DISCOURSE ANALYSIS 7
Trương Văn Ánh
Saigon University, HCMC

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Making sense of discourse
Discourse coherence
Coherent discourse is distinguished from
random sentences by the existence of
certain text-forming and cohesive devices.
What is the role of cohesion in the
establishment of coherent discourse?

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Two texts:
1. Jack is a good student. He learns
excellently and he always gets good
marks.
2. Jack gets to school early. He gets good
marks and he likes films.
The meanings of the sentences in text 1
relate to each other.
It is a coherent
discourse.
The meanings of the sentences in text 2
don't relate to each other.
It is not a
coherent discourse.
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Speech acts
When using language, we not only make
propositional statements about objects,
entities, states of affairs and so on, but we
also fufil functions such as requesting,
denying, introducing, apologizing, etc.
Identifying the speech act being performed
by a particular utterance can only be done
if we know the context in which the
utterance takes place.
Speech act is an utterance as a functional
unit in communication. (Richards et al,
1985: 265).
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A speech act has three kinds of meaning:
a. Locutionary meaning (propositional meaning)
is its basic literal meaning conveyed by its
particular words and structures.
A locutionary act is the saying of something
which is meaningful and can be understood.
Ex: I am hungry. (I am suffering from my hunger)
b. Illocutionary meaning (illocutionary force), the
effect the utterance, might have on the hearer.
An illocutionary act is using a sentence to
perform a function.
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Ex: A: I am hungry. (Give me something to eat)
B: I'll bring you some hamburger.
The illocutionary meaning of “I am hungry” is A
indirectly requests B to give him something to
eat.
c. Perlocutionary act is the results or effects
that are produced by means of saying
something.
From A and B the result is that A will eat some
hamburger.
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When we make up a sentence, it has not only
proposition/meaning but also some function.
The functions of sentences are grouped into
six kinds:
Representative
Expressive
Directive
Rogative
Commissive
Declarative
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Classification of speech act: Six types
(Six functions of sentences/clauses)
1. The representative describes a state of
affairs in the world: asserting, stating,
claiming, affirming, making hypotheses,
describing, predicting, reporting, etc.
The representative can be true or false.
Ex: Lan: What are you?
Diep: I am a teacher.
“I am a teacher” is a representative. Diep
states his job.
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2. The commissive commits the speaker to a
course
of
action:
promising,
vowing,
threatening, offering, etc.
Ex: (Diep to Lan): I'll love you for ever.
Diep indirectly promises to love Lan for ever.
3. The declarative changes the world by
bringing about or altering the state of affairs it
names: dismissing, sentences, naming,
announcing, declaring, etc.
Ex: (Judge) I now declare you are innocent.
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4. The directive intends to get the listener to
carry out an action: commanding, requesting,
begging, warning, challenging, inviting,
suggesting, giving advice, etc.
Ex: (Aunt Hai Lua): The pigs are shouting.
(Uncle Hai Lua): Feed them.
“Feed them” is a directive.
5. The expressive indicates the speaker's
psychological state or feeling/attitude about
something:
greeting,
apologizing,
complaining, thanking, etc.
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Ex: The food is fabulous.
The speaker shows that he likes the food.
6. The rogative refers to a special kind of
directives which deals with requests for
information and which is typically in form of
a question.
Ex: Lan: What are you?
Diep: I am a teacher.
“What are you?” is a rogative: Lan directly
asks/requests Diep for some information on
his job.
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Classify the following utterances into
different kinds of speech acts.
a) I have just got a letter from my
friend in Paris.
b) Just a moment please.
c) Thank you so much for your kind
words.
d) I name him Mr Only one.
e) Let's go to the cafeteria.
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KEY
a) representative
b) directive
c) expressive
d) declarative
e) directive

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Background knowledge
The things we know about the world assist
us in the interpretation of discourse.
Ex: She is Thi No in our class.
From the acquired knowledge, we know that
she is ugly.

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Using background knowledge: propositional
level
Frame theory suggests that human memory
consists of sets of stereotypical situations, or
“frames”, which are constructed out of our past
experiences.
Ex: Going to the doctor.
We know that someone is ill and he has to go to
the doctor so that the doctor will cure his illness.
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There are different frames in different fields
such as economy frame, shopping frame, etc.
Schema theory
Like frame theory, schema theory suggests
that the knowledge we carry around in our
heads is organized into interrelated patterns.
These are constructed from given information
and they enable us to make predictions about
new information.

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Using background knowledge: functional
level
When studying functions, the question is not
“what is the speaker/writer trying to tell us
about events and things in the world?” but
“what is the speaker/writer trying to achieve
through language?”
There are two exchanges where the
invitation is understood and not understood.

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1. A: I have two tickets to the concert tonight.
B: I have a test tomorrow.
A: What a pity.
2. A: I have two tickets to the concert tonight.
B: It's nice. What are you going to see?
A: A great symphony by Mozart.
B: It's interesting. I hope you will enjoy it.
In the second exchange, B is obtuse when A
would like to invite him to the concert.
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Bottom-up text processing
Bottom-up processes are those which are
involved in assimilating input from the
smallest chunks of discourse: sounds in
speech and letters in texts, afterwards moving
to more and more general features. This
technique is frequently applied by lower-level
learners who turn much attention to decoding
particular words, thus losing the more general
idea, that is the meaning of a given piece of
writing.
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Top-down text processing
Top-down processing starts with general
features of a text, gradually moving to the
narrower. This approach considers all levels
of communicative products as a total unit
whose elements work collectively, in other
words, it is more holistic.
When learners are to get acquainted with the
main idea of a particular communicative
product they should take advantage of topdown approach, while when answering
detailed true-false questions they would
benefit from bottom-up reading.
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THE END

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