Discourse Analysis and grammar

Zeshan MajidMay 10, 20210 comments

Discourse analysis and grammar

Study familiar terms like clause, pronoun, adverbial, and conjunction and attempt to relate them to a less familiar set of terms: theme, rheme, reference, and anaphoric, to link grammar and discourse.

Spoken and written discourses

Display grammatical conations between individual clauses and utterances. These grammatical links can be classified under three broad types :

Reference or co-reference

Ellipsis/substitution

Conjunction

Reference

The term reference is traditionally used in semantics to define the relationship between a word and what it points to in the real world, but in Halliday and Hasan’s (1976) model it simply refers to the relationship between two linguistic expressions. Reference is an act by which a speaker (or writer) uses language to enable a listener (or reader) to identify something.

Reference Types

Exophoric (Situational)

Endophoric (Textual

Exophoric Reference

(Looking outward- outside the text)

The referent is not in the immediate context but is assumed by the speaker/writer to be part of a shared world, in terms of knowledge and experience.

E.g., For he’s a jolly good fellow and so say all of us.

As outsiders, we don’t know who he is, but, most likely, the people involved in the celebration are aware of the he that is being referred to, and therefore, can find texture in the sentences.

References to elements in the text are called Endophoric references.

Endophoric referencing can be divided into two areas:

Anaphoric

Cataphoric

Anaphoric (Backward Reference)

Refers to any reference that “points backward” to previously mentioned information in the text. Usually items such as he/she or them, it, this, can be decoded without major difficulty.

E.g., Tom likes ice cream but Bill can’t eat it.

The teacher asked Ahmad to read so he read.

Cataphoric

Refers to any reference that “points forward” to information that will be presented later in the text.

For example:

When I met her, Mary looked ill.

Here is the news. The Prime Minister, Imran Khan has visited areas affected by rain.

Cohesive Reference

Functionally speaking, there are three main types of cohesive references:

Personal

Demonstrative

Comparative

Personal Reference

Personal reference keeps track of function through the speech situation using nouns, pronouns like “he, him, she, her”, etc., and possessive determiners like “mine, yours, his, hers”, etc.

E.g.,

The prime minister has resigned. He announced his decision this morning.

Demonstrative

Demonstrative reference keeps track of information through location using proximity references like “this, these, that, those, here, there, then, and the”.

E.g., I always buy a lot of books when I am in England. There are many lovely bookshops there.

Comparative

Comparative reference keeps track of identity and similarity through indirect references using adjectives like “same, equal, similar, different, else, better, more”, etc.

Adverbs like “so, such, similarly, otherwise, so, more”, etc.

E.g.,

A similar view is not acceptable.

We did the same.

So they said.

Substitution and Ellipsis

Whereas referencing functions to link semantic meanings within text, substitution, and ellipsis differ in that they operate as a linguistic link at the lexico-grammatical level. Substitution and ellipsis are used when “a speaker or writer wishes to avoid the repetition of a lexical item and draw on one of the grammatical resources of the language to replace the item”.

Substitution:

Substitution is the replacement of a word or phrase with a “filler” word (such as one, so, or do) to avoid repetition.

There are three general ways of substituting in a sentence:

Ø Nominal

One /ones

Ø Verbal

Do/so

Ø Clausal

So / not

Nominal Substitution

In nominal substitution, the most typical substitution words are: “one and ones”. E.g.,

Let’s go and see the bears. The polar ones are over on that rock.

This car is mine, but that one is yours.

Verbal substitution

In verbal substitution, the most common substitute is the verb “do” which is sometimes used in conjunction with “so” as in “do so”. E.g.,

Did Mary take that letter? She might have done.

Do/do not and auxiliaries.

She can drive the car, but I cannot.

She wrote the homework, but I did not.

Clausal Substitution

In clausal substitution, an entire clause is substituted by “So, not” E.g.,

I believe so.

Everyone thinks he’s guilty. If so, no doubt he’ll resign.

We should recognize him when we see him. Yes, but supposing not: what do we do?

Ellipsis

Ellipsis (zero substitution) is the omission of elements normally required by the grammar that the speaker/writer assumes is obvious from the context and therefore need not be raised. E.g.,

Do you want to hear another song? I know twelve more [songs]

Sue brought roses and Jackie [brought] lilies.

I ran 5 miles on the first day and 8 [miles] on the second

Types of Ellipsis

nominal

verbal

clausal

Nominal Ellipsis

Ellipsis within the nominal group or the common noun that may be omitted and the function of the head taken on by one of the other elements.

· E.g.,

· Nelly liked the green tiles; I preferred the blue.

Verbal Ellipsis

An elliptical verbal group presupposes one or more words from a previous verbal group. Technically, it is defined as a verbal group whose structure does not fully express its systematic feature. Example:

a) Have you been swimming? – Yes, I have.

b) What have you been doing? –Swimming

Clausal Ellipsis

A Clause in English is considered the expression of the various speech functions, such as statement, question, response, and so on, and has a two-part structure consisting of a modal element plus a propositional element. For example:

What were they doing?- Holding hands

The plane has landed.—Has it?

Has the plane landed?—Yes, it has.

Halliday and Hasan also say that the principle of clausal ellipsis is general to all types of questions (1976: 211).

Conjunctions

Conjunction acts as a cohesive tie between clauses or sections of text in such a way as to demonstrate a meaningful pattern between them. Conjunctions are not a way of simply joining sentences. Their role in the text is wider than that because they provide the listener/reader with information for the interpretation of the utterance; that is why some linguists prefer to describe them as discourse markers.

Halliday (1985) offers a scheme for the classification of conjunctive relations and includes over forty conjunctive items.

Here is a simplified list based on Halliday’s category headings:

Elaboration: In other words, Rather

Extension: and, but, alternatively

Enhancement: In that case, consequently