Discourse analysis
Keith Allan and Joanne Winter
12 points
* 2 hours per week
* First semester
* Clayton
Objectives Upon completion of this course students should be able to demonstrate that language understanding is a constructive process using not only knowledge of the language but also inferences based on context, knowledge of the conventions of language use, and knowledge of discourse conventions for narrative, joke telling, conversation, etc. and encyclopedic knowledge of all kinds; recognise the contribution made by plans and scripts to the development of written texts and spoken dialogues; recognise and be able to describe the characteristics of turn taking in dialogue; recognise linguistic clues and cues to the introduction of individuals, topics, and themes within texts, to their maintenance, and how some are made more salient than others. Also, to recognise the ways in which topics and themes are concluded; apply Labov's theory for action narrative and also rhetorical structure theory; be aware of some of the similarities and differences in discourse conventions across cultures and how to identify them and confidently undertake the systematic linguistic analysis of a text or dialogue
Synopsis It is reasonable to believe that phonological, syntactic, and semantic analyses are all properly included within discourse analysis and that they should each be constrained by their efficacy in the task of explaining discourse. In the division of linguistic labors, however, discourse analysis is concerned with language expressions larger than a single sentence. This subject aims to be a study of the practical analysis of written texts and conversation, paying particular attention to cohesive factors within texts and some to stylistic and varietal differences in discourse structure. We shall investigate conversational structure; narrative structures in different languages; indicators of semantic cohesion; how topics are introduced and terminated; how they are recognised and maintained; the distribution of information in a text (givenness, focus, etc.); the place of knowledge and context in language and understanding; and perhaps other things besides.
Assessment Class presentation: 5%
* 2 assignments (2000 words): 25%
* Essay (6000) words: 70%
Prescribed texts
Schiffrin D Approaches to discourse Blackwell, 1994
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