A red red rose the romantic verses in a poetic discourse analysis

THAI NGUYEN UNIVERSITY
SCHOOL OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES

PHAM NGOC ANH

“A RED RED ROSE”, THE ROMANTIC VERSES
IN A POETIC DISCOURSE ANALYSIS.
(“ A Red Red Rose”, những vần thơ lãng mạn dưới lăng kính
phân tích diễn ngơn)

M.A. THESIS

Field: English Linguistics
Code: 8220201

THAI NGUYEN - 2019

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THAI NGUYEN UNIVERSITY
SCHOOL OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES

PHAM NGOC ANH

“A RED RED ROSE”, THE ROMANTIC VERSES
IN A POETIC DISCOURSE ANALYSIS.
(“ A Red Red Rose”, những vần thơ lãng mạn dưới lăng kính
phân tích diễn ngơn)

M.A. THESIS

(APPLICATION ORIENTATION)

Field: English Linguistics
Code: 8220201
Supervisor: CAO DUY TRINH (Ph.D)

THAI NGUYEN - 2019

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DECLARATION
I certify my authorship of the study report entitled:
“A Red Red Rose”, the romantic verses in a poetic discourse analysis.
In fulfillment of the requirements for the degree Master of Arts.
Quang Ninh, September20 th2019

Trainee

Pham Ngoc Anh
This study was approved by:
GV hướng dẫn ký

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

I am deeply indebted to a number of people for helping me to make this

M.A thesis possible. First and foremost, I would like to give thank to my
supervisor Dr. Cao Duy Trinh who deserves much of the credit not only for
encouraging, guiding and supporting me to finish this paper but also giving
me mental support from the beginning to the end. Only for his hearty
instructions that I could have completed my research paper on time.
I would like to sincerely thank the

anonymous participants who

contributed data to this study. Without their outstanding cooperation, this
thesis would not have been done.
I would like to thank my family, especially my parents and my husband
for their constant source of love, support and encouragement in times of
difficulty and frustration.
Finally, I would like to thank my readers for their interests and comments on
this thesis.
While I am deeply indebted to all these people for their help to the fulfillment
of this thesis, I myself remain responsible for any inadequacies that are found
in this work.

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ABSTRACT

Different poets use different figurative words to make their poetry expressive
and intensive so that it may draw the attention of the readers at once. The purpose of
this analysis is to spotlight the implicature of this poem to the readers. This
discourse analysis will find out the truths or purposes behind the written words. The

poet has chosen ―The Red Rose‖ to compare with his dear lover and the rose,
therefore, can be the symbol of his love with romance, purity and innocence.
The poet has very artistically draws a picture of his profound love. He paints
this picture with intense emotions. The speaker compares his beloved with ―a red
rose‖ and ―sweet melody‖ to intensify his deep feelings for her. He addresses her,
proclaiming that his love will stay still until the seas dry up and the rocks melt with
the sun because his beloved is so adorable. For some reasons, he has to go far away
from her, but he promises to return even if he has to travel thousands of miles to
win her back. What enchants the reader is the metaphorical representation of love
through natural namely the sea and the sun.

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TABLE OF CONTENT

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION ........................................................................... 1
1.2. Aims of the study ............................................................................................. 3
1.3. Research question ............................................................................................ 3
1.4. Scope of the study ............................................................................................ 3
1.5. Design of the study .......................................................................................... 4
CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW ................................................................ 6
2.1. Robert Burns .................................................................................................... 6
2.2. Poetry ............................................................................................................... 9
2.3. Discourse analysis .......................................................................................... 12
2.3.1. Discourse................................................................................................. 12
2.3.2. Significance of discourse in literature .................................................... 13
2.3.3. Discourse analysis .................................................................................. 14
2.4. "Conherence" and "Cohesion" ...................................................................... 17

2.5. Figurative Language....................................................................................... 19
2.5.1. Convey Meaning...................................................................................... 20
2.5.2. Promote a New Perspective .................................................................... 23
2.5.3. Similes ..................................................................................................... 23
2.5.4. Metaphor ................................................................................................. 27
2.6. Semantic analysis ........................................................................................... 30
2.7. Syntactic Analysis .......................................................................................... 31
2.8. Romance in poetry ......................................................................................... 33
2.9. Rose as symbol of love in poem .................................................................... 34

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2.10 Previousa studies ...................................................................................... 39
2.11. Some definitions ................................................................................... 40
2.11.1 Stylistics ............................................................................................. 40
2.11.2 Poetry………………………………………………………………….40

CHAPTER 3: METHODOLOGY ........................................................................ 44

3.1. Method of the study ....................................................................................... 44
3.2. Data collection instrument ............................................................................. 45
3.3. Data analytical method ................................................................................... 45
CHAPTER 4: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSIONS ................................................ 47
4.1. An introduction of ―A Red, Red Rose‖ .......................................................... 47
4.2. Literary features of ―A Red, Red Rose‖ ........................................................ 49
4.3. Discourse analysis of ―A Red, Red Rose‖ ..................................................... 51
4.3.1. First Stanza ............................................................................................. 53
4.3.2.Second Stanza........................................................................................... 53
4.3.3. Third Stanza ............................................................................................ 54

4.3.4. Fourth Stanza .......................................................................................... 54
4.4. Summary ........................................................................................................ 55
CHAPTER 5: CONCLUSION ............................................................................. 57
5.1 Conclusion....................................................................................................... 57
5.2. Limitations ..................................................................................................... 61
5.3. Suggestions for the further studies ................................................................. 61
REFERENCE ........................................................................................................ 63

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CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION
1.1. Rationale
Literature has always been open to interpretation and the readers interpret it
in order to put certain literary, political, critical and social ideas into practice.
Language plays a fundamental role, for every artistic activity is prepared,
accompanied, influenced and played by language. This paper analyzes discourse of
literary writing, namely the ― Red Red Rose‖ by Robert Burns. Given the enormous
stylistic and literary significance of the said poem, in times of critical turmoil, it is
absurd to rely on one interpretation.
The title of the poem and its overall significance is enhanced with the
techniques of Discourse Analysis. The aim of this paper is to examine the strategies
of discourse analysis and its literary and critical value.
Discourse, as such, is a broad term with many a definition, which ―integrates
a whole palette of meanings‖ (Titscher et al., 1998: 42), ranging from linguistics,
through sociology, philosophy and other disciplines. For The purposes of this paper,
the definition of discourse, based on Robert Burns‘ poem Red Red Rose and his
general concept of discourse as text in context, seen as ―data that is liable for
empirical analysis‖ is applied (Titscher et al., 1998: 44), with focus being put on
discourse as action and process. From this, it follows that―discourse‖ is a wider term

than ―text‖: ―I shall use the term discourse to refer to the whole process of social
interaction of which a text is just a part‖ (Fairclough 1989: 24).
Romantic poems will always go along with years and become eternal,
especially English poems about love. Love has long become a familiar theme
indispensable in poetry. The sweet poems contain the love that is the sincerest way
to express the love that couples have for each other.
It can be said that literary analysis is the first step in creating the pen in any
field. Some of them have contributed to the training of the copywriter's pen much

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richer, the rest more deeply express the characteristics of the perfect literary works
to life.
A Red Red Rose was first published in 1794 in A Selection of Scots Songs,
edited by Peter Urbani. Robert Burns took the image of the red rose symbolizing
the undying love in his poetry (Ruby and Milne, 2000). To describe the eternal
nature of his love, the author uses metaphor in poetry, as well as centralized images
of great love, as well as showing his love of romance and intensity, overcome
barriers and obstacles of life. In the end, he wanted to let his woman know that his
love never lost.
In trying to quantify his feelings - and in searching for the perfect metaphor
to describe the eternal nature of his love - the speaker inevitably comes up against
love's greatest limitation, the sands o' life. This image of the hourglass forces the
reader to reassess of the poem's first and loveliest image: A Red, Red Rose is itself
an object of an hour, newly sprung only in June and afterward subject to the decay
of time.
A Red, Red Rose is a romantic poem about the author's undying love for her
woman. The poem is a beautiful work that gives readers a lot of emotion and
admiration for a beautiful and intense love. This treatment of time and beauty

predicts the work of the later Romantic poets, who took Burns‘ work as an
important influence. Thus, the topic ―A Red Red Rose‖ - The romance in a poem A discourse analysis‖ is very exciting to study.
The most important figure of speech in this poem is the simile, which
compares two different things using the words "like" or "as." In the first stanza, the
speaker compares his love ("Luve") to a "red, red rose, / That's newly sprung in
June." That is to say that his love is like the rose at its most vibrant state in summer,
its "reddest" color (this is why the word "red" is repeated). As the rose is at its
reddest color, his love is at its fullest feeling. The speaker uses another simile to
compare his love to a melody that's played in tune.

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1.2. Aims of the study
The study aims to investigate the linguistic features in A Red, Red Rose in
terms of non-figurative and figurative language and the romantic expressions to
help learners of English further understand use of a discourse in poem.
The research also shows the romance in the poem as well as in the style of
poetry written by Robert Burns, whose poetics are innocent, so he also borrowed
folk culture to create the depth of thought or thickness of the human experience in
his works.
1.3. Research question
1.What are non-figurative and the romantic expressions used in A Red, Red
Rose?
2.What are figurative languages and the romantic expressions used in A Red,
Red Rose ?
1.4. Scope of the study
The research is working out the romance in the poem A Red, Red Rose
written by Robert Burns in 1794:
O my Luve's like a red, red rose,

That's newly sprung in June:
O my Luve's like the melodie,
That's sweetly play'd in tune.

As fair art thou, my bonnie lass,
So deep in luve am I;
And I will luve thee still, my dear,
Till a' the seas gang dry.
Till a' the seas gang dry, my dear,

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And the rocks melt wi' the sun;
And I will luve thee still, my dear,
While the sands o' life shall run.

And fare-thee-weel, my only Luve!
And fare-thee-weel, a while!
And I will come again, my Luve,
Tho' 'twere ten thousand mile!.
In addition, the research is looking into the problems for the students. Firstly,
lack of skills and knowledge for poem analysis, the student faced difficulties to
understand poet‘s ideas. Secondly, the poem is very difficult to perceive normally
because poetry is a form of art and art is meant to be non-linear. Poetry is inspired
from life and life is complex. Therefore, poetry can be complex too. The same thing
happens with poetry. Don't just read the lines, feel every word, ever sound, every
image, and every emotion the poet tries to create. When readers do this even a
difficult poem will seem crystal clear to them. Thus, it needs more skills to analyze
a poem.

1.5. Design of the study
The chapter 1 is introduction part in which rational and the aim of the study;
moreover, scope of the study is presented.
The chapter 2 is Literature review part in which the introduction to the author
Robert Burns is presented first. Then, Figurative language including similes and
metaphor is introduced. After that, semantic and syntactic analyses are studied.
Finally, it is previous analytical.
The chapter 3, the analyst presents research methodology. Firstly, some
definitions are presented such as stylistics, poetry and descriptive analysis. At last,

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Research procedure, Data collection instruments; data collection and Data analytical
method are showed.
The chapter 4, it is findings and discussion in which the findings presents
syntactic and semantic (figurative language) features and the romance in the poem
as well as in the style of poetry written by Robert Burns with deeply discussion.
Findings show how to use the language in the author's poetry from which to see the
expression of his love in very warm but strong words. Moreover, the findings also
focus on analysis of figurative language including simile, metaphor,... especially,
The romance in the style of poetry was presented specifically.
Chapter 5 presents conclusion and recommendation of the study. In addition,
limitation of the thesis and suggestions for further research are also given out.

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CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW
This chapter critically reviews the literatures relating to the poem and poet

which is selected as the sample in this current study. Firstly, the researcher presents
bibliography of Robert Burns as the writer of A Red, Red Rose. Then such
theoretical fundamentals related to poetry, discourse analysis and romance in poetry
is explored to develop the foundation for the analysis.
2.1. Robert Burns
Robert Burns (25 January 1759 – 21 July 1796) is a Scottish poet and
lyricist. He is one of the most famous poets of Scotland and is widely regarded as a
Scottish national poet. Being considered as a pioneer of the Romantic Movement,
Robert Burns became a great source of inspiration to the founders of both liberalism
and socialism after his death. Most of his world-renowned works are written in a
Scots dialect. And in the meantime, he produced a lot of poems in English.
Robert Burns also known familiarly as Rabbie Burns, theNationalBard,Bard
of Ayrshire and the Ploughman Poet and various other names andepithets (O'Hagan,
A: "The People's Poet", The Guardian, 19 January 2008),was a Scottish poet and
lyricist. He is widely regarded as the national poet of Scotland and is celebrated
worldwide. He is the best known of the poets who have written in the Scots
language, although much of his writing is also in English and a light Scots dialect,
accessible to an audience beyond Scotland. He also wrote in standard English, and
in these writings his political or civil commentary is often at its bluntest.
He was born in a peasant‘s clay-built cottage, south of Ayr, in Alloway,
South Ayrshire, Scotland in 1759 His father, William Burnes (1721–1784), is a selfeducated tenant farmer from Dunnottar in the Mearns, and his mother, Agnes Broun
(1732–1820), is the daughter of a Kirkoswald tenant farmer.Despite the poor soil
and a heavy rent, his father still devoted his whole life to plough the land to support
the whole family‘s livelihood. As the eldest son in this seven-child family, Burns
tried his best to help his father in youth. The severe manual labor of the farm

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harmed his health and constitution. Under this condition, his father still attached

great importance to education, hiring a teacher for him and teaching his children
himself. Burns had acquired theological knowledge and grammar with little regular
schooling. Besides, he read a lot on foreign literature.
He was also taught by John Murdoch (1747–1824), who had an "adventure
school" in Alloway in 1763 and taught Latin, French, and mathematics to him from
1765 to 1768. Then years later, Burnswent to Dalrymple Parish School in mid1772. Then after a full-time farm laboring at harvest time at 1773, he was sent to
lodge with Murdoch for three weeks to study French and Latin.
During the harvest of 1774, he was assisted by Nelly Kilpatrick (1759–
1820), who inspired his first attempt at poetry, "O, Once I Lov'd A Bonnie Lass". In
1775, he was sent to finish his education with a tutor at Kirkoswald, where he met
Peggy Thompson (born 1762), to whom he wrote two songs,"Now Westlin' Winds"
and "I Dream'd I Lay". He has written his poems in his notebook and added
comments on his poems. At the same time, he was greatly interested in sectarian
politics, supporting liberalism and opposing orthodox Calvinism.
In 1777, Burnes led his family moved again to Lochlea, near Tarbolton but
they were still in poor condition. After William Burnes's death in 1784, his family
became integrated into the community of Tarbolton. At that time, Robert joined a
country dancing school in 1779 and formed the Tarbolton Bachelors' Club later with
his brother Gilbert. There he met Alison Begbie (b. 1762) and written four songs for
her.
Burns fell in love with a woman named Jean Armour and then she became
pregnant with twins in March 1786. Burns signed a paper attesting his marriage to
Jean, but her parents forbade it. Still they were eventually married in 1788. Armour
bore him nine children, only three survived infancy. Due to financial difficulties,
Burns took up an offer of work in Jamaica to be a "book keeper"(assistant overseer
of slaves). Six years later he wrote "The Slave's Lament" which demonstrated his
egalitarian views.
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At about the same time, Burns fell in love with Mary Campbell (1763–1786).
He dedicated the poems "The Highland Lassie O", "Highland Mary", and "To Mary
in Heaven" to her. His song "Willye go to the Indies, my Mary, and leave auld
Scotia's shore?" suggests that they planned to emigrate to Jamaica together. It has
been suggested that on 14 May 1786 they exchanged Bibles and plighted their troth
over the Water of Fail in a traditional form of marriage. But soon afterwards Mary
left her work in Ayrshire and sailed home in Campbeltown. In October 1786, Mary
and her father went to visit her brother in Greenock who fell ill with typhus. While
nursing him, Mary caught it, too. She died of typhus on October 1786 and was
buried in Greenock.
On 31 July 1786 Robert Burns published his volume of works Poems,
Chiefly in the Scottish dialect. Known as the Kilmarnock volume, it contained
much of his best writing, including "The Twa Dogs", "Address to the Deil",
"Halloween", "The Cotter's Saturday Night", "To a Mouse", "Epitaph For James
Smith", and "To a Mountain Daisy". These works were so successful and soon he
was known across the country.
On 4 September Burns received a letter from Thomas Blacklock who
expressed his admiration for the poetry in the Kilmarnock volume, and was
suggested an enlarged second edition in Edinburgh.Over there, his first Edinburgh
edition of Poems, Chiefly in the Scottish dialect was published on 17April 1787. He
was warmly welcomed and made the acquaintance of many famous people, one of
which was James Johnson, a struggling music engraver and music seller. Burns
contributed many songs to his volume The Scots Musical Museum.
Burns had alienated many of his friends by freely expressing sympathy with
the French and American Revolutions and the advocates of reform and votes for all
men. Burns joined the Royal Dumfries Volunteers in March 1795 in an attempt to
prove his loyalty to the Crown. Many early biographers who studied Burns believed
that excessive drinking and debauchery led to his early death.

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Near the age of 40, Burns suffered from rheumatic fever then it worsened to
a serious and fatal heart disease. He was buried in Dumfries Cemetery after his
death in 1796. His friends helped support his family by subscribing to his published
collection of poems.
Burns was a pioneer of Romanticism in the 18th century. He is a prolific
writer who has created more than 600 poems in his life, many of which are
expressed in the form of singing, mainly exalting the simple feelings of the common
people and expressing his deep sympathy for the suffering of the people at the other
end of the society.
Burns' poetry was deeply influenced by the Classical, Biblical, and English
literature. He was not only good at writing in the Scots language but also in the
Scottish English dialect of the English Language. Some of his works, such as "Love
and Liberty" (also known as "The Jolly Beggars"), are written in both Scots and
English for various effects.
His works are mostly lyric poems, such as A Red, Red Rose praising people‘s
love, "Scots, Wha Hae" expressing patriotism and so on. He also wrote many
satirical poems, such as "Holy Willie's Prayer", and narrative poems, "The Two
Dogs" and "The Jolly Beggars". His world-famous poem"Auld Lang Syne" is
written in Scots language and now is used to bid farewell to the old year at the
stroke of midnight on New Year's Eve.
Burns also claims to freely pursue wine, women, poetry and songs. His
creation has many styles, but mainly is marked by spontaneity, directness, and
sincerity. This essay mainly talks about his views and feelings on love from the
poem A Red, Red Rose.
2.2. Poetry
―Poetry is the most intense, most highly charged, most artful and complex
form of language we have ... long associated with the distant origins of music,
dance, and religious ritual in early human cultures‖ (Grossman 2010:7). The

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Concise Oxford Dictionary defines a poem as ―a literary composition that is given
intensity by particular attention to diction (sometimes involving rhyme), rhythm,
and imagery.‖ One might wonder about the accuracy, or specificity of this
definition, especially when considering some moving oration, e.g., a sermon, that
may well manifest all three characteristics—elaborate diction, a certain rhythmic
cadence, and imagery—to a noticeable degree (is such an effective sermon an
instance of poetry?). The preceding notions may be specified like this: ―Poetic
language [exhibits]...form, style, structure, and contents of cultivated verbal
articulation‖ that together signify ―higher levels of organization and meaning‖
(Gerstenberger, 2014:27). Poetry is artistically embellished, typically condensed
discourse that appeals to the sense of sound.
The following, more focused perspective points to a crucial distinctive
feature of most poetic traditions in the world: "As soon as we perceive that a verbal
sequence has a sustained rhythm, that it is formally structured according to a
continuously operating principle of organization...we are in the presence of poetry
and we respond to it accordingly, expecting certain effects from it and not others"
(Spicehandler et al., 2012:601). Thus poetry involves some type of sustained
rhythmic principle that is manifested in measured line-forms as well as in recurrent
patterns of larger formal and/or thematic organization. Note also that poetic forms
elicit a particular kind of cognitive and emotive response. ―Poetry is the sound of
language organized in lines,... [and] poems are poems because we want to listen to
them‖ (Longenbach, 2008:120). As for most languages, the concept of poetry is
culturally-defined, and there are no sharply drawn diagnostic boundaries to
distinguish such discourse from prose. The different concentrations of linguistic (or
literary) features found within a given text must be evaluated in terms of their
relative frequency of occurrence, diversity, density, or syntactic position, on the one

hand, and with respect to the quality and intensity of their rhetorical effect upon an
assumed implied audience, on the other. These range from those that are more, to
those that are less poetic (or more prosaic), as determined on the basis of a complex
bundle of interrelated stylistic qualities:
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Thus, every text must be analyzed and assessed on its own terms with regard
to its complement of stylistic features and discourse. Finally, it may be noted that,
after all, the point of any biblical text study is not simply to determine its formal
status - whether prose, poetry, or something in-between - but rather to ascertain how
its constituent linguistic-literary characteristics actually function, both individually
and together in context, to convey meaning, that is, semantic content, functional
intent, pragmatic implication, structural form (e.g., acrostic poetry), and so forth. In
addition to the use of a set of heuristic analytical criteria such as the following, a
good deal of scholarly intuition is also involved in any description and
interpretation of the posited relationship between form and function in literary texts,
especially where more poetic discourse is concerned.
A poem is a work of literature that uses the sounds and rhythms of a
language to evoke deeper significance than the literal meanings of the words. There
are numerous literary devices that may be found in any given poem, such as meter,
rhyme, rhythm, symbolism, imagery, repetition, consonance, assonance, alliteration,
enjambment, and so on. Furthermore, there are a number of different ways to
classify a poem, such as analyzing its meter or finding it to be either blank verse or
free verse. There are also many different recognized forms in which a poem may be
written, such as a sonnet, haiku, sestina, villanelle, limerick, ode, ghazal, etc.
There is a wide variety of written works which qualify as poems, and thus it
can be difficult to say exactly what a poem ―is‖ or what it does. However, most
people do not struggle to identify that an example of a poem is, indeed, a poem.
There are certain conventions in poetry that distinguish it, especially the visual look

of a poem upon a page with its lines that form stanzas rather than paragraphs
(though there is a recent genre in poetry called prose poetry, which mixes these two
forms).

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Cultures from around the world and throughout generations have generated
poetry for many different purposes. There are religious scriptures which are written
as poetry, poems that are meant to convey profound yet secular truths about the
world, and light poetry which is meant to be humorous.
2.3. Discourse analysis
2.3.1. Discourse
Discourse is any written or spoken communication. Discourse can also be
described as the expression of thought through language. While discourse can refer
to the smallest act of communication, the analysis can be quite complex. Several
scholars in many different disciplines have theorized about the different types and
functions of discourse.
Discourse analysis is sometimes defined as the analysis of language 'beyond
the sentence'. This contrasts with types of analysis more typical of modern
linguistics, which are chiefly concerned with the study of grammar: the study of
smaller bits of language, such as sounds (phonetics and phonology), parts of words
(morphology), meaning (semantics), and the order of words in sentences (syntax).
Discourse analysts study larger chunks of language as they flow together.
Some discourse analysts consider the larger discourse context in order to
understand how it affects the meaning of the sentence. For example, Charles
Fillmore points out that two sentences taken together as a single discourse can have
meanings different from each one taken separately. To illustrate, he asks you to
imagine two independent signs at a swimming pool: "Please use the toilet, not the
pool," says one. The other announces, "Pool for members only." If you regard each

sign independently, they seem quite reasonable. But taking them together as a single
discourse makes you go back and revise your interpretation of the first sentence
after you've read the second.
While every act of communication can count as an example of discourse,
some scholars have broken discourse down into four primary types: argument,
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narration, description, and exposition. Many acts of communicate include more than
one of these types in quick succession.
- Argument: A form of communication meant to convince an audience that
the writer or speaker is correct, using evidence and reason.
- Narration: This form of communication tells a story, often with emotion
and empathy involved.
- Description: A form of communication that relies on the five senses to help
the audience visualize something.
- Exposition: Exposition is used to inform the audience of something with
relatively neutral language, i.e., it‘s not meant to persuade or evoke emotion.
Other literary scholars have divided types of discourse into three categories:
expressive, poetic, and transactional.
Expressive: Expressive discourse comprises those acts of literary writing that
is creative, yet non-fiction. This could include memoirs, letters, or online blogs.
Poetic: Poetic discourse comprises creative, fictional writing. Poetic
discourse includes novels, poems, and drama. These types of work often prioritize
emotion, imagery, theme, and character development, as well as the use of literary
devices like metaphor and symbolism.
Transactional: Transactional discourse is used to propel something into
action, such as advertising motivating a customer to buy, or showing a customer
how to use a product via a manual. This type of discourse generally does not rely so
much on literary devices.

2.3.2. Significance of discourse in literature
Discourse of any type is one of the most important elements of human
behavior and formation. Countless studies have been done on the way the brain
shapes thoughts into words and, indeed, the way that communication shapes the
brain. Many studies have specifically targeted the way that speakers of different

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languages understand concepts differently. Thus, the creation and dispersion of
discourse is of the utmost importance to the perpetuation of the human race.
Literature is one of the primary ways of maintaining a record of discourse and
creating new ways of understanding the world. By reading texts from other cultures
and other time periods, we are better able to understand the way in which the
authors of those texts thought. Indeed, reading literature from our own ostensible
cultures can better highlight the ways in which we think and interact. Since each
piece of literature ever created is an example of discourse, our understanding of
discourse is vital to our understanding of literature.
2.3.3. Discourse analysis
Since discourse introduction to modern science the term ―discourse‖ has
taken various, sometimes very broad, meanings. In order to specify which of the
numerous senses is analyzed in the following thesis it has to be defined. Originally
the word ―discourse‖ comes from Latin ―discursus‖ which denoted ―conversation,
speech‖. Thus understood, however, discourse refers to too wide an area of human
life, therefore only discourse from the vantage point of linguistics, and especially
applied linguistics, is explained here.
There is no agreement among linguists as to the use of the term discourse in
that some use it in reference to texts, while others claim it denotes speech which is
for instance illustrated by the following definition: ―Discourse: a continuous stretch
of (especially spoken) language larger than a sentence, often constituting a coherent

unit such as a sermon, argument, joke, or narrative‖.
By Gillian Brown and George Yule, discourse analysis is a term that has
come to have different interpretations for scholars working in different disciplines.
For a sociolinguist, it is concerned mainly with the structure of social interaction
manifested in conversation; for a psycholinguist, it is primarily concerned with the
nature of comprehension of short written texts; for the computational linguist, it is
concerned with producing operational models of text-understanding within highly
limited contexts. In this textbook, first published in 1983, the authors provide an
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extensive overview of the many and diverse approaches to the study of discourse,
but base their own approach centrally on the discipline which, to varying degrees, is
common to them all - linguistics. Using a methodology which has much in common
with descriptive linguistics, they offer a lucid and wide-ranging account of how
forms of language are used in communication. [1]
An Introduction to Discourse Analysis examines by James Paul which is the
field and presents Gee‘s unique integrated approach which incorporates both a
theory of language-in-use and a method of research. In this book, discourse analysis
considers how language, both spoken and written, enacts social and cultural
perspectives and identities, include new material such as examples of oral and
written language, ranging from group discussions with children, adults, students and
teachers to conversations, interviews, academic texts and policy documents. An
Introduction to Discourse Analysis includes perspectives from a variety of
approaches and disciplines, including applied linguistics, education, psychology,
anthropology and communication to help students and scholars from a range of
backgrounds to formulate their own views on discourse and engage in their own
discourse analysis. [6]
Discourse analysis as an approach lies at the interface of many disciplines
such as psycholinguistics, sociolinguistics, philosophy, text linguistics. It has

attracted the attention of many scholars both abroad and at home. This book deals
with DA in such a fundamental way, defining discourse as a socially situated
communicative and interactional process. It is purpose and action oriented.
―Discourse Analysis: Theory and Method‖ defines and redefines such critical
concepts for DA as context, coherence vs. cohesion, the communicativeness,
relevance of discourse, structure of discourse and how background knowledge is
used in computing comprehension of discourse, as well as its semiotic nature.[7]
Tarigan (1987:2) says that ―Discourse is the language above level of
sentence. In other words, it is larger unit than sentence or clause‖. He also classifies
discourse into some types namely prose, poems, conversation and text. Discourse

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analysis is concerned with the study of the relationship between language and the
contexts in which it is used. It grew out of work in different disciplines in the 1960s,
including semiotics, psychology, anthropology and sociology. Discourse analysts
study language use in written texts of all kinds and spoken data from conversation
to highly institutional forms of talk.
The study of discourse concerns with four points, as described as follows:
- Discourse has a topic
It means that each discourse must have topic in order to get the reader
understands easily about the content of the text.
- Discourse has audiences
It means that audience is important in discourse because the audience is
considered as the supporter of discourse.
- Discourse has channel of communication
It means that each discourse must have channel of communication in order to
get people communicate in a better way in discourse.
- Discourse has structure

It means that discourse has relationship with linguistic, so discourse must
have structure, as it is related to grammar. The term discourse analysis is very
ambiguous. It can refer to the linguistic analysis of naturally occurring connected
spoken or written discourse. Roughly speaking, it refers to the attempts to study
about the organization of language above the sentence or above the clause, and to
study larger linguistic unit, such as conversational exchanges or written texts. It
follows that discourse analysis is also concerned with language use in social
contexts and in particular with interaction or dialogue between speakers.
Grammatical forms and phonological forms are examined separately. Both of
them are unreliable indicators of function, when they are taken together and looked
at in context, so that we can come to some decisions about function. So decision

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about communicative function solely be the domain of grammar or phonology.
Discourse analysis is not entirely separate from the study of grammar and
phonology but discourse analysis is interested in a lot more than linguistic forms.
The function of discourse analysis is to interpret grammar appropriately of a
sentence or dialogue. It shows more the relationship between the speakers‘ dialogue
and what sort of rules they are following as their converse to one another because
every situation will have their own formulas and conventions which we follow; for
example, interview for job, buying things on shops, conversation in phone,
informally discussion in classroom, etc. They will have different ways of opening
and closing the encounter, different role of relationships, different purposes and
different settings. Discourse analysis is interested in all of these different factors and
tries to account for them in a rigorous fashion with a separate set of descriptive
labels from those used by conventional grammarians. Above all, which are the raw
material of language teaching, the overall aim is to enable learners to use language
functionally.

2.4 Coherence and Cohesion
There are two terms that are very fundamental in discourse analysis which
studies the relation among a text within the other texts. The terms are cohesion and
coherence. Cohesion is the use of language forms to indicate semantic relations
between elements in a discourse. It is grammatical and lexical relationship within a
text or sentence. It can be defined as the links that hold a text together and give it
meaning. Cohesion in English specifies five major classes of cohesive ties, nineteen
subclasses, and numerous sub-subclasses. There are two main types of cohesion:
grammatical, referring to the structural content, a lexical, referring to the language
content of the piece
Coherence is grammatical and semantic interconnectedness between sentences
that form a text. It is the semantic structure, not its formal meaning, which
create coherence. Coherency is a condition where sentences in a text hang together.

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It can occur in relation of sentences that immediately follow each other. Coherency
grammatically arises when a text contains transition signals or when it possesses
consistent pronoun. Semantically, a text is said coherence when there is unity of
meaning among elements of the texts.
Hatch (1992: 1) also defines about discourse analysis and said, ―Discourse
analysis is the study of the language communication – spoken or written. The
system that emerges out the data shows that communication is an Interlocking
social, cognitive, and linguistic enterprise.‖ It concludes that in discourse analysis,
the process has some research objects that are spoken or written. Beaugrande (in
Van Djik, 2001: 41) states that the spoken and written discourses are from books,
newspapers, radio, broadcast, and so on.
The concept of cohesion and coherence are clearly detected in written
discourse. It is because written discourse has clearer structure, so the devices of

cohesion and coherence can be easier to be observed. Although object of a
discourse analysis is spoken, in order to get evidence, the object must be transform
into written discourse. Sinclair (2004: 4) says, ―Apparently spoken, these discourses
may nevertheless display evidence of having been written.‖
Coherence in writing is the result of many factors such as the combination of
words, phrases, sentences, paragraphs to make a whole meaning; furthermore, the
ideas in each paragraph should be presented clearly in every sentence. With
coherence in writing, readers can understand easily the ideas that you express. To
get a coherent writing, a writer should write coherent sentences, paragraphs and put
them in close relations to express a focusing theme.
In this analysis, the coherence of the poetic works is done, with the non-figurative
and figurative linguistic expressions, to highlight the poet‘s love for his darling
throughout the verses.

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