Transcript Discourse analysis, lecture 3

Discourse analysis,
lecture 3
May 2012
Carina Jahani
[email protected]
Foreground and background
• Divergent use of terminology
”The term ‘foregrounding’ may be used in a purely
linguistic sense. In sentence structure, it then refers to
new information, in contrast to elements in the
sentence that form the background against which new
elements are to be understood by the listener or the
reader.”
The term foreground can also be used for
”prominence”, ”poetic effect”, etc.
(van Peer & Hakemulder 2006: 547)
In this course
• Foreground material carries the discourse
forward, contributes to the progression of the
narrative (or argument), develops the theme
of the discourse.
• Background material serves as a commentary
on the theme, but does not itself contribute
directly to the progression of the theme. It fills
out the theme, but does not develop it.
Morphosyntactic features that tend to
correlate with foreground/background
(transitivity)
high transitivity
Participants: two or more
low transitivity
one
I saw you
Peter gave John
the book
I ran to the bus
Aspect and aktionsart
Aspect (viewpoint, perspective)
Aspect is a grammatical category associated with verbs that expresses a
temporal view of the event or state expressed by the verb
Aktionsart/telicity
Aktionsart is a property of (mostly verbal) predicates. It concerns the
internal temporal constituency of a (type of) situation denoted by a given
predicate. The (originally German) term aktionsart is approx. equivalent to
the English terms lexical aspect and kind of action.
Greek télos meaning ”end, goal”. Telicity is the property of a verb of verb
phrase that presents an action or event as being complete, having reached
a goal.
Kinesis (maybe an infelicitous term?)
Five commonly identified aktionsarten
No Duration
• Telic Achievement
realise
Has Duration
Accomplishment
drown
• Atelic Semelfactive
knock
Activity
walk
States
Morphosyntactic features that tend to
correlate with foreground/background
(transitivity)
high transitivity low transitivity
Aktionsart
action
We bought
the car
non-action
(state)
We liked
the car
Morphosyntactic features that tend to
correlate with foreground/background
(transitivity)
high transitivity low transitivity
Telicity
telic
atelic
he finished
the book
he read
the book
high transitivity low transitivity
Duration
non-durative
durative
I hit him
I carried him
Morphosyntactic features that tend to
correlate with foreground/background
(transitivity)
high transitivity low transitivity
Aspect
perfective
imperfective/
progressive
I eat
je suis allé
I am eating
j’allais
Morphosyntactic features that tend to
correlate with foreground/background
(transitivity)
high transitivity low transitivity
Volitionality volitional
I hit him
I look at him
non-volitional
I met him
I see him
Morphosyntactic features that tend to
correlate with foreground/background
(transitivity)
high transitivity low transitivity
Affirmation affirmative
they came
we see you
negative
they didn’t come
we don’t see you
Morphosyntactic features that tend to
correlate with foreground/background
(transitivity)
high transitivity low transitivity
Modality
realis
irrealis
they will come they may come
I did it
I would do it
Morphosyntactic features that tend to
correlate with foreground/background
(transitivity)
high transitivity low transitivity
Agentivity
high agentivity low agentivity
we eat our food we like our food
we buy a car
we have a car
High-Low agentivity
• 1. Verbs with an affected experiencer as the noncanonically marked A/S expressing physiological
states/events or inner feelings/psychological experiences
• 2. Verbs with a less agentive non-canonically marked A/S,
such as verbs of perception, cognition, liking,
searching/finding, following/meeting, interacting,
addressing and resembling
• 3. Verbs with modal meanings, such as verbs of wanting,
necessity/obligation, capability/possibility,
trying/success/failure, and verbs with evidential meanings
• 4. Verbs expressing happenings, particularly uncontrolled
non-volitional events
• 5. Verbs of possession, existence, and lacking
Morphosyntactic features that tend to
correlate with foreground/background
(transitivity)
Agency
high transitivity low transitivity
animate A
inanimate A
George startled The picture
me
startled me
Morphosyntactic features that tend to
correlate with foreground/background
(transitivity)
high transitivity low transitivity
Affectedness O totally affected O partially affected
I ate all the food
I ate some of the
food
Morphosyntactic features that tend to
correlate with foreground/background
(transitivity)
high transitivity low transitivity
Individuation individuated
He drank
the beer
non-individuated
He drank some
beer
Background information
•
•
•
•
Setting: It was a very cold day in January…
Explanation: The other boy was ill…
Evaluation: They found it very strange…
Discourse irrealis: The other guests didn’t
come
• Performative information: … you know…
Signalling background
• Special verb forms
• Spacers
Backgrounding within a sentence:
• Subordinate clauses
• Reported conversations
Special highlighting
Climax or other particularly important sentences
Can be marked by:
slowing down the narrative right before it
introducing non-events
backgrounding the event right before
heavier participant encoding
tail-head linkage
Special highlighting
•
•
•
•
prominence markers
change of tense (narrative present)
change of scene (new deixis)
shorter sentences
etc. etc.