The Effect of the Discourse - Essay Example

Dis Analysis Number Text A Text B Dis skills There is a use of ellipsis in the first sentence. There is use of grammatical subject, Mary. There is a use of ellipsis in the first sentence. There is use of grammatical cohesion through the use of thematic subject, by having the pronoun ‘it’ substitute ‘Mary’. Reference Anaphora: There is the use of the third person pronoun ‘she’ to stand in stead of the proper noun Wendy and Mrs. Darling. The possessive pronoun ‘her’ has also been used in place of the noun phrase, Mrs. Darling’s. Anaphora: There is the use of the third person pronoun ‘she’ to stand in stead of the proper noun Wendy. Cataphora: There is a wide use of cataphora. For instance, the second sentence has the pronoun ‘it’ is used to serve as the subject. Exophora: Exophora has been used in sentence 2, where the relative pronouns ‘what’ and ‘that’ have been used. Ellipsis Ellipsis Nominal ellipsis In the first sentence, the cardinal pronoun ‘one’ is used in place of ‘child’. The noun phrase ‘her daughter’ serves as a nominal ellipsis for the proper noun ‘Wendy’ in sentence 4. Clausal ellipsis Verbal ellipsis Ellipsis Nominal ellipsis In the first sentence, the cardinal pronoun ‘one’ is used in place of ‘child’. The third person pronoun ‘it’ is also used in the second sentence for nominal ellipsis. Clausal ellipsis The clause ‘what happened’ serves as clausal ellipsis to serve as the subject. Verbal ellipsis The clause ‘enchanting’ serves as clausal ellipsis to serve as an adverbial phrase. Conjunction ‘Except one’ has been used as a form of ellipsis in sentence 1. ‘And’ has been used as a form of ellipsis in sentence 2, to avoid the formation of another sentence. ‘Except one’ has been used as a form of ellipsis in sentence 1. ‘And’ has been used as a form of ellipsis in sentence 3, to avoid the formation of another sentence. Lexical relations Direct repetition- ‘grow up’ is a phrase that has been repeated in the second sentence. Antonyms- the adverbial phrase ‘except one’ serves as an antonym in the first sentence. Synonyms- ‘One strange little boy’ is a noun phrase used synonymously with the noun phrase, ‘all children’. ‘Her mother’ is a noun phrase used synonymously with the noun phrase, ‘Mrs. Darling’. ‘Mrs. Darling’ is a noun phrase used synonymously with the noun phrase, ‘her’. ‘Her mother’ is a noun phrase used synonymously with the noun phrase, ‘Mrs. Darling’. Hyponyms- The noun phrase, ‘one strange little boy’ and the noun phrase ‘all children’ are hyponyms. The noun phrase ‘all children’ is the superordinate. Metonymy- ‘Mrs. Darling’, ‘her’ and ‘her mother’ have been used as metonyms, in order to distinguish social relations and to allow room for the use of the substitution form of ellipsis. Direct repetition- in the fourth sentence, the verb phrase ‘enchanting’ is repeated. Antonyms- the adverbial phrase ‘except one’ serves as an antonym in the first sentence. Synonyms- ‘One strange little boy’ is a noun phrase used synonymously with the noun phrase, ‘all children’. ‘Her mother’ is a noun phrase used synonymously with the noun phrase, ‘Mrs. Darling’. ‘Mrs. Darling’ is a noun phrase used synonymously with the noun phrase, ‘her’. Hyponyms- The noun phrase, ‘one strange little boy’ and the noun phrase ‘all children’ are hyponyms. The noun phrase ‘all children’ is the superordinate. Metonymy- ‘Mrs. Darling’, ‘her’ and ‘her mother’ have been used as metonyms, in order to distinguish social relations and to allow room for the use of the substitution form of ellipsis. The Effect of the Discourse Text A is engineered to meet the criteria for coherence at different but to a far greater level. Intertextuality Text A and B strongly share an element of intertextuality, because they acquire meaning through evocation of each other and the manner in which they refer to each other. It is plain that Text B has borrowed from A, or vice versa, depending on how someone wants to see it. This is seen in the manner in which Texts A and B convey the same overall idea. The idea of all children except one strange little boy growing up, Wendy’s knowledge, Wendy playing in the garden and picking a flower for her mother, Wendy’s contact with her mother and Mrs. Darling’s exclamation are themes that occur in both texts. Even the structures of these texts are similar to an extent (Chaoqun, 2002 and Hodges, Kuper and Reeves, 2008). Acceptability Both texts pass the test of grammaticality, meaning that both are grammatically well-formed. However, in terms of semantic soundness, Text B lacks this aspect in total, since the penultimate sentence is repetitive [the word ‘enchanting’ has been repeatedly used]. The grammatical units are also far removed from one another (Curt, 1996). Situationality Both texts appear to share the same context of situations. It could be that there was another source from which Texts A and B were written down, but by different authors. This is because both texts share the same surface meaning and structure (Nasir, 1995). Intentionality Text A seems to have a greater effect, in terms of intentionality, since in it, the author seems to have employed cohesion and coherence. However, Text B also achieves intentionality because any reader can understand it. Text A has cohesion because of its logical flow while B has its cohesion because of the use of transitional elements [which serve ad adjuncts] such as one day and enchanting. This shows relations among the sentences. 2) For the Discourse Skills (Cohesion) A) Thematic Progression Text A has constant theme progression. The passage begins with a larger subject [children] then narrows to Wendy and then progresses to Wendy and her mother. This refers to the linear theme pattern. Text B also has linear progression since the concept flows from children, to Wendy and ultimately, to Wendy and her mother. The theme pattern is also a split one since it settles on Wendy and her mother. There is also a derived theme pattern in Text B since there is function in the aspect of independence (Goggin, 2003). B) Thematic analysis The texts A and B are interrelated, as is shown by textual thematic analysis. Phrases such as ‘all children’, ‘one day’, ‘one strange little boy’, ‘two years old’, ‘Wendy’, and clauses such as ‘grow up’ and ‘she cried’ appear in both texts. Text B is more interpersonal since it is characterized with the use of the vocative [‘Remain like this forever, why can’t you?’ she cried.], the ‘wh’ relative pronoun [What happened], and the use of a clause or a phrase as an adjunct [Enchanting]. Text B is also more experiential because it uses conjunctive as an adjunct, possesses a relative clause [What happened] and a continuative [enchanting]. On the contrary, Text A follows the simple SVO pattern. C) Marked and unmarked theme(s) Marked themes Unmarked themes Text A All children, except one strange little boy, grow up one day. Wendy knew she would have to grow up when she was just two years old. She was playing in the garden and picked a flower for her mother. Mrs. Darling saw her daughter running towards her and smiled because Wendy looked so enchanting. “Oh, why can’t you remain like this forever?” she cried. Text B It was Wendy who knew she would have to grow up when she was only two years old. One day, all children, except one strange little boy, grow up. What happened was that she was in the garden playing, and a flower was picked by her for her mother. Enchanting, Wendy looked, and smiled, her mother did, because Wendy looked so enchanting running towards her. ‘Remain like this forever, why can’t you?’ she cried. D) Adjuncts (i.e. circumstantial, conjunctive, modal) Circumstantial Conjunctive Modal Text A when she was just two years old because Wendy looked so enchanting ‘Oh why can’t you remain like this forever!’ for her mother except Text B One day, When she was only two years old, Enchanting, Because Wendy looked so enchanting running towards her ‘Remain like this forever, why can’t you?’ What happened was that except 3) Comparing the two texts and analyze the different effects of these two discourses The two texts are similar because they share the same context of situations. Textual analysis also show that the texts A and B are interrelated, as is shown by textual thematic analysis. However, textual thematic analysis shows that Text B is more interpersonal because its related syntactic structures are far removed from one another, as is seen in sentence 2 of Text B. This arrangement is more common in spoken than in written language. On the contrary, Text A follows a regular and simple SVO pattern (McCarthy, 2008). Text B is also more interpersonal since it is characterized with the use of the vocative [‘Remain like this forever, why can’t you?’ she cried.], the ‘wh’ relative pronoun [What happened], and the use of a clause or a phrase as an adjunct [Enchanting]. Again, Text B is also more experiential because it uses conjunctive as an adjunct, possesses a relative clause [What happened] and a continuative [enchanting]. On the contrary, Text A follows the simple SVO pattern (Traynor, 2004). References Chaoqun, X. (2002). Discourse Analysis. Applied Linguistics, 23 (4), 542. Curt, B. C. (1996). Discourse Analysis. The Years Work in Critical and Cultural Theory, 6 (1), 111 – 123. Goggin, M. D. (2003). Discourse Analysis. Rhetoric Review, 22 (1), 93 – 97. Hodges, B., Kuper, A. & Reeves, S. (2008). Discourse Analysis. BMJ, 337 (3), a879. McCarthy, M. (2008). Discourse Analysis. ELT Journal, 62 (2), 211 - 213. Nasir, S. (1995). Discourse Analysis. The Years Work in Critical and Cultural Theory, 5 (1), 132 – 146. Traynor, M. (2004). Discourse Analysis. Language Researcher, 12 (2), 4. Read More