Discourse Description

Discourse Description
Author: William C. Mann
Publisher: John Benjamins Publishing
Total Pages: 426
Release: 1992-01-01
Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN: 9027250316

Discourse Description presents in one convenient volume a variety of approaches to text description that have been proposed in the linguistic literature in the last decade or so. The book is organized to make it easy to understand and compare the various approaches. Since all of the researchers are analyzing the same text, their differences are readily seen. The text they analyze is a letter, mailed in bulk by a Washington-based lobbying organization which is supported by contributions from donors. Far from simply informing the readers, the letter seeks to appeal to them on many levels, intellectual, emotional, and financial. It is a fascinating study in how texts do their work. Discourse Description is expected to serve both as a research document and as a case textbook for graduate and undergraduate courses in discourse and text analysis, as well as a resource for text analysts.

Techniques of Description

Techniques of Description
Author: Gwyneth Fox
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 266
Release: 2004-01-14
Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN: 1134881401

This book is a tribute to Malcolm Coulthard, who has been remarkably active and influential across a wide range of English Language Studies. He is particularly well-known for his pioneering work in spoken and written discourse analysis and most recently, for his work in forensic linguistics. This collection of specially commissioned, state-of-the-art pieces by leading international linguists is dedicated to the man and his achievements and provides a showcase for the most exciting developments in applied discourse studies. All the papers share common assumptions about language study: that descriptions should be data-based, data-tested and replicable. The collection as a whole contains original and important new research on descriptions, with intriuging applications to forensic, gender and literary studies.

Discourse, Ideology and Heritage Language Socialization

Discourse, Ideology and Heritage Language Socialization
Author: Martin Guardado
Publisher: Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG
Total Pages: 284
Release: 2018-03-19
Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN: 1614513848

The book examines the development and maintenance of a minority language, engaging on both micro and macro levels to address open questions in the field. Guardado provides a history of the study of language maintenance, including discussion of language socialization, cosmopolitan identities, and home practices. In particular, the author uses 'discourse' as a primary tool to understand minority language development and maintenance.

Discourse on the Move

Discourse on the Move
Author: Douglas Biber
Publisher: John Benjamins Publishing
Total Pages: 305
Release: 2007-09-19
Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN: 9027291918

Discourse on the Move is the first book-length exploration of how corpus-based methods can be used for discourse analysis, applied to the description of discourse organization. The primary goal is to bring these two analytical perspectives together: undertaking a detailed discourse analysis of each individual text, but doing so in terms that can be generalized across all texts of a corpus. The book explores two major approaches to this task: ‘top-down’ and ‘bottom-up’. In the ‘top-down’ approach, the functional components of a genre are determined first, and then all texts in a corpus are analyzed in terms of those components. In contrast, textual components emerge from the corpus analysis in the bottom-up approach, and the discourse organization of individual texts is then analyzed in terms of linguistically-defined textual categories. Both approaches are illustrated through case studies of discourse structure in particular genres: fund-raising letters, biology/biochemistry research articles, and university classroom teaching.

Discourse Across Languages and Cultures

Discourse Across Languages and Cultures
Author: Carol Lynn Moder
Publisher: John Benjamins Publishing
Total Pages: 378
Release: 2004
Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN: 9789027230782

This volume seeks to answers such questions as: how is conscious experience translated into discourse? How are foregrounding and backgrounding accomplished? What is the function of features like lexical choice and referential choice? And many more.

Discourse Markers

Discourse Markers
Author: Andreas H. Jucker
Publisher: John Benjamins Publishing
Total Pages: 378
Release: 1998-07-15
Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN: 9027285527

Studies of Discourse Markers so far have concentrated on either the descriptive or the theoretical parameter. This book brings together thirteen papers concerning aspects of lexical instantiations of Discourse Marking devices, ranging from functional descriptions along cognitive, attitudinal, interactive and structure signalling lines to theoretical issues arising from various properties discourse markers display cross-linguistically. Data from English, Finnish, Hebrew, Korean, and Japanese are examined. Also addressed are questions concerning overall accounts, potential sub-classifications, possible form-function correlations and the appropriateness of such frameworks as Relevance Theory for their description. Interestingly, features evident in the distribution and use of lexical discourse markers are shown to affect the assessment of such theoretical constructs as the distinction between conceptual and procedural meaning. A more sophisticated picture emerges than a simple dichotomy between the two. Studies of the grammar of Discourse Markers hence would have to take the observations and suggestions raised in this collection of papers into account.

Styles of Discourse

Styles of Discourse
Author: Nikolas Coupland
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 274
Release: 2016-11-18
Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN: 1315402688

First published in 1988, this book focuses on diversity and discourse, and collects contemporaneous research across a wide range of topics including: description, polemic, narrative analysis, DJ talk, philosophical history, conversation, children’s books and nuclear deterrence. The essays demonstrate analyses of discourse in the service of stylistic inquiry, exploring relationships of text and context. This reflects the overall argument that discourse analyses aiming to represent diversity of social context will necessarily approach the task selectively, since all dimensions are of potential relevance to any and every communicative manifestation. Some of contextual dimensions that are addressed include: interpersonal, socio-structural, modal, ideological, and pragmatic.

Speech Act Taxonomy as a Tool for Ethnographic Description

Speech Act Taxonomy as a Tool for Ethnographic Description
Author: Nira Reiss
Publisher: John Benjamins Publishing
Total Pages: 165
Release: 1985-01-01
Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN: 9027279578

This study is intended to design measures for ethnographic description including speech acts in an etic instrumental approach, oriented toward an analysis of the functions of communicative events in relation to the ongoing stream of behavior. A revised taxonomy of speech acts is applied to an empirical corpus and is shown to produce a systematic set of behavioral measures which are potentially productive for cross-cultural comparison.

Discourse and Cognition

Discourse and Cognition
Author: Derek Edwards
Publisher: SAGE
Total Pages: 370
Release: 1997-02-10
Genre: Psychology
ISBN: 9780803976979

`For those already familiar with discursive work it will be a joy - Edwards writes with enormous clarity and insight. For psychologists whose work involves an understanding of the relations between language and cognition this book will be essential reading.... This is a demanding book that will repay close attention. It can also be dipped into as a resource for the brilliant reworkings of traditional psychological topic areas, such as emotion, language, cognition, categories, AI, narrative, scripts and developmental psychology. If you want a glimpse into the future of psychology, get this book - the end of cognitivism starts here' - History and Philosophy of Psychology The central project of this mult