LAUREA MAGISTRALE L.M. 19

INFORMAZIONE, EDITORIA E GIORNALISMO

A.A. 2015/16

LINGUA INGLESE

DOTT. ENRICO GRAZZI

CORSO PROGREDITO (6 CFU)

LESSONS 1-2

Timetable:Mon. 09:00/11:00 room 16

Thu. 08:00/10:00 room 6

Meet me: Thu. 10:00, V. Ostiense, 234 – room 3.09  Contacts: enrico.grazzi@uniroma3.it

Textbook: L.Lombardo, L.Haarman, J.Morley; C.Taylor,MASSED MEDIAS, edizioni LED, Milano 1999ISBN 88-7916-123-7 www.ledeizioni.it

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Discourse analysis provides the theoretical framework to examine all naturally occurring language in a systematic and scientific way (e.g. identifying the differences between spontaneous, face-to face conversation and formal prose of an academic or specialistic nature. Discourse analysis studies the elements of cohesion and coherence that create text.

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TEXT VS. DISCOURSE

Text grammar (syntactic rules)

Discourse analysis (cohesion/coherence)

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OTHER DICHOTOMIES

competence/performance (Chomsky, 1965)

sentence/utterance (Austin, 1955)

signified/signifier (Saussure, 1916)

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THE MEANING OF A SIGN

The meaning of a sign (valeur) is given by its difference from all other signs. In a visual text the signifier is an image:

a) a literal picture (icon)

b) a symbol.6

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Peirce proposed that signs could be defined as three categories: Icon, Index and Symbol.

Icon - An Icon sign is a sign that resembles something.

Index - An Index signs is a sign where there is a direct link between the sign and the object.

A symbol has no logical meaning between it and the object. Flags are symbols which represent countries or organisations.

M E A N I N G

Meaning is emergent in communication as a result of negotiation. The sender and the receiver are part of the communicative context.

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C O H E S I O N

Cohesion is the grammatical and lexical relationship within a text or sentence. Cohesion can be defined as the links that hold a text together and give it meaning.

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COHESIVE DEVICES

Halliday and Hasan identify five general categories of cohesive devices that create coherence in texts:

Reference Ellipsis Substitution Lexical cohesion Conjunction

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1 - R E F E R E N C E S

Referential devices: Anaphoric reference occurs when the writer refers back

to someone or something that has been previously identified, to avoid repetition.

Cataphoric reference is less common in speech but can be used for dramatic effect in writing. It occurs when the audience is introduced to someone as an abstract, before later learning his or her name. For example: "Here he comes, our award-winning host... it's John Doe!" Cataphoric references can also be found in written text, for example "see page 10".

Exophoric reference is also uncommon in speech but can be used to describe generic or abstract situations in writing. It occurs when the writer chooses not to introduce a character (or group of characters), but instead refers to them by a generic word such as "everyone". The prefix "exo" means "outside", and the persons or events referred to in this manner will never be identified by the writer.

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2- ELLIPSIS

Ellipsis is another cohesive device. It happens when, after a more specific mention, words are omitted when the phrase needs to be repeated.

Example:A: Where are you going?B: To town.

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3 - SUBSTITUTION Substitution is very similar to ellipsis. It occurs

when instead of leaving a word or phrase out, as in ellipsis, it is substituted for another, more general word.

Example: "Which ice-cream would you like?“"I would like the pink one“

Example: “I dropped the green ice-cream, it was

the only one I had”.

This sentence contains the pronoun (It), and the substitution (One). Don't mix up the two because they both serve different purposes: one to link back and one to replace.

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4- LEXICAL COHESION Lexical cohesion is basically created by

repetition (reiteration) of the same lexeme, or general (aka shell) nouns, or other lexemes sharing the majority of semantic features.

Example: The bus ... - the vehicle ... - the chassis

Hypernyms (John Lyons) Hyponyms (John Lyons) Synonyms. 14

5- CONJUNCTION Conjunction creates cohesion by relating

sentences and paragraphs to each other by using words from the class of conjunction, or numerals. This can be:

temporal (after, before) causal (because) coordinating (and, or) adversative (but, however) additive (further) discourse markers (now, well, after all).

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COHERENCE

Coherence can be defined as the way statements match our view of the world.

Fairclough: “Ideological power, the power to project one’s practices as universal and “common sense”, is a significant complement to economic and political power, and of particular significance here because it is exercised in discourse.”

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HOMEWORK

Introduction and Preface, pp. 9/17

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