1. Language let loose upon the world
Discourse
Language let loose
upon the world

2. Textuality
the phenomenon of sentences belonging together which is achieved through cohesion and coherence
cohesion: a range of linguistic strategies which enable users to know that sentences belong together
coherence: the semantic principle which allows users to state that a text makes sense

3. Context
Context is very important (remember the example about the hot coffee > context allowed us to establish whether the speaker’s utterance was declarative, imperative or exclamative)
Discourse exists in real life situations

4. Communicative acts See also Speech Acts (Austin)
The full meaning conveyed in discourse is not necessarily the apparent or literal meaning conveyed merely by the words which are spoken or written in single sentences or utterances. > see example p. 187
Politeness
Implication > meaning is hinted at rather than stated explicitly
Inference > meaning is deduced

5. Branches of linguistics
Pragmatics > interpretation of meaning which is not explicit
Sociolinguistics > some overlapping, but it is rather concerned with communities
Discourse analysis > can be understood in different ways
Discourse from the point of view of Foucault:

6. Spoken discourse Non-fluency > typical of spontaneous speech
Coordination to join clauses
Low frequency of passive constructions
comment-topic structure (p. 190 repetition of he > rarely found in writing)

7. Lexical cohesion
in a cohesive text lexical links between sentences are expected
lexical words belonging to the same semantic field or lexical set are employed
The orchestra is touring Europe. The musicians will perform in Rome tomorrow.
lexical cohesion makes a text the output of a deliberate choice

8. Semantic field and Lexical set
Semantic field: a theme or topic created by the occurrence of words of associated meanings within a text
Lexical set: a group of words belonging to the same word class and closely related by their meanings e.g.: the names of fruits

9. Repetition
a linguistic item may be repeated within a sentence or in more than one sentence
lexical word
phrase
clause
sentence
sound (Ouse p. 195)
The orchestra is touring Europe. The orchestra will perform in Rome tomorrow.
the repetition of grammatical words is not a cohesive device
parallelism: the structural repetition of a linguistic pattern

10. Phonological effects
Lolita, light of my life, fire of my loins. My sin, my soul. Lo-lee-ta: the tip of the tongue taking a trip of three steps down the palate to tap, at three, on the teeth. Lo. Lee. Ta. She was Lo, plain Lo, in the morning, standing four feet ten in one sock. She was Lola in slacks. She was Dolly at school. She was Dolores on the dotted line. But in my arms she was always Lolita. (Vladimir Nabokov)

11. Reference
2 items can be co-referential = they refer to the same referent
Anaphoric reference
Cataphoric
reference
Antecedent
anaphor
cataphor
(cataphors refer towards in the text)
Endophoric reference
Normally DEICTIC
Exophoric reference > related to the situation or context in which the discourse occurs

12. Deictic pairs time place person
now/then, today/yesterday, today/tomorrow
place
here/there, this/that, these/those
person
I/you, I/we, he/they

13. Ellipsis
We use language in an efficient and economic way and do not favour repetition unless it is for emphasis or for clarification
Ellipsis is the omission from a clause or sentence of an element which can nevertheless be inferred (usually because it is recovered from elsewhere)
Ellipsis is particularly common in conversation

14. Discourse markers Interjections Monitoring devices
More frequent in spontaneous spoken language
They operate outside normal clause and sentence structure, providing instead orientation points relating to the text in which they occur.

15. Register Field = use and subject matter of a text
Mode = speech or writing (transmission)
Tenor = relationship between its participants
These factors will affect the degree of formality
Written texts also involve choices with regard to layout
Genre = particular type identifiable by its form > experience teaches us what to expect (comedians make use of this awareness for comic effect)
(a funny video showing what happens when people do not behave as you expect them to behave)

16. Homework
Read p ( )