Nguyen Hoa, 2000: 61)

4 maxims: quantity, quality, relation,
and manner.

Introduction
Concerns
anthropology
(culture),
sociology
(society)
and
linguistics
(language)
2 contributors:
- John Gumperz : how people share same
grammatical knowledge but different
messages
- Erving Goffman: how language is situated
in particular circumstances of social life


Introduction
Interactional sociolinguistics
- is about language, context and the
interaction of self and other that
provide unity
- Aims at studying the interpretation
and function of linguistic forms in
socially
and
culturally
situated

discourse.


Introduction
For example:
Have you eaten yet? (in Vietnamese
and Chinese)
= How are you? (in English)


Contribution of anthropology:
Gumperz
- The meaning, structure, and use of
language is socially and culturally
relative.
- Language is viewed as a socially and
culturally constructed symbol system
that is used in ways that reflect macrolevel social meanings (group identity,
status differences) and create microlevel social meaning (what one is
saying and doing at the moment in time)


Contribution of anthropology:
Gumperz
For example
Different social groups express definite
linguistic
differences
when
communicating each other

1.Open the door!
2.Would you mind opening the door,
please?
Functional communication: offering
Contextualization
cues:
the
first
utterance - informal situation, the
second: formal one


Contribution of sociology: Goffman
Provides a sociological framework for
describing and understanding the
form and meaning of the social and
interpersonal contexts that provide
presupposition for the interpretation
of meaning


Contribution of sociology: Goffman

Goffman differentiates 4 positions:
(i). An animator produces talk
(ii). An author creates talk
(iii). A figure is portrayed through talk
(iv). A principal is responsible for talk.
 These positions can be filled by
different people, and a single person

can fill a number of participant slots


Contribution of sociology: Goffman
For example
A: Want a piece of candy?
B: No
C: She’s on a diet
 C who says “She is on a diet” is an
animator for B’s principal.


“Speak for another”
Is an act whose meaning is also
interactionally situated
Is a discourse strategy that is used to
create either solidarity or distance
Is an act in which one person takes
the role of another and taking the
role of another is itself a way of
showing sequential coherence


“Speak for another”
For example: context: in a bar
Bartender: Drink?
Jackson: (no reply)
John: Michelob. (a kind of wine)
(not “No thanks, I’m not thirsty”)
 The spokesman (animator) uses the

other as a basis for a next-utterance
but enters into the other’s perspective
to issue a next-utterance from that
other’s viewpoint.