Bài giảng Tiếng Anh Lớp 9 - Discourse analysis 5 - Trương Văn Ánh

Nội dung text: Bài giảng Tiếng Anh Lớp 9 - Discourse analysis 5 - Trương Văn Ánh

1. DISCOURSE ANALYSIS 5 Trương Văn Ánh Trường Đại học Sài Gòn 1
2. Given & New Information In a standard sentence the information that has been already known to the reader or listener is referred as given information. The information that is introduced for the first time is known as new information. The new information in a sentence or utterance in English genrally comes last. Ex: The cat ate the rat. The assumed knowledge is that the cat ate something and the new information is that it was the rat that got eaten. 2
3. Theme and rheme In a sentence or an utterance the information is arranged in terms of the importance. In a clause theme is the initial element, and rheme follows the theme. The following sentences present the same information: - Chi Pheo loved Thi No. - Thi No was loved by Chi Pheo. In terms of theme, however, both sentences are different. 3
4. In the first sentence the theme is Chi Pheo. It is Chi Pheo what Chi Pheo did is of primary interest. In the second sentence the theme is Thi No. The Theme is the point of departure of the message; it is usually what the clause is concerned with. The rheme is the remainder of the message; it provides information about the theme. 4
5. There are three types of theme: topical, interpersonal and textual. Topical themes have to do with the information conveyed in the discourse. Chi Pheo and Thi No are the topical themes in the above sentences. - Wow, your dress is nice. Interpersonal themes express the attitude/feeling of the speaker or reader. 5
6. In the above sentence there are two themes: interpersonal (wow) and topical (your dress) themes. Textual themes link a clause to the rest of the discourse. - In addition, Jack gets good marks in maths. (Textual t.) (Topical t.) In the above sentence gets good marks in maths is rheme. 6
7. • Theme , in this lesson, can be viewed as everything that comes before the verb. EXAMPLE James went to steal in Mr. Brown’s field. The field is considered sacred by most villagers. The villagers reported the matter to the headman. A part of the rheme becomes the theme in the next sentence.
8. Thematic Fronting • Thematic fronting occurs when the theme is ‘marked’, that is, • when some element of the clause which does not usually assume this function is made into the theme • Banda they call me. (They call me Banda.) • An utter fool I felt. (I felt an utter fool)
9. • A good teacher she’s not. (she’s not a good teacher). • Thematic fronting is often associated with syntactic inversion. • This can be of two types. • The first is subject-verb inversion, which occurs when a normally post-verbal element is moved to pre-subject position, as in: • Here comes the bus. • There are our friends. • Away went the car like a whirlwind. • Slowly out of his cave came the cyclops. • So say all of us.
10. The other type is yes-no syntactic inversion: Never does he eat snails. (He never eats snails). 10
11. Thematic progression • The Themes and Rhemes in clauses are interrelated with each other. For example, the Theme (or part of it) in a preceding clause often continues to be the Theme or the Rheme in the following clause, and the Rheme (or part of it) is often picked up as the Theme or the Rheme in the next clause, thus forming a thematic progression pattern among successive clauses.
12. Examples The book you lent me is very interesting. It is really worth reading. Yesterday I saw Michael. He didn’t seem to be very happy. Tom and Peter decided to visit a remote village. However, their expedition did not go as expected.
13. When the theme in the following sentence (clause) stands for the one or a part of the rheme in the preceding sentence, there is thematic progression) 13
14. Genre Genre means different styles of literary discourse such as sonnets, tragedies and romances. Nowadays genre has been adapted by functional linguists to refer to different types of communicative events. Different types of communicative events result in different types of discourse, and each of these will have its own distinctive characteristics. 14
15. Rhetoric patterns The ordering of information in discourse can reflect certain rhetoric relationship such as cause-consequence, problem-solution, instrument-achievement. Examine the four following sentences: - I opened fire. - I was on sentry duty. - I beat off the attack. - I saw the enemy approach. 15
16. There are twenty-four ways to sequence these four sentences; however, only one sequence is completely acceptable: I was on sentry duty. I saw the enemy approaching. I opened fire. I beat off the attack. There are constraints on the ordering of information within a text. In the above text there are two particular types of relationship: cause- consequence and instrument-achievement. 16
17. I was on sentry duty. CAUSE > I saw the enemy approaching. > CONSEQUENCE > I opened fire. INSTRUMENT > I opened fire. >ACHIEVEMENT > I beat off the attack. However, if we use grammatical devices, we can change the sequencing of the information in the text in acceptable ways. 17
18. While I was on sentry duty, I opened fire because I saw the enemy approaching. I (thereby) beat off the attack. We may also use conjunction to change the sequencing. I opened fire because I saw the enemy approaching when I was on sentry duty. By this means I beat off the attack. + Grammatical devices: (conjunctions) while, because, when, etc. 18
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