Discourse Analysis ENGL4339 Dr. Mosheer Amer September 2015 1

Course Objectives To introduce students basic concepts and terms in the field of discourse analysis. To understand how discourse is structured and interpreted. To learn the most important approaches to discourse analysis. To understand and analyze texts using various discourse analysis methods. To read and discuss descriptions and illustrations of leading approaches, methods, and applications of discourse analysis. To increase familiarity with educational research deploying discourse analytic approaches. 2

Course Assessment Course grades will be determined roughly according to the following distribution: Midterm Exam ………………………….……….. 25% Final Exam ………………….………………..….. 50% Chapter or article summary and presentation……..10% Data Analysis Assignments ……………………… 10% Attendance and participation …………………….. 5% 3

Participate in discussion and questions My expectations of YOU Attend all classes Participate in discussion and questions Do all required textbook readings Do all your assignments Give Presentations

What is Language? Any system of linguistic symbols used in a generally consistent way by people to communicate meaningfully with one another. A systematic means of communicating ideas or feelings by the use of signs, sounds, gestures, or marks which have understood meanings.

Levels of Language Description and Analysis Phonetics & phonology: sound and sound system (Phonological analysis) Morphology: Word forms (morphological analysis) Syntax: sentence structures including word order (syntactic analysis) Semantics: the ways in which meaning is constructed from words (semantic analysis)

Levels of Language Description and Analysis Sentence Clause Phrase Word Morpheme Phoneme

Linguistic Competence Linguistic Competence: The stored mental knowledge that enables the speaker to: produce an unlimited number of grammatical sentences that he/she has not said or heard before, understand an unlimited number of sentences belonging to his/her native language never encountered before, pass grammaticality judgment on sentences which he/she encounters, and identify ambiguous sentences and provide interpretations for such sentences. A particularly influential approach to language during the 60’s was the structuralist or formalist approach. The view of language as consisting of systems, phonological, morphological and syntactic systems and as rule-governed was advocated by proponents of the formalist or structuralist view of language chief among them Chomsky. He proposed a concept called Linguistic competence

Linguistic Competence Chomsky said that by the age of five or six, every native speaker will have internalized the entire linguistic system (or grammar). Chomsky’s Formalist or structuralist approach didn’t concentrate on grammaticality or meaningfulness. The young boys play in the playground happily. *Colourless green ideas sleep furiously *Za spanky twikers malasted a minky vimp blintly

Linguistic Competence vs. Communicative Competence Communicative competence: The speaker’s ability to produce appropriate utterances not grammatical sentences since the basic function of language is “meaningful communication” amongst speakers of the same speech community. There is no one-to-one correspondence between form and function. Utterances are concrete realizations of linguistic expressions on some particular occasion Appropriateness: whether and to what extent something is suitable and effective in some context. The formalist/structuralist approach to language came under sustained criticism during the 1970’s by proponents of a functionalist approach to language and especially Chomsky’s definition of linguistic competence as too narrow a definition. There is no one-to-one correspondence between form and function. Utterances are concrete realizations of linguistic expressions on some particular occasion, maybe complete sentences or smaller linguistic expressions, e..g. hello? In here! Any chance of a coffee? Oh heck! Ouch!

Linguistic Competence vs. Communicative Competence A: What is your name? B: Well, let us say you might have thought you had something from before, but you haven’t got it anymore. A: I am going to call you Sam. This piece of conversation is an example of Schizophrenic talk. All utterances are grammatical but they are not appropriate. They simply do not make sense in the context of a conversation. The answer of B speaker does not make sense to the question of A. What’s wrong with B’s contribution is that it breaks the rules for the production of coherent discourse. Communication is a social activity that requires the coordinated efforts of two or more individuals. Language is as much a social construct as much a mental ability or a set of structures and it is important that you are aware of the social function of language in a second/foreign language as in their first language.

Linguistic Competence vs. Communicative Competence Consider the following conversation: A- Are you gonna be here for ten minutes? B- Go ahead and take your break. Take longer if you want to. A- I’ll just be outside on the porch. Call me if you need me. B- O.K., don’t worry.

Linguistic Competence vs. Communicative Competence For each of the following, suggest one possible context and who might be speaking to who. What might be the speaker’s purpose. Speaker’s Purpose Who? Possible Context Sentence ‘Phew. It’s cold in here.’ ‘The fish is very good today.’ ‘Well, actually I’m a bit busy at this moment.’ It is important to raise students’ awareness of the various functions language can perform, i.e. how language takes on different meanings depending on contexts, who says what to whom.

Textual Competence Textual Competence: The ability to produce and interpret contextually appropriate texts. To do this, we draw on our linguistic, textual, pragmatic and textual knowledge of what typically happens in particular text, and how it is typically organized and how it is typically interpreted. For example, using MSN Messenger/text messaging involves learning a set of abbreviations and symbols [ BRB, BTW, FYI, OIC, TY,, ] that are commonly used as well as how they are interpreted.

Generic Competence Generic Competence: It describes how respond to recurring and new communicative situations by using, interpreting and exploiting conventions associated with specific text types or genres. For example, writing a business email or letter requires certain knowledge and conventions different from writing a text message to a friend. If you are new to writing business letters, you will have to learn how to do this and what the possibilities and limitations of what and how you can write something.

Social Competence Social Competence: It refers to how we use language to take part in social and institutional interactions in a way to allow us to express our social identity, within the limitations of a specific social situation and communicative interaction. For example, How I present myself at a meeting at work, i.e., as someone who always has something to say about a point, or whether I want to keep my opinions to myself. I may use language to show that I am in control of the situation, or to use language to show that I am not.

Discursive Competence Discursive Competence: It draws on these three competences: textual, generic and social competence. It involves not only language-related and text-level knowledge, but also factors outside of the text which need to be taken into consideration for effective communication.

What do we mean by discourse analysis? So, What is discourse? What do we mean by discourse analysis? What is written discourse and spoken discourse? What are approaches to discourse analysis? Try to find answers to these questions next class!!!