Discourse analysis, lecture 3 May 2012 Carina Jahani

Foreground and background Divergent use of terminology ”The term ‘foregrounding’ may be used in a purely linguistic sense. In sentence structure, it then refers to new information, in contrast to elements in the sentence that form the background against which new elements are to be understood by the listener or the reader.” The term foreground can also be used for ”prominence”, ”poetic effect”, etc. (van Peer & Hakemulder 2006: 547)

In this course Foreground material carries the discourse forward, contributes to the progression of the narrative (or argument), develops the theme of the discourse. Background material serves as a commentary on the theme, but does not itself contribute directly to the progression of the theme. It fills out the theme, but does not develop it.

Morphosyntactic features that tend to correlate with foreground/background (transitivity) high transitivitylow transitivity Participants:two or more one I saw youI ran to the bus Peter gave John the book

Aspect and aktionsart Aspect (viewpoint, perspective) Aspect is a grammatical category associated with verbs that expresses a temporal view of the event or state expressed by the verb Aktionsart/telicity Aktionsart is a property of (mostly verbal) predicates. It concerns the internal temporal constituency of a (type of) situation denoted by a given predicate. The (originally German) term aktionsart is approx. equivalent to the English terms lexical aspect and kind of action. Greek télos meaning ”end, goal”. Telicity is the property of a verb of verb phrase that presents an action or event as being complete, having reached a goal. Kinesis (maybe an infelicitous term?)

Five commonly identified aktionsarten No DurationHas Duration TelicAchievementAccomplishment realisedrown AtelicSemelfactiveActivity knockwalk States

Morphosyntactic features that tend to correlate with foreground/background (transitivity) high transitivitylow transitivity Aktionsartactionnon-action (state) We bought We likedthe car

Morphosyntactic features that tend to correlate with foreground/background (transitivity) high transitivitylow transitivity Telicitytelicatelic he finished he readthe book

high transitivitylow transitivity Durationnon-durativedurative I hit himI carried him

Morphosyntactic features that tend to correlate with foreground/background (transitivity) high transitivitylow transitivity Aspectperfectiveimperfective/ progressive I eatI am eating je suis alléj’allais

Morphosyntactic features that tend to correlate with foreground/background (transitivity) high transitivitylow transitivity Volitionalityvolitionalnon-volitional I hit himI met him I look at himI see him

Morphosyntactic features that tend to correlate with foreground/background (transitivity) high transitivitylow transitivity Affirmationaffirmativenegative they camethey didn’t come we see youwe don’t see you

Morphosyntactic features that tend to correlate with foreground/background (transitivity) high transitivitylow transitivity Modalityrealisirrealis they will comethey may come I did itI would do it

Morphosyntactic features that tend to correlate with foreground/background (transitivity) high transitivitylow transitivity Agentivityhigh agentivitylow agentivity we eat our foodwe like our food we buy a carwe have a car

High-Low agentivity 1. Verbs with an affected experiencer as the non- canonically marked A/S expressing physiological states/events or inner feelings/psychological experiences 2. Verbs with a less agentive non-canonically marked A/S, such as verbs of perception, cognition, liking, searching/finding, following/meeting, interacting, addressing and resembling 3. Verbs with modal meanings, such as verbs of wanting, necessity/obligation, capability/possibility, trying/success/failure, and verbs with evidential meanings 4. Verbs expressing happenings, particularly uncontrolled non-volitional events 5. Verbs of possession, existence, and lacking

Morphosyntactic features that tend to correlate with foreground/background (transitivity) high transitivitylow transitivity Agencyanimate Ainanimate A George startledThe picture mestartled me

Morphosyntactic features that tend to correlate with foreground/background (transitivity) high transitivitylow transitivity Affectedness O totally affectedO partially affected I ate all the foodI ate some of the food

Morphosyntactic features that tend to correlate with foreground/background (transitivity) high transitivitylow transitivity Individuation individuatednon-individuated He drankHe drank some the beerbeer

Background information Setting: It was a very cold day in January… Explanation: The other boy was ill… Evaluation: They found it very strange… Discourse irrealis: The other guests didn’t come Performative information: … you know…

Signalling background Special verb forms Spacers Backgrounding within a sentence: Subordinate clauses Reported conversations

Special highlighting Climax or other particularly important sentences Can be marked by: slowing down the narrative right before it introducing non-events backgrounding the event right before heavier participant encoding tail-head linkage

Special highlighting prominence markers change of tense (narrative present) change of scene (new deixis) shorter sentences etc.