Discourse analysis
1. Introduction to Discourse Analysis
Discourse analysis examines how people use language in real-world social contexts.
Sociolinguists analyze stretches of language beyond single sentences to identify norms of
communication across cultural and social groups.
Key Concepts:
• Discourse: A tool for sociolinguistics to identify the norms of talk among different
social and culture group in different conventional and institutional context.
• Cultural and Social Influences: Different cultural norms shape how people initiate,
maintain, and conclude interactions.
2. Pragmatics and Politeness Theory
Pragmatics:
The brunch of linguistic dealing with language in use and the context.
Pragmatics is the study of how context contribute to meaning, considering:
• The relationship between participants.
• Background knowledge and shared cultural norms.
For example:
• The sentence “You didn’t buy a paper?” could mean:
• A genuine question.
• A complaint or rebuke.
• A rhetorical observation.
The interpretation depends on context and relationships.
Conversational Maxims by Grice
Grice’s cooperative principle outlines the assumptions people make during communication:
1. Quantity: Provide the right amount of information.
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2. Quality: Be truthful and avoid unsupported claims.
3. Relation: Stay relevant to the topic.
4. Manner: Avoid ambiguity; be clear and orderly.
Examples of Violations:
• Quantity: Being deliberately vague to avoid conflict.
• Relevance: Responding indirectly, e.g., “Where’s the car?” answered with “Dan needed
it.”
Politeness Theory
Three rules of politeness :
1. Don’t impose
2. Give options
3. Be friendly
Robin Lakoff and Brown & Levinson provided frameworks to study politeness:
• Negative Politeness: Respecting personal space and avoiding imposition. E.g., “Could
you possibly…?”
• Positive Politeness: Emphasizing friendliness and closeness. E.g., “You’re so good at
this, can you help?”
Politeness varies across cultures:
• Chinese Example: Requests are softened by expressing reluctance and providing
reasons.
• Greek Example: Direct requests often include expressions of affection, e.g., “Mum, I’d
love your coffee.”
Critiques of Politeness Theory:
• Western frameworks may not fully apply to cultures where certain forms (e.g., honorifics
in Japanese) are obligatory rather than optional.
3. Ethnography of Communication
Is an approach to analyzing language which has been
designed to raise awareness of cultural-bound assumption.
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Dell hymes, the sociolinguist who first developed this theoretical approach, worked with the
indigenous native people of the USA.
Developed by Dell Hymes, this framework analyzes speech events as cultural phenomena. It
breaks down communication into components, such as:
• Genre: Type of event (e.g., meeting, wedding, or casual chat).
• Setting: Location and time.
• Participants: Relationships and social roles.
• Purpose: The goal of the communication.
• Message Form: Language or medium used.
• Norms: Cultural expectations for behavior.
Example:
Kava Ceremony in Vanuatu
• Genre: A thanking feast.
• Participants: Hosts, visitors, and family members.
• Rules: Drinking order reflects age and status, emphasizing respect.
This framework highlights cultural differences in rituals, norms, and expected behavior in
interactions.
insider and outsider
The benefits of being an insider:
They are less likely to influence or alter the order of
events, or to cause people to be self-conscious about
their behaviour.
On the other hand, an insider may overlook rules
of speaking which seem normal to an insider, but
which are quite distinctive to their community.
The benefits of being an outsider:
It is often easier to identify ways of speaking and rules
of interaction that contrasted with those they were
familiar with.
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4. Interactional Sociolinguistics
This approach, led by John Gumperz, focuses on contextualization cues—signals that help
participants interpret meaning:
• Cues include tone, gestures, pauses, or language choice.
How interactional sociolinguistics look at conversation?
Make use of the detailed tools of conversation analysis paying careful attention to turn-taking
behaviour, hesitations, pauses, and paralinguistic behaviour (e.g., sighs, laughter, in-breaths,
etc.) to interpret what the speaker intended.
Conversational cues :
Verbal (sigh, facial expression, head nods, gestures ) & non-verbal (capitalisation &
underline)
Examples of Miscommunication:
1. Cultural Mismatch: A waitress in Britain offering gravy with strong stress seemed
assertive, though her intent was to offer politely.
2. Job Interview: In one example, a candidate discussed benefits (holidays, bonuses)
rather than their suitability for the role, misinterpreting the interviewer’s intent.
A schema is the set of expectations that we bring to an interaction, based on our
previous experiences and our cultural norms.
Importance of Contextualization Cues:
• These cues guide participants in understanding the social meaning of interactions.
• Misaligned cues can lead to misunderstandings, particularly in multilingual or
multicultural settings.
5. Conversation Analysis (CA)
CA examines the micro-level structure of everyday talk, emphasizing turn-taking, adjacency
pairs, and repair strategies.
it emphasizes that talk is a form of action and is seen as a cooperative activity, akin to a dance
or a musical performance.
Key Features:
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1. Adjacency Pairs:
• Related utterances like greetings and responses.
• Example: “Hi” → “Hello.”
2. Preferred vs. Dispreferred Responses:
• Preferred: Smoothly aligned responses, e.g., accepting an invitation.
• Dispreferred: Indicated by pauses or hesitations, e.g., rejecting a request.
conversational feedback refers to the signals a listener provides to show they're paying
attention to the speaker.
Verbal signals:
Mm, uh, right
Non- verbal signal:
Head nodding, attentive gaze
Interruptions and overlaps
(CA) views talk as a fundamental element creating institutional realities. Particularly on field
like teaching and business.
In everyday conversations.people usually take turns equally and smoothly
Keep just to the text
• CA relies solely on the data itself, avoiding external influences like field notes or
interviews.
• The goal to get relevant information directly from interaction.
• Include subtle aspect like intonation and nonverbal cues.
3. Side Sequences:
• Inserted clarifications or questions before returning to the main topic.
• Example:
• “Want to watch a movie?”
• “What time?”
• “8 PM.”
• “Sure.”
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Example:
A child struggles to follow conversational norms on the phone, highlighting developmental
aspects of mastering turn-taking.
6. Politeness and Power Dynamics
Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA)
- Concerned with investigating how language is used to construct and maintain power
relationships in society. P415
- The aim is to identify connections between:
language & power - language & ideology
• CDA looks for:
1- evidence of covert exercise of power in supposedly "equal" interaction.
2- Hidden ideological assumptions about "normal" ways of doing things that disadvantage
minority groups.
Communication reflects power and status, with politeness often influenced by:
• Social roles (e.g., teacher-student, manager-worker).
• Cultural expectations (e.g., indirectness in hierarchical societies).
Examples:
1. Formal Meetings:
• Chairs control turn-taking and set the agenda, reflecting institutional norms.
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2. Cultural Variations:
• Japanese conversations involve frequent verbal feedback (e.g., “hai”), contrasting with
less frequent interjections in Western cultures.
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