语篇分析 讲义Discourse Analysis

2 Information Structure
❖How do language users arrange information within discourse?
❖2.1 Given and new information ❖Alice: Who ate the bread? ❖Tom : Mary ate the bread.
given/ comment
2.2 Topic and comment
❖Topics are not so important to the grammar of English.
❖There is only one grammatical structure which marks topics in English. ▪ As for me, I’m gonna go to bed.
❖Mark the topic ▪ Place topic in the initial position in English. ▪ A beautiful dress she did make.
2.2 Topic and comment
❖Topic is not necessarily a property of the sentence; it may be a property of the discourse context: ▪ Oh, look! ▪ (an unexpressed topic “the setting sun” or “the sky”)
❖Given information can be something closely related to the mentioned information (e.g. meronymy) ▪ Kent returned my car last night after borrowing it for the day. One of the wheels was about to fall off and the dashboard was missing.

Implications about the definition:
1) It is the use of language that makes
2)
human beings human;
2) Language seems to be as old as our species;
3) Nothing in the animal kingdom even approximates
6
Discourse Analysis (7)
a) Writing is a relatively recent development in human society;
b) Thousands of speech communities rely solely on speech;
c) All of us speak a great deal more than we write;
The relationship between language and
its medium in the following diagram:
language (abstraction)
|
mediums (concrete)
/
\
speech <=> writing
8
Discourse Analysis (9)
d) Although we acquire speech without conscious effort, learning to read and write is usually less spontaneous and less automatic.
7
Discourse Analysis (8)

2.3 Discourse Pattern
2.3.2The general particular pattern The typical textual patterns are those as follows: General statement General statement

↓
↓
Specific statement 1 ↓ Specific statement 2
2.3 Discourse Pattern

2.3.3 The hypothetical-real pattern or the claimcounterclaim pattern [2.10] Every other critic has said that On Food and Cooking is brilliant, a revelation, and a unique combination of scientific insight and literacy which sweeps aside all myth and jargon as none have done before. Mcgee‘s book is indeed well written, is full of good things and is good to have on the shelves as a continuing source of reference and quotes . But it also has its fair share of mistakes, omissions and misalignments of emphasis.
2.3 Discourse Pattern

What is discourse? What is Discourse Analysis? What are the aims of discourse analysis? How is discourse analysis done?
Discourse和Text在中国学术界的翻译 Text“文本”、“篇章”、“话语”、“语篇” Discourse“话语”、“语篇”、“语段” 胡壮麟：语篇＝篇章/话语（《语篇的衔接与连贯》，1994: 3）
(3) examine speech activities
(4) describe oral and liSociology of order in interaction
4. Objective
(1) analyze the linguistic structures of different discourse of genres (e.g. ESP)
(2) describe conversational sequences
1.Purpose of Discourse Analysis
(1) offering a means of exposition
(2) deconstructing the social practice
(3) expressing people’s points of view and value systems
2. What is discourse analysis?
(1)how language users produce and interpret language in situated contexts.
(3) examination of language used by members of a speech community