Discourse Analysis & Grammar

1. Discourse Analysis & Grammar Spoken and written discourses display grammatical connections between individual clauses and utterances.

2. Some Common Items • Reference Anaphoric- Things which has been said earlier Exophoric- Only in spoken discourse Cataphoric- Forward reference • Ellipsis • Substitution • Conjunction

3. Grammatical Cohesion and Textuality Grammatical cohesion can be classified under 3 types i) reference, ii) ellipsis/substitution and iii) conjunction. • Reference Pronoun eg. He, she, it, him, they, etc Demonstratives eg. This, that, these, those Articles eg. The, a, an Cataphoric referent ( Forward reference) eg. 1. The teacher asked him to read so Ahmad read. eg. 2. [2.15 (Mc Carthy, p.41)] Anaphoric referent (Ties that point back to a previously established referent) eg. 1. The teacher asked Ahmad to read so he read.

4. Exophoric Reference (Looking outward- outside the text). The referent is not in the immediate context but is assumed by the speaker/writer to be of a shared world, in terms of knowledge and experience. eg. The government are supposed to solve the problems of the people (The qs. which govt is inappropriate.) Note: Language teachers and materials writers need to monitor the degree of cultural exophoric references in texts chosen for teaching to ensure that the referential burden is not too great.

5. Ellipsis • Ellipsis is distinguished by the structure having some missing elements. These elements are obvious from the context hence need not be raised. Verbal ellipsis eg. [2.17 MC p.43] The children will carry the small boxes, the adults the larger ones. (This verbal ellipsis is anaphoric) Nominal ellipsis eg. [2.20 MC p.43] Nelly liked the green tiles; I preferred the blue. Clausal ellipsis Most common = subject pronoun omission. Eg. [2.23 & 2.24 MC p. 44] He said he would take early retirement as soon as he could and he has.

6. Group Activity • Identify examples of ellipsis in these extracts • Page 44 ex.2 MC

7. Substitution • In substitution, word is replaced by another word. It also operates either at nominal, verbal or clausal level. • Nominal • Do you want the blanket? Yes, I’ll take one (blanket) • Did you sing? Yes I did (sing) • The blankets needed to be cleaned. Yes they did (needed to be cleaned) • Sometimes, the word ‘so’ is used as a substitution. eg. I went to lock the gate. When I got there, I found somebody had already done so.

8. Conjunction • Halliday (1985) offers a scheme for classification of conjunctive relations. • Types- • elaboration (in other words,rather) • extension ( and, but, alternatively), • enhancement ( in that case, cause effect, consequently), • additive (moreover, besides, furthermore, in addition), • adversative (although, but, eventhough, in contrast), • causal (show cause and effect), • temporal (then, to show time and place), etc.

9. Theme and rheme • English is a SVO language • Eg: She painted those beautiful pictures. • Theme= the topic (at the beginning of a sentence) • Rheme= about the topic (comment about the topic)

10. Tense and aspect • Tense- related to time • Aspect- related to how an action was completed, habitual or continuous

11. Tense in English • 2 tenses- simple present and simple past tense • Present tense Present time Eternal truth Instantaneous use Habitual use Future use • Past tense Action done with Hypothetical situation Past action that continues to present Indefinite past Completed action but don’t know when

12. Group Discussion • In which discourse would the knowledge of grammar be more relevant? • Think of your approaches to teaching grammar in your class. Could any of these be considered discourse analysis activities? • How does knowledge of discourse and grammar change your current practice?