Chapter 4 (4.1-4.7)
Discourse has many different functions and forms. Three main types in the Organon
model.
This three-part division says something about aspects of language that can play a role
simultaneously. But that many more functions are possible. E.g. language can be used to conceal
information, to give instructions or to instill a feeling.
Roman Jakobson, distinguished six functions that can also occur in combination. A message is
transported using a code, e.g. symbolic signs (words), via a channel. The channel consists of a
physical and a psychological connection (channel and contact) The referential function is most
important. The emotive or expressive function pertains to the attitude of the addresser. The
conative function is the orientation towards the ad- dressee, e.g., giving a command or an
instruction. These two functions related to the participants are more or less the same as the
functions related to symptom and signal in the Organon model. The poetic function is named like
this because the purest form of this function is poetry. However, the poetic function is also
apparent in everyday language. Language is also used for checking the channel or making
contact, as in the case of small talk > phatic communion. Sometimes the language focuses on the
code itself, e.g. “I don’t follow you” or “Am I understood?” > the metalin- gual or glossing
function.
Difference between discourse types and genres.
Discourse typologies comprise high-level, more or less universal categories. Genres, on the other
hand, form an open-ended list, and they are rather concrete and specific. Genres range from
telephone calls to telephone bills, from text message to online chat.
- Language users can distinguish between different kinds of discourse
- People can recognize mistakes in classification
- People can have opinions about the suitability of given genres for types of messages.
- Genre can be parodied
So, it is necessary to have a system of discourse classification within which discourse
characteristics can be related to discourse types and genres.
Egon Werlich’s discourse typology (1982): abstract grammatical forms are the basis for
distinguishing between general discourse types to which different genres can be assigned. Five
basic or ideal forms that are fundamental to discourse types.
,Instructive > imperative (leave!)
Narrative > declarative (informing)
Two methods of presentation: subjective (the writer’s perception) and objective (which can be
verified by readers).
Passive voice > objective – active voice > subjective
In Biber’s typology (1989) a restricted set of text prototypes is distinguished on the basis of
five sets of lexical and grammatical features. Biber analyzed about 500 texts by looking at the
way in which seventy linguistic features cooccurred. Five clusters of features.
1. Interactive and affective genres (conversations,personal letters) and highly informative
texts (editorials, academic prose) The types are characterized by the presence or
absence of a set of features.
2. Narrative texts – with, among other features, many past-tense verbs and third-person
pronouns – are distinguished from non-narrative texts.
3. Context-independent texts (official documents) apart from all other discourse types.
4. All text with persuasive elements (advertisements and politicians’ speeches)
5. With features like passives, characterizes the abstract and formal style.
Biber showed that general concepts like narrative form and interactive discourse in other models
are much too vague.
Written language and spoken interaction
Wallace Chafe (1982): two factors explain the differences between written discourse and spoken
interaction:
- Writing takes longer than speaking
- Writers do not have contact with readers.
The first factor is responsible for what Chafe calls “integration” in written language as opposed
to the “fragmentation” that supposedly takes place in verbal interaction. Integration o.a.
achieved with subordinate conjunctions. Second factor: Speakers and hearers are more involved
in communication than writers and readers.
Also important: situation. Spoken interaction is part of a shared situation that includes both
speakers and hearers. Information is also passed along through means other than language
(posture, intonation, hand gestures, etc.).
, But despite the differences, addressee or receiver can be used to denote both readers and
hearers, and producer can be used for both speakers and writers.
Similarity between written text and spoken dialogue: although writers cannot process an
addressee’s reactions, they can anticipate probable reactions and write the text accordingly.
Written communication can also be studied from the perspective of a situation in which spoken
interaction takes place. E.g. >
Mikhail Bakhtin: A central idea in his work is that language in use cannot be considered a set of
words with abstract meanings as described in dictionaries, but that the meaning of words is
actualized in discourse owing to the interaction of the participants. The right way of studying
discourse, is to view discourse as inherently dialogic. Also in written discourse utterances are
responses to other utterances.
Genres zijn categorieën van communicatieve activiteiten (geschreven, gesproken of multi-
modaal) die we onmiddellijk herkennen als zijnde ‘van dezelfde soort’. Bekende voorbeelden
zijn: nieuwsberichten, interactie in de klas, filmrecensies, onderzoeksartikelen, Direct Mail-
brieven, etc. De artikelen die je hebt gelezen ter voorbereiding van deze week verklaren hoe het
komt dat we in staat zijn om een gegeven tekst (of conversatie, etc.) te herkennen als een lid of
voorbeeld van een bepaald genre. Dat kunnen we doordat we – bewust of onbewust – kennis
bezitten over de kenmerken van de genres die we in ons alledaagse leven veel tegenkomen.
Taalgebruikers hebben kennis over de volgende kenmerken die worden gedeeld door de meeste,
of in elk geval: de meest ‘prototypische’ teksten die tot een gegeven genre behoren. Specifieke
teksten (interacties, etc.) behoren tot hetzelfde genre als ze kenmerken delen op de volgende
terreinen:
• Een of meer communicatieve doelen (communicative purposes)
• Conventies op het gebied van inhoud en structuur, die in het tekstwetenschappelijk
onderzoek vaak worden aangeduid met de term move. Moves worden gedefinieerd in
termen van inhoud. De structuur van een genre bestaat uit een bepaalde ordening van
moves.
• Conventies op het gebied van stijl (style), oftewel: formuleringskeuzes van de schrijver
• Vaak ook: bepaalde conventies op het terrein van de lay-out (of: vormgeving).
Renkema & Schubert (2018: 75) define a genre as “a class of communicative events with
shared recognizable communicative purposes. These purposes give rise to exploitable
constraints concerning content and form.”
Genres differ from discourse types, we discussed during the first week (cf. the discourse typology
proposed by Werlich, discussed in section 4.2 of Renkema & Schubert’s chapter), in being
defined in terms of very concrete and recurring communicative events, whereas discourse types
