1. Discourse. Basic principles of discourse analysis.
Text as a unit of the highest level manifests itself as discourse in verbal communication. Therefore actual text in use may be defined as discourse. Discourses are formed by sequence of utterances. It is obvious that many utterances taken by themselves are ambiguous. They can become clear only within a discourse.
Utterances interpretation, or discourse
analysis, involves a variety of processes, grammatical and pragmatic. By pragmatic processes we mean the processes used to bridge up the gap between the semantic representations of sentences and the interpretation of utterances in context. Quite often, the sentence may be ambiguous:
His soup is not hot enough
The hearer must not only recover the semantic representation of the sentence uttered, but decide who the referential expression he refers to, whether the ambiguous word hot means very warm or spicy, whether the vague expression his food refers to the food he cooked, the food he brought, the food he served, the food he is eating, etc.
2. Discourse genres.
Discourse genres, also known as text genres, are specific categories or types of texts or spoken language that share common characteristics in terms of form, content, and communicative purposes. Discourse genres are a way of categorizing and classifying various types of written and spoken communication based on their conventions and typical features. Here are some common discourse genres:
Narrative:
Narratives are stories that recount events or experiences. They have a chronological structure, often including elements like characters, settings, conflicts, and resolutions.
Examples: Short stories, novels, personal anecdotes, fairy tales.
Expository:
Expository texts aim to inform, explain, or describe a particular topic or concept. They typically use a clear and organized structure, presenting facts and information.
Examples: Academic essays, research papers, encyclopedia entries, textbooks.
Descriptive:
Descriptive texts vividly depict the characteristics and attributes of a particular subject, person, place, or object.
Examples: Travelogues, product descriptions, character descriptions in literature.
Argumentative:
Argumentative texts present a particular viewpoint or argument and provide supporting evidence to persuade the reader or listener
Examples: Opinion editorials, persuasive essays, debates.
Procedural:
Procedural texts provide step-by-step instructions for carrying out a task or process.
Examples: Recipes, user manuals, instructional guides.
Conversation:
Conversational genres encompass various types of spoken interactions, from casual small talk to formal interviews and debates. These can be categorized based on the social context and communicative purposes.
Examples: Casual conversation, job interviews, courtroom discourse.
Informative:
Informative texts focus on presenting information in a straightforward and objective manner, often without any persuasive or evaluative language.
Examples: News articles, reports, informative brochures.
3. Maxims of conversation by P.Grice.
Understanding the meaning of a discourse requires knowing a lot of things. There are times when people say (or write) exactly what they mean, but generally they are not totally explicit. They manage to convey far more than their words mean, or even something quite different from the meaning of their words. It was Paul Grice who attempted to explain how, by means of shared rules or conventions, language users manage to understand one another. He introduced guidelines necessary for the efficient and effective conversation. He defined these guidelines as Cooperative Principle. Cooperative Principle presupposes that conversation is governed by four basic rules, Maxims of Conversation. There are four of them:
1. The Maxim of Quality
Do not say what you believe to be false
Do not say for what you lack adequate evidence
2. The Maxim of Quantity
Make your contribution as informative as required
Do not make your contribution more informative than is required
3. The Maxim of Relevance
Be relevant
4. The Maxim of Manner
Be clear
Be orderly
4. Implicatures of conversation. Conversational and conventional implicatures.
Conversational implicatures are a vital aspect of pragmatics, a subfield of linguistics that deals with how people use language in context to convey meaning beyond the literal or explicit content of their words. Conversational implicatures are inferences or conclusions that listeners draw from a speaker's utterance in a conversation. Two primary types of implicatures are conversational implicatures and conventional implicatures:
Conversational implicatures are derived from Grice's Cooperative Principle, a set of maxims that guide effective communication. Grice proposed four maxims:
Conversational implicatures often arise when these maxims are flouted, leading listeners to make inferences to make sense of the conversation. For example, if someone asks, "Do you have any plans for the weekend?" and the response is, "I have to wash my hair," the listener might infer that the speaker does not want to disclose their plans, as washing one's hair is not a typical weekend plan but is used as a way to avoid revealing information.
a. Maxim of Quantity: Speakers should provide the right amount of information, neither too much nor too little. In violation, listeners may infer something additional.
b. Maxim of Quality: Speakers should provide truthful information. Violations can lead to the inference that the speaker is being deceptive.
c. Maxim of Relation: Speakers should provide relevant information. If they discuss irrelevant information, listeners may infer a connection.
d. Maxim of Manner: Speakers should be clear and avoid unnecessary complexity or ambiguity. Violations can lead to inferences about implied meanings or hidden intentions.
Conventional implicatures are specific to certain linguistic expressions or words and are part of their conventional meaning. These implications are determined by the language itself, not by conversational context. For example:
a. "But": When used as a coordinating conjunction, "but" typically carries a conventional implicature of contrast. For instance, in the sentence "She is rich, but she is not happy," the use of "but" implies a contrast between wealth and happiness.
b. "Even": The word "even" often carries a conventional implicature of surprise or emphasis.
For example, in the sentence "He didn't even show up," "even" implies that the speaker finds the absence particularly surprising or significant.
Conventional implicatures are generally fixed and tied to specific words or phrases in a language, and they do not rely on the context of the conversation to be inferred.
5. Indirectness in conversation: flouting communicative maxims.
Indirectness in conversation often involves the intentional flouting of the Gricean communicative maxims, which are principles that guide effective communication. When a speaker violates these maxims in an indirect manner, it can lead to the generation of conversational implicatures, where listeners infer meaning beyond the explicit content of the utterance. Here are some common ways in which indirectness and flouting of communicative maxims are used in conversation:
Flouting the Maxim of Quantity:
Underinforming: A speaker deliberately provides too little information, leading to indirectness. For example, when someone asks, "How was your date last night?" and the response is, "Interesting," it flouts the maxim of quantity because the speaker could provide more details but chooses not to.
Overinforming: Conversely, a speaker might provide excessive information, making the response indirect. For instance, when asked, "Can you pass me the salt?" and the response is a lengthy explanation about the origins of salt, it flouts the maxim of quantity by giving more information than needed.
Flouting the Maxim of Quality:
Polite White Lies: Speakers might provide information that is not entirely truthful but is intended to be polite or avoid hurting someone's feelings. For example, if someone asks, "How do you like my new haircut?" and the response is, "It's unique," it flouts the maxim of quality because the speaker may not genuinely like the haircut but offers a polite comment to avoid being rude.
Flouting the Maxim of Relation:
Off-Topic Remarks: Speakers may introduce unrelated topics into the conversation, leading to indirectness. For example, during a serious discussion about work, someone might suddenly bring up a humorous anecdote, thereby flouting the maxim of relation.
Tangential Information: Providing information that, although related to the topic, does not directly address the question or concern can be a form of indirectness. For instance, if someone asks about the weather, and the response includes unrelated details about the speaker's weekend plans, it flouts the maxim of relation.
Flouting the Maxim of Manner:
Ambiguity: Intentional ambiguity or vague language can be used to convey a message indirectly. For example, when a friend asks about a surprise party they suspect is being planned, and you reply with, "Well, things are in motion," it flouts the maxim of manner by not providing a clear answer.
Sarcasm: Sarcasm often involves a flouting of the maxim of manner by saying one thing explicitly and meaning the opposite. For example, in response to a friend's lateness, one might say, "You're right on time," with sarcasm to convey irritation indirectly.
The use of indirectness through the flouting of communicative maxims can serve various purposes in communication, such as politeness, hinting, avoiding direct confrontation, or fostering a sense of playfulness. It requires listeners to engage in pragmatic interpretation to decipher the intended meaning and understand the implicatures within the conversation.
6. The Politeness Principle.
The Politeness Principle is based on the idea that in social interactions, individuals aim to save face (i.e., protect their own and others' social dignity) and to avoid threatening the positive social value of others. It outlines two key aspects of politeness strategies:
Positive Politeness: This strategy involves making others feel valued and appreciated. It is achieved by expressing friendliness, showing interest, and giving compliments. Positive politeness aims to enhance the person's social identity and build rapport. Examples of positive politeness include using polite forms of address, expressing gratitude, and engaging in small talk.
Negative Politeness: Negative politeness, on the other hand, involves mitigating threats to a person's face, autonomy, or freedom. This strategy is employed when speakers want to be considerate of others' preferences and minimize intrusiveness. Negative politeness often involves using more indirect language or making requests in a less imposing manner. Examples of negative politeness include using phrases like "Would you mind if..." or "If it's not too much trouble..."
The Politeness Principle also takes into account the notion of face, which is the public self-image that every person maintains and seeks to protect in social interactions. Face can be divided into two components:
Positive Face: The desire to be liked, appreciated, and respected by others.
Negative Face: The desire for autonomy, the freedom to act without constraints, and the absence of impositions from others.
In their interactions, people engage in politeness strategies to support and enhance positive face while also respecting negative face. Politeness theory acknowledges that politeness is a dynamic, context-dependent process, and the choice of strategies may vary depending on factors such as the social setting, the power dynamic between speakers, and cultural norms.
7. The notion of ‘strategy’ in linguistics. Politeness and other strategies in discourse.
In linguistics, the notion of "strategy" refers to a systematic approach or plan that speakers or writers use to achieve specific communicative goals in discourse. These strategies encompass a wide range of linguistic choices and techniques employed to convey meaning effectively and appropriately in various communicative contexts. Politeness strategies are just one example of these linguistic strategies, and there are many others used in discourse. Here are some key strategies in discourse:
Politeness Strategies:
Positive Politeness: This strategy involves expressing friendliness, showing interest, and giving compliments to make the interlocutor feel valued and appreciated.
Negative Politeness: Negative politeness involves mitigating threats to a person's face, autonomy, or freedom. It is used to be considerate of others' preferences and minimize intrusiveness. It often involves indirect language or making requests in a less imposing manner.
Bald on-record: Sometimes, speakers use direct and unambiguous language to make their intentions clear without employing extensive politeness strategies. This can be effective in certain situations, particularly when the relationship is informal or when the speech act is not face-threatening.
Mitigation Strategies:Hedging:
Hedging: Hedging involves the use of language to soften statements, make them less absolute, or introduce a degree of uncertainty. For example, "I think" or "kind of" can be used as hedges to mitigate the directness of a statement.
Indirect Language: Indirect language can be used to convey information or make requests in a more tactful or non-confrontational way. For example, instead of saying, "Give me the report," one might say, "Do you think you could pass me the report?
Implicature Strategies:
Conversational implicatures, as mentioned earlier, involve the generation of inferences beyond the literal meaning of an utterance based on conversational maxims.
Conversational Implicature:
Conventional Implicature: These are implicit meanings associated with specific linguistic expressions or words, typically encoded in the language itself.
Politeness Markers:
Honorifics: Honorifics are linguistic markers used to show respect and politeness, often by using titles or honorific prefixes, such as "Mr.," "Mrs.," or "Dr."
Polite Forms of Address: Using polite forms of address, like "Sir," "Madam," or appropriate titles, can be a strategy for showing respect and politeness in discourse.
Persuasion and Rhetorical Strategies:
Rhetorical Questions: Rhetorical questions are posed not to seek an answer but to make a point or persuade the listener to consider a particular perspective.
Appeals to Emotion: Using emotional language, anecdotes, or vivid imagery to appeal to the audience's emotions is a common persuasive strategy.
Directness vs. Indirectness:
Direct Speech Acts: These are straightforward and to the point, such as making direct requests or statements.
Indirect Speech Acts: Indirectness can be used to convey a message indirectly or to soften the impact of a speech act, for instance, by making a suggestion rather than a direct request.