程晓堂话语分析.pptVIP

Lecture 1: Introduction Why bother with discourse analysis? Let’s start with an example: Read the following article from a newspaper and decide what it is about? Barking dogs of Chip Bee Gardens I WRITE to express concern about the growing number of ‘burglaries’ in the vicinity of my house in Chip Bee Gardens. These burglaries occur at any time of the day or night. The burglars must work in large co-ordinated gangs because usually several houses are burgled at the same time. I wish something could be done about it. One night last week was pretty typical. There were burglaries at 9.30 p.m., 10.15 p.m., 11.40 p.m., 1.30 a.m., 4.20 a.m., 5.10 a.m. and 6.30 a.m. Most of the burglars were over 10 minutes, but some took as long as half an hour to be completed. It is puzzling, but the owners of the houses being burgled did not seem to to be particularly bothered. They didn’t call the police to the scene of the crime. Ah, I know the answer … the poor unfortunates are probably deaf, and they slept through the din of their guard dogs barking furiously as the burglars went happily about their work. P. E. CLIFFORD The article is an ironic letter to the Forum Page of the Singapore Straits Times Newspaper (24 May 1990) complaining indirectly about the nuisance of barking dogs. (Goatly, 2000:130) Now read the letter again and try to find out the hints of irony. Coming back to the question: Why bother with discourse analysis? As the example has shown, discourse analysis will enable us to reveal the hidden motivations behind a text. Discourse analysis enables us to understand what a text really means and how it means what it means. Discourse analysis helps us to use discourse more effectively. Some basics of discourse analysis What is discourse? What is discourse analysis? What are the aims of discourse analysis? How is discourse analysis done? How is discourse analysis relevant to learning English? 1. What is discourse? Discourse or languag