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DECODING WRITING STYLE WITH CRITICAL READING

DECODING WRITING STYLE WITH CRITICAL READING. Or: “Critical Discourse Analysis in Brief”. Three Keys to Critical Discourse Analysis. “Actor – Process – Recipient” “Passive Construction” “Nominalisation”. Actor, Process, and Recipient. Like “Subject – Verb – Object”

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DECODING WRITING STYLE WITH CRITICAL READING

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  1. DECODING WRITING STYLE WITH CRITICAL READING Or: “Critical Discourse Analysis in Brief”

  2. Three Keys to Critical Discourse Analysis • “Actor – Process – Recipient” • “Passive Construction” • “Nominalisation”

  3. Actor, Process, and Recipient Like “Subject – Verb – Object” • Actor = Subject = Participant (sometimes also the “Agent”) • Process = Verb • Recipient = Object = Participant

  4. Actor, Process, and Recipient • PARTICIPANTS • She hit him (participant) (verb) (participant) • « She » has a connection to « hit » in that she is the one responsible for the action of hitting – she is the “ACTOR” • at the same time “him” is additionally, although differently, connected as the one receiving the action of hitting – “him” is “RECIPIENT”

  5. Actor, Process, and Recipient • PROCESSES: Verbs = “processes” • DOING verbs as processes • Material processes (arrived, collapsed) • Behavioural processes (sneezed, sang) • PROJECTING verbs as processes • Mental processes (enjoyed, remembered) • Verbal processes (told, said) • BEING verbs as processes • Existential (are, were, was + there) • Relational (are, were, seemed, felt, belongs to)

  6. Actor, Process, and Recipient • OBJECT as “circumstance” or “goal” • They ate at noon. (actor) (process material) (circumstance) • They caught many fish. (actor) (process material) (goal)

  7. Passive Construction • Actor and Goal presented in reverse order to the active construction • Actor often referred to as AGENT • Agent perhaps omitted entirely – hence AGENTLESS PASSIVES • The question for agentless passives: “Why has the agent been omitted?” • Ex. “The man was murdered” – Why is the name omitted?

  8. Nominalisation • Repackages events and even entire clauses as “participants”; for example: • Excessive consumption of alcohol (participant) is a major cause of motor vehicle accidents. • Represents a shift or transference of meaning akin to lexical metaphor

  9. Resources [1] D. Butt, R. Fahey, S. Feez, S. Spinks, C. Yallop, “Chapter 3,” Using Functional Grammar: an Explorer’s Guide. Sydney: National Centre for English Language Teaching and Research, Macquarie University. pp. 46-75. [2] Malcolm Coulthard, “The linguist as expert witness” [posted on M. Coulthard Profile Web Page], (2005) Aston University Website [On-line], Available www.aston.ac.uk/lss/staff/profile/coulthard.jsp. [3] P. Teo, “Racism in the news: a critical discourse analysis of news reporting in two Australian newspapers,” Discourse and Society, vol. 11 (2000), no.1, London, Thousand Oaks, CA., and New Delhi: Sage Publications, pp. 7-49.

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