2012 Chapter 7 Discourse Analysis 语篇分析

2 Information Structure
❖How do language users arrange information within discourse?
❖2.1 Given and new information ❖Alice: Who ate the bread? ❖Tom : Mary ate the bread.
given/ comment
2.2 Topic and comment
❖Topics are not so important to the grammar of English.
❖There is only one grammatical structure which marks topics in English. ▪ As for me, I’m gonna go to bed.
❖Mark the topic ▪ Place topic in the initial position in English. ▪ A beautiful dress she did make.
2.2 Topic and comment
❖Topic is not necessarily a property of the sentence; it may be a property of the discourse context: ▪ Oh, look! ▪ (an unexpressed topic “the setting sun” or “the sky”)
❖Given information can be something closely related to the mentioned information (e.g. meronymy) ▪ Kent returned my car last night after borrowing it for the day. One of the wheels was about to fall off and the dashboard was missing.
❖Discourse analysis ❖Discourse linguistics/ discourse studies/
text analysis
❖The study of how sentences in spoken and written language form larger meaningful units such as paragraphs, conversations, interviews, etc.
man with an old-fashioned hat on, quite elegantly dressed.
2.1 Given and new information
❖Given information is expressed in shorter forms (pronouns/ unstressed noun phrase/omitted): ▪ A: Who ate the apple? ▪ B: Mary did./ Mary.
2.2 Topic and comment
❖Given information is not always the topic. ▪ Mary ate the bread. As for her little sister, she drank the Coca-Cola. new/ topic ▪ Peter didn’t believe anything the charlatan said. As for Mary, she believed everything he said.
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1 Discourse and Discourse Analysis
❖A primary task of DA is to explore the linguistic features which characterize discourse.
❖The goal of DA is to examine how reader or user of a discourse recognizes that parts of a discourse are dependent on others.
❖One of the most important features of discourse is cohesion (衔接)
1 Discourse and Discourse Analysis
❖Topics of DA: ▪ Information structure(信息结构) ▪ Cohesion(衔接) ▪ Coherence(连贯) ▪ Discourse makers(话语标记语) ▪ Conversational analysis(会话分析)
❖Given information: known to the addressee
❖New information: unknown to the addressee.
2.1 Given and new information
❖Given information can be introduced by one speaker alone: ▪ A man called while you were on your break. He said he’d call back later.
2.2 Topic and comment
❖Topic-comment vs. given-new information ▪ Given-new information: the point of view of the listener. ▪ Topic-comment relates to that of the speaker. ▪ The given element is that which the speaker presents as already being known to the listener. ▪ The topic element is the one the speaker decides to take as the starting point.
2.2 Topic and comment
❖Topic话题: what the utterance is about. ❖Comment述题: what is said about the
topic.
❖Topic is the element of a sentence that functions as the center of attention.
▪ Adele knew what was going on, and Peter knew what was going on.
1 Discourse and Discourse Analysis
❖Fertilizers put back what the rain and plants take away. Plastic pots are not just substitutes for clay ones. Pears are a little more temperamental than apples. Supporting and training are not quite the same thing.
▪ B: Yes, Tom saw the ghost.
2.3 Contrast 对比
❖One outstanding from all is contrasted with the whole: ▪ Of everyone present, only Peter knew what was going on.
2.2 Topic and comment
❖Topic is usually the subject, noun phቤተ መጻሕፍቲ ባይዱase. ▪ Mary ate the bread.
❖Other elements can take the role too. ▪ After tea, will you tell me a story?
❖Other languages have special forms to mark the topic (Japanese, Korean)
❖Chinese marks topics by word order: ▪ 作业终于做完了！
2.2 Topic and comment
❖In English, marking the topic of a sentence is far less important than marking the subject. ▪ There are special forms to indicate the subject: ▪ She looks at him.
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1 Discourse and Discourse Analysis
❖Pick up a handful of soil in your garden. Ordinary, unexciting earth. Yet it is one of Nature’s miracles, and one of her most complex products. Your success as a gardener will largely depend upon its condition, so take the first bold step in gardening --- get to know your soil.
1 Discourse and Discourse Analysis
❖Language in use
❖Pragmatics: meaning ❖Discourse analysis: information structure
❖Most powerful instrument: Functional Systemic Grammar
?informationstructure信息结构?cohesion衔接?coherence连贯?discoursemakers话语标记语?conversationalanalysis会话分析2informationstructure?howdolanguageusersarrangeinformationwithindiscourse
2.1 Given and new information
❖Forms of N/G information: ❖New-information carriers usually receive
more stress, and they are commonly more elaborated, e.g. with a full noun phrase, relative clause or adjectival modifier(s). ▪ E.g. When I entered the room, there was a tall
❖“Language above the sentence or above the clause” (Stubbs, 1983)
❖Text linguistics/ discourse analysis
❖ written
spoken
1 Discourse and Discourse Analysis
Chapter 7 Discourse Analysis
1 Discourse and Discourse Analysis
❖Do you hear the ring? We shall begin the class now.
❖Discourse: Connected sentences like these are usually called discourse.
2.3 Contrast 对比
❖Contrast: a noun phrase occurs in opposition to another noun phrase in the discourse.
❖ Contrastive ▪ A: Did Tom see the ghost? ▪ B: No, John did.