Correct: Written text is often grammatically correct, whereas the spoken word is often used more flexibly and will often include more slang and abbreviations.
Complexity: Written discourse is more structurally complex and more elaborate than spoken discourse.
Expression: Written text is totally expressionless, but spoken text is full of expression.
Sentence Pattern: Sentences in spoken discourse are short and simple, whereas they are longer and more complex in written discourse.
Lexical Density: Lexical Density refers to the relation of content words (i.e. nouns, verbs, adjectives, and adverbs) to grammatical or function words (e.g. pronouns, prepositions, articles) within a clause.
Lexically Dense: Written text is more lexically dense than spoken text. Content words are likely to be spread out over a number of clauses, whereas they seem to be tightly packed into individual clauses
Nominalization: Written discourse has a high level of nominalization. It has more nouns than verbs. Written discourse also uses longer groups of noun than spoken discourse.
Category: Categorically, writing is more explicit than speech.
Attachment: Spoken is more attached to context than writing because speech depends on a shared situation and background for interpretation.
Deficiency: Spoken text lacks organization and is ungrammatical because it is spontaneous, whereas written discourse is organized and grammatical.
Uncompleted sentences: Spoken text contains more uncompleted and reformulated sentences than writing text.
Changing: Topics of spoken text can be changed easily and speakers may interrupt and overlap than writing text.
12. Planning: Spoken discourse is planned, but it is planned differently from written discourse.
13. Holding: Spoken text holds more repetition, hesitations, and redundancy than writing text; because it is produced in real time (i.e. on the spot). Spoken discourse has also many pauses and fillers, such as ‘hhh’, ‘er.
Political discourse
Political discourse is a specific phenomenon which has a special social meaning in society. Being a complex object of the research, lying at the intersection of various disciplines such as linguistics, social psychology, political science, political discourse is closely connected with the forms, functions and contents which are used in certain ("political") situations. In the political discourse, as well as political journalism, institutional communication unlike personality-oriented communication, uses a certain system of professionally-oriented signs, i.e. has its own sublanguage, as well as vocabulary, phraseology and paremiology.
|
|
|
Political discourse has been widely analysed by such scholars as Van Dijk (1995, 1998), Lassan (1995), Cibulskienė (2006), Chilton and Schäffner (2002), Connolly (1993), Hall (1992), Laclau (1985, 1996), Mouffe (1985) etc. Conflict has been investigated by Gurdjan (2008), Lassan (1995), Lasswell (1936, 1948), Littlejohn (1999), Van Dijk (1995), etc.
Conflict communication in political discourse has not been investigated until recently, by William E. Connolly in his book The Terms of Political Discourse. The terms of political discourse refer first to the vocabulary commonly employed in political thought and action; second, to the ways in which the meanings conventionally embodied in that vocabulary set the frame for political reflection by establishing criteria to be met before an event or act can be said to fall within the ambit of a given concept; and third, to the judgments or commitments that are conventionally sanctioned when these criteria are met (Connolly, 1993, p. 2).
The political discourse is believed to differ from common speech in the following characteristics:
- Terminology of the political lexis
- The specific structure of the discourse
The special implementation of the discourse.
In a broad sense, the strategy is understood as the superposition of speech dictated by the practical purposes of the speaker. The strategy in the political discourse is determined by the goals that encourage political communication into life.
Usually a politician wants
1. to encourage the addressee to vote in the elections for a certain candidate, party, movement;
2. to gain credibility or to strengthen his image, “to please people”;
3. to persuade the addressee to agree with the speaker, accept his point of view;
4. to make a certain emotional effect, to cause a certain emotional state of the addressee
5. to provide the addressee with new knowledge, new ideas about the object of speech, to inform the addressee about his position on an issue.
The effectiveness of the political discourse consists in the suggestions to the addressee the necessary, politically correct actions and assessments. In other words, the purpose of political discourse is not to describe, but to convince, to revive intentions in the addressee, to pave the way for persuasion and encourage actions.
|
|
|
The characteristic features of the political discourse
- semantic uncertainty (politicians often avoid expressing their opinions in the most generalized form)
- fantomette (many political language signs have no real denotation)
- identity (irrationality, reliance on subconsciousness)
- distancing and theatricality (the need for politicians to "work for the public»,
drawing it in his image).
The abovementioned characteristics are linked to the major functions of political communication and particularly political discourse: communicative, motivating, emotive etc.
Functions of the political discourse
1. The communicative function is aimed at the transmission of the information intended to influence the image of the political world in the mind of the addressee. This function reveals in all spheres of communication but the implementation has different specific in every sphere. In the political text we can come across the information about the political life in the society. Politicians often try to attract attention to the information that is capable of their present in a favorable light, and distract the general attention from the information that can harm their interests [3, p. 92-292]
2. The motivating function is aimed to influence to the addressee. It is also called appellate, vocative, conative, and regulatory. Its objective is the mobilization of voters to perform certain actions. The inductive function influences on the citizens, form a certain political picture of the world in their minds, overcome existing contradictions in the society [3, pp. 93-292].
3. The emotive function focuses on the expression of author's emotions and excitement of emotions of the addressees. Creating the necessary emotion it is aimed at the background which is an important preliminary step for further prejudice of the addressee and of his motivation for necessary action. Political speech can cause confusion, uncertainty and fear among political opponents which often contribute to the strengthening of power. Threats and promises can either encourage political opponents to take action or refuse to oppose the authorities. Level of socio-political and macro-economic stability can affect the sense of confidence or anxiety.
|
|
|
4. The meta-language function is used to provide the meaning of statements or words. For example, in political texts it is often possible to find fragments in which the author interprets the meaning of special terms and concepts, because not all citizens understand the meaning of a number of political terms and concepts. Modern political speech is characterized by a complex plexus of signs of general use speech, special jargon, official and scientific speech, and therefore is not always fully understood by ordinary voters [3, p. 94-292].
5. The actual function is used to establish and to maintain contacts between the interlocutors. In this case, the fact of interpersonal communication, mutual “emotional stroking” can be much more important than the content of the conversation itself.
Thus, political discourse serves to exercise influence on the addressee by various means, including modification of semantics and functions of different types of language units and speech acts.
Classification of discourse
Discourse can be classified into four main categories, namely:
Exposition
The main focus of this type of discourse is to make the audience aware about the topic of the discussion. Definitions and comparative analysis of different ideas and beliefs are examples of discourse exposition.
Narration
Narration is a type of discourse that relies on stories, folklore or a drama as a medium of communication.
Stage play, story, and folklore are narrative discourse examples.
Description
This type involves describing something in relation to the senses. Descriptive discourse enables the audience to develop a mental picture of what is being discussed. Descriptive parts of novel or essay are descriptive discourse examples.
|
|
|
Argument
This type of discourse is based on valid logic and, through correct reasoning, tries to motivate the audience. Examples of argumentative discourse include lectures, essays, and prose.
Discourse in Literature
Poetic Discourse
Poetic discourse is a type of literary conversation which focuses on the expression of feelings, ideas, imaginations, events, and places through specific rhymes and rhythms. Poetic discourse makes use of common words in appealing ways to present feelings and emotions. The mechanism of poetic discourse involves certain steps starting from different sources, then entering the mental process, mental realization, and then finally into a finished product as poetry.
Expressive Discourse
Expressive discourse does not involve the presentation of facts, or the motivating of others, but is rather a reflection of our emotions that form the foundation of our expressions. This is a form of basic or entry-level discourse, and is beneficial for beginners in the field of literature. It primarily deals with generating ideas with no concrete source. Examples include academic essays and diaries.
Transactional Discourse
The basic aim in this kind of discourse is to convey the message in such a way that it is clearly understood without any confusion. Whatever is said has no ambiguity – everything is clear for the reader. Usually, this type of discourse is in active voice. Examples include instructions, guidelines, manuals, privacy policies, and patient instructions as written by doctors.
There are several classifications of discourse suggested by different scholars who based their classifications on different criteria. Although the classifications vary, there is a possibility to distinguish a universal one as some of the positions arise no doubt at all.
1. According to information channel: oral and written discourse. They can intertwine in real communication when interlocutors can make some notes or some pieces of information can be transferred in a written way. In this regard, prof Kashkin finds it possible to distinguish a hybrid type of discourse combining both written and oral discourses. Yusupova also reasons about another completely new type of discourse based on the electronic information channel. It includes text messaging in chats, on the forums, SMS communication and so on. This type of discourse is characterized by rapidity, active use of informal language means and visual support.
2. According to the number of interlocutors: monologue and dialogue. + polylogue (several communicators participating). Polylogue is supposed to become a separate type of discourse, as prof Kaskin puts it.
3. According to the target audience: personal (personality oriented) and institutional (status oriented). Prof Karasik: personality oriented discourse is typical of the situations when communication participants reveal to each other the wealth of their personalities and treat each other as personalities. Personality oriented discourse can be divided into everyday discourse and existential (philosophical and common).
Institutional discourse takes place when people act as representatives of this or that social community and when they play some social role typical of that community (lawyer – client, politician – voter). Institutional discourse reflects traditional types of communication accepted in social group corresponding to it. Prof Karasik also speaks about non-institutional discourse occurring when people are not familiar to each other. These types of discourse do not exclude each other, they can interact in different social contexts as people cannot behave short of their personalities features, thus personal discourse cannot be non-present, as well as institutional discourse cannot be away as it sometimes imposes some social barriers necessary to maintain appropriate for a social context relations between the communicators. Institutional discourses: political, legal, administrative, military discourses.
4. Performative/non-performative
Performative – if the content of communication can be verified (legal discourse, practically all formal discourses); if not – non-performative. (prof Karasik)
5. Textual (performed in written texts, embedded in them)/situational (connected to particular situations, performed mainly orally)
Genre
Genres are activities which people engage in through the use of language. E.g. academic lectures and usual conversations belong to the spoken genres, newspaper reports and academic essays are examples of written genres. Some genres share characteristics, others don’t. They also have to exercise functions in our life.
Genres are usually performed by a participating person and the participation audience. Martin defines genres as a staged goal-intended purposeful activity in which speaks engage as members of the culture.
Any genre is social as we participate in genre with other people (=exists in society).
Genre is defined not in terms of the substance but in terms of the action because it is used to accomplish some action.
Genres can change a lot with time.
Some examples of genres: short story, essay, letter, newspaper report, novel, etc.
Genre analysis and English for specific purposes
The approach to genre analysis employed in teaching of English for specific purposes was worked out by Swales. John Swales combined rhetoric and linguistics to explain genre as grounded in shared communicative purposes and discoverable through text analysis. For him, the nature of genres lies in communicative purposes.
Miller argues that genre serve as a key to research. For him genres represent shared social actions.
In any case, genres aim to make people understand how to participate in the actions of society, how to communicate.
Choice and constraint in the use of spoken and written genres
Swales discusses the view of genre in which there are both choices and constraints, regularity and chaos. Genres are dynamic and open to change but it is not a case of “free for all” or “anything goes”. Conformity among genre users ‘is a fact of genre, for genres provide an expected way of acting’. There are always consequences for genre violation and these consequences cannot always be predicted. Both constraints and choice are necessary and positive components of genres. Both need to be valued.
Assigning a text to a genre category
A key issue underlying this discussion is how we assign a text to a genre category. Cook argues that we draw on many aspects of language and context to do it. We may consider the author and the intended audience of the text, the purpose, the situation, the title, the physical form, in the case of written form. We may be influenced by a pre-sequence of the text such as “Once upon a time” as well as discourses structure of the text, etc.
Relationships between genres
A recent development in genres has been the notion of genre networks, genre chains, genre sets and repertoires of genres. A key issue here is the way the use of one genre may assume or depend on the use of a number of other interrelated genres.
Genre chain - A succession of genres ordered in a particular chronological sequence in which one genre is often a necessary antecedent to another. E.g. – apllying for a job (letter, resume etc)
Genre network - is the technical term that describes the source(s) from which each genre originates. (sources – citations, quotations, plagiarism) – e.g. – a power point presentation
Genre sets - The totality of the different genres that one individual or members of a given community (of professionals) engage in. E.g. – applied linguistics: books, published paper, lectures …
Genres never stay in isolation.
Spoken genres differentiate between countries
Дата добавления: 2019-02-26; просмотров: 458; Мы поможем в написании вашей работы! |
Мы поможем в написании ваших работ!