Interaction Analysis
Lecture 1
Discourse & discourse analysis
Discourse = language in use.
- Written language
- Spoken language
Interaction: unplanned discourse ‘in turns’
Discourse analysis = a multi-disciplinary field of study:
- Linguistics
- Philosophy
- Sociology
- Social psychology
- Anthropology
- Political science
- Management studies
- Communication sciences
Discourse and interaction
Interesting thing about discourse Jones (p.3): We don’t always say what we mean
we don’t always mean what we say.
Why?
- Language is ambiguous (it can mean various things)
- Language is situated (material e.g. paper or websites; relationships it
matters who says what; history; other languages e.g. adapting an English
word in Dutch).
- Language is related to social identity (how and when we use language tells
something about who we are. E.g. accents, words we use, etc.)
- Language is related to modality (images, gestures, music, etc.)
So, the meaning of discourse depends on its context.
In interaction meaning depends on local context of turns.
Example: “Where were you last night?”
o Can be used for asking for information
o Can be used for accusation
It depends on the context language is ambiguous
Meaning and local context
Local context utterance prior to the utterance in focus OR following the utterance
in focus
Jeff “Where were you last night?”
Paula “That’s none of your business?”
When Paula is responding to Jeff, she is deciding what the meaning of Jeff’s saying
is. She is treating the question as an accusation.
Marc “Where were you last night?”
Ivy “We went to Tom’s birthday party.”
Ivy treats the question as a question for information. So, the next utterance decides
the meaning of the prior utterance.
1
,Health Visitor “He is enjoying that, isn’t he”
Father “Yes, he certainly is”
Mother “He’s not hungry cause he’s just had his bottle”
The father confirms the positive assessment of the HV’s comment.
The mother understands the sentence implicitly (accusation) she responds to the
HV as if he/she implicitly said that the baby is hungry.
Where were you last night? – a different angle
Language is situated The situation might affect the meaning of the utterance.
Language is also reflective of relationships
who can say ‘where were you last night’ to whom? what does
this tell us about the relationship? (e.g. Adam and Eve accusation? jealous?;
e.g. the song romantic?; e.g. exerting power?)
Language and modality: spoken language vs. texting. The audience of the utterance
might impact the weight and the meaning of the message. Another modality is a
song.
What do discourse analysts study?
Interested in real discourse.
- Newspaper articles on a particular topic (climate change, immigration) and
how they have been used over time.
- Presidential speeches
- Tweets
- Forum discussions/news comments
- Talk shows
- Parliamentary debate
- Blogs
- Etc.
A mini history of discourse analysis (Jones D1)
Harris 1952: descriptive linguistics “beyond” the sentence (there are things
happening in language which we cannot address at the level of a sentence)
text analysis
Widdowson 1973:
- Harris conceived of discourse as contextualized language data;
- Labov emphasized performance of social actions rather than linguistic forms
From that, he pointed to discourse analysis as a way of analyzing how
linguistic elements are put to communicative use. So not only grammatical
features, but also performance features (like accents).
2
, Halliday 1994: language has three functions simultaneously ideational,
interpersonal and textual.
Gee 2010:
- Discourse is performance AND by doing that performance you also convey a
certain identity
- Not just linguistic, but also other (visual) elements (e.g. layouts, clips, images,
etc.).
Functions of language
Halliday: when we use language, we create participants and processes (what
participants do; what happens in the world). Distinguished the first three functions:
Ideational function
Relational function
Textual function
Intertextuality (Bakhtin)
Function 1: Ideational
How we represent/construct the world
Transitivity: how the object is related to a verb verb creates connection
between processes and participants, because the verb usually represents a
process/state and the participants are doing/undergoing the process.
- The terrorist died at the scene. Terrorist = subject, died = not a transitive verb
limits the possible meanings of the utterance.
- The terrorist was killed by the police. Killing = transitive verb (someone can kill
someone); two types of participants = terrorist, police; process = killing.
Participant in focus is always the first one mentioned (so the terrorist).
- The police killed the terrorist. Police = subject and in focus.
- Facebook attacked Apple vs. Apple was attacked vs. The attack of Apple.
Shows how grammatical operations put accents on different aspects on what
is said.
- The department consulted the board vs. The board advised the department.
Relationship changes with the choice of verb (consult vs advice).
Function 2: Interpersonal
How we create/ratify/negotiate relationships between speakers and addressees
- Secretary vs. Account manager which type of noun do we use to address
someone?
- Our customer service is available 24/7 vs. You can reach us 24/7 at xxx
‘reaches’ directly addresses the addressee, while ‘customer service’ is giving
information.
- Dear Mrs. Jones vs hi Paula shows the relationships (formal/informing,
addressing first name or last name, etc.)
Function 3: Textual
How we create cohesion and coherence in language
- The manager proposed to have a meeting on the management plan.
Therefore she booked a conference venue which made it possible to discuss
the text in small groups.
3
, Cohesion:
Grammatical cohesion: anaphoric reference (she, which)
Grammatical cohesion: conjunction (therefore) relates sentences with
eachother.
Grammatical cohesion: substitution (the text)
Lexical cohesion (words that are related to eachother): manager-meeting-
management plan-conference venue
Coherence (relationship between larger entities): problem-solution (in 2nd sentence),
summary, cause-effect
Function 4: Intertextuality
We “borrow” others’ ideas and words, either explicitly or implicitly can be
ideologically loaden. Frequently used by literary studies (e.g. references to Bible in
modern literature).
- Allusion, quotation, plagiarism, translation, parody (any relationship between
texts)
- E.g. using famous quotes “Wise men speak because they have something
to say, Fools because they have to say something (Plato)
- When you are discussing a plan: “yes we can” (Obama’s words)
- In recent Dutch politics:
Baudet: “The owl of Minerva” and “the boreal world” (concepts borrowed from
other texts)
Discourse analysis today: Discourse Context Media
The title and abstract already indicate:
- What the article focuses on
- What data have been used (Twitter, hotel reviews, etc.)
- What method specifically
Example:
4
Lecture 1
Discourse & discourse analysis
Discourse = language in use.
- Written language
- Spoken language
Interaction: unplanned discourse ‘in turns’
Discourse analysis = a multi-disciplinary field of study:
- Linguistics
- Philosophy
- Sociology
- Social psychology
- Anthropology
- Political science
- Management studies
- Communication sciences
Discourse and interaction
Interesting thing about discourse Jones (p.3): We don’t always say what we mean
we don’t always mean what we say.
Why?
- Language is ambiguous (it can mean various things)
- Language is situated (material e.g. paper or websites; relationships it
matters who says what; history; other languages e.g. adapting an English
word in Dutch).
- Language is related to social identity (how and when we use language tells
something about who we are. E.g. accents, words we use, etc.)
- Language is related to modality (images, gestures, music, etc.)
So, the meaning of discourse depends on its context.
In interaction meaning depends on local context of turns.
Example: “Where were you last night?”
o Can be used for asking for information
o Can be used for accusation
It depends on the context language is ambiguous
Meaning and local context
Local context utterance prior to the utterance in focus OR following the utterance
in focus
Jeff “Where were you last night?”
Paula “That’s none of your business?”
When Paula is responding to Jeff, she is deciding what the meaning of Jeff’s saying
is. She is treating the question as an accusation.
Marc “Where were you last night?”
Ivy “We went to Tom’s birthday party.”
Ivy treats the question as a question for information. So, the next utterance decides
the meaning of the prior utterance.
1
,Health Visitor “He is enjoying that, isn’t he”
Father “Yes, he certainly is”
Mother “He’s not hungry cause he’s just had his bottle”
The father confirms the positive assessment of the HV’s comment.
The mother understands the sentence implicitly (accusation) she responds to the
HV as if he/she implicitly said that the baby is hungry.
Where were you last night? – a different angle
Language is situated The situation might affect the meaning of the utterance.
Language is also reflective of relationships
who can say ‘where were you last night’ to whom? what does
this tell us about the relationship? (e.g. Adam and Eve accusation? jealous?;
e.g. the song romantic?; e.g. exerting power?)
Language and modality: spoken language vs. texting. The audience of the utterance
might impact the weight and the meaning of the message. Another modality is a
song.
What do discourse analysts study?
Interested in real discourse.
- Newspaper articles on a particular topic (climate change, immigration) and
how they have been used over time.
- Presidential speeches
- Tweets
- Forum discussions/news comments
- Talk shows
- Parliamentary debate
- Blogs
- Etc.
A mini history of discourse analysis (Jones D1)
Harris 1952: descriptive linguistics “beyond” the sentence (there are things
happening in language which we cannot address at the level of a sentence)
text analysis
Widdowson 1973:
- Harris conceived of discourse as contextualized language data;
- Labov emphasized performance of social actions rather than linguistic forms
From that, he pointed to discourse analysis as a way of analyzing how
linguistic elements are put to communicative use. So not only grammatical
features, but also performance features (like accents).
2
, Halliday 1994: language has three functions simultaneously ideational,
interpersonal and textual.
Gee 2010:
- Discourse is performance AND by doing that performance you also convey a
certain identity
- Not just linguistic, but also other (visual) elements (e.g. layouts, clips, images,
etc.).
Functions of language
Halliday: when we use language, we create participants and processes (what
participants do; what happens in the world). Distinguished the first three functions:
Ideational function
Relational function
Textual function
Intertextuality (Bakhtin)
Function 1: Ideational
How we represent/construct the world
Transitivity: how the object is related to a verb verb creates connection
between processes and participants, because the verb usually represents a
process/state and the participants are doing/undergoing the process.
- The terrorist died at the scene. Terrorist = subject, died = not a transitive verb
limits the possible meanings of the utterance.
- The terrorist was killed by the police. Killing = transitive verb (someone can kill
someone); two types of participants = terrorist, police; process = killing.
Participant in focus is always the first one mentioned (so the terrorist).
- The police killed the terrorist. Police = subject and in focus.
- Facebook attacked Apple vs. Apple was attacked vs. The attack of Apple.
Shows how grammatical operations put accents on different aspects on what
is said.
- The department consulted the board vs. The board advised the department.
Relationship changes with the choice of verb (consult vs advice).
Function 2: Interpersonal
How we create/ratify/negotiate relationships between speakers and addressees
- Secretary vs. Account manager which type of noun do we use to address
someone?
- Our customer service is available 24/7 vs. You can reach us 24/7 at xxx
‘reaches’ directly addresses the addressee, while ‘customer service’ is giving
information.
- Dear Mrs. Jones vs hi Paula shows the relationships (formal/informing,
addressing first name or last name, etc.)
Function 3: Textual
How we create cohesion and coherence in language
- The manager proposed to have a meeting on the management plan.
Therefore she booked a conference venue which made it possible to discuss
the text in small groups.
3
, Cohesion:
Grammatical cohesion: anaphoric reference (she, which)
Grammatical cohesion: conjunction (therefore) relates sentences with
eachother.
Grammatical cohesion: substitution (the text)
Lexical cohesion (words that are related to eachother): manager-meeting-
management plan-conference venue
Coherence (relationship between larger entities): problem-solution (in 2nd sentence),
summary, cause-effect
Function 4: Intertextuality
We “borrow” others’ ideas and words, either explicitly or implicitly can be
ideologically loaden. Frequently used by literary studies (e.g. references to Bible in
modern literature).
- Allusion, quotation, plagiarism, translation, parody (any relationship between
texts)
- E.g. using famous quotes “Wise men speak because they have something
to say, Fools because they have to say something (Plato)
- When you are discussing a plan: “yes we can” (Obama’s words)
- In recent Dutch politics:
Baudet: “The owl of Minerva” and “the boreal world” (concepts borrowed from
other texts)
Discourse analysis today: Discourse Context Media
The title and abstract already indicate:
- What the article focuses on
- What data have been used (Twitter, hotel reviews, etc.)
- What method specifically
Example:
4
