Linguistic Competences

Discourse

Mónica Torres C. Languages School

Universidad Nacional de Chimborazo

monicatorrescajas@yahoo.comRiobamba – Ecuador

Overview

By the end of this session participants will be able to:

Identify what is discourse and what it is not. Recognize the main part of a discourse. Produce a coherent and cohesive oral or written discourse.

Discourse is the way that language -written or spoken – is used for communicative

effect in a real-world situation

Product text

Discourse

Text A:

For the perfect cup, use one tea bag per person and add freshly drawn boiling water. Leave standing for three to five minutes before stirring gently. It can be served with or without milk and sugar.

1. The university has got a park.2. It has got a modern tram system.3. He has got a swimming pool.4. I have got tickets for the theater.5. Rio has got beautiful beaches.

Text B:

Self-contained

Hang together

Make sense

Purpose

Are recognis

able text types

Appropriate to their contexts of

use

What makes a text?

TEXT FUNCTIONS

INTERACTIONAL

TEXT FUNCTIONS

TRANSACTIONAL

COHESION AND COHERENCE

COHESIONInterpretation takes place from Test to Reader

Bottom up ----- text interpretations bu means of its constituents.

COHERENCEInterpretation takes place from Reader to Text

Top down --- knowledge of context of situation to achieve meaning

COHESION

GRAMMATICAL

LEXICAL

Grammatical Cohesion

Reference

Ellipsis

Conjuncts

Tense

Gra

mm

atic

al T

ies

Reference Classification

Anaphoric back

Cataphoric forward

Exophoric outside

Pronouns Articles

Conjuncts (Linking Devices)

Additive

And

Such as, also, like, too, as well, similarly, for example, what’s more, as, in addition, likewise, moreover, in fact.

Adversative

But

But , however, alternatively, except for, on the other hand, though

Causal

So

So, therefore, this is a way, in order to, as a result

Temporal

then

Next, in the meantime, finally, ever, then

LEXICAL COHESION

Repetition

Synonyms / Antonyms Hyponyms

Lexical Sets

Lexical Cohesion

Examples

What makes a text make sense? Coherence

The Austrian composer Mozart was a musical genius. He has got a swimming pool. It actually tingles on your skin to tell you it's working. Water would then come out of fountains such as the one shown here. And that is why dogs still chase rabbits.

Coherence

Logical relationship

It is organized in sequences.

The sequences have a precise logical and

chronological order

The meaning of each sequence is linked to

the other parts

COHERENCE

Give a written or spoken text

Unity Purposeand

A text makes sense through the organisation of its content.

Text organization

Topic (theme) Comment (rheme)

Given information New information

The most famous pyramids are in Giza, near Cairo.

Discourse – Spoken Texts

Features

spontaneity

interactivity

interpersonality

coherence

What is the Coherence in Writing?

A Macroestructure - Pattern

Conectivity - relations between Propositions.

Connectivity - surface text by using cohesive devices .

Appropiate metadiscourse features

FEATURES