Discourse Analysis The Sociolinguistic Analysis of Natural Language

by Stubbs, Michael

• ISBN13: 9780631127635
• ISBN10: 0631127631
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 1991-01-08
• Publisher: Wiley-Blackwell
• More Book Details
• Purchase Benefits

Summary

The study of naturally occurring connected discourse, spoken or written is one of the most promising and rapidly developing areas of linguistics. Traditional linguistics has concentrated on the analysis of single sentence or isolated speech acts. In this important new book Michael Stubbs shows that linguistic concepts can be extended to analyse spontaneous and informal talk in the home, classroom or factory, and, indeed, written narrative. Using copious examples drawn from recorded conversations, field work observations, experimental data and written texts, he explores such questions as how far discourse structure is comparable to sentence structure; whether it is possible to talk of 'well formed' discourse as one does of 'grammatical' sentences; and whether the relation between question and answer in conversation is syntactic, semantic or pragmatic. He also demonstrates some of the limitations of contemporary linguistics and speech act theory which neglect key aspects of native speaker fluency and communicative competence. Alhough written from a predominantly linguistic perspective, the book is informed by insights from sociology and anthropology. Theoretical debate is accompanied by discussion of real life implications, particularly for the teacher. A Final Chapter offers clear and practical guidelines on methods of data collection and analysis for the student and researcher; and the book includes a full bibliography and suggestions for further reading.

Author Biography

Michael Stubbs is Lecturer in Linguistics at the University of Nottingham. He is author of Language, Schools and Classrooms ( 1976) and Lanaguage and Literacy (1980).

Table of Contents

Editor''s Preface

Acknowledgements

Notational Conventions

Part I

Language, action, knowledge and situation

The Impossibility of Discourse Analysis

Discourse Analysis and Linguistics

Discourse Analysis and Sociolinguistics

Terminology

Idealization

The State of the Art

The Organization of the Book

Three Approaches to Discourse Analysis:On Speaking Terms: Inspecting Conversational Data

Discourse Organization

Inspecting Transcribed Data

Some Observations on the Data

Narrative Organisations

Interactional Roles

Discourse Analysis and Interaction

Narrative Structure

Natural Conversation

Native Speaker Fluency

Conclusions

Data Appendix

On the Same Wavelength

Some initial Observations

Data Collection

Problems of Perception

Communicative Problems in the Classroom

Sociolinguistics and Language Variation

Language Functions

Metacommunicative Acts

Monitoring Classroom talk

Two Descriptive Rules of Language Use

Limitations on the Analysis

The Hidden Curriculum or Medium as Message

Object Language and Metalanguage

On a Different Level: Particles, Adverbs and Connectors

Well...

Adverbs

Please

Tests for Speech acts

Pragmatic Connectors

Conclusions

Exchange Structure:A Linguistic Approach to Discourse: Structures and Well-Formedness

A Linguistic Approach to Discourse

Predictability and well-formedness

Phonotactics

Grammaticality

Intuitions about Discourse Sequences

Predictability

Predictability and Idealization

Structure Controls Meaning

Canonical Discourse and Idealization

Analogies

Conclusions

Initiations and Responses

Questions

Yes-no Questions

X-Questions

An Initial Definition of Exchange

Yes and No

Observational Studies of Yes and No

A-, B- and AB-events

Truth and Certainty

Knowledge and Beliefs

Actives and Passives

Conclusions

Analysing Exchange Structure

Theory, Methodology and Data

Well-formedness in discourse

Notational conventions

Research on Exchange Structures

Sinclair''s Work on Discourse

Basic Discourse Categories

Analysis of Complete Interchange

Tests for and /- initial

Some Candidate Analysis

Eliciting Informants'' intuitions on Discourse

Concluding Comments

Surface Cohesion and Underlying Coherence:Beneath the Surface of Discourse: Indirection in Speech Acts

Austin: Utterances as Actions

Discourse acts and Speech Acts

Austin''s Theory of Speech Acts

Identifying Speech Acts

Speech Acts and Social Roles

Problems for Hearers and Readers

Finding the Answer

Motivating Underlying Acts

Conclusions

On the Surface of Discourse

Prefaces and Alignments

The Indirection Argument

Limitations on Idealized Data

Formulating Turns at Talk

Prefaces

Alignmnets

Acknowledge, Accept and Endorse

Conclusion

Stir Until the Plot Thickens

The Propositional Analysis of Text

A Method for Investigating Narrative Structure

Literacy Competence

Propositions in Stories

The Concepts of Plot and Summary

The Semantics Analysis of Plots

Propositions, Entailments and Presuppositions

Existential presuppositions: or how to tell jokes

Co-reference: One Cat or Two

Entailments and Implications: or how to tell lies

Maxims of Quantity

Implicatures

Summary

The Sociolinguistic Analysis of Literary Language.

Prepositional Analysis

Presuppositions

Methodology:Collecting Conversational Data: Notes on Sociolinguistic Methodology

The Lack of Accepted Procedures in Discourse Analysis

Labov and Sociolinguistic Methodology

Practical Problems

How Much Data?

Theoretical Biases in Recording

Theoretical Biases in Transcription

Field Notes

Theoretical Sampling

Triangulation

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