Lectures on discourse analysis / Hồ Ngọc Trung

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Contents

Preface ……… 7

Chapter 1: Discourse and Discourse Analysis ………... 9

1.1. A Brief Overview of Discourse Analysis ………. 9

1.2. The Concept of Discourse ……….….. 11

1.3. Criteria for Identifying Discourse ………..….. 13

1.4. Spoken vs Written Language ……….. 20 2.1. The concept of context ………..…... 27

2.2. The role of context in discourse ………...…... 28

2.3. Models of context ………... 28

2.3.1. J. R. Firth’s model of context ……….…... 28

2.3.2. Dell Hymes’ model of context ………... 29

2.3.3. Halliday’s model of context ………... 34

Chapter 3: Cohesion in English Discourse ………... 39

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4.2.2. Three components of a speech act ………..…... 105

4.3. Classification of speech acts ……… 107

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4.6. Indirect speech acts ………...….. 115

4.7. The cooperative principle ………..….. 118

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PREFACE

Discourse analysis is a branch of linguistics that deals with the largest unit of language in communication - discourse or text. Although it has a rather long history in the field of linguistic study, it is still a new subject which causes language learners in general, and Vietnamese learners of English in particular, many difficulties. In the curriculum for English majors at Hanoi Open University, discourse analysis is a subject of two credits aimed at assisting Translation sub-majors in their third or fourth year. It is learned at the same time with other subjects like translation skills, translation studies, pragmatics, etc.

This book is intended to provide Hanoi Open University students of English with basic information about discourse analysis and about how to make use of the subject in their translation career. In an attempt to make the subject more practical, we design and suggest exercise for the learners after each main point. In addition, questions for discussions are also supplied at the end of the chapter to help consolidate the learners’ knowledge. Although the data of the book comes from various sources, ranging from linguistic books, Discourse Analysis textbooks to dictionaries and literary works, we

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base our book much on Introducing Discourse Analysis by Van H. V. (2006), Discourse Analysis by Brown G. & Yule G. (1983), Cohesion in English by Halliday M.A.K & Hasan R. (1976), Pragmatics by Yule G. (1996) and Discourse Analysis for Language Teachers by Carthy M.M. (1993).

Finally, despite the fact that a great deal of effort and time has been put into the compilation of this book, mistakes are definitely inevitable. Therefore, any suggestions and corrections are

warmly welcomed!

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Chapter 1

DISCOURSE AND DISCOURSE ANALYSIS

1.1. A Brief Overview of Discourse Analysis

In recent years, discourse or text has become a popular term as a linguistic unit above the sentence level (the other units include phoneme, morpheme, word, phrase, clause and sentence).

The first research on discourse can be traced back to British linguist J. R Firth. In the study released in 1935, Firth urged linguists to work on conversations since, in his view, only by studying conversations can we understand language and its functions better (Malcolm Coulthard, 1977: 1). This was seen as a breakthrough in language study as during this time language was studied in isolation from the context, with attention paid to language forms and structures. In another study published in 1951, J. R. Firth claims that the fundamental task of descriptive linguistics is to highlight the meaning of speech and linguists should consider the communicative process in the context because language is only meaningful when put into a specific speech event. In spite of the encouragement, Firth was not the first linguist to study language above the sentence level. In fact, his view was not recognized by the then linguists. During that time, under the influence of Bloomfield, and then Chomsky, linguists only focused on formal and structural problems of language for many decades, and, for this reason, meaning was put aside.

OBJECTIVES

In this chapter, we will learn:

- the history and development of discourse analysis - the concept of discourse

- inherent features of a discourse

- the differences between spoken and written language

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It was not until the late 1950s that the first official studies on discourse appeared. Harris

(1952) was the person who mentioned the term discourse for the first time in his article entitled Discourse Analysis. Despite such a promising title, the study was considered by Malcolm

Coulthard (1993: 3) to be disappointing because Harris adopted Bloomfield’s theories in studying discourse. According to Harris, the formal relationship among utterances or sentences could be analysed without any understanding of the meaning of morphemes or words. Armed with this view, Harris made use of the Distribution theory of the American Descriptive Linguistics in investigating the structure of the unit above the sentence level. Today, most linguists believe that it is impossible to study discourse just based on the formal relationship between the sentences. Also during this time there appeared a noticeable study on discourse

entitled Buying and selling in Cyrenaica: a situational statement by Mitchell (1957). In this

research, Mitchell introduced a model of language used in buying and selling. The model includes five stages, namely (1) salutation, (2) enquiry as to the object of sale, (3) investigation of the object of sale, (4) bargaining, and (5) conclusion. Thus, it can be said that although Harris was the first to mention the term

discourse analysis, it was Mitchell who actually studied discourse first through his study on

language in social settings. Admittedly, though all the studies did not offer an insight into the concept of discourse, they helped to open a new, promising way of studying language in use in contrast with those earlier studies on the form and structure of language in isolation from the context.

The 1960s and 1970s saw a great development in the field of discourse analysis. Some of the

best-known works include Austin’s speech act theory in How to Do Things with Words (1962), Dell Hymes’ ethnography of communication in Language in Culture and Society: a Reader in Linguistics and Anthropology (1964), Searle’s speech act theory in Speech Acts: An Essay in the Philosophy of Language (1969), M.A.K Halliday’s functional approach to language in Explorations in the Functions of Language (1973), Grice’s cooperative principle in Logic and Conversation (1975), and Sinclair and Coulthard’s classroom language model in Towards an Analysis of Discourse (1975).

Discourse analysis in Vietnam did not receive much attention from linguists until the end of

the twentieth century. Among the earliest and most popular works on discourse analysis is Hệ thống liên kết văn bản bằng tiếng Việt by Tran Ngoc Them (1985, 1999). However, perhaps the most noticeable are Diep Quang Ban’s series on discourse analysis, namely Văn bản và liên kết trong tiếng Việt (1998), Giao tiếp, văn bản, mạch lạc, liên kết, đoạn văn (2002), and Giao

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tiếp diễn ngôn và cấu tạo của văn bản (2002). Other well-thought-of works include An Introduction to Discourse Analysis (2000) and Phân tích diễn ngơn: một số vấn đề lý luận và phương pháp (2003), both by Nguyen Hoa and Introducing Discourse Analysis by

Hoang Van Van (2006).

In conclusion, discourse analysis is now universally recognized as a branch of linguistics. Though it may have been looked at from different angles with somewhat controversial views, it finds its unity in the belief that it deals with the largest unit of language and that it investigates a unit of meaning in social settings, not as a unit of form isolated from the context.

1.2. The Concept of Discourse

Let us consider the following extracts:

Extract 1:

A: Why don’t you hold me for a while, honey? B: My hands are dirty.

Extract 2:

He thought he had reached India, but he had really discovered the American continents and islands in the unknown seas until those lands had become familiar parts of the world.

(Van H.V., 2006)

Extract 3:

Mr. Phileas Fogg lived, in 1872, at No. 7, Saville Row, Burlington Gardens, the house in which Sheridan died in 1814. He surveyed the fence, and all gladness left him and a deep melancholy settled down upon his spirit. But his spirit was roused at last; the cruel insult to his dead mother had set his blood on fire. He would have recoiled still more had he been aware that her attachment rose unsolicited, and was bestowed where it awakened no reciprocation of sentiment; for the minute he discovered its existence he laid the blame on Heathcliff's deliberate designing.

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Extract 1:

is a discourse as the two utterances are related in terms of their communicative functions. Extract 2 is also a discourse because the sentences are related in terms of the idea they share. Extract 3 is not a discourse because it consists of unrelated sentences which are put together at

random (it should be noted that the first sentence is quoted from Around the World in Eighty days, the second from The Adventures of Tom Shawyer, the third from Oliver Twist, and the last from Wuthering Heights.) So what is discourse?

Here are two of the very many definitions of discourse:

 Discourse can be defined as a stretch of language consisting of several sentences, which are perceived as being related in some way. Sentences can be related, not only in terms of the idea they share, but also in terms of the jobs they perform within the discourse - that is in terms of their functions.

(Nunan D., 1993)  Discourse is language that is functional - language that is doing some job in some context as opposed to isolated words or sentences. Discourse can be spoken, written or in any other medium of expression.

Discourse is a unit of language in use. It is not a grammatical unit, like a clause or a sentence. Discourse is a semantic unit, a unit not of form but of meaning. A discourse does not consist of sentences; it is realized by, or encoded in sentences.

(Halliday M.A.K & Hasan R., 1976)

In terms of size, from Halliday & Hasan’s definition, it can be inferred that a discourse can

be realized by a word like Ouch!, STOP; a phrase like NO SMOKING, NO FISHING; a clause/sentence like Here lies Arthur, the once and future king found on king Arthur’s tomb; a

paragraph; a cluster of paragraphs; a book or even as big as a whole library on the condition that

it makes a meaningful whole.

Notice should be taken that in this coursebook, in order to avoid any further complexity for

the learner, no distinction is made between discourse and text. The two terms are used

interchangeably throughout this book.

The term discourse analysis/text analysis refers to a branch of linguistics that studies

discourse/text.

1.3. Criteria for Identifying Discourse

According to Bell R. T. (1991: 163 - 171), there are seven criteria that can help to identify a

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discourse. They are also the seven inherent features of a discourse.

(i) cohesion: How do the clauses hold together? (ii) coherence: How do the propositions hold together? (iii) intentionality: Why did the speaker / writer produce this? (iv) acceptability: How does the reader take it?

(v) informativity: What does it tell us? (vi) relevance: What is the text for?

(vii) intertextuality: What other texts does this one resemble?

(i) Cohesion operates on the basis of formal surface structures (syntax and lexis) to interact

with underlying semantic relations or underlying functional coherence to create textual unity. The major ways of creating cohesive relationships will be discussed in Chapter 3 of this book.

The sentences in extract 2 are syntactically and lexically related through the underlined words and the lexical chain on the basis of semantic relations.

Extract 2:

Only five hundred years ago, the oceans were the limits of people’s knowledge of the world in which they lived. They were afraid to sail out into the oceans because no one knew what might be waiting for them there; the shore was the edge of the world, many people believed (0). The Portuguese navigators who began to break through this darkness stayed within sight of the coasts as they discovered the shape of Africa. Then in 1492 Christopher Columbus sailed directly across the Atlantic. He thought he had reached India, but he had really discovered the American continents and islands in the unknown seas until those lands had become familiar parts of the world.

Grammatically, there are cases in which words are referred to or omitted. Lexically, some key

words are repeated and a lexical chain also exists through the extract (oceans - sail - shore - navigators - coast - continents - islands - seas).

In the example below, however, despite the seemingly related sentences via the repetitions of lexical items, the extract lacks cohesion due to the fact that the sentences are not semantically related.

Extract 4:

Cắm bơi một mình trong đêm. Đêm tối bưng khơng nhìn rõ mặt đường. Trên con đường ấy,

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chiếc xe lăn bánh rất êm. Khung cửa xe phía cơ gái ngồi lồng đầy bóng trăng. Trăng bồng bềnh

Dãy núi này có ảnh hưởng quyết định tới gió mùa đơng bắc nước ta. Nước ta bây giờ của ta rồi,

cuộc đời đã bắt đầu hửng sáng.

(Trần Ngọc Thêm, 1999)

(ii) Coherence is concerned with the logical sequencing of the concepts and relations of the

textual world which underlie and are realized by the surface text.

The following texts are not coherent because they are illogical sequences.

- I had a cup of coffee. I got up. I woke up.

- Yesterday I got up very early. I had my breakfast, brushed my teeth and washed my face. Then I went to the university and did morning exercises.

(Van H.V., 2006) Regarding the relationship between cohesion and coherence, Carthy M. (1993) believes that the former is only a guide to the latter. Coherence is something created by the reader in the act of reading the text. It is the feeling that a text hangs together, that it makes sense and that it is not just a jumble of sentences. For example, whether the reader feels the below text is coherent or not depends on whether he/she knows that Irish people love potatoes.

Clare loves potatoes. She was born in Ireland.

A text may not have cohesion, but it must be coherent, as shown in the following example:

A: Can you go to Edinburg tomorrow? or B: B.E.A pilots are on strike.

A: Let’s go out for a walk. B: It’s raining.

(iii) Intentionality and (iv) acceptability: A text must be intended to be a text and accepted as such in order to be utilized in communicative interaction. A communicative interaction is

established on the basis of exchange of either information or goods-and-services. The participants play the role of either ‘giving’ or ‘demanding’:

Giving + goods-and-services (OFFER) Giving + information (STATEMENT)

Demanding + goods-and-services (COMMAND)

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Demanding + information (QUESTION).

The producer of the text must intend to contribute towards one of the four goals: statement, question, offer and command/request and be accepted as such by the the receiver.

It can be seen that intentionality is producer-oriented, whereas acceptability is receiver-oriented. If there is a mismatch between intentionality and acceptability, then communication will collapse and, therefore, there will be no discourse.

(v) Informativity is a measure of the information of a text. Informativity depends on the

notions of choice and probability.

ACTIVITIES:

Complete the following sentence with ONE word or phrase and compare your choice with the other students’ in terms of informativity.

Girls are ………..

A text is seen as the realization of choices, made from among sets of options. There are, at each point where a choice can be made, actual choices which are more or less probable. The less probable and predictable a choice is, the more informative and interesting it is. On the contrary, choices which are wholly predictable are uninformative and uninteresting. (Bell R. T., 1991: 167 - 168),

According to Bell R. T. (1991: 169 - 170), there are three levels of informativity:

(i) First order: this level is always present in a text and is typified by choices which are obligatory or almost so; function words are a good example.

(ii) Second order: this level represents the middle ground between first and third and arises when first-order expectations are not fulfilled i.e. where unexpected but not unlikely choices are made.

Coffee and tea are _____ (popular drinks).

(iii) Third order: this level is attained by choices which fall outside the expected set of options and is typified by discontinuities, where information appears to have been omitted, and/or discrepancies, where what is being represented in the text fails to match with our knowledge; i.e. there is a mismatch between the text-world and the real world.

e.g. Girls are ___ (poisonous).

ACTIVITIES:

Make comments on the following extracts concerning their informativity. The intended reader

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of extract 1 is a ten-year-old school child, and the intended reader of extract 2 is a fourth-year student of English.

Extract 1:

Attack on British Council compound in Kabul kills nine

Gunmen have stormed the British Council office in the Afghan capital, Kabul, killing at least nine people and taking over the compound for hours.

A suicide car bomb destroyed the compound wall and a number of heavily armed men forced their way inside.

After several hours of gunfire and blasts, the UK's ambassador in Kabul said all the gunmen had been killed.

The Taliban said the attack marked the anniversary of Afghanistan's independence from the UK in 1919.

At least eight Afghan policemen and a foreign security official - reportedly a New Zealand special services soldier - were killed, Afghan authorities said.

UK Prime Minister David Cameron condemned the "cowardly attack", saying he had spoken to New Zealand Prime Minister John Key to thank him for the role the country's special forces had played in defending the compound. The ball is on the floor. It is a red ball. It is a rubber ball. The baby looks at the ball. The cat looks at the ball. The cat is white. The cat walks over to the ball. The cat hits the ball with its paw. The ball rolls on the floor. The baby smiles. .……….

.……….

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It can be seen from the above activities that too much information makes the text unreadable, while the text with too little information is not worth reading at all.

(vi) Relevance (or situationality) refers to the relationship between the communicative

purpose of a text and the situation in which the text occurs.

The same text may have different communicative purposes in different situations. For example, the text:

CHINESE TAKEWAY FOOD

is a headline if found in newspaper above an item of news, but a sign if seen outside a shop.

(vii) Intertextuality refers to the relationship between a particular text and other texts which

share characteristics with it. A good knowledge of a particular genre (i.e. text type) will enable the reader to understand new texts of that genre.

ACTIVITIES:

Explain what the text below means if it is (i) a political slogan and

(ii) a traffic sign.

STOP CHILDREN CROSSING

(i) a political slogan:……….………... (ii) a traffic sign:………..

It should be noted from the activity above that the same text may have different communicative meanings if it belongs to different genres. The text above means children are not allowed to cross the road if it is a political slogan, but it means all the traffic must stop because the children are crossing the road if it is a traffic sign.

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1.4. Spoken vs Written Language

In Van H. V. (2006), written language and spoken language differ in three aspects, namely

grammar, lexical density and situation.

1.4.1. Grammar

(a) The written text seems to have more information packed into it. In the example below, extract 1 is written language and extract 2 spoken language. (b) Linguistically, written language tends to consist of clauses that are internally complex, whereas with spoken language the complexity exists in the ways in which clauses are joined together. This can be best seen in extract 3, an example of spoken language, with three

independent clauses joined together by coordinators and / but and extract 4, an example of

written language, with one main clause and the rest being subordinate clauses.

Extract 3:

This morning Associate Professor Dean Wolfe will talk about the science of music at half past eleven, and we’ll hear some fascinating things such as music backwards - but most of it will be played forwards!

Extract 4:

This morning at half past eleven, Associate Professor Dean Wolfe will present a programme entitled ‘The Science of Music’, in which the listener will experience a number of fascinating things, including music played backwards - although most will be played forwards.

(Van H. V., 2006) Brown and Yule (1983) identify the following differences between spoken and written discourse in terms of grammar.

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(i) Spoken language contains many incomplete sentences, often simply sequences of phrases (ii) Spoken language typically contains rather little subordination

(iii) In conversational speech, where sentential syntax can be observed, active declarative forms are normally found. In over 50 hours of recorded conversational speech, very few

wh-clefts are found.

it’s quite nice the Grassmarket since + it’s always had the antique shops but they’re looking + they’re sort of + em + become a bit nicer +

(d) In written language an extensive set of markers exists to mark relationships between

clauses (that complementisers, when/while temporal markers, logical connectors like besides, moreover, however, in spite of, etc.; in spoken language the largely organised chunks are related by and, but, then and if.

(e) The speaker is typically less explicit than the writer: I’m so tired (because) I had to walk all the way home.

In written language rhetorical organisers of larger stretches of discourse appear, like firstly, more importantly than and in conclusion. These are rare in spoken language.

(f) In written language, rather heavily modified noun phrases are quite common:

A man who turned into a human torch ten days ago after snoozing in his locked car while smoking his pipe has died in hospital.

It is rare in spoken language to find more than two premodifying adjectives. In spoken language only one predicate is attached to a given referent at a time as in:

It’s a biggish cat + tabby + with torn earns

Old man McArthur + he was a wee chap + oh very small + and eh a beard + and he was pretty stooped.

(g) Whereas written language sentences are generally structured in subject-predicate form, in spoken language it is quite common to find topic-comment structure.

The cats were let out. The cats + they were let out.

(h) In informal speech, the occurrence of passive constructions is relatively infrequent.

Oh everything the do in Edinburg + they do it far too slowly

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(i) In chat about the immediate environment, the speaker may rely on gaze direction to supply a referent:

(looking at the rain) frightful isn’t it.

(j) The speaker may replace or refine expressions as he goes along:

This man + this chap she was going out with

(k) The speaker typically uses a good deal of rather generalised vocabulary: a lot of, got, do, thing, nice, stuff, place and things like that

(l) The speaker frequently repeats the same syntactic form several times over:

I look at fire extinguishers + I look at fire exits + I look at what gangways are available + I look at electric cables what + are they properly earthed + are they properly covered.

(m) The speaker may produce a large number of prefabricated ‘fillers’: well, erm, I think, you know, if you see what I mean, of course, and so on.

1.4.2. Lexical density

Functionally, there are two kinds of words: content or lexical words and function words.

A content word/lexical word: is a word that refers to a thing, quality, state, action or event. A function word is one that indicates only grammatical relationships.

In the sentence My mother is a very good teacher of English, the content/lexical words are mother, good, teacher, English; the function words are my, is, a, very, of.

Lexical density refers to the number of lexical or content words per clause.

In the sentence My mother is a very good teacher of English, there is a lexical density of four.

ACTIVITIES:

Identify the number of lexical words in the following extracts Extract 1: written version

The use of this method of control unquestionably leads to safer and faster trains running in the most adverse weather conditions.

.………. .……….

Extract 2: spoken version

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You can control the trains this way/and if you do that/ you can be quite sure/that they’ll be able to run more safely and more quickly/than they would otherwise/no matter how bad the weather gets

.………. .……….

It can be seen from the above activity that written language displays a much higher ratio of content words to total running words, and this is also one of the criteria for distinguishing between written and spoken language.

1.4.3. Situation

It is obvious that the speaker has to produce texts in a quite different way from the writer. He is under the pressure of speaking on and on if he does not want to give up his speaking turn. Below is the table summarising some of the differences between written language and spoken language in terms of the situation in which they are made:

- No common situation. Inferred from the text

- Words carry all shades of meaning - Making assumptions about the reader’s state of knowledge

- Face-to-face interaction

- Part of the meaning conveyed by non-verbal behaviour (gestures, facial expressions, postures)

- Immediate response from the listeners and corrections.

QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION:

1. What are the differences between discourse and the other units of language? 2. What makes a cluster of sentences a piece of discourse?

3. What are the reasons for the differences between spoken and written language.

PRACTICE:

In terms of grammar and lexical density, prove the following essay is a written text.

I have always been fascinated by carnival rides. It amazes me that average, ordinary people eagerly trade in the serenity of the ground for the chance to be tossed through the air like

It amazes me that at some time in history someone thought that people would enjoy this, and that person invented what must have been the first of these terrifying machines. For me, it is precisely the thrill and excitement of having survived the ride that keeps me coming back for more.

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My first experience with a carnival ride was a Ferris wheel at a local fair. Looking at that looming monstrosity spinning the life out of its sardine-caged occupants, I was dumbstruck. It was huge, smoky, noisy and not a little intimidating. Ever since that initial impression became fossilized in my imagination many years ago, these rides have reminded me of mythical beasts, amazing dinosaurs carrying off their screaming passengers like sacrificial virgins. Even the droning sound of their engines brings to mind the great roar of a fire-breathing dragon with smoke spewing from its exhaust-pipe nostrils.

The first ride on one of these fantastic beasts gave me an instant rush of adrenaline. As the death-defying ride started, a lump in my throat pulsed like a dislodged heart ready to walk the plank. As the ride gained speed, the resistance to gravity built up against my body until I was unable to move. An almost imperceptible pause as the wheel reached the top of its climb allowed my body to relax in a brief state of normalcy. Then there was an assault of stomach-turning weightlessness as the machine continued its rotation and I descended back toward the earth. A cymbal-like crash vibrated through the air as the wheel reached bottom, and much to my surprise I began to rise again.

Each new rotation gave me more confidence in the churning machine. Every ascent left me elated that I had survived the previous death-defying fall. When another nerve-wracking climb failed to follow the last exhilarating descent and the ride was over, I knew I was hooked. Physically and emotionally drained, I followed my fellow passengers down the clanging metal steps to reach the safety of my former footing. I had been spared, but only to have the opportunity to ride again.

My fascination with these fantastic flights is deeply engrained in my soul. A trip on the wonderful Ferris wheel never fails to thrill me. Although I am becoming older and have less time, or less inclination, to play, the child-like thrill I have on a Ferris wheel continues with each and every ride.

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Chapter 2

CONTEXT AND THE ROLE OF CONTEXTUAL ANALYSIS IN DISCOURSE ANALYSIS

2.1. The concept of context

Context refers to the situation giving rise to the discourse, and within which the discourse is embedded.

Context plays a very important role in the interpretation of discourse. There is a dialectical relationship between discourse and context. The context creates the discourse as much as the discourse creates the context.

According to Nunan D. (1993: 8), there are two types of context: linguistic context (or co-text) and non-linguistic context (or experiential conco-text).

Context

Linguistic (co-text) Non-linguistic (experiential)

Linguistic context is the language that surrounds or accompanies the piece of discourse under

analysis.

Non-linguistic context/experiential context is the context in which the discourse takes place.

Non-linguistic contexts include the type of communicative event (e.g. joke, story, lecture, greeting, conversation): the topic; the purpose of the event; the setting including location, time of day, season of year, and physical aspects of the situation (e.g. size of room, arrangement of furniture), the participant and the relationships between them; and the background knowledge and assumptions underlying the communicative event.

OBJECTIVES

In this chapter, we will learn: - the concept of context

- the role of context in discourse analysis - models of context

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2.2. The role of context in discourse

Utterances are not only dependent on the physical context for their interpretations, they are also closely related to the language surrounding them (co-text). Apart from a very small number of discourse kinds which consist of only one word, phrase or sentence, almost all sentences other than the first one are put in relation to each other. Therefore, the interpretation of one sentence is hardly achieved without looking back at the previous sentences or referring to the coming ones. Let us consider the following examples:

A - Couldn’t you draw in the other room?

B - I’d like to be here by you. Besides I don’t want you to keep looking at those silly ivy

Therefore, according to Brown & Yule, the more context there is, in general, the more secure the interpretation is. (1983:50)

2.3. Models of context

2.3.1. J.R. Firth’s model of context

In J. R Firth’s view, language should be functional and considered in context. To study language is to study its meaning in context. The context in his theory is composed of three elements as follows:

- The relevant features of participants: persons, personalities, the verbal and non-verbal action of the participants.

- The relevant objects: the surrounding objects and events.

- The effect of the verbal action: what changes were brought about by what the participants in the situation had to say.

2.3.2. Dell Hymes’ model of context

According to Van H. V (2006), Dell Hymes’ model of context consists of ten elements as follows:

● Addresser and Addressee: the participants. Addresser refers to the speaker or writer who

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produces the utterance, and addressee refers to the hearer / reader who receives or decodes the utterance.

● Audience: the overhearers or unintended addressees. ● Topic: what is talked about or written about.

● Setting: the time and place of a speech event. For example, a conversation can take place

in a classroom, a garden, a church, and it can take place at any hour of the day. The setting of a speech event may have an effect on what is being said and how it is said (also including

posture, gesture, and facial expressions).

● Channel: the way in which a message is conveyed from one person to another. The two

most common channels of communication are speech and writing. Other examples are the

or flags.

● Code: A term which is used instead of language, speech variety,

or dialect.

● Message form: tells us about what forms are intended; whether the piece of language is a

sermon, a fairy tales, a love story, a lecture etc.

Event tells us about the nature of the communicative events within which a text may be embedded.

● Key: involves evaluation of the text (the tone, manner, or spirit in which a speech act is

carried out, for example, whether mockingly or seriously) - i.e whether the text is a good lecture, or an interesting seminar on language teaching.

● Purpose: refers to the outcome which the participants wish to happen as a result on the

communicative event.

PRACTICE:

1. Analyse the context of the text below, using Dell Hymes’ model of context. Then translate the text into Vietnamese.

When university students work as domestic help:

VietNamNet Bridge - In order to practice English and have money to fund their studies, a lot of university students now work as domestic helpers.

Students preferable:

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It seems that university students have more advantages than other people in the competition to obtain the job as domestic help. High income earners like students because they have knowledge and can work more effectively than old people. Thanh, an office worker who lives in Thanh Xuan district noted that students are usually more dynamic and they can easily get adapted to the new works.

Hanh, a student of the Vietnam Trade Union University, has found a good job after the Tet holiday. “I need to come to clean the house three times a week and give private tutoring to a 7th grader. I get 100,000 dong for every cleaning and 80,000 dong for a private lesson,” she described her job.

Phuong, a student of the University of Culture, also said she feels happy when finding a job as a domestic help. “I need to earn money to fund my study,” Phuong said.

Hieu, a third year student of the Transport University, said he has 2-3 working shifts per day. He has to get up early in the morning to give deliveries for a family company, for which he gets 100,000 dong for every two hours. After that, he needs to bring a child to school, for which he gets 80,000 dong a day.

“The work is not too hard, while it can bring money,” Hieu said.

Hanh, a student of the Hanoi University of Social Sciences and Humanity, said that the demand for students – domestic helps is very high, especially after Tet. Therefore, a lot of students have been working as domestic helps and get pay based on the working hours.

“Some of my friends take 2-3 jobs at different houses. It is now the beginning of the second semester, when the curriculums are not too heavy. Therefore, it is now the right time to earn money and gather more experiences for your future life,” Hanh said.

Working as domestic helps for foreigners:

While many students just intend to work as domestic helps only in free time to earn extra money, many others consider this a serious job.

Nguyen Thi Xuan, a second year student of the University of Labor and Social Affairs, is one of them. She now works for a foreigner who lives and works in Hanoi.

Xuan said that she went to many foreign language centers to practice English, but she could

Xuan heard from her teacher that the best way to learn English is to communicate with native speakers.

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The teacher then introduced a foreigner to Xuan, and she accepted to work as domestic help for the foreigner for two reasons. First, she can practice English, and second, she can earn money.

The things that Xuan needs to do everyday are cleaning houses, washing dishes and ironing clothes. Sometimes, Xuan goes to the markets with the owner to help him more understand about Vietnam.

Meanwhile, Pham Xuan Lan from the Finance Academy, said she has learnt many things, especially the professional way of working, since the day of working for a foreigner. She accidentally broke a glass and the foreigner deducted 50,000 dong from her monthly pay, without any complaint.

Most of the foreigners, who hire Vietnamese students as domestic helps, are the ones who live and work for a long time in Vietnam. They are open hearted and have sympathy to the

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A wrestler in a tight corner

Rocky slowly got up from the mat, planning his escape. He hesitated a moment and thought. Things were not going well. What bothered him most was being held, especially since the charge against him had been weak. He considered his present situation. The lock that held him was strong, but he thought he could break it.

A prisoner plans his escape

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2.3.3. Halliday’s model of context

In Van H. V (2006), Halliday’s model of context has the following factors:

● The field of discourse refers to what is happening, including what is being talked about. ● The tenor of discourse: refers to the participants who are taking part in the exchange of meaning, who they are and what kind of relationship then have to one another.

● The mode of discourse: refers to what part the language is playing in this particular

situation, for example, in what way the language is organized to convey the meaning, and

what channel is used - written or spoken or a combination of the two.

Below are some samples of situational description based on Halliday’s model of contexts.

SITUATIONAL DESCRIPTION 1:

A foreign language lesson in a secondary school

Field: Language study, a defined area of information about the foreign language, e.g. the use

of tenses. The teacher imparting, students acquiring knowledge about tenses and their use.

Tenor: Participants: teacher - students. Fixed role relationships defined by the educational

institution. Teacher in higher role. Temporary role relationships between students, depending on personality.

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Mode: Language used for instruction and discussion channels: spoken and written i.e. visual

presentation on blackboard etc.

SITUATIONAL DESCRIPTION 2:

(quoted from Van H. V. 2006: 42)

The following text is a little passage from a broadcast talk that was given in England some years ago by a distinguished churchman concerned with the status of Christianity in the modern world.

The Christian should therefore take atheism seriously, not only that he may be able to answer it, but so that he himself may still be able to be a believer in the mid-twentieth century. With this in mind, I would ask you to expose yourself to the three thrusts of modern atheism - each is present in varying degree in any representative type - so much as three motives which have impelled men, particularly over the past hundred years, to question the God of their upbringing and ours. They may be represented by three summary statements:

God is intellectually superfluous. God is emotionally dispensable. God is morally intolerable.

Field: Maintenance of institutionalised system of beliefs; religion (Christianity), and the

members’ attitudes towards it; semi-technical.

Tenor: Authority (in both senses, i.e. person holding authority, and specialist) to the

audience; audience unseen and unknown (like readership), but relationship institutionalised) (pastor to flock).

Mode: Written to be read aloud; public act (mass media: radio); monologue; Lecture;

persuasive, with rational argument.

PRACTICE:

Read the following text, analyse the context using Halliday’s model, and then translate the text into Vietnamese.

India woman leaves home for lack of toilet.

A newlywed woman in a village in the Indian state of Madhya Pradesh has won her struggle to have a toilet at her husband's home.

Anita Narre left husband Shivram's home two days after her marriage in May last year because the house had no toilet.

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She returned eight days later after Shivram, a daily wage worker, built one with savings and aid from villagers.

An NGO announced a $10,000 reward for Mrs Narre for her "brave" decision and forcing her husband to build a toilet.

More than half-a-billion Indians still lack access to basic sanitation. The problem is acute in rural India and it is the women who suffer most.

Shivram said he was not able to build a toilet at home because of lack of money.

He admitted that his wife returned home only after he constructed one with his savings and "some support from the village council".

"It is not nice for women to go outside to defecate. That's why every home should have a toilet. Those who don't should make sure there is one," Mrs Narre told the BBC.

Many people in India do not have access to flush toilets or other latrines.

But under new local laws in states including Chhattisgarh, people's representatives are obliged to construct a flush toilet in their own home within a year of being elected. Those who fail to do so face dismissal.

The law making toilets mandatory has been introduced in several states as part of the "sanitation for all" drive by the Indian government.

The programme aims to eradicate the practice of open defecation, which is common in rural and poor urban areas of India.

Special funds are made available for people to construct toilets to promote hygiene and eradicate the practice of faeces collection - or scavenging - which is mainly carried out by

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QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION:

1. Why does the context create the discourse as much as the discourse creates the context? 2. Why is the interpretation of a discourse dependent upon both linguistic and non-linguistic

2. Nunan D. (1993). Introducing Discourse Analysis. Penguin English.

3. Van H. V. (2006). Introducing Discourse Analysis. Hanoi: Education Publisher.

Vietnamese:

4. Hồ Ngọc Trung (2012). Phép thế trong tiếng Anh (trong sự liên hệ với tiếng Việt). Nxb.

Khoa học Xã hội.

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Chapter 3

COHESION IN ENGLISH DISCOURSE

As mentioned in Chapter 1, cohesion is concerned with formal surface structures, created by

syntactical and lexical means. Correspondingly, there are two types of cohesion: grammatical cohesion and lexical cohesion.

3.1. Grammatical cohesion

Grammatical cohesion is the surface marking of semantic links between clauses and sentences in written discourse, and between utterances and turns in speech.

According to Halliday M.A.K & Hasan R. (1976), grammatical cohesive devices include

reference, substitution, ellipsis and conjunction.

3.1.1. Reference

3.1.1.1. Definition

Reference expresses the relationship of identity which exists between units in discourse. Referential cohesion helps readers interpret the text.

In the following example, the relationship between Barack Hussein Obama II and he is that of

reference, and our interpretation of the text is also directed by that relationship.

Barack Hussein Obama II (born August 4, 1961) is the 44th and current President of the

United States. He is the first African American to hold the office. Obama previously served as a United States Senator from Illinois, from January 2005 until he resigned following his victory

in the 2008 presidential election.

3.1.1.2. Classification

OBJECTIVES

In this chapter, we will learn:

- grammatical cohesive devices - lexical cohesive devices

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There exist two ways of classifying reference:

1. Based on pointing direction:

Reference is classified into exophoric (i) and endophoric reference. Endophoric reference is further classified into anaphoric (ii) and cataphoric reference (iii).

Reference

2. Based on reference realisation:

Reference is classified into personal reference (iv), demonstrative reference (v), and comparative reference (vi).

(i) Exophoric reference: References to assumed, shared worlds outside the text are

exophoric, for example:

● The government are to blame for unemployment. ● We could move that table.

● We always take the car since we can just put the kids, the dog and the luggage into it. ● Eighty per cent of Britain’s sewage works are breaking pollution laws, according to a

report to be published this week. The cost of fulfilling a government promise to clean them up

will run into billions, and put the entire privatisation programme at risk.

(Carthy M. M.,1993)

In songs, you is considered multi-exophoric, since it may refer to many people in the actual

and fictional situation. For example:

……….

Well in my heart you are my darling, At my gate you're welcome in, At my gate I'll meet you darling, If your love I could only win.

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Endophoric reference:

References to the entity/items within the text are endophoric references.

(ii) Anaphoric reference: points the reader/listener backwards to a previously mentioned

entity, process or state, for example:

● Many people think that they can get by without working hard. That’s a big mistake.

● It rained all day and night for two weeks. The basement flooded and everything was under

water. It spoilt all our calculations.

● And the living room was a very small room with two windows that wouldn’t open and

things like that. And it looked nice. It had a beautiful brick wall.

● My sister's on the phone. She says she needs the drill that she lent us. ● You entered into a tiny little hallway and the kitchen was off that.

(iii) Cataphoric reference: points the reader or listener forwards.

It draws us further into the text in order to identify the elements to which the reference items refer. Here are some examples:

● This should interest you, if you’re keen on boxing. The world heavyweight championship is

going to be held in Chicago next June.

● She claims Leo Tolstoy as a distant cousin. Her grandfather was Alexei Tolstoy - the famous

‘Red Count’ who sided with Lenin’s revolutionaries. Now, Tatyana Tolstaya has put pen to paper, in her case to demonstrate that someone from the family can write compactly.

● The trip would hardly have been noteworthy, except for the man who made it. In mid-July, a

powerful American financier flew to Mexico City for a series of talks with high-level government officials, including President Miguel de la Madrid and his finance minister, Gustavo Patricioli.

(Carthy M. M., 1993) Cataphoric reference is a classic device for engaging the reader’s attention; referents can be withheld for quite long stretches of text (this is, for example, typical of the opening sentences of books):

Students (not unlike yourselves) compelled to buy paperback copies of his novels--notably the

first, Travel Light, though there has lately been some academic interest in his more surreal and 'existential' and perhaps even 'anarchist' second novel, Brother Pig--or encountering some essay from When the Saints in a shiny heavy anthology of mid-century literature costing

$12.50, imagine that Henry Bech, like thousands less famous than he, is rich. He is not.

(Rich in Russia by John Updike)

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"Nothing like this man had ever been seen in Privet Drive. He was tall, thin and very old,

judging by the silver of his hair and beard, which were both long enough to tuck into his belt.

He was wearing long robes, a purple cloak which swept the ground and high-heeled, bucked

boots.

His blue eyes were light, bright and sparkling behind half-mooned spectacles and his nose

was very long and crooked, as though it had been broken at least twice. This man's name was

Albert Dumbledore”.

(Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone by J.K. Rowling)

PRACTICE:

1. What does it refer to in the following short extracts? In detail, state what type of reference it belongs to. Translate the extract into Vietnamese and suggest different Vietnamese equivalents of the word it.

a) A pioneering ‘school-based management’ programme in Miami-Dade County’s 260 schools has also put some budget, salary and personnel decisions in the hands of local councils,

composed largely of teachers . ‘It’s recognition that our voices and input are important,’ says

junior highschool teacher Ann Colman.

b) Like the idea of deterring burglars with a big, ferocious hound - but can’t stand dogs? For around £45 you can buy an automatic dog barking unit – Guard Dog, or the Boston Bulldog, both available by mail order from catalogues like the ones you‘re sent with credit card

statements. You plug it in near the front door and its built-in microphone detects sharp noises.

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……….

2. Identify the cataphoric reference item and its referent in this extract, and state its role in the discourse.

It has often been compared to New Orleans’s Mardi Gras as an outdoor celebration. Certainly New York’s Mulberry Street and surrounding blocks have been as crowded over the last few days as Royal and Bourbon Streets in the French Quarter are for the Mardi Gras. More than three million people are estimated to have celebrated the 61st annual Feast of the San Gennaro down in Greenwich Village since it began on Thursday.

3. Find exophoric references in the following extract and consider whether they are likely to create cultural difficulties for a Vietnamese learner of English.

King trial jury adjourns with transcript

The Jury in the trial of three people accused of conspiring to murder the Northern Ireland Secretary, Mr. Tom King, adjourned last night after more than seven hours’ deliberation.

They spent the night within Winchester crown court buildings, where the trial is taking place. Five hours after they retired to consider their verdict, the judge recalled them to answer a question they had put to him in a note.

That question was “Can we convict if we think the information collecting was for several purposes, or does the one whole aim must be murder”?

The judge said the Crown had to prove an agreement to murder so that the jury was sure. It was not sufficient to prove it as a possibility or probability, but it must be proved beyond reasonable doubt.

……….…..……… ………..……… ………..………

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(iv) Personal reference: Personal reference items are expressed through personal pronouns,

(or possessive adjectives). They serve to identify individuals and objects that are named at some other points in the text, for example:

I turned to go indoors when I saw a girl waiting in the next doorway.

I couldn’t see her face, only the white silk trousers and the long flowered robe, but I knew her for all that. She had so often waited for me to come home at just this place and hour.

(The Quiet American by Graham Greene)

Reference items are grouped by Halliday M.A.K & Hasan R. (1976) based on the function/role in the speech situation as shown in the table below:

Speaker Addressee Specific Generalize

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Below are some notes on some special cases of personal reference items:

- One never occurs as possessor/head, although it does as Possessor/Modifier, for example: Do they pay one’s debts? (but not * Do they pay one’s?)

- British English retains one in second and subsequent occurrences, where American English normally substitutes he:

- One knew what these people believed even if one/he didn’t share their belief: they were

human beings, not just grey drained cadavers.

(The Quiet American by Graham Greene) - I said, ‘I’m not going to walk. You’ll have to pay for a trishaw.’

One had to keep one’s/his dignity.

(The Quiet American by Graham Greene)

- One forgets so quickly one’s/his own youth.

(The Quiet American by Graham Greene) In English, no distinction is made between I and you according to the number of addressees or

according to the social hierarchy or the social distance between addressee and speaker.

(Elizabethan English distinguished thou-singular, familiar from you-plural, singular showing

respect or distance).

The form its is also rare as Head, but it does occur:

You know that mouse you saw? Well that hole there must be its.

Personalization of he/she is also an interesting case of personal reference:

- Adam said that he did have an old dog. She was eleven years old, and of course nobody

would want to buy her.

- Could you ask your dog to be still?’ I said.

‘Oh, I’m so sorry. Duke. Duke. Sit down, Duke.’ Duke sat down and began noisily to lick his

private parts. I filled out glasses and managed in passing to disturb Duke’s toilet. The quiet

he began to scratch himself.

(The Quiet American by Graham Greene)

Only the 3rd person is inherently cohesive, in that a 3rd person form typically refers anaphorically to a preceding item in the text. First and second person forms do not normally refer

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to the text at all, and hence they are normally interpreted exophorically by reference to the situation.

In some cases 1st and 2nd person forms can be used endophorically:

“Ron, you know full well Harry and I were brought up by Muggles!” said Hermione. “We didn’t hear stories like that when we were little, we heard ‘Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs’ and ‘Cinderella’ —”.

(Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows by J.K. Rowling) Or when I/you occurs in quoted speech:

There was a brief note from Susan. She just said, ‘I am not coming home this weekend’.

Below is the summary of the features of personal pronouns as personal references:

Speech roles Other roles

I, you, we (‘you and I’) he, she, it, they, we (‘and others’)

typically: exophoric (non-cohesive):

Possessive pronouns are doubly anaphoric because they are both referential and elliptical: they are anaphoric (i) by reference, to the possessor, and (ii) by ellipsis, to the thing possessed. Therefore, in the following example, only satisfies the presuppositions of the second sentence:

a. Can you find another programme?

Hers has got lost.

b. Can you help Mary?

c. Can you hand Mary a programme?

(v) Demonstrative reference: Demonstrative reference is essentially a form of verbal

pointing. The speaker identifies the referent by locating it on a scale of proximity. The system is

as follows: neutral the

far (not near)

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