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Discourse and Pragmatics

Discourse and Pragmatics. Genre Analysis. Genre? . Romeo and Juliet Harry Potter Yuan Liang Dibiao Wode Xin Yat But Ao Siu (The Weakest Link) Facebook Page Moshing. Genres. Movie Genres. What Genre are they?. The development of the concept of ‘Genre ’. Literary Studies

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Discourse and Pragmatics

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  1. Discourse and Pragmatics Genre Analysis

  2. Genre? Romeo and Juliet Harry Potter Yuan Liang Dibiao Wode Xin Yat But Ao Siu (The Weakest Link) Facebook Page Moshing

  3. Genres • Movie Genres

  4. What Genre are they?

  5. The development of the concept of ‘Genre’ • Literary Studies • Film Studies • Stylistics • ‘Genre Analysis’

  6. Genre

  7. Genre Analysis: • Genre Analysis is an approach that attempts to explain regularities in texts in terms of shared communicative purposes within discourse communities. It is usually associated with John Swales's analysis of the move structure of article introductions by North American and British academics. But since 1990, it has taken on other forms of analysis (rhetorical structure, analysis of variation, Systemic Functional Linguistics), other discourses (popular genres and legal genres as well as academic texts), different cultures (the academic writing of Finland, Czechoslavakia, or Germany), and different modes (in studies of pictures, electronic texts, and activities).

  8. Genre Analysis: Genre and Purpose • John Swales • Text types are historically and culturally situated • attempts to explain regularities in texts in terms of shared communicative purposes within discourse communities. • Genre is SOCIAL ACTION

  9. Communicative Events Communicative Purposes Discourse Communities Genre

  10. Discourse Community • A group of people who join together to pursue common goals • Intercommuinication among members • ‘Owns’ a set of genres • Membership depends of adherence to generic conventions • Membership=literacy

  11. What ‘discourse communities’ do you belong to?

  12. ‘Moves’ (academic introductions) • The four moves of academic introductions: • 1. Establishes the field in which the writer of the study is working. • 2. Summarizes the related research or interpretations on one aspect of the field. • 3. Creates a research space or interpretive space (a "niche") for the present study by indicating a gap in current knowledge or by raising questions. • 4. Introduces the study by indicating what the investigation being reported will accomplish for the field. • Adapted from: John Swales. Genre Analysis: English in Academic and Research Settings. Cambridge University Press, 1990.

  13. What are the features and ‘moves’ in these texts?

  14. Genre • ‘Communicative event’ • ‘Set of clear communicative purposes’ • ‘Discourse community’ • ‘Structured and conventionalized’ • ‘Constraints’ on ‘allowable contributions’ • Intent • Positioning • Form • Function • ‘Expert members’

  15. Analyzing Stories • Labov’s Narrative Analysis • Abstract • Orientation • Complication • Evaluation • Result • Coda

  16. Example: Recovery Stories • Introduction • Complication • Bottom • (Failed Reform) • Transformation • (Relapse) • Evaluation • Coda

  17. Recovery Stories: Features • Very stable structure • ‘Set’ phrases • themes: helplessness, control, hope, fear, strength • Bottom • ‘Higher power’

  18. Genre • ‘Tactical’ aspects of genre • ‘Discriminative strategies’ • Genres are not static, but rather dynamic social processes • Genres define, organize and structure social reality • Genre is a type of ‘social action’ • Genres signal Membership

  19. Mixing Genres • Relationship with intertextuality • Fairclough • Intertextuality • Interdiscursivity • Want Ad 1 • Want Ad 2

  20. Mixing Genres

  21. Mixing Genres

  22. Mixing Genres

  23. Bhatia’s 7 Steps for Genre Analysis • Determine the situational context • Survey literature • Refining the contextual analysis • Speaker/Writer and Hearer/Audience • History of discourse community • Network of texts • Subject/Topic • Select corpus • Study how the genre is used

  24. Bhatia’s 7 Steps for Genre Analysis (Continued) • Choose focal level for analysis • Lexico-grammatical features • Textualization (text-patterning) • Structural analysis • ‘cognitive move structure’ (focus on purpose) • Get opinions of specialist informants

  25. Task Text Analysis Job Application

  26. Genres and Culture • Chinese vs. American Business Letters • Chinese vs. American Television Commercials • Chinese vs. American Tabloids

  27. Genres and Power • Genres link producers, consumers, topics, mediums and occassions • Within a kind of framework • Which establishes constraints on what is acceptable • And controls the roles and responsibilities of producers and consumers • Reflects social roles (ideology) • Example

  28. Question for an Analysis of Genre • Context (where will the text be encountered and how does context affect interpretation?) • What generic label/s would you give to this text? • What kinds of expectations do you have about this genre? • Does the text meet or not meet those expectations? • What purposes does this genre serve? • What discourse communities is it associated with? • What ideological assumptions are embedded in the text? • How does this genre construct the reader? • How does this genre construct the writer? • How is the reader meant to respond to this text? • How open to negotiation is your response? • What relationship does the text have with other texts/genres?

  29. Questions for Genre Analysis • What ideological assumptions are embedded in the text? • How does this genre construct the reader? • How does this genre construct the writer? • How is the reader meant to respond to this text? • How open to negotiation is your response?

  30. Expectations • Repertories of expectations • Genres are never clearly defined • New texts may require new genre categories

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