Discourse Analysis: Understanding Cohesion and Coherence in Text and Conversations, Appunti di Cultura Inglese I

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LINGUA INGLESE (SC)

A.A. 2017/ II MODULO – PARTE (P) (CRITICAL) DISCOURSE ANALYSIS (1)

Paola-Maria Caleffi

WHAT IS ‘DISCOURSE ANALYSIS’?

Term first introduced by American linguist Zellig Harris (1952).

How can we tell whether a sequence of sentences in the spoken and/or written language is a text , and not a just a random collection of unrelated bits?

Text  a structure that exists ‘above the sentence level’, and in which sentences relate to one another and collectively form a larger whole (e.g. a fairy tale, an essay, an interview, etc.)

TEXT LINGUISTICS VS CONVERSATION ANALYSIS

 A distinction is sometimes made between written and spoken linguistic material

‘ text linguistics ’  analysis of written discourse

and

‘ conversation analysis ’  analysis of spoken discourse

WHY ANALYSING DISCOURSE?

 to understand how we make sense of what we read/write, and what we hear/say

 to understand how language works in actual communication

 to undertand how language is used in actual communication

COHESION AND COHERENCE

A sequence of sentences is cohesive if it has a structure, that is, if it is held together by words/devices that relate to each other, making the sequence a meaningful unit.

A sequence of sentences is coherent if it makes sense , that is, if it conveys a message.

COHESION AND COHESIVE DEVICES

 COHESION is what provides a text with connectivity , and makes of it a unified whole because alle the parts are connected.

 Cohesive devices are those grammatical and lexical items within a text that create such connections by relating to each other.

 Cohesive devices help us understand what writers/speakers want to say by showing the surface structure of the text, that is, how words and sentences are organised to form a cohesive whole.

COHESION

My father once bought a Lincoln convertible. He did it by

saving every penny he could.That car would be worth a

fortune nowadays. However, he sold it to help pay for my

college education. Sometimes I think I’d rather have the

convertible.

(example from http://fac.ksu.edu.sa/sites/default/files/3-discourse_analysis.pdf)

COHESION

My father once bought a Lincoln convertible. He did it by

saving every penny he could.That car would be worth a

fortune nowadays. However, he sold it to help pay for my

college education. Sometimes I think I’d rather have the

convertible.

(example from http://fac.ksu.edu.sa/sites/default/files/3-discourse_analysis.pdf)

COHESION

My father once bought a Lincoln convertible. He did

it by saving every penny he could. That car would be

worth a fortune nowadays. However, he sold it to help

pay for my college education. Sometimes I think I’d rather

have the convertible.

(example from http://fac.ksu.edu.sa/sites/default/files/3-discourse_analysis.pdf)

COHESION

My father once bought a Lincoln convertible. He did

it by saving every penny he could. That car would be

worth a fortune nowadays. However, he sold it to help

pay for my college education. Sometimes I think I ’d rather

have the convertible.

(example from http://fac.ksu.edu.sa/sites/default/files/3-discourse_analysis.pdf)

GRAMMATICAL COHESION

In the following examples, identify grammatical cohesive devices.

 Although he didn’t know the time,Tom knew that his interview

was about to start and he was beginning to feel nervous about it.

 I like all science fiction films. In fact, I like both the old ones and the new ones.

 When Tom called his girlfriend back, she had already left home.

 A: Promise you will send me a letter! -

B: I will!

 It seems that the more you study, the less you know.

 Wash and core six cooking apples. Put them into a fireproof dish.

LEXICAL COHESION

Lexical cohesion is obtained by means of an accurate use/selection of lexical words:

 Repetition :

single words or phrases are repeated (e.g. There are two ways of doing this.The first way is..., the second way is... )

 Synonyms :

a word with the same or a similar meaning is used instead of another (e.g. class instead of lesson )

LEXICAL COHESION

In the following examples, identify lexical cohesive devices.

 Shall we go to Kensington Gardens? It’s a nice place to go to.

 There has been an increase in unemployment this year.The rise is due to the financial crisis.

 There are many reasons why Britain voted for Brexit. Certainly, one of the factors was the difficult situation the country was facing when asked to vote.

 John got a snake underneath a bucket.The snake is going to suffocate if it stays there very long. Poor thing!

 The art gallery was exhibiting all his paintings but not the sculpture or his early etchings.

COHESION WITHOUT COHERENCE

A text may appear highly cohesive, that is, it may have a lot of connecting devices between the sentences, and still be very difficult to interpret if there is no coherence ...