Discourse Analysis

ESSAY: REPRESENTATION SPEECH: SPOKEN AND WRITTEN DISCOURSE.

Originally, the term “discourse” comes from the Latin word ‘discursus’, which means ‘conversation’ or ‘speech’. However, discourse has been defined by many linguists in different ways, some of them refer to texts and some others declare it a speech. For example, according to Crystal (1992:25), “discourse is a continuous stretch of(specially spoken) language larger than a sentence, often constituting a coherent unit such as sermon, argument, joke, or narrative”. On the other hand, Dakowska (2001: 81), seems to be more aware of the different types of discourse, therefore, he suggests using the terms text and discourse as compatible or similar, clarifying that discourse is a linguistic product that implies the entire dynamicof the process of communication.
Nevertheless, to have an accurate and effective discourse, and its corresponding analysis, it is important to consider several aspects that are unavoidable involved during the communication process. First, it is necessary to know who the speaker and the hearer are in an oral discourse, or the writer and the reader if we talk about the written discourse. The timeand the place are also crucial to have an accurate discourse. So, the context where this discourse takes place is also a fundamental aspect to take care of, since the discourse could be subject of misunderstandings if the context is not the appropriate.
Linguists use some terms to analyze the discourse such as: reference, which is the relationship between words and things, and it is treated as anaction on the part of the speaker or writer. For example, if I talk about my pet, a little dog I would say it is beautiful. It, then refers to my dog. Another aspect, is presupposition, this is according to Stalnaker (1978), what is taken from the speaker as a common ground of the participants in the conversation. It is what the hearer or reader deduces from what the speaker or writer isexpressing. For example: if I say I love my dog, the hearer will presuppose that I have a dog, even though I chose to say directly that I love it instead of saying I have a dog and I love this animal… Implicature, is an additional quality that needs to be contemplate. According to Grice (1975),it is what a speaker can imply, suggest or mean as distinct of what the speaker literally says. Then, it goesbeyond the words. Then, there are two types of implicature: the conventional implicature, which is determined by the conventional meaning of the words, for instance, we have the idioms ,proverbs, sayings. For example, “it’s raining cats and dogs”, it does not mean that animals are falling off from the sky. But that the rain is very heavy. However, people easily understand the implicature of thismeaning because of the conventional use of the idiom. And the conversational implicature, that must follows the cooperative principle, that is the general principle of conversation, plus several maxims which people normally obey to be polite and have a normal process of communication.
These cooperative principles most of the time may be taken for granted but they are very significant. As quantitywhere the speaker or writer gives all of the information that is required and avoid giving the information that is not required, to have a clear message. Quality, it is not a good idea to talk about what you believe is false or what you lack of evidence. Relation, is important to be relevant, when we talk about things that are not important in the discourse it may become boring or even confusing.Manner, avoid ambiguity, bad expressions, be brief and orderly, to make the discourse appealing.
A further factor to regard is the inference that is important to interpret the utterances and the connections between them. For example: if it is raining, it’s usually cold, the inference is that if I say it’s raining, then it is also cold.
So, after considering these prior aspects, it is worth to...