Variation analysis
- 2. VariationAnalysis is patterned both socially and linguistically and that such pattern can be discovered only trough systematic investigation of speech community . Thus variationits try to discovered pattern in the distribution of alternative ways of saying the same ting, that is the social and linguistic factors that are responsible for variation in ways of speaking
- 3. Approaches to Studying Discourse Focus of Research Research Question Structural CA Sequences of talk Why say that at that moment? Variations Structural categories within texts Why that form? Functional Speech Acts Communicative acts How to do things with words? Ethnography of Communication Communication as cultural behaviour How does discourse reflect culture? Interactional Sociolinguistics Social and linguistic meanings created during communication What are they doing? Pragmatics Meaning in interaction What does the speaker mean?
- 4. in spoken language (e.g. vernacular) Type of analysis in written (text type) language (e.g. – narrative and list)
- 5. Variationists assume that the social context of speech influence the use of speech. When people know that their language is being observed and/or judged, however, they may alter their ways of speaking toward socially prestigious forms and/or toward forms more like those of their interlocutors. The vernacular is the variety used when speakers pay minimum attention to speech (Labov 1984: 2; what Labov 1972e calls “casual style”)
- 6. It is common for a language to have many alternative ways of saying “the same” thing. Some words like car and automobile seem to have the same referents; others have two pronunciation, like working and workin’ .There are syntactic options such as who is he talking to?Vs.To whom is he talking?
- 8. NARRATIVE Tell what happened Event Information structures * temporal structure : to assume that reference time shift from one event to the next. * descriptive structure : is typically assigned to a background (who, where and when it happened) *evaluative structure : LIST Discribe a category Entity (list item) Information structures *temporal structure : not concerned with reference time. Rather, the time relations are textual relation between items presented successively in the discourse it self. * descriptive structure : the stative verb like “have” and “be” are the main verb to build the descriptive structure.The situation are assumed for an unspecified period of time (no beginning or ending points) * evaluative structure :
- 9. A general discourse constraint: order of mention Constrain specific to list a. inside and outside of list b. Category constraints c. Subcategory Constraints