Sunday 12 October 2008

Discourse analysis

The study of Language by George Yule (2006)

New words
Discourse analysis
: he study of language beyond the sentence, in text and conversation
Cohesion: the ties and connections that exist within texts
Cohesive ties: the individual connections between words and phrases in a text
Coherence: the connections that create a meaningful interpretation of texts
Turn: in conversation, the unit of talk by one speaker, ended by the beginning of the next speaker’s unit of talk
Completion point: in conversation. The end of a turn, usually marked by a pause at the end of a phrase or sentence
Turn-taking: the way in which each speaker takes a turn in conversation

Filled pause: a break in the flow of speech, using sounds such as em and er
Co-operative principle: an underlying assumption of conversation that you will “make your conversational contribution such as is required, at the stage at which it occurs, by the accepted purpose or direction of the talk exchange in which you are engaged” (Grice, 1975:45)
Quality maxim: the assumption in conversation that you will “not say that which you believe to be false or for which you lack adequate evidence” (Grice, 1975:46)
Quantity maxim: the assumption in conversation that you will “make you contribution as informative as is required, but not more, or less, than is required” (Grice, 1975:46)
Relation maxim: the assumption in conversation that you will “be relevant” (Grice, 1975:46)
Manner maxim: the assumption in conversation that you will “be clear, brief and orderly” (Grice, 1975:46)
Hedge: a word or phrase used to indicate that you are not really sure that at you are saying is sufficiently correct or complete
Implicature: an additional meaning conveyed by a speaker adhering to the co-operative principle
Schema: a conventional knowledge structure in memory for specific things, such as a supermarket (food is displayed on shelves, arranged in aisles, etc.)
Script: a conventional knowledge structure in memory for the series of actions involved in events such as ‘Going to the dentist’.

Study questions
1 Cohesion is the ties and connections that exist within texts. Coherence is the connections that exist in people and creates a meaningful interpretation of texts.
2 Speakers mark completion points by asking a question or by pausing at the end of a phrase or sentence.
3 Gricean maxims are the quantity, quality, relation and manner maxim.
4 Hedges are words or phrases used to indicate that you are not really sure that what you are saying is sufficiently correct or complete.
5 quality maxim
6 Script is essentially a dynamic schema and has a series of conventional actions that take place.

1 comment:

mamayokero said...

what is the differences between pragmatic maxim and gricean maxim???