The central concern of this book is the analysis of verbal interaction or discourse. This first six chapters report and evaluate major theoretical advances in the description of discourse. The final chapters demonstrate how the findings of discourse analysis can be used to investigate second-language teaching and first-language acquisition and to analyse literary texts.
Grammatical competence is concerned with 'the knowledge and skill required to
understand and express the literal meaning ... Discourse competence he sees as
concerned with cohesion and coher— ence in the structure of texts; it therefore ...
The book is based on systemic-functional grammar (SFG) and focuses on the concept of Theme (the element which occupies the initial position in the clause in English), which plays a special role in the textual organization of the message contained in the clause. Theme represents one of the ways by which writers construct meaningful communicative language or stretches of discourse. It signals the relationship between the thought in the speaker’s mind and its expression in the discourse. Therefore, it contributes to the method of development of the texts proper. The reason for choosing Theme as a tool of analysis stems from the fact that it is a fruitful approach to the understanding of texts as is shown by the fact that it has been the concern of a number of major studies. I will adopt both a qualitative and a quantitative analysis. The results of this analysis will be presented and tabulated in such a way as to underline the distinguishing features of the genre. The tools of functional grammar (Theme and Transitivity) will be applied to the data being collected. A significant, positive facet pertinent to this study lies in its pedagogical implications. The study of the structure of Theme has resulted in useful applications, and the findings drawn from the data collected will, it is hoped, have wider application; they are not meant to be merely suggestive. The findings in this book show how Theme-Rheme can have significant pedagogical values and impacts on the native and non-native learners. The learner not only has to construct his/her sentences, choosing appropriate lexis, but he/she has to make those sentences cohere into a text belonging to the genre being tackled. The findings in this book also suggest that control of the Theme-Rheme system is part of what the successful writer (native or non-native) uses to achieve such coherence. In this regard, students can be aware of a variety of linguistics choices to help them write more effectively and coherently.
Of the conjunctions, only the coordinators are going to be considered in the analysis of the texts in this study. ... Conjunctive Adjuncts function as cohesive
devices and help in establishing essential textual features in a given text, thus
making a ...
The main focus of this book is on Theme-Rheme analysis. In English the Theme is realized as the initial constituent of the clause or sentence. The information that is contained within the themes of the various sentences of a passage correlates with the method of development of the passage. The meaning of Theme and its realization in English explains the general correlation of given information with the initial position in the sentence. The findings and analysis of Theme-Rheme in this book will immensely aid both researchers and students who seek to understand and unfold language structures and analyze written discourse. It also provides teachers with efficient tools to analyze their students’ academic writing and find ways to leverage it. This book also sheds lights on the semantic and structure of the language based on the four analytical approaches implemented in this study. The findings in this book suggest that control of the Theme-Rheme system is part of what the successful writer (native or non-native) uses to achieve such coherence. In this regard, students can be aware of a variety of linguistics choices to help them write more effectively. This book suggests that control of the Theme-Rheme system in academic writing is part of what the successful writer uses to achieve coherence. This book offers a new perspective on the way written discourse is organized and structured that is of some relevance to language teachers and applied linguists, as well as to theoretical and descriptive linguists. I have tried to offer in this book new insights into analyzing texts and investigating the thematic organization of the grammatical properties of Theme at clause level, and that, I hope, will be found sufficient reason for reading it.
and meaningfully connected to each other, and the connections are in part
realised by grammatical and lexical cohesion, types of cohesion which are
interdependent. These types of cohesion can be further subcategorised as
realised by ...
Accessible yet theoretically rich, this landmark text introduces key concepts and issues in critical discourse analysis and situates these within the field of educational research. The book invites readers to consider the theories and methods of three major traditions in critical discourse studies – discourse analysis, critical discourse analysis, and multimodal discourse analysis -- through the empirical work of leading scholars in the field. Beyond providing a useful overview, it contextualizes CDA in a wide range of learning environments and identifies how CDA can shed new insights on learning and social change. Detailed analytic procedures are included – to demystify the process of conducting CDA, to invite conversations about issues of trustworthiness of interpretations and their value to educational contexts, and to encourage researchers to build on the scholarship in critical discourse studies. This edition features a new structure; a touchstone chapter in each section by a recognized expert (Gee, Fairclough, Kress); and a stronger international focus on both theories and methods. NEW! Companion Website with Chapter Extensions; Interviews; Bibliographies; and Resources for Teaching Critical Discourse Analysis.
Situating fine-grained discourse analysis in political and cultural context allows
researchers to both explore cultural ... that the analysis of spoken and written
texts can be organized under four main headings: vocabulary, grammar, cohesion, ...
Discourse analysis considers how language, both spoken and written, enacts social and cultural perspectives and identities. In this book, James Paul Gee introduces the field and presents his unique integrated approach to it. Assuming no prior knowledge of linguistics, the author presents both a theory of language-in-use and a method of research. Clearly structured and written in a highly accessible style, An Introduction to Discourse Analysis incorporates perspectives from a variety of approaches and disciplines, including applied linguistics, education, psychology, anthropology and communication to help students and scholars from a range of backgrounds to formulate their own views on discourse and engage in their own discourse analysis. The second edition has been completely revised and updated and contains substantial new material and examples of oral and written language, ranging from group discussions with children, adults, students and teachers to conversations, interviews, academic texts and policy documents.
We could therefore say that cohesion (grammatical or lexical) could be defined
as the means whereby elements that are ... relation are reference and conjoining.
a) Reference: the information to be retrieved is the referential meaning. We can ...
