The word discourse is derived from the Latin word “discursis” which means speech or conversation.

As a noun, it can mean verbal communication, talk, formal speech, or writing on a subject used by the linguists for the analysis that range over more than one sentence. Discourse is a discussion of a subject in formal speech or writing. It can also be considered as communication of thought by words, talk, or conversation.

In simple words, discourse is a language through which communication is done. The language contains all forms of communication whether it is spoken, written, or sign. Discourse analysis is the act or process of analyzing a discourse. In this process,all aspects of discourse are observed or seen and the most important ones are cohesion, coherence, intention, acceptability, situationally, and intertextuality.

Discourse analysis is defined differently by different theorists. Miakhial Bakhtain considers the discourse as a concrete living totality. Ronald Barth discusses discourse in which he says that discourse has its units, its grammar beyond the sentence. Discourse is defined as the analysis of language beyond the sentence and the analysis of sentence is concerned with the study of language in text and conversation.

George Yule defines discourse as language beyond the sentence. The analysis of discourse is typically concerned with the study of language in texts and conversation.

          Zelling Harris says discourse is a method for the analysis of the connected speech or writing for continuing descriptive linguistics beyond the limit of a single sentence at a time and correlating culture and language.

David Crystal also discusses discourse analysis and says that discourse analysis focuses on the structure of naturally occurring spoken language as found in such “discourses” as conversations, interviews, commentaries, and speech. Text analysis focuses on the structure of written language as found in such “texts” as essays, notices, road signs, and chapters.

As it has been cleared that discourse is something beyond the sentence which focuses on texts and conversations, therefore, before looking at the aspects of discourse analysis let us understand the text itself.

Text

Though linguists have different opinions about what makes a good text, they do agree that any written or spoken message is considered a text. A text is created by putting words together to communicate meaning. Text is a term used in linguistics to refer to any passage spoken or written, of whatever length that does form a unified whole. A text is not defined by its size; for it can be short or long as long as it provides a purposeful message.  

The two important aspects of discourse (text) analysis are cohesion and coherence.

Cohesion

Cohesion shows the grammatical relationship between words in a text linked together. There are four subparts of cohesion; reference, substitution, conjunction and lexical cohesive.

Reference

It shows the relationship of words with one another in a text or conversation.

Ahmed went to a shop.  He was angry because it was closed.  

In the second sentence “he” refers to Ahmed and “it” shows a relationship with the shop.

Substitution

Substitution is the replacement of one linguistic item by another. When we talk about the replacement of one item by another, we mean the replacement of one word/phrase with another word/phrase. The purpose of substitution is to avoid repetition.

E.g.  The knife is too blunt. I must get a new one.  

In the second sentence, one is a substitution for the knife.

2. He studied the whole text last night. I did the same.

Here in the next sentence “same” is a substitution for “studied the whole text last night”.

Conjunction

Conjunction words are linking devices between sentences or clauses in a text. Unlike the other grammatical devices, conjunctions express the “logical semantic” relation between sentences rather than between words and structures. They structure the text in a certain logical order that is meaningful to the reader or listener.

There are usually four types of conjunctions. Additive, adversative, causal, and temporal.

Additive connects units that share a semantic similarity. E.g. likewise, furthermore, in addition.

Adversative conjunctions are used to express contrasting results or opinions. E.g. but, however, whereas.

Causal conjunctions express results, reasons or purposes. E.g. so, thus. Therefore, because.

Temporal conjunctions express the time order of events. E.g. finally, then, soon.

Lexical cohesion

It is concerned with the relationship that exists between items in a text such as words and phrases. It is the choice of vocabulary. In lexical cohesion, a word is mostly repeated by another shape of a word. In order not to repeat the same word, we bring others words. These are mostly synonyms.

E.g.  She ate a peach.  She likes fruit.

The word “fruit” is a lexical cohesion that is a reiteration of peach.

The boy was very happy when he passed the test. The lad went and bought some ice cream.

The lad is working as a synonym of the boy.

Coherence

The word coherence comes from a Latin word meaning “to stick together”. It is based on the logic of ideas. In other simple words, we define coherence as “everything fitting together well”.

According to Grice, “There is an order of information and this order of information is a logical structure which defines the semantic connections between information units in the text.”

Newbert and Shreve define coherence as it is the connection of individual information elements with a certain logical structure.

A normal text is not the connection of words. Let us take one example.

My father bought Lincoln convertible. The car driven by the police was red. That car does not suit her. She consists of three letters. However, a letter is not as fast as a telephone car.

So by looking at this text, a text is not the connection of words but it is the logical flow of the ideas.

Discourse analysis does not base on the analysis of cohesive and coherence aspects rather there are some more aspects that are discussed by Beaugrande.

Intentionality

Every text has a purpose and the purpose is the intention of the writer. A text is never written without any intention and in analyzing discourse we need to understand the intention of the writer. For instance, the writer may write about his own feelings and want them to spread or he may write something about the goodness that people should adopt in their practical life. Thus, every text is written for a purpose and with intention and when the intention of the author or writer is analyzed is known as intentionality in discourse.

Acceptability

Acceptability is the act of accepting a text. In other words, it is the receivers’ attitude in communication. A text is always written to be accepted and it is people whose attitude tells us how much a text or communication is accepted. A better text is always accepted.

In discourse analysis, we analyze how much a text is accepted by the people, and if not then what was the reason.  

Informativity

All the information that is contained within the text is known as informativity. It is true that every text has information and analyzing this information is called informativity in discourse. For example, if a text is written inactive form, the text is personal and if it is written in passive form, it is impersonal.

Situationality

It shows the situation of a text when it was written and what its function was in the situation. It discusses the situation of the time. Everyone creates discourse according to the situation.

If we take a general example then William Shakespeare used a fool character in order to talk about kings. At the time of Shakespeare, it was not allowed to go against the kings. The discourse was used according to the situation.

A fool to a king;

“You don’t have sense in your big head”  (King Lear)

 

 

Intertextuality

It is the relationship between two texts which share the same characteristics. When one text relates to another text is known as Intertextuality. In intertextuality, we analyze a text to be connected with another text or not. It is said that most of the discourses have intertextuality but we may not know about it.

 

By: Shahzad Naseem

The writer is a post-graduate student from the English Literature Department at the University of Turbat and a teacher at Zanth Academy Jusak

Turbat Kech Balochistan

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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