Course Description
Welcome! In this course we will study discourse, or units of language beyond the sentence. We will examine discourse from several (overlapping) perspectives, viewing it as (1) a type of event, specifically a verbal exchange involving human agents; (2) the linguistic content of that exchange; and (3) "the more complex structure of information that is presupposed and/or conveyed by the interlocutors during the course of the discourse event in view of the explicit content of the exchange" (Roberts 1999). The readings for the course are designed to show how different research traditions÷ethnographic and sociological as well as sociolinguistic, pragmatic, and cognitive-linguistic÷furnish tools for studying discourse viewed as verbal exchange, linguistic content, and structure of information.
In addition, we will adopt tools from "critical discourse analysis" and research on language and gender to study how discourse both stems from and helps reinforce larger social assumptions and practices. Among those assumptions and practices are ones bearing on participantsâ identities (including their gender identities) and their modes of agency. Thus, besides examining discourse from the three perspectives mentioned above, we will also study (4) the ideological underpinnings and social implications of discourse events and discourse structure. The final part of the course will focus on narrative analysis as a case study, combining ideas from several research traditions to provide a sense of how multiple methods of discourse analysis can be brought to bear on one particular type of discourse.
Texts:
+ Readings available on electronic reserve ( http://www.lib.ncsu.edu/rbr/index.html). Type in English 527, section 001, or use my last name and English 527 as descriptors. All course materials on electronic reserve are marked "[ER]" on the class schedule below. You will need to download and install Adobe Reader (www.adobe.com), if you havenât done so already, to read the chapters on reserve. Hard copies of these chapters will also be available for two-hour checkout from the Reserve Room in D.H. Hill Library.
Click here for a list of all materials on electronic reserve.
Requirements
1. Active class participation.
2. Brief oral presentations. Presentations should be 10-15 minutes in length; everyone will give two reports over the course of the semester. Presentations should explore the problems as well as the potentials of the theoretical models covered in the assigned readings. On the day you make your presentation, please turn in a brief outline of your talk, together with a transcript of the discourse sample you analyzed.
You can collect your sample using tape recorders that can be checked out from the linguistics lab (Tompkins 208), or you can videotape a news broadcast, political speech, etc. You can also use written discourse. After discussing how you went about collecting your sample, talk about how that sample can be analyzed via one of the approaches that weâll be covering in class. What aspects of the sample did the theory help illuminate? Conversely, how did analyzing the sample impact your understanding of the theory you used? You may very well wish to discuss the same sample in both of your presentations, as well in your midterm paper (see item 3 below) and in your final research project (items 5 and 6).
3. A short (3-5 page) midterm paper, due Wednesday, March 7.
4. An abstract (250-500 words) corresponding to items 5 and 6 below. Abstracts should (a) state and describe the research problem you are addressing; (b) situate that problem in the context of previous scholarship devoted to the issue you intend to explore; and (c) indicate how your own approach to this problem will advance or enrich or refine prior scholarship in this connection. Please include a title. Abstracts are due Monday, April 2.
5. A 15-minute (= approximately 8-page) conference paper for oral delivery at The NC State Discourse Analysis Colloquium (all submissions guaranteed acceptance). The Colloquium will be held at the end of the term.
6. A longer written version of item 5, ca. 20 pages The paper is to be turned in on the last day of class. You need not hand in the shorter version of the paper that you present at the colloquium.
Grade:
In-class presentations = 25%
Midterm paper = 15%
Abstract = 10%
Oral presentation at colloquium = 20%
Long paper = 20%
Class participation = 10%
Class Schedule:
January
PRELIMINARY MATTERS
M 8 Introduction; read Roberts (1999) [ER]
W 10 William O. Hendricks, "On the Notion ÎBeyond the Sentenceâ" [ER]; Schiffrin, pp. v-43, 420-431
M 15 Martin Luther King Holiday
W 17 (Part I) Fairclough, "Language and Ideology" [ER]
DISCOURSE AS VERBAL EXCHANGE
W 17 (Part II) Goffman, "Introduction" and chapters 1 and 3 of Forms of Talk [ER]
M 22 Required: Schiffrin, chapter 4; suggested: Hoyle, "Participation Frameworks in Sportscasting Play" [ER]
W 24 Required: Gumperz, "Introduction" and chapters 2, 6, and 7 of Discourse Strategies [ER]; suggested: Levinson, "Activity Types" [ER]
M 29 Saville-Troike, chapters 1-4
W 31 Saville-Troike, chapters 5-7
February
M 5 Schiffrin, chapter 5; Scollon and Scollon, "Impersonal Politeness and Power" [ER]
W 7 Levinson, chapter 5 of Pragmatics [ER]
M 12 Schiffrin, chapter 3
W 14 (Part I) Schegloff, "Discourse As an Interactional Achievement" [ER]
THE LINGUISTIC CONTENT OF DISCOURSE
W 14 (Part II) Required: Sacks, Schegloff, and Jefferson, "A Simplest Systematics" [ER]; suggested: Jefferson, "On Stepwise Transition" [ER]
M 19 Schiffrin, chapter 7; Heritage, "Accounts and Accountings" [ER]
W 21 Required: Schiffrin, chapters 2 and 3 of Discourse Markers [ER]; suggested: chapter 4
M 26 Required: Schiffrin, chapters 5 and 6 of Discourse Markers [ER]; suggested: chapter 7
W 28 Tannen, chapters 3 and 4 of Talking Voices [ER]
March
M 5 Ferguson, "Dialect, Register, and Genre" [ER]; Heath and Langman, "Shared Thinking and the Register of Coaching" [ER]; Wolfram and Schilling-Estes, chapter 8 of American English [ER]
W 7 Excerpt from Jakobson, "Closing Statement: Linguistics and Poetics" [ER]; M. A. K. Halliday, "Linguistic Function and Literary Style" [ER]; Roger Fowler, "Studying Literature as Language" [ER]
Spring Break
DISCOURSE AS STRUCTURE OF INFORMATION
M 19 Grice, "Logic and Conversation" [ER]; Schiffrin, chapter 6
W 21 Required: Halliday and Hasan, chapters 1 and 2 of Cohesion in English [ER]; suggested: chapter 7
Spring Break
M 26 Brown and Yule, chapters 3, 5, and 6 of Discourse Analysis [ER]
W 28 Brown and Yule, chapter 7 of Discourse Analysis [ER]; G. Brown, chapters 1 - 4 of Speakers, Listeners, and Communication [ER]
April
M 2 Grosz and Sidner, "Attentions, Intentions, and the Structure of Discourse" [ER]; Mann and Thompson, "Rhetorical Structure Theory" [ER]
SOCIOIDEOLOGICAL DIMENSIONS OF DISCOURSE
W 4 Van Dijk, "Principles of Critical Discourse Analysis" [ER]; Fairclough, "Critical and Descriptive Goals in Discourse Analysis" [ER]
M 9 Hodge and Kress, chapters 3, 4, 5, and 6 of Language as Ideology [ER]
W 11 Holiday
M 16 Hodge and Kress, chapters 7 and 8 of Language as Ideology [ER]; Wolfram and Schilling-Estes, chapter 7 of American English [ER]
W 18 Herbert, "Sex-based Differences in Compliment Behavior" [ER]; Sheldon and Johnson, "Preschool Negotiators" [ER]; Coates, "Gossip Revisited" [ER]
CASE STUDY: NARRATIVE ANALYSIS
M 23 Goodwin, chapters 9 and 10 of He-Said-She-Said [ER]; Labov, "The Transformation of Experience in Narrative Syntax" [ER]
W 25 Emmott, chapters 1, 4, and 5 of Narrative Comprehension [ER]
M 30 Ochs, Smith, and Taylor, "Detective Stories at Dinnertime" [ER]; OâBarr and Conley, "Ideological Dissonance in the American Legal System" [ER]; Mertz, "Consensus and Dissent in U.S. Legal Opinions" [ER]
May
W 2 "Corpus Linguistics and Narrative Analysis" [powerpoint presentation by instructor]; catch-up and review
Discourse Analysis Colloquium: Date and Time TBA