Discourse

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Discourse Communication

• The word in the world

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Language-mediated reference

• Our discussions of semantics have concentrated
  mainly on how words refer to either real-world
  entities or to abstract ideas
• However, there is another important element that
  words can refer to, and that is other words
• Much of the coherence that we are able to extract
  from multi-sentence utterances or multi-sentence
  texts derives from the fact that sentences we use
  regularly refer back to previous sentences or to
  clauses within sentences
• There are two ways this can happen explicitly
  and implicitly

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Explicit reference (anaphora)

• Anaphora is the technical term which means
  referring back to previous text anaphora

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Types of explicit anaphora

• There are many common ways of referring back to
  prior language
• i.) Pronominal reference
• ii.) Demonstratives
• iii.) Comparatives
• iv.) Substitution
• v.) Ellipsis
• vi.) Conjunction
• vii.) Idiosyncratic means

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i.) Pronominal reference

• By definition, pronouns such as he, she,
  we, and it etc. must refer to something
  which has already been mentioned otherwise there
  is an error
• Note, however, that it is possible to use them to
  refer to a reference that has never been fixed
  linguistically
• eg. you can say He's my ideal man pointing to
  someone walking by

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ii.) Demonstratives

• Similarly, demonstratives such as this,
  these, that, those, there, here, the,
  and a must also pick out a entity or text that
  has been previously referred to

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iii.) Comparatives

• Comparatives make a contrast between two
  previously referred to items or text
• "My ideal man would look like Nicholas Cage, or
  at least no balder"

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iv.) Substitution

• Substitution occurs when one text stands in for
  another
• "Moreover, the guy needs to be at least as rich
  as Cage".
• We often use substitution with words or phrases
  like similarly, likewise, even better,
  furthermoreetc.
• "Even better, he should be richer."

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v.) Ellipsis

• We can also refer by deletion, which is called
  ellipsis
• "And less whiny"
• A great deal of apparently non-grammatical
  discourse is the result of ellipsis
• we are able to use it to make sentences that
  violate the normal formal requirements of syntax.

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vi.) Conjunction

• Conjunction is perhaps the most widely used of
  all anaphoric tools
• Conjunctions are just ways of explicitly
  connecting sentences, and appear in several
  different forms, corresponding to different
  logical connectors and ordering tools
• i.) Additive and
• ii.) Adversative but, despite, or
• iii.) Causal because
• iv.) Temporal then
• v.) Pragmatic

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Pragmatic conjunction

• Although all conjunctions play a pragmatic role,
  some play no other role at all
• Textbook example "So, how bout them Blue Jays?"
  
• So has no explicit anaphoric utility here it
  serves no role except to mark a new topic
  (perhaps an implicit anaphora?)
• The word so is complicated, since it can also
  have a radically anaphoric value, when it is used
  to resume an interrupted story
• "So, there I was, hanging outside the hotel room
  naked, drunk, and covered in peanut butter"

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Pragmatic limitations

• Related anaphoric examples are That reminds me
  and Hey, I almost forgot to tell you about
• These tools are deeply engrained in pragmatic
  practice
• In a structured situation like a class, one can
  mark a new topic explicitly That's all I have
  to say about X, now I'm going to talk about Y
• However, it is very odd in informal situations to
  be explicit about opening a new topic If we
  have finished talking about your feelings about
  your boss, I'd like to discuss my hockey pool
  results now.
• I believe mental heath would be enhanced if
  such explicit topic changes were pragmatically
  acceptable

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vii.) Idiosyncratic anaphora

• There are also a bunch of other ways of referring
  back that are idiosyncratic depending on the
  topic at hand
• My dog is a real annoyance. The little rascal
  ate my slippers yesterday.

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Implicit Anaphora

• How do we decode idiosyncratic anaphora, and
  manage topic changes that cannot be explicitly
  marked?
• We use pragmatics, especially insofar as it
  encodes rules for context management

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Grices Maxims (again)

• Many complex rules guide us, but the most
  well-known are known as the Gricean Maxims, after
  the guy who first enumerated them
• i.) The Maxim Of Quality Speakers should tell
  the truth as they know it, or explicitly
  acknowledge their uncertainty about the truth if
  they are aware of it
• ii.) The Maxim of Manner Speakers should strive
  to be clear, succinct, and unambiguous
• iii.) The Maxim of Quantity Speakers shouls say
  all that is necessary or required, but no more
  than that
• iv.) The Maxim of Relation Speakers should say
  only what is relevant

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Grices Maxims

• These maxims are usually put forth as maxims for
  action, but in fact Grice's point is not simply
  that this is what people should do it is what
  people are implicitly assumed to be doing
• We rely on them to make connections between
  words
• When they are flouted without saying so, problems
  ensue
• There is a psychological term for the class of
  people who continuously flout Gricean maxims
  What is it?

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Exceptions to Grices maxims

• In some situations like court cases, it is in the
  interests of some party to conceal the truth or
  deflect attention from that it relevant
• Note that what we get people to do in that
  situation is basically to swear that they will
  not violate the maxims we get them to swear to
  "tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but
  the truth".
• Impolite people flout the maxims to some extent
• We rarely allow ourselves to state explicitly
  that someone is violating them, and so we suffer
  from bores, exaggerators, boasters, and
  narcissists
• Cf. My hockey-loving lunch companion

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Context and implicit anaphora

• We can also use context to decode implicit
  anaphora (cf. Pete Dixons talk)
• - Your textbook has a good example of the
  importance of linguistic context in comprehension
  pg. 282
• Context can remove ambiguity and resolve
  uncertainty, but it can also do the opposite
• it can allow for the deliberate and overt
  multiplication f meanings, as in the cases of
  irony and sarcasm
• Context also allows for indirect commands Its
  hot in here.

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Genres

• We have generally been treating the English
  language as if it were a single thing, as if it
  were used in the same way by everyone
• Of course this is not true there are many
  systematic sub-categories of language that use
  their own rules and structure genres
• We are all aware of them and easily move between
  the different genres which we have mastered,
  almost without thinking

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Genres

• For example, in writing a paper we structure and
  connect sentences in very different ways than
  when we are eating with our friends,
• We might be very different again when we are out
  on a first date or interacting with our partner's
  parents or trying to convince our landlord to
  makes repairs at his own expense
• It becomes difficult to specify how many
  different genres we inhabit maybe we have a
  different set of discourse rules for almost
  everyone we interact with
• Maybe it is worse than that we have a different
  set for different kinds of discussions even with
  the same people!

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Genres Computers

• "Each of us is alone in the world. He is shut in
  a tower of brass, and can communicate with his
  fellows only by signs, and the signs have no
  common value, so that their sense is vague and
  uncertain. We seek pitifully to convey to others
  the treasures of our heart, but they have not the
  power to accept them, and so we go lonely, side
  by side but not together, unable to know our
  fellows and unknown to them. We are like people
  living in a country whose language they know so
  little that, with all manner of beautiful and
  profound things to say, they are condemned to the
  banalities of the conversation manual. Their
  brain is seething with ideas, and they can only
  tell you that the umbrella of the gardeners aunt
  is in the house."
• Somerset Maugham
• The Moon And Sixpence

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Genres Computers

• "It hath been written of each of us that he is
  alone upon this earthly sphere. Every soul hath
  been said to be enclosed within in a tower of
  brass, and each canst communicate with his fellow
  men only by signs, and the signs have no common
  value, so that their sense hath been said to be
  vague and without certainty. We seeketh most
  pitifully to convey to others the treasures which
  lie within our hearts. Alas, they have not the
  power to accept them. We go lonely, side by side
  but not together, unable to know what lies within
  the hearts of our fellow men and with the secrets
  of our own inner hearts unknown to them. We art
  like a people abiding in a land whose language
  they know but little. Therefore, with all manner
  of fair and profound things to say, they art
  condemned to the banalities of a tome of
  conversation. Their brain seetheth with ideas,
  and they canst only tell thee that the umbrella
  of the gardeners aunt remains within the lonely
  room in which they dwell."
• Somerset Maugham
• The Moon And Sixpence

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Genres Computers

• "Each of us is alone in thuh planet. Every dude
  is shut in, like, a tower of brass, man, and can
  communicate with his pals only by signs, and thuh
  signs have no common value, so that their sense
  is like weird and farout. Like, it's really
  pathetic the way that us dudes seek to convey to
  each other thuh greatness of, like, our inner
  minds, man, but they have not thuh power to
  accept them, and so we're like all alone in the
  universe, man, side by side but not together,
  unable to know our buddies and unknown to them.
  Us dudes are like some dudes livin' in a country
  whose language they know so little that, even
  though they got wicked smart thin's to say, they
  are forced tuh stick tuh to thuh sentences in
  some translation book. Their brain is flashin' on
  infinity, man, but they can only tell you that
  thuh umbrella of thuh gardeners aunt got left
  back in their pad."
• Somerset Maugham
• The Moon And Sixpence

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Wanna play?

• Check out
• www.janusnode.com Macintosh only
• http//rinkworks.com/dialect/