Discourse

1. She hid Bob then cooked it, whose sister rose prices. They liked itself well, however Sheila wanted. Kangaroo and the astronaut danced up the slope.

2. Discourse Top down social relationships shared knowledge discourse type discourse structure discourse function schemata (ritual and repertoire) cohesion grammar and lexis sounds and letters bottom up (Adapted from Cook, 1989, p80)

3. Cohesion • Grammatical cohesion • Lexical cohesion • Semantic cohesion • Cohesive links • Cohesive devices

4. Coherence and Cohesion • Coherence – hanging it all together • Cohesion – part of coherence (including pragmatic function)

5. Analysing Texts and Contexts –Top Down Someone (Who by) communicates to someone else (Who for), who may or may not reply, about something (What), somewhere (Where), using a chosen means (How), for some reason (Purpose)

6. Contexts and Register • The register of language depends on the context of the text – whatever the medium and the participants

7. Register and language • Register can affect all features of language: vocabulary, syntax, phonology, morphology, pragmatics and/or different paralinguistic features such as pitch, volume and intonation in spoken English.

8. Degrees of formality • There are not merely two kinds of register (formal and informal), nor are there clear boundaries between x kinds of register, but rather a continuum from highly formal to highly informal (aka vulgar!).

9. Register, varieties and dialect • Discourse highly complex – context must also take into account such things as geographical varieties (including dialects), social class, age, and even time (e.g. the language used in an historical novel) • Once again there are no clear boundaries: – When does a variety become a dialect? - At what age should one stop using the language of ‘youth’? - Are there more formal and less formal varieties of dialects?

10. Context and Register – Halliday • Halliday (1964) identifies three variables that determine context and as a result register: field (the ‘what’ of the discourse, i.e. the subject matter and the nature of the discourse), tenor (the ‘who’ of the discourse, i.e. the participants and their relationships) and mode (the ‘how’ i.e. the type of communication, e.g. spoken or written). • This is but one linguist’s terminology – other linguists use other terms.

11. Context and Register – Hymes • Hymes (1972) identified other components of a context: - participants (speaker audience) - message form - message content - setting (where/when) - medium of communication (spoken, written etc) - intent of communication (purpose) - effect of communication (outcome) - the key (tone/register) - the genre (text type) - the norms of interaction

12. Context and Register – House (based on Crystal and Davey) • House (1981 & 1997) talked about different ‘dimensions’: 3 dimensions for the ‘language user’ and 5 dimensions for ‘language use’ User Use - geographic origin - medium - social class - participation - time - social role relationship - social attitude - province

13. Bibliography • Cook, G (1989) Discourse Oxford: Oxford University Press. • Halliday, M.A.K. (1964) ‘Comparison and translation’. In M.A.K. Halliday, M.McIntosh and P. Strevens, The linguistic sciences and language teaching. London: Longman. • House, J. (1981) 1997) A Model for Translation Quality Assessment. Tuebigen: Gunter Narr Verlag • Hymes, D. (1972) ‘Models of the Interaction and Social Life’ in Gumperz, J. J. and Hymes, D. (1972) Directions in Sociolinguistics: The Ethnography of Communication New York: Holt, Rhinehart & Winston.