National open university of nigeria school of arts and social sciences
Some Major Concepts in Discourse Analysis
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- 1.0 Introduction
- 2.0 Unit Objectives
- 3.0 MAIN CONTENT 3.1 Text
- 3.2 Context
| Some Major Concepts in Discourse Analysis Contents 1.0 Introduction 2.0 Unit Objectives 3.0 Main Content 3.1 Text 3.2 Context 3.3 Self-Assessment Exercises 3.4 Speech and Writing 4.0 Conclusion 5.0 Summary 6.0 Tutor-marked Assignment 7.0 References and Further Reading 1.0 Introduction In this Unit, we shall be examining some selected basic concepts used in Discourse Analysis. These concepts will lay the foundations for many other things we shall be discussing later in the course. We shall be examining two all important concepts text and context. Since discourse is both writing and speech, we shall look at the nature of written and spoken discourse briefly. 2.0 Unit Objectives At the end of this Unit, you should be able to do the following • identify some basic concepts in DA • define these concepts and give appropriate examples to support you definition • differentiate between speech and writing 19 3.0 MAIN CONTENT 3.1 Text Speech and writing are the primary medium of language use. A text is an instance of language in use. It ranges from a word to a large chunk of language. Sometimes, people associate text with just written language, but text is any instance of language use. A text could be a statement, an utterance, a sentence, a paragraph, a whole chapter, a news item, a conversation, and so forth. One aspect of Linguistics that studies written text is called Textlinguistics. Text linguistics tends to focus on the patterns of how information flows within and among sentences by looking at aspects of texts like coherence, cohesion, the distribution of topics and comments, and other discourse structures. Much like syntax is concerned with the structure of sentences, text linguistics is concerned with the structure of texts. One of the criteria of a text identified by Haliiday and Hasan (1976) is that it must form a unified whole A text maybe spoken, written, prose, or verse, dialogue, or monologue. It maybe anything from a proverb to a whole play, form a momentary cry for help to an all-day discussion on a committee (Halliday and Hasan, 1976: 1). A text is best regarded as a semantic unit. According to Halliday and Hasan (1976), a text has a texture and this is what distinguishes it from something that is not a text. It derives its texture from the fact that it functions as a unity with respect to its context. 3.2 Context The word context is a commonly used expression, which may mean different things to different people. Its general meaning is the set of facts that surrounds a particular event or situation. From the linguistic point of view, context is everything that surrounds the production of apiece of communication. These include the physical situation in which the communication takes place, the interactants or interlocutors, the knowledge of the communicators of their cultural norms and expected behaviour, and the expressions that precede and follow a particular expression. All these features of context help language speakers to interpret meaning appropriately. Linguists are particularly interest in the linguistic context of any form of language use. Download 0.49 Mb. Share with your friends:
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