Discourse Analysis

Name           : Abibah

NIM             : 2201409052

Rombel        : 03

Well, in the previous discussion I have shared about communicative competence I have learnt in my class. And now I would like to share about Discourse analysis. Check it out guys… ^o^

Discourse Analysis

          Robert (1966) stated that discourse analysis is the study of language in use extending beyond sentence boundaries (Celce-Murcia and Olshtain, 2000). It is “a dynamic process of meaning creation” (Widdowson, 1979:129) that is deeply affected by genre, register and mode of expression (spoken or written) and is, therefore, culturally bound. So, discourse analysis is defined as the examination of language use by members of a speech community. The language use means how language is used in communication, interrelationship between language and society, and interactive or dialogic properties of every communication. It involves both language form and language function and includes the study of both spoken interaction and written texts.

          Discourse analysis identifies linguistic features that characterize different genres as well as social and cultural factors that aid in our interpretation and understanding of different texts and types of talk.

ü   Contexts of situation and context of culture

Contexts of situation mean what to say to whom in what circumstances and how to say it (when, why, where, what, how).

For example:

Thanks for not smoking

No smoking

In the second sentence, ‘No smoking’ means actual warning that means ‘I want you that you don’t smoke’ while in the first sentence, it is not used in English speaking countries.

The example of context of culture is when Indonesian people say because of an accident.

“Untung cuma  patah tulang.”

“Untung cuma ketabrak motor, nggak ada truk yang lewat.”

Those statements were stated by Indonesian because of the Indonesian culture.

ü   What texts tell us about happenings, what people think, believe, etc.

For example:

Indonesian said a building in Semarang “Lawang Sewu”. Actually “Lawang sewu” doesn’t means the building has 1000 doors but it is because to simplify the name and people in the past thought that 1000 has high value not in nowadays.

ü   How texts are produced as a social practice

For example:

Indonesian said “Terima kasih telah membantu saya”, “ Maaf telah merepotkan anda”

Those statements are stated because the speaker receives something benefit so he/she thanks to the person that has helped.

ü   How texts represent ideology (power struggle)

In one issue there are always two opposing opinions that are pros and contras based on the ideology.

For example: The government’s plan about raising the fuel’s price, there are the pros who agree the plan and the contras who disagree because of their own opinions and reasons.

Discourse: language function

What you say is not always what you mean.

ü   Context: Participants’ knowledge and perception of paralanguage, other texts, the situation, the culture, the world in general and role, intentions and relationships of participants.

In sum, Discourse analysis can give benefit to explore what language is and it is used to achieve communicative goals in different contexts. Thus, discourse analysis can help to create a second language learning environment that more accurately reflects how language is used and encourages learners toward their goal of proficiency in another language.

Speech Act Theory

ü   Unit of analysis : Speech act (SA) or Illucutionary force (IF)

ü   Principal Problems: the lack of a one-to-one match up between discourse function (IF) and the grammatical form.