Chapter Six
Sentences combined: Text & discourse
Outline
Introduction
Discourse & Text
- Cohesion
- Propositional Models of Text Processing
- Inferences
- Remembering
Contexts
- Discourse as A Context
- Individual Factors Affecting Discourse
- Dialect
Genre
- Narrative
- Expository/Explanation
- Humor
Conclusion
Summary
Key Concepts From the Book
I. Discourse and text are both terms that refer to a lengthy discussion of a subject, either written or spoken. The study of discourse processes examines how people produce and understand connected speech. (Page 277)
II. Cohesion is the semantic concept that refers to how relations of meaning exist within a text. Cohesive devices include anaphora, which refers back to prior text, pronomial reference in which a pronoun refers back to a previously mentioned noun; substitution, in which different words refer to the same thing; ellipsis in which speakers leave gaps that they know the listener can fill; demonstratives, comparatives, definite articles, and conjunctions. (Page 277-278)
III. When people recall text, they tend to recall the gist rather than the text verbatim. The minimal unit of meaningful information is the proposition that listeners derive from parsing sentences. Subjects usually recall what they consider to be the most important propositions of the text. This is called the text's macroproposition. Subordinate propositions are the text's micropropostions. (Page 280)
IV. Inferences are deductions or guesses based on a person's preexisting knowledge. The tendency to draw inferences can cause discussions after an event to influence our memory of the event. (Pages 280-281)
V. Schemata are mental structures acquired through many years of experience that help people set up expectations for what usually will happen, helping them interpret what does happen, and helping them remember what has happened. Schemata are continually modified by experience. (Page 281)
VI. Culturally specific schemata have a strong influence on the interpretation and memory of stories. Schemata for culturally significant information can also provide the context for discourse that would otherwise be incomprehensible. (Page 281-282)
VII. Grice (1975) articulated four unwritten rules for discourse known as conversational maxims:
A. the maxim of quality
B. the maxim of manner
C. the maxim of quantity
D. the maxim of relation
Most of the time, adult listeners seem to tacitly assume the applicability of these maxims, but children will often challenge others if they think that one of the maxims has been violated. (Page 283)
VIII. Metaphors have received attention in psycholinguistic study because they are very common in discourse outside of literature: in diverse contexts of everyday speech, every 100 words contains at least one novel and several frozen metaphors. (Page 284)
IX. Speech acts are utterances that use common syntactic forms to encode functions for which they were designed: declaratives, imperatives, interrogatives, etc. Indirect speech acts are those in which the literal meaning of the utterance is not what the speaker intends to communicate. These also include indirect requests. (Page 285-286)
X. Politeness means acting so as to take account of the feelings of others, including both those actions concerned with positive face and those concerned with negative face. Politeness is governed by power relationships between individuals, social distance, and the degree of imposition that might be involved. Politeness traditions differ distinctly from one culture to another. (Pages 286-288)
XI. Conversational styles differ: some people employ a high-involvement style, others prefer a high considerateness style. Men and women also use different speech strategies, creating different genderlects. Men and women tend to bring different goals to the conversation. (Pages 288-289)
XII. When people are fluent in two or more languages, they may switch from one to another depending on their audience, the topic of conversation and the context. This is called code-switching. (Page 289)
XIII. Dialect is a regionally or socially conditioned variant of language. Although different dialects may vary in their phonological, lexical, grammatical and pragmatic conventions, they are usually mutually intelligible and often spoken by people who live in the same geographic region. Dialects have well defined logic and sets of rules. Many speakers learn to switch their dialect to suit the situation. (Pages 289-290)
XIV. Middle and upper class speakers of English use an elaborated code that assumes little shared information. People of lower socioeconomic class employ a restricted code in which speakers often do not specify the referents of pronouns before using them. Use of restricted code may also have to do with the role of the speaker. (Pages 290-291)
XV. Discourse may present itself in many different genres. These include narratives, which usually concern real or pretend memories of something that has happened. Narratives serve such functions as:
A. enabling people to make sense of their experiences
B. presenting the narrator in a particular light
C. making past events present and abstract concepts vivid.
D. forging relationships
Children first narrate memories at about two years. By five years, most are able to tell a well-ordered story. By six years, most children can tell a narrative that meets the basic requirements of their culture (Pages 291-294)
XVI. Cultural differences pervade various kinds of storytelling in many ways, including the tense of the story, its preferred length, and the relative emphasis placed on components of the narration. Children therefore learn culturally specific ways of "thinking for speaking." (Pages 294-296)
XVII. Argumentative or expository discourse is termed paradigmatic. Studies of explanatory talk between parents and preschool aged children includes: requests and commands, questions, statements, comments about internal states, causal explanations, definitions and descriptions, evidential explanations, procedural explanations, and explanations of the consequences of one's actions. (Pages 296-297)
XVIII. Although expository discourse is conceptually distinct from narrative, in real family conversations, the two genres overlap. (Pages 297-298)
XIX. Humor is another genre of discourse, which also often overlaps with explanation and narrative. Humor includes sound play, word play, role play, verbal humor, riddles, humorous repartee and original comments. In role play, children adopt registers, which are variants of language used in certain contexts. (Page 298)
XX. The ability to use language appropriate to a given situation is part of communicative competence. Even children form impressions of personality characteristics on the basis of other children's discourse style. (Page 299)
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