My Discourse Analysis Report

Stance in spoken and written Stance in spoken and written university registers university registers

by Douglas Biber (2006)

Discussant: Rhodora Caballero MAT-EL

Discourse Analysis

What co me s to mind??? What co me s to mind???

stance university registers epistemic lexico-grammatical

What co me s to mind??? What co me s to mind??? STANCESTANCE – is the expression of

speaker/writers’ evaluation, feelings, and attitudes with regard to an information or a proposition.

UNIVERSITY REGISTERSUNIVERSITY REGISTERS– are concerned with any activities related to students in a school or university.

What co me s to mind??? What co me s to mind??? EPISTEMICEPISTEMIC –refers to the truth value of a

given proposition. Ex. epistemic possibility - denotes the possibility of a given proposition's being or becoming true

LEXICO-GRAMMATICAL - LEXICO-GRAMMATICAL -

Highlights of the studyHighlights of the studyA. Presents how stancestance is expressed (compare and

contrast) through the use of different grammatical features

B. Analyzes grammaticalgrammatical devicesdevices (used to signal (used to signal stance) stance) that are readily attributed to the speaker/writer

C. Compares patterns of register variation between two major parameters: physical mode physical mode (writing and speech) and communicative purpose communicative purpose (academic/ instruction and student management)

D. Describes the expression of stance across four four university registersuniversity registers

Stance in spoken and written university registers (Biber, 2006)Stance in spoken and written university registers (Biber, 2006)

Literature reviewLiterature review Expression of evaluation and stance in academic

research writing Use of hedging devices (Hyland, 1996). Expression of tentativeness and

possibility in academic RP (ex. accuracy and commitment of the writer to a proposition)

Personal pronouns Addressee features and directive (Hyland 2002) Evaluative language in peer review reports (Fortanet, 2008)

Most ESP/AEP studies focused on written genres of academic discourses

MICASE Project (Michigan Corpus of Academic Spoken English) one of the most productive efforts to describe spoken university registers


Theoretical frameworkTheoretical framework“stance” developed in the Longman

Grammar of Spoken and Written English (LGSWE)

Personal stance of the speaker or writer: personal feelings, attitudes, value judgments, or assessments

MethodologyMethodologyCorpusT2K-SWALT2K-SWAL

◦ Developed _________◦ 2.7 M words; 6 major disciplines (BEEHNS); 3 educ. levels; 4

universities◦ represents the range of spoken and written registers in the US◦ provides a basis for test construction and validation

Four Registers:Four Registers:

1. Classroom teaching; 2. Class management talk; 3. Textbooks; 4. Written course management language (course syllabus)


MethodologyMethodology Physical mode

Communicative purpose

Speech Writing

Academic/ Instruction

Classroom teaching

Textbooks

Student management

Classroom management

Course management (e.g. syllabi)


MethodologyMethodologyComposition of the sub-corpus for the study(taken from T2K-SWAL Corpus)

Register No. of texts No. of words

SPOKEN

Classroom teaching 176 1,248,811

Classroom management

40 39,255

WRITTEN

Textbooks 87 760,619

Course management 21 52,410


Lexico-grammatical features used for stance analysisLexico-grammatical features used for stance analysis

1. Modal and Semi-modal verbsPossibility / Permission / Ability

can, could, may, might

Necessity / Obligation

must, should, (had) better, have to, got to, ought to

Prediction / Volition will, would, shall, be going to


2. Stance AdverbsEPISTEMIC-Certainty-Likelihood

actually, certainly, in factapparently, perhaps, possibly

ATTITUDE VERBS

amazingly, importantly, surprisingly

STYLE / PERSPECTIVE

according to, generally, typically



3. Complement clauses controlled by stance verbs, adjectives, or nouns

A. Complement clauses controlled by verbs

B. Complement clauses controlled by adjectives

C. Complement clauses controlled by nouns





a) Stance verb + that -clause

• Epistemic verbs (certainty/likelihood)• Attitude verbs• Speech acts & other communication verbs

b) Stance verb + to - clause

• Probability verbs• Mental verbs• Desire/intention/decision verbs• Verbs of effort/facilitation• Speech acts and other communication verbs




a) Stance adjective + that –clause (often in extraposed constructions)

• Epistemic adj• Certainty • Likelihood

• Attitude/Emotion adj • Evaluation adj

b) Stance adjective + to –clause (often in extraposed constructions)

• Epistemic adj • Attitude/Emotion adj• Evaluation adj • Ability or Willingness adj• Ease or Difficulty adj




a) Stance noun + that –clause

• Epistemic nouns• Certainty – conclusion, fact, observation• Likelihood – assumption, claim,

hypothesis• Attitude/perspective nouns – hope, view• Communication (non-factual) nouns –

comment, proposal, report

b) Stance noun + to –clause

• failure, obligation, tendency

Highlight of resultsHighlight of resultsThe expression of stance in university registers

1.Modal verbs as stance markers2.Stance adverbs3.Stance complement clauses across registers

a. Stance verb + that-clauseb. Stance verb + to-clausec. Stance adjective/noun +complement clause

4.Comparing the overall stance of university registers


ConclusionsConclusions1. Study confirms that expression of stance is important

in all university registers;

2. As compared to spoken university registers, expression of stance in written registers is rare and restricted in meaning;

3. All grammatical stance devices are used more frequently in university speech than in writing;


ConclusionsConclusions4. Rarity of stance expressions in university textbooks;

Epistemic meanings are expressed more commonly than likelihood meanings

5. Recommendations: a) use of integrated stance expressions in spoken and written

university registers; andb) use of a fuller range of spoken and written university registers.


Comments Comments

1. The study utilized a thematic (structure)2. It contains many variables (highly

technical)3. It contains low-frequency terms and

lacks definition/explanation of complex terms

4. There is limited number of graphs and table


My Discourse Analysis Report

Education

Transcript of My Discourse Analysis Report