Discourse structure chapter 4 by Ahmet YUSUF
- 1. Two views of discourse structure : as product and as process BY AHMAD YOUSSEF
- 3. Rank structure الترتيب هيكل One way of representing the relationship of parts to a whole is a rank structure, in which each rank is made up of one or more of the rank below. The ranks of grammar are : • Sentence • Clause • Phrase • Word
- 5. 4.2 The Birmingham School of Discourse Analysis A pioneering and influential study in this field was carried out at the University of Birmingham by Sinclair and Coulthard (1975). The discourse type it chose to analyze was school lessons. They recorded a number of British primary school lessons. On the basis of these data they proposed a rank structure for these lessons as follows: • Lesson • Transaction • Exchange • Move • Act
- 6. They then drew up rules, based on the data, showing how these acts combine together to form moves and how moves combine to form various kinds of exchange grammarians formulate rules describing how words combine into phrases, or phrases into clauses. One kind of exchange, for example, consisted of between one and three moves: Opening (answering) (follow up)
- 7. 4.3 Discourse typology: spoken and written; formal and informal: Traditionally, language teaching has divided discourse into two major categories, the spoken and the written, further divided into the four skills of speaking and listening, writing and reading. The traditional division of language into the spoken and the written is clearly and sensibly based on a difference in production and reception: we use our mouths and ears for one, and ours hands and eyes for the other. the modern foreign language learners prefer to learn informal spoken discourse for traveling and social contact.
- 9. 4.4 Conversation as a discourse type: The term `Conversation´ is widely used, in a non-technical sense, usually with the implication that the talk is less formal. We shall define the term as follows: Talk may be classed as conversation when: It is not primarily necessitated by a practical task. Any unequal power of participants is partially suspended. The number of participants is small. Turns are short. Talk is primarily for the participants and not for an outside audience.
- 10. 4.5 Turn – Taking : Overlap of turns occurs in only about 5 per cent of conversation or less, strongly suggesting that speakers somehow know exactly when and where to enter. Where there is overlap between turns it has some particular significance: signaling , annoyance, urgency, or a desire to correct what is being said.
- 11. Conversely, pauses between turns also carry particular meaning. The significance of this approach for the language learner is considerable. Turn-taking mechanisms, the way in which speakers hold or pass the floor, vary between cultures and between languages.
- 12. Efficient turn-taking also involves factors which are not linguistic. Eye contact is one strong means of signaling, Body position and movement also play and important part. Intonation and volume contribute to turn-taking too. In formal situations roles can clearly give people special rights. E.g. Students fall silent when the professor speaks – in the bar as well as in the seminar.
- 13. 4.6 Turn types: adjacency pair: This occurs when the utterance of one speaker makes a particular kind of response very likely ( very possible ). A greeting, for example, is likely to be answered by another greeting. But in an adjacency pair, there is often a choice of two likely responses. A request is most likely to be followed by either an acceptance or a refusal. In such cases, one of the responses is a preferred response and the other a dispreferred response.
- 15. 1. Offer : Acceptance (preferred) Refusal (dispreferred) 2. Assessment : Agreement (preferred) Disagreement (dispreferred) 3. Blame: Denial (pr.) Admission (dispr.) 4. Question: Expected answer (pr.) Unexpected ans. (dispr.)
- 16. e.g. A: Did you enjoy the meal? B: (Did you? A: yes) B: So did I. This is known as an insertion sequence. Q Q A A
- 17. Insertion and sequences draw attention to the fact that conversation is discourse mutually constructed and negotiated in time. Unlike lectures, broadcasts, and speeches, a conversation is constructed and executed as it happens, by two people, feeling their way forward together. There is no going back, crossing out, rewriting and restructuring. repair, in which participants correct either their own words or those of another participant.
- 18. 4.7 Discourse as a process: Ethnomethodology depicts ( describe ) conversation as discourse constructed and negotiated between the participants, following pre- established patterns, and marking the direction they are taking in particular ways: with pauses, laughter, intonations, filler words, and established formulae.
- 19. Culture and turn-taking provide ample (enough ) ground for misunderstanding: Entering and leaving conversation, bidding for a longer turn, refusing without appearing rude, changing the topic, are all notoriously difficult for foreign learners: In the classroom, turns are patiently organized and controlled by the teacher. Indeed the teacher who constantly interrupts the students´ discourse to correct every grammatical mistake not only violates usual turn-taking procedures but may also hinder the students´ acquisition of them.
- 20. THE END