Text analysis session 3

1. Text analysis session 3 Text grammar Structuring information Cohesion and coherence

4. Texts and theirtexture • We looked at how certain language features run through a text and help us to make sense of a text • Now we will look at details of cohesion: overt identifiable features, which you can learn to recognise and name, which make up the texture of a text and contribute to its unity

5. Cohesion • _ "the way certain words or grammatical features of a • sentence can connect that sentence to its predecessors • (and successors) in a text." (Hoey 1991, 3) • _ "The concept of cohesion is a semantic one; it refers to relations of meaning that exist within the text, and that define it as a text.” (Halliday and Hasan 1976, 4) • _ Phonological cohesion • _ Lexical cohesion • _ Grammatical cohesion

6. Phonological cohesion

7. reference • The idea of reference is that of having to look for the full meaning somewhere else • We can look for the information elsewhere in the text (endophoric reference) or outside the text (exophoric reference) • The grammatical items refer to something or some one and the reader automatically identifies what is being referred to (the referent)

8. Exophoricreference • First and secondpersonpronouns • The writer is being self-referential using I • It is not always possible to identify exactly who we refers to • Many advertisements address the reader directly as you and companies refer to themselves as we • In television news demonstrativereferencelikethis, these, hereoftenrefertoelementsoutside the verbal text but are visible in the visual part of the text.

9. Who exactly? • We can be inclusive or exclusive • It can include the audience (or readers) or it can refer to the speaker/writer and some other people, to a nation or to a small group of people • “Now this is the scene right now in the City, just a few miles from where I am standing. We’ll bring you more on that in a moment.” • he wanted the big economies to be pumping their own money into the system; we can’t do that because we haven’t got any money and that’s why his domestic political standing is what it is.

10. Exophoric you • You can be specific, addressing the reader directly (look at the advertisements and the gardening manual for examples) or it can be generic • I think in my walk of life you get attacks the entire time. That is part of the business and you should not complain about it normally. Indeed, if you did, you would spend your entire time complaining.

11. relationships • Text advertisement • Realwriter advertising copywriter • Impliedwriternarrator • Implied reader assumptions made in the text about the persona • Realreader the realperson

12. Demonstrative reference • The difference between the and a (definite and indefinite articles, part of the demonstrative reference system) are also a matter of different levels of specificity and genericity • Generic: • The femur is the largest bone in the body • The family is a social institution

13. Cohesion - grammatical • Reference: • Remember Exophoric (refers outside the text to the context) • Endophoric (refers within the text) • Anaphoric reference (referring back to an earlier part of the text) • Cataphoricreference (referring forwards to something that comes later in the text Tomsaid that hewas going home. I couldn’t believe it– the house had been destroyed!

14. Grammatical Cohesion • _ Anaphoric reference (e.g. Tom said that he was going home) • Used frequently, a normal part of text texture avoids repetition and holds the text together • _ Cataphoric reference (e.g.I couldn’t believe it – the house had been destroyed!) • Used less frequently. Used for particular effect, more characteristic of literary texts, for example in building suspense… or in news texts as an opening.

15. Anaphoric reference • In many types of discourse we use the anaphorically to refer to something which has already been introduced by using a • Once upon a time there wasa king in a foreign land who had a great desire to marry. Theking looked high and low in the land but in vain • Take a large pie dish and some peeled and sliced apples; arrange the slices in concentric circles in the dish

16. Comparison • Comparative reference tells the reader to look elsewhere with a particular aim in mind: to compare the items that are being linked as sharing quantity or quality • Comparison involves ideas about quantity and number using forms like more, fewer, less, another and quality using expressions like such and so

17. Point of reference • More cats prefer it • The milder tobacco • Kinder to the environment • For a tastier meal • Gets your clothes whiter • We bake a better biscuit

18. Substitution • Substitution means the writer has substituted one item for another in a text. Often a long phrase is substituted by a short word like one (to replace nouns and noun phrases) do (to replace verbs and verb phrases) or so or not (to replace whole clauses). It avoids tedious repetition. • If you are not sure about phrases and clauses look at WWT Unit 3

19. Ellipsis • Ellipsis involves omitting elements altogether. It is very common in spoken language where participants know they have shared knowledge and things do not need to be made explicit. In some written texts ellipsis can create an illusion of closeness between writer and reader • See Subaru text p 213 WWT

20. Conjunctions • These are words which express how words, phrases and sentences should be linked, whether the link is temporal, additive, causal, continuative, alternative, adversative etc. • Different types of writing use different types of conjunction so conjunctions often help to identify a text type

21. Conjunction • Conjunction: refers to specific devices, conjunctions which link sentences to each other. • Additive conjunctions add on information • Adversative conjunctions draw a contrast • Causal conjunctions make a causal link • Temporal conjunctions make a time link between two sentences.

22. Spot the conjunctions • "If the neutrinos have broken the speed of light, then it would overturn a keystone theory from the last century of physics. That's possible, but it's far more likely that there is an error in the data. So let me put my money where my mouth is: if the Cern experiment proves to be correct and neutrinos have broken the speed of light, I will eat my boxer shorts on live TV. Now I'd love it if neutrinos really have exceeded the speed of light. But I'm not eating my shorts just yet. Because my money is still on Einstein. He was, after all, pretty smart. And I am not prepared to rewrite my lecture course on relativity just yet.

23. Identify the kind of conjunction • If the neutrinos have broken the speed of light, then it would overturn a keystone theory from the last century of physics. That's possible, but it's far more likely that there is an error in the data. So let me put my money where my mouth is: if the Cern experiment proves to be correct and neutrinos have broken the speed of light, I will eat my boxer shorts on live TV. Now I'd love it if neutrinos really have exceeded the speed of light. But I'm not eating my shorts just yet. Because my money is still on Einstein. He was, after all, pretty smart. And I am not prepared to rewrite my lecture course on relativity just yet.

24. Sorttheseconjunctions: additive, contrastive, causal, or temporal? • Finally, anyway, in addition, or, of course, furthermore, the next day, in other words, yet, however, on the contrary, so, then, for this reason, as a result, one day, up to now, well, surely, but, after all, and, though, consequently, now, likewise, it follows that, then

25. Lexical cohesion • the use of the same or similar or related words in successive sentences, is of two types • Reiteration, where the same word is repeated. • Some writers try to avoid this by the use of what is called elegant variation, this will involve using such devices as • Synonyms • Superordinates • General words

26. Similarity or synonymy • It is rare to find a true synonym, there are usually differences in style or association • Denotation is the dictionary definition of a word, connotation means the associations a word carries, the personal or emotional meanings that come from the kinds of encounters we have had with the word and the contexts we have found it in • Some words are found in particular text types or social or regional varieties

27. Synonyms and varieties • Beautiful: Beauteous, bonny, comely, fair, dishy, exquisite, handsome, resplendent, splendid, splendiferous, gorgeous, lovely, picturesque, pretty, pulchritudinous, ravishing, scenic, stunning • Good: great, groovy, keen, neat, nifty, smashing,, acceptable, solid, superb, well-behaved • Fat: abdominous, chubby, plump,buxom, corpulent, obese, weighty podgy, pudgy, tubby, fleshy, heavy, overweight,gross, porcine, portly, stout

28. Lexical cohesion • Can involve other semantic relations between the lexical items in the text. • For example contrast or antonymy • Hyponymy • Evaluation • Figurative tropes

29. Contrast or antonymy: • different kinds: • Complementarity: where the presence of one excludes the other (e.g. dead/alive) • Converseness: where there is some kind of logical reciprocity (e.g. husband/wife; buy/sell) • Incompatibility: words which are part of a set (such as seasons, days of the week, colours) • Antonymy: all of the above but also gradable opposites such as hot/cold, good/bad, big/small

30. Hyponymy • As we saw when we looked at lexical cohesion there are also classification relationships such as subordination e.g. animal /cat, • coordinates apple/banana; bicycle/motorbike • superordinates wheat/ cereal; vehicle/car • Hyponymy is where items are included in another term, similar to the examples of sub and superordination • Father is a hyponym of man • Woman is a hypernym of sister

31. Evaluation and cohesion • To call Pan Am "the Mad Men of the skies" is a bit like calling A Touch Of Frost "The Wire of the Midlands" or SpongeBob SquarePants "The Sopranos of the sea". Mad Men is nuanced, smart, and crafted with precision; Pan Am is drawn on the back of an old printout with a fistful of mismatched crayons. That said, it's a soapy treat, and it may do feminism in broad, shiny brushstrokes, but it's still a women-centric drama that doesn't reduce everything to matrimony or motherhood. And it looks nice.

32. Sets and fields • Byfield of discourse is meant the particular activity, cultural feature, social institution or topic for which a particular set of ideationally related lexical items is evolved or adapted. • Each field has a specialised topic-related vocabulary which makes up the lexical set

33. Sets and fields • Byfield of discourse is meant the particular activity, cultural feature, social institution or topic for which a particular set of ideationally related lexical items is evolved or adapted. • Each field has a specialised topic-related vocabulary which makes up the lexical set

34. Semantic features and fields • _ Semantic features = components of meaning • _ sea = body of water, saline, large • _ Semantic fields = groups of words with shared semantic features • _ sea • _ river • _ lake • _ stream • _ pond

35. Semantic field • Ways of looking: • Glare, wink, blink, stare, glance, gaze, scrutinize, look, survey, overlook, • Use a dictionary to help you • What have they got in common? What kinds of meanings distinguish them? • Ways of eating: gobble, slurp, chew, suck, swallow, munch, crunch, nibble, savour, bite, • Ways of walking: scuttle, hobble, stride, limp, hop, skip, amble,

36. Semantic field Example: Cookery • Artefacts etc.: • Pot, jug, kettle, pan, frying pan, saucepan, dish, jug, bowl, ladle, carving-knife, fork, spoon, rolling pin, breadboard, cooker, oven • Processes: boil, roast, bake, stew, simmer, poach, grill, cut, dice, slice, chop, carve, peel, skin, mix, stir, beat, whip, fold, strain

37. The field of cookery • Properties: tender/ tough (meat), fresh (fish, bread), stale (bread), sour (milk, cream), light (pastry, cakes), well-done,under-done, rare (steaks), hard-boiled,soft-boiled (eggs) • Phrases, collocations etc: boil over, off the boil, carve a joint, bake bread, chop parsley, slice meat, bread, tomatoes; spoon out, leave to set.

38. Semantic field Example: air travel • Artefacts etc. fuselage, landing-gear, wing, cockpit, check-in, boarding-pass, lounge, gate, tickets, cabin, airline, aircraft, crew, pilot, steward, route • Processes: take off, land, stack, taxi, check-in, book, upgrade, • Properties: low cost, long-haul, short-haul, first-class, business class, economy, domestic, intercontinental • Phrases, collocations: in mid-flight, air traffic control, hand-luggage, cabin-luggage, air-miles, flight attendant, cabin crew, (un)fasten your seatbelts, on board

39. Semantic fields and lexical sets Nouns labelling technical features, artefacts, equipment, structures etc Verbs identifying and distinguishing between processes, types of event methods etc. Adjectives and adverbs indicating conventional properties of the above Phrases and conventional collocations that may expand, modify or combine any of the above Figurative extensions of the terms may be used outside the field of discourse to general usage

40. Cohesion and coherence • Cohesion is provided by overt lexical or grammatical markers in the text • Coherence is a term which is difficult to define but it is concerned with our expectations and our knowledge of the world and the way things fit together

41. Coherence • Coherence is concerned with logical links which mean that the text makes sense as a whole. • Making sense: • A. “That’s the phone!” • B. “I’m in the bath!” • A. “Ok” • We try to find coherence even when there are few overt signs

42. Reading between the lines • In what way can B be seen as an answer to A. • A. We were thinking of going to see that new film in Sinalunga on Sunday. • B. I’ve got an exam on Monday

43. Textual structure • English texts have their own characteristic textual structure, which not only distinguishes them from texts in other languages, but also helps to make them coherent. • In other words, an English text will read like a genuine piece of English writing, only if it conforms to the normal structural patterns of an English text. That is, it structures its information in a particular way , paragraphs, topicsentences etc.

44. Text patterns • Texts have typical patterns which we are accustomed to and we fill in the logical link even when there is no obvious cohesive tie. • As we have seen there exist sets of texts, text types, which have similar features and are usually linked to similar purposes – these are called genres • They can usually be recognised by a number of conventional features • They are linked to discourse communities • When we read an article we usually have expectations based on our familiarity with the genre • Most texts meet the expectations of their readers

45. Look at these two texts. Which is more effective in getting your interest? Why? • 9a) Newspaper text • JET Crash kills 160 • A Chinese airliner crashed yesterday, killing all 160 people on board, following a mid-air explosion. The Russian built Tupolev-154, with 146 passengers and a crew of 14, plunged to the ground just after take-off from the tourist resort of Xian • 9b)(student’s writing) • Plane crash • At 7.30 the Boeing 747 of Air France took off from the airport in Paris to New York. When the plane was flying the passengers were reading, listening to music and sleeping – also the air hostesses were serving dinner, when suddenly a bomb exploded and the plane crashed.

46. A co-operative process • “reader and writer are like dancers following each others’ steps” (Hoey 2001:43) • If the writer takes the trouble to anticipate what the reader might be needing the reader’s task is made easier • This is one of the reasons why we find regular patterning in different genres

47. signals • non-fiction texts contain many signals to guide the reader through by means of the creation of expectations • Some narrative texts contain preview statements that function as signals about the nature of the text to come • Writers anticipate our needs by presenting information in the order we need it • Sometimes our expectations become clearer once a text is underway

48. Patterns and expectations • See Aesop text • As soon as we come to the second episode we have expectations • Matching relations of similarity and contrast can be set up through parallelism and repetition across episodes

49. patterns • Parallelism: a mixture of constants and variables • One day a traveller asked him • A few hours later another traveller asked Aesop • Constants: same day/ a traveller • Variables: different time of day/different traveller

50. Understanding and producing texts • As we have seen then texts have structure. One of the goals of text analysis is to examine how the reader or user of a text recognises that the words/phrases/sentences must be co-interpreted, that parts of the text are dependent on others. • To be able to understand how texts are produced and understood we need discourse competence.