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DISCOURSE
q “Discourse” = “language beyond the sentence”
q The analysis of discourse = the study of language in texts and conversation.
q Interpreting Discourse = attempt to arrive at a reasonable interpretation of what
the writer intended to convey.

DISCOURSE My Town
My natal was in a small town, very close to Riyadh capital of Saudi Arabia. The
distant between my town and Riyadh 7 miles exactly. The name of this Alma-sani
that means in English Factories. It takes this name from the peopl’s carrer. In my
childhood I remmeber the people live. It was very simple. Most the people was
farmer.
à ungrammatical, but interpretable
q To arrive at an interpretation, and to make our messages interpretable, we
certainly rely on what we know about linguistic form and structure. But, as
language-users, we have more knowledge than that.

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COHESION COHERENCE
q The ties and connections that exist within texts
Coherence (“everything fitting together well”) is NOT something that exists in
q Analysis of cohesive ties within a text gives us some insight into how writers structure what they want to say.
words or structures, but something that exists in people.
q An appropriate number of cohesive ties may be a crucial factor in our judgments on whether something is well
written or not. It is people who “make sense” of what they read and hear (people manage to make
q The conventions of cohesive structure differ from one language to the next, one source of difficulty encountered in
translating texts. sense of what the other says)

My father once bought a Lincoln convertible. He did it by saving every penny he could. That
car would be worth a fortune nowadays. However, he sold it to help pay for my college Her: That’s the telephone à She makes a request of him to perform action.
education. Sometimes I think I’d rather have the convertible. à He states reason why he cannot comply with
Him: I’m in the bath
request.
ü Reference to the same people and things throughout: father – he – he – he; my – my – I; Lincoln – it. Her: O.K. à She undertakes to perform action.
ü Connections between phrases such as: a Lincoln convertible – that car – the convertible.
ü Connections created by terms that share a common element of meaning, such as “money” (bought – saving –
penny – worth a fortune – sold – pay) and “time” (once – nowadays – sometimes). à Language-users must have a lot of knowledge of how conversation works that is
ü Connector (However) that marks the relationship of what follows to what went before. not simply “linguistic” knowledge.
ü The verb tenses in the first four sentences are all in the past, creating a connection between those events, and a
different time is indicated by the present tense of the final sentence.

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CONVERSATION ANALYSIS CONVERSATION ANALYSIS

In normal conversations,
■ English conversation can be described as an activity in which, ■ Participants wait until one speaker indicates that he or she has finished,
for the most part, two or more people take turns at speaking. usually by signaling a completion point.
■ Conversation analysis: analyzing the conversations ■ Speakers can mark their turns as complete in a number of ways: by
asking a question, for example, or by pausing at the end of a completed
syntactic structure like a phrase or sentence.
■ Other participants can indicate that they want to take the speaking
turn, also in a number of ways. They can start to make short sounds,
usually repeated, while the speaker is talking, and often use body shifts
or facial expressions to signal that they have something to say.

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The cooperative principle and its set of associated conversational maxims ensure that
in an exchange of conversation, the right amount of information is provided and that the

Grice’s Cooperative Principle &

TURN-TAKING IN COVERSATIONS
interaction is conducted in a truthful, relevant, and perspicuous manner.

THE COOPERATIVE PRINCIPLE

Make your conversational contribution such as is required, at the stage at which
There are different expectations of conversational style and it occurs, by the accepted purpose or direction of the talk exchange in which you
are engaged.

The associated Maxims

different strategies of participation in conversation.
THE MAXIMS OF CONVERSATION
In the case of Turn Taking, there are some turn-taking strategies: 1. QUALITY: Try to make your contribution one that is TRUE.
(i) Do not say what you believe to be false.
ü Hold the floor: used in situations where we have to work (ii) Do not say that for which you lack adequate evidence.
2. QUANTITY: Be INFORMATIVE
out what we are trying to say while actually saying it. (i) Make your contribution as informative as is required (for the current
purposes of the exchange). (=Don’t say less than what is required .)
ü Keep the turn : used when you want to continue talking à (ii) Do not make your contribution more informative than is required.
(=Don’t say more than what is required.)
don’t pause at the end of sentences; make your sentences 3. RELATION: Be RELEVANT.
run on by using connectors like and, and then, so, but + 4. MANNER: Be PERSPICUOUS. (= Express yourself clearly .)
(i)Avoid obscurity of expression.
“fill” the pause with a hesitation marker such as er, em, uh, (ii)Avoid ambiguity.

ah. (iii) Be brief

(iv) Be orderly.
…And more (google it if you are interested)

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THE MAXIMS OF CONVERSATION THE MAXIMS OF CONVERSATION

1. QUALITY: Try to make your contribution one that is TRUE. 2. QUANTITY: Be INFORMATIVE
Grice’s Cooperative Principle &

Grice’s Cooperative Principle &

(i) Do not say what you believe to be false. (i) Don’t say less than is required.
The associated Maxims (ii) Do not say that for which you lack adequate (ii) Don’t say more than is required.

The associated Maxims

evidence. Jenny tells of a recent meeting with an elderly English woman.
‘She’d been invited with her sister to have dinner with one of the
As far as I know, there’s no reason not to turn the
Polish chaps and his friend and, to cut a long story short, she’d
lights on.
married him.’
à ‘I can’t be totally sure if this is true’
à People who give too little information risk their hearer’s not
à The speaker is protected from accusations of being able to identify what they are talking about, because they
lying: he was uncertain. Most hearers assume that are not explicit enough
speakers are not lying. à Those who give more information than the hearer
needs risk boring them.

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THE MAXIMS OF CONVERSATION THE MAXIMS OF CONVERSATION

Grice’s Cooperative Principle &

Grice’s Cooperative Principle &

3. RELATION: Be RELEVANT to the conversation. 4. MANNER: Be PERSPICUOUS. (= Express yourself

clearly.)
(i) Avoid obscurity of expression.
A: I mean, just going back to your point, I mean to me an
(ii) Avoid ambiguity.
order form is a contract. If we are going to put something

The associated Maxims

The associated Maxims

in, then let’s keep it as general as possible. (iii) Be brief

B: Yes. (iv) Be orderly.

I first wanna make clear a couple of things.

à ‘just going back to your point’ indicates that what they First of all what is it exactly that evolves?
(adapted from a university lecture)
are about to say is not relevant to what has just been said
à clear, brief, orderly
but is looping back to a previous topic.

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A Conversational Implicature is
CONVERSATIONAL what is communicated/conveyed

CONVERSATIONAL
minus what is said. It is beyond
Meaning or proposition and above, and sometimes
expressed or implied by divergent from, what is said.
a speaker in the
IMPLICATION

IMPLICATION
utterance of a sentence
which is meant without [What is conversationally implicated]
being part of what is =
said in the strict sense [What is communicated/conveyed]
–
[What is said]

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A Conversational Implicature is what

is communicated/conveyed minus
HEDGES
Words or phrases used to indicate that we’re not really sure that what we’re saying is sufficiently correct or
what is said. It is beyond and above, complete.
and sometimes divergent from, what
is said.
CONVERSATIONAL

His hair was kind of long

The book cover is sort of yellow.

After a job interview at a college, the HR Manager eventually told the
à hedges on the Quality maxim
young man:
IMPLICATION

“I think you would be happier in a larger or a smaller college.” ü As far as I know, ...
Correct me if I’m wrong, but . . .
[Link] is the Conversational Implicature? ü I’m not absolutely sure, but . . .
“Sorry, you are not qualified for the position”
ü possible or likely (not certain)
à He tried to let the young man down gently by giving him a piece
of advice à to save his face ü may or could (not must) happen

Jackson is guilty. à It can be assumed that there is very good evidence for the statement.
2. What is the proper response from the young man?
‘OK, thanks for the advice. I’ll look for somewhere else’ I think it’s possible that Jackson may be guilty. à Due to the use of hedges (underlined
expressions) , there is no good evidence for the statement.
à To save the manager’s face in return

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BACKGROUND KNOWLEDGE

■ Schemas & Scripts (Textbook/p115-117)

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