Transcript Analysing-Texts

Introduction to
Analysing Texts
Agenda
• Finish of sentence functions
• Introduction to Analysing texts
• Textual variations and
representations
• Any questions on Paper 1
Sentence Functions
In use, clauses ad sentences have one of four functions:
1. Forming statements (e.g. I read a ghost story.)
2. Forming questions (e.g. Did you read that ghost story?)
3. Giving commands (e.g. Read that ghost story!)
4. Making exclamations (e.g.What a scary ghost story!)
Which function is demonstrated in the image?
How about these?
Question
Statement
Command
Exclamation
What a rash!
I have a rash.
Sentence Functions continued…
These functions tend to be associated with a particular
grammatical form, although there are of course many
exceptions to this.
Statements tend to have a straightforward subject-verbobject/complement structure; questions begin with
primary or modal auxiliaries or wh- words; commands
start with a verb phrase and have no subject; while
exclamations usually start with a wh- word and then a
noun phrase.
I have a rash.
What should I do?
See the doctor.
What a rash!
Sentence Functions continued…
Sometimes there is tension between a sentence’s
grammatical form and its actual function. For example,
think of all the ways that you might ask someone to shut
a door that has been left open.
What are the grammatical forms for each of these?
Which are direct/indirect? Possibly sarcastic?
1. Shut the door. Command
2. Can you shut the door? Question
3. The door is open. Statement
4. What a terrible draught! Exclamation
Why is there not always a straight forward relationship
between form and function?
Grammar Summary
Fill in the blanks using the words below.
The study of grammar can be divided into looking at
word formation (morphology) and looking at larger
structures.
The linguistic rank scale offers a way of explaining how
larger elements are built out of smaller ones.
Text producers often manipulate and shape grammatical
forms for specific effects.
grammatical forms
larger
smaller
grammar
morphology
linguistic rank scale
structures
producers
Grammar Summary
Fill in the blanks using the words below.
The study of grammar can be divided into looking at
word formation (morphology) and looking at larger
structures.
The linguistic rank scale offers a way of explaining how
larger elements are built out of smaller ones.
Text producers often manipulate and shape grammatical
forms for specific effects.
Introduction to
Analysing Texts
Key Terms –note these down as we go…
Text
Text meaning
Levels of language
Connotations
Alliteration
Colloquial
Contraction
What is a text?
= a unified piece of speech or
writing
A text is any ‘passage, spoken or written, of whatever
length, that does form a unified whole’ (Halliday &
Hasan, 1976).
It could be as small as:
Stop.
Or, as long as ‘The Mahabharata’, a 1,800,000 word
long poem.
In reality, most texts, written or spoken, will be
somewhere in between these extremes.
What is text meaning?
Two frameworks are often used for textual analysis are:
= what a text means overall
Larger-scale concepts
Smaller-scale concepts
Text meaning
Features of discourse
Genre
Lexis and semantics
Purpose
Pragmatics
Audience
Grammar
Mode and context
Phonetics/Phonology/Prosodics
Graphology
Language features are the specific characteristics of the
language that is used in a text. One effective method of
textual analysis consists of finding connections between
smaller and larger linguistics concepts.
Language features and Levels of Language
Language features belong to particular levels of
language. These levels reflect the fact that it is possible
to study discourse, lexis, grammar etc. as separate
subjects.
= linguistics divide language into
relatively discrete layers of subtopics so that these can be
understood and studied
separately.
Skills for writing effective essays
1. You will need to develop your skills staying focused on
the question you are asked.
E.g. If writing about how a text achieves its purpose then
the language features you identify need to connect to the
issue of purpose. It can be easy to get distracted by an
interesting feature of language but if your points don’t
address the question, you won’t get credit for it.
Skills for writing effective essays
2. You need to develop your ability to write about
language in an analytical way
E.g. When working out the meaning of words/phrases
explore their connotations or explain how a text’s
reader/listener might respond to a word/phrase.
= the overtones associated with a
word or phrase.
Skills for writing effective essays
3. You need to go beyond just recording impressions or
intuitive ideas.
E.g. You might start with an overview of the whole text
(thus showing your larger-scale linguistic understanding)
the develop each point by relating it to one or more of
the smaller features.
Another way to loot at this – ask yourself how you got
your impression of the text and how its language helped
you create that impression.
Skills for writing effective essays
4. Explore effects in depth and in detail.
E.g. Sometimes this might mean explaining why you think
a particular adjective or phrase was effective, or how a
noun evoked a feeling. Beware that it’s not just
words/phrases but also grammatical constructions that
create effects. You will need to identify these too and
explain how the effects are achieved.
Skills for writing effective essays
5. Use quotations from the text to support your point.
E.g. Try to find subtler and more sophisticated ways of
integrating quotes by putting them into context and
explaining why they are significant.
You might start with a longer quote but as you get more
skilled, you can focus on the really relevant part of a
quote (single words).
Introduction to
Analysing Texts
Can you remember the 5 tips for writing
analytically?
1. You will need to develop your skills staying focused on
the question you are asked.
2. You need to develop your ability to write about
language in an analytical way
3. You need to go beyond just recording impressions or
intuitive ideas.
4. Explore effects in depth and in detail.
5. Use quotations from the text to support your point.
And now, can you remember the command sentence
functions we came up with?
An example of textual analysis
Let’s study an example now. The following proverb is a text
that could be either written or spoken.
Two wrongs don’t make a right.
1. Identify how the text fits in with larger-scale linguistic
concepts such as text meaning, audience, purposes,
genre, mode and context.
Identify how the text fits in with largerscale linguistic concepts
Two wrongs don’t make a right.
Text meaning = You shouldn’t retaliate.
Genre = proverbs share features in common, for example
capturing a lot of wisdom in a few words using simple but
powerful language.
Audience = addressed to people generally but appeals to their
moral consciences against their desire for retribution.
Purpose = originally, to make a general observation about life
but its actual function in a real-life discourse event might be
to persuade them not to harm someone who has hurt them.
Mode = written or spoken, depending on context.
Identify how the text fits in with largerscale linguistic concepts
Two wrongs don’t make a right.
Mode = written or spoken, depending on context.
Context = if written it could be in the ‘Thought for the Day’
space in a foyer of a school. If spoken, it might be that
someone was about to say something harmful and a friend
intervened.
An example of textual analysis contd.
Two wrongs don’t make a right.
2. We can also identify smaller-scale language features o this
proverb and link them to larger concepts.
There is a contrast between two noun phrases ‘Two wrongs’
and ‘a right’, a matter of lexis and semantics. In this case
wrong means two things? What?
Also, ‘a right’ doesn’t have its usual sense of entitlement but
means something like ‘doing the right thing’. The reader can
understand these special meanings because the words are
placed or spoken close to each other.
An example of textual analysis contd.
Two wrongs don’t make a right.
2. We can also identify smaller-scale language features o this
proverb and link them to larger concepts.
The contrasting noun phrases are balance around the verb
phase ‘don’t make’. This is a common pattern in proverbs
e.g. ‘One swallow doesn’t make a summer’, ‘A smooth sea
never made a skilled mariner’. This grammatical feature
helps us identify the text as part of the genre of proverbs.
An example of textual analysis contd.
Two wrongs don’t make a right.
2. We can also identify smaller-scale language features o this
proverb and link them to larger concepts.
The phonological feature of alliteration is used to emphasise
a contrast or a relationship between words in all three
example proverbs. This helps to create the feeling that the
two words are balanced, an illusion that is contradicted by
the negatives ‘n’t/never’, in each of the verb phrases.
= repeated phonemes at the
beginnings of words
An example of textual analysis contd.
Two wrongs don’t make a right.
2. We can also identify smaller-scale language features o this
proverb and link them to larger concepts.
If these proverbs were written, for example in the context of
a children’s book, then the matching initial letters in each
proverb might be made the same colour to emphasise the
similarity in sound, thus using graphology to help convey the
proverb’s meaning to a younger audience.
An example of textual analysis contd.
= omission of a letter in a word,
= an informal style of the kind
often replaced by an apostrophe
used in ordinary speech
Two wrongs don’t make a right.
2. We can also identify smaller-scale language features o this
proverb and link them to larger concepts.
The colloquial contraction in ‘don’t suggests that this text is
usually used in spoken rather than written mode, which
means pragmatically when it is used in a discourse event its
primary purpose is to offer advice to someone, or possibly to
criticise them. However, it may be written, so it could also
serve as a reminder of a general moral principle, that we
shouldn’t react to malicious actions by hitting back.
An example of textual analysis contd.
Two wrongs don’t make a right.
We have seen that there are some quite complex connections
between this text’s language features and some larger-scale
language concepts. These connections have been brought out
in a number of ways:
Making the text meaning explicit
Linking the text to other similar texts
Considering effects of language features on the reader/listener
Speculating about alternative ways of presenting the text
Looking in detail at how language features are used to achieve
textual purposes.
More proverbs to help practice
1. He who pays the piper calls the tune.
2. Great oaks from little acorns grow.
3. You can’t make an omelette without breaking eggs.
Text meaning
Genre
Audience
Purpose
Mode
Context
In summary
1. A text is a unified segment of language. It can be written
or spoken and it can be of any length.
2. You need to develop a range of skills to be able to write
essays that analyse texts.
3. Larger-scale linguistic concepts and smaller features can
be used to analyse texts.
Next chapter
Textual representations and
representations