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Mann, Steve. "The development of discourse in a discourse of development : a case study of a group constructing a new discourse." Thesis, Aston University, 2002. http://publications.aston.ac.uk/14811/.
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This thesis is a qualitative case study drawing on discourse analysis and ethnographic traditions. The aim of the study is to provide a description of the discourse consciously constructed by a group of six TESOL professionals in the interests of their own development. Once a week, the group met for one hour and took turns to act as 'Speaker'. The other five individuals acted as Understanders. The extra space given to the Speaker allowed a fuller articulation of a problem or focus than would normally be possible in other professional talk. The Understanders contributed moves to support this articulation. The description covers a two-year period (1998-2000) of this constructed discourse. Data, collected during this period, are drawn from several different sources: recordings, interviews, diaries and critical incident journals. The main recordings are of the actual Group Development Meetings (GDMs). Discussion of six transcribed GDMs demonstrates which discourse choices and decisions were important. In particular, the study looks at the key role played by 'Reflection' in this process. It is argued that Reflection is the key element in supporting the Speaker. The analysis of Reflection, which is considered from four perspectives (values, purpose, form and outcomes) draws on data from the featured cases. Issues relating to the transfer to other groups of this discourse-based approach to professional development are considered.
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Tan, Sunny Siew Bek. "Bakhtin and discourse stylistics." Thesis, University of Nottingham, 1996. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.339610.
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Duvivier, R. T. "Lecture discourse and intonation." Thesis, University of Kent, 1992. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.335928.
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Dallie, Muhammed. "Discourse connectives in Syrian Arabic." Thesis, Bangor University, 1992. https://research.bangor.ac.uk/portal/en/theses/discourse-connectives-in-syrian-arabic(9c4f3197-acde-4c81-bac9-9e1876038c12).html.
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The scope of this work is certain linguistic elements which make no contribution towards the truth-conditional content of their utterances. Nevertheless, they play a crucial role in utterance interpretation. They function as constraints on the inferential computations the hearer performs in order to establish the relevance of the proposition in which they occur. The sort of expressions this work is concerned with are items like so, after all, you see, llowever and although in both English and their counterparts in the Syrian dialect of the Arabic language spoken in two cities, Lattakia and Homs. The framework of this study is supplied by Sperber and wilson who argue that relevance is the key to communication. This relevance-based framework is adopted by Blakemore (1987) in terms of whose ideas the English and the Syrian Arabic expressions are analysed as semantic constraints on relevance. The concept of a "discourse connective" adopted in this study differs greatly from those discourse analysts who use this term in a broader sense. In this study the term "discourse connective" is reserved for those expressions whose function is not to contribute to the truth-conditional content of their utterances rather to indicate how the interpretation of one utterance contributes to the interpretation of the other. As one expects similarities and differences between the English expressions and their Syrian counterparts arise but the similarities are much greater than the differences.
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Eley, Georgina Jane. "Clem Sunter's transformational leadership discourse: a linguistic analysis." Thesis, Rhodes University, 2009. http://hdl.handle.net/10962/61994.
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Since the 1970s, two distinct leadership styles have been recognised in the fields of business and organisational research - transactional and transformational leadership. Transactional leadership is seen to resemble managerial-type leadership where followers fulfil their duties in return for rewards that satisfy their self-interest, such as pay or promotion. Transformational leadership, as the label suggests, is leadership that is seen to transform followers from their everyday selves to their better selves (Yukl 1998). Transformational leaders motivate followers by appealing to their higher-order needs, offering incentives for compliance such as feelings of personal empowerment, a sense of moral self-actualisation and an emphasis on the individual's contribution to the community at large (Harvey 2004). These leaders have been observed to emerge and thrive within contexts fraught with socio-political and economic turbulence, where they maximise the uncertainty of the environment to instigate change. Transformational leaders are seen to be especially adept at using discourse to foster strong, persuasive interpersonal relations with their followers. This research reports on, particularly, the interpersonal dimension of Clem Sunter's transformational discourse; he being a prominent South African scenario planner and business leader. It is essentially a qualitative study that describes Sunter's discourse in three of his texts written in 1996. The end to Apartheid in 1994 and transition from White to Black governance meant that the socio-political climate of 1996 South Africa was conducive to the rise of a transformational leader like Sunter. Although the country was, ostensibly, a democracy in 1996, much social transformation was still needed at the time Sunter produced his texts. The analysis are grounded mainly in Systemic Functional Linguistics, specifically APPRAISAL theory and, to some extent, Critical Discourse Analysis theory. However, the analyses do not follow a classic CDA analysis approach, but draw rather from more recent CDA work (cf. Fairclough 2003), such as the analysis of value assumption types within the texts. This analysis clearly demonstrates that Sunter's discourse is congruent 11 with the principal insights of transformational leadership. More than this, it is argued that these findings suggest a close link between transformational leadership and the goals of the latest social order of new capitalism, a link not made in the relevant research to date. The analysis of modes of operation of ideology in the texts (cf. Thompson 1990), also deriving from CDA, reinforces this, indicating that Sunter's transformational discourse promotes and maintains the kinds of power inequalities that underpin new capitalism. The APPRAISAL analysis of Affect choices in the text reveals a high frequency of disquiet, i.e. Sunter's discourse is seen to generate feelings of insecurity and fear. This feature, interestingly, is completely inconsistent with current transformational leadership theory, but would have been an effective motivational technique given the instability of the South African socio-political context in 1996. In addition, the APPRAISAL analysis of Judgement reveals that Sunter evokes high levels of tenacity and appeals to readers' morality, ethics and feelings of group-efficacy - all higher-order needs. The argument here too is that the socio-political context enabled Sunter to stimulate disquiet and tenacity in an effective configuration to mobilise change in his reader and promote the goals of new capitalism. The thesis concludes with a reflection on the limitations of the study and makes various recommendations for future research.
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Cook, Guy William Davidson. "A theory of discourse deviation : the application of schema theory to the analysis of literary discourse." Thesis, University of Leeds, 1990. http://etheses.whiterose.ac.uk/12996/.
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Schema theory suggests that people understand texts and experiences by comparing them with stereotypical mental representations of similar cases. This thesis examines the relevance of this theory (as developed in some Artificial Intelligence (AI) work of the 1970s and 1980s) to literary theory and the analysis of literary texts. The general theoretical framework is that of discourse analysis. In this approach, the usefulness of schema theory is already widely acknowledged for the contribution it can make to an explanation of 'coherence': the quality of meaningfulness and unity perceived in discourse. Building upon this framework, relevant AI work on text processing is discussed, evaluated, and applied to literary and non-literary discourse. The argument then moves on to literary theory, and in particular to the 'scientific' tradition of formalism, structuralism and Jakobsonian stylistics. The central concept of this tradition is 'defamiliarization': the refreshing of experience through deviation from expectation. In structuralism, attention has been concentrated on text structure, and in Jakobsonian stylistics on language. It is argued that whereas AI work on text pays little attention to linguistic and textual form, seeking to 'translate' texts into a neutral representation of 'content', the literary theories referred to above have erred in the opposite direction, and concentrated exclusively on form. Through contrastive analyses of literary and non-literary discourse, it is suggested that neither approach is capable of accounting for •literariness* on its own. The two approaches are, however, complementary, and each would benefit from the insights of the other. Human beings need to change and refresh their schematic representations of the world, texts and language. It is suggested that such changes to schemata are effected through linguistic and textual deviation from expectation, but that deviations at these levels are no guarantee of change (as is often the case in advertisements). Discourses which do. effect changes through text and language are described as displaying 'discourse deviation*. Their primary function and value may be this effect. Discourse categorized as 'literary' is frequently of this type. Discourse deviation is best described by a combination of the methods of A1 text analysis with formalist, structuralist and Jakobsonian literary theories. In illustration of these proposals, the thesis concludes with analyses of three well-known literary texts.
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Hesni, Samia. "Normative discourse and social negotiation." Thesis, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 2019. https://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/122428.
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Thesis: Ph. D. in Linguistics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Department of Linguistics and Philosophy, 2019Cataloged from PDF version of thesis.
Includes bibliographical references.
This dissertation lies at the intersection of philosophy of language, social and political, and feminist philosophy. The first half of the dissertation is primarily about the ways language can be used to stereotype, denigrate, oppress, or otherwise harm. The second half is about how language can be used to resist and undermine those harms. In the four chapters of my dissertation, I examine the ways in which language can shape the social world. Language allows people to reinforce social norms and systems like sexism, racism, and oppression more broadly. But it also allows people to disrupt these systems. I argue that it is worth looking seriously at the linguistic mechanisms by which individuals can do both, and the social and political systems in place that enable such language use in the first place. Only by combining the two can we start to get the full story about language, oppression, and power.
Within this broad research program, I am specifically interested in implicit discourse: language that indirectly or implicitly communicates one thing while explicitly stating another. Implicit language is extremely important to understand various mechanisms of linguistic harm and oppression. Chapter 1 examines normative generics like 'boys don't cry,' whose utterances often carry with them an injunction that boys not cry, or a condemnation of crying boys. When someone utters a normative generic like 'women stay at home and raise families,' they are reinforcing a harmful social norm without explicitly using any evaluative terms like 'should, good, right.' In Chapter 2, I problematize philosophical views on silencing, and introduce a new concept of linguistic harm, illocutionary frustration, that occurs when a hearer treats a speaker as though she does not have standing to say what she is saying.
In Chapter 3, I give a meta-philosophical analysis of socially informed philosophy of language. In it, I argue that in the service of intellectual inquiry and social justice, we would do well to incorporate types of social situatedness into our methodological frameworks.. I end in Chapter 4 by reviewing the ways in which social scripts play pivotal roles in enabling interpersonal subjugation, and offer a way out.
by Samia Hesni.
Ph. D. in Linguistics
Ph.D.inLinguistics Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Department of Linguistics and Philosophy
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McPherson, Catriona. "Reference, existence and truth in discourse." Thesis, University of Edinburgh, 1996. http://hdl.handle.net/1842/1798.
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It is a long established and still respectable claim in the linguistic discipline that sentences containing reference to non-existent objects have no truth-value. This thesis is an attempt to provide a richer and more accurate account of the interesting relations which connect the existence or non-existence of objects and the expressions by which speakers attempt to refer to them with the range of truth-values assigned to sentences containing such expressions. After an introductory chapter whch defines the main terms used in the thesis and discusses preliminary issues, the second chapter is taken up with a critical review of the history of presupposition in linguistics. The important early theoretical contributions are surveyed and the relevant later theories discussed, particularly those analyses which acknowledge the complexities of the relationshp between failed presuppositions and truth-values . These are evaluated with respect to their empirical and theoretical adequacy and the chapter concludes with a summary of the outstanding problems. Chapter three contains a discussion of determiners focusing on the existential aspects of their meaning. An analysis of existential force as a scalar phenomenon is proposed and examples of each of the types of determiner distinguished by the proposed existential scale are examined. h the fourth chapter, questions surroundmg the nature of the existence of objects are discussed. It is proposed that different types of existence are viewed in terms of different existential locations; and that these existential locations can be modelled as possible worlds. Some preliminary questions concerning the nature of possible worlds are addressed and arguments from the linguistic and philosophcal literature in favour of viewing possible worlds as existent entities or as abstract constructs are reviewed. The chapter concludes by defending the modal realistic stance whch maintains that all possible worlds actually exist. Chapter five contains a detailed discussion of the members of the set of possible worlds and describes a rich structure whch can be imposed on the set in the form of accessibility relations of several types: counterpart relations which define inter-world proximity; temporal links whch can be used to identifL distinct temporal stages of worlds as chronological counterparts; and familiarity relations which connect individuals to sub-sets of worlds via epistemic llnks. The next chapter presents a theory of how referring expressions are interpreted by means of locating their referents in possible worlds. The processes involved in accessing worlds of all types are discussed and then a set of rules is laid out which governs the choice of referential location on the basis of the relative accessibility of competing potential reference worlds, where accessibility is determined by the structure of llnks imposed on the set. The application of the rules to a range of increasingly complex sentences is discussed. The final chapter of the thesis is concerned with the potential problems and wider implications associated with adopting the location theory of reference presented, First, it is shown that two related types of sentences, those containing deictic pronouns and names, which were problem cases for previous theories, can be accounted for. We then discuss the implications, concerning the failure of Leibniz's Law, which arise from treating all referring expressions as picking out their extensions. Finally there is a discussion of the implications of adopting the framework set out in the current thesis for the interpretation of a wider range of predicate types and further areas of research are suggested.
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Badram, Dany. "Ideology through modality in discourse analysis." Thesis, University of Nottingham, 2003. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.275961.
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Trappes-Lomax, Hugh R. N. "Discourse, nominality and reference : a study in applied linguistics." Thesis, University of Edinburgh, 1986. http://hdl.handle.net/1842/19366.
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Kramer, Emily Hope. "Musical Discourse Coherence." Bowling Green State University / OhioLINK, 2012. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=bgsu1336857806.
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Taranto, Gina Christine. "Discourse Adjectives /." Diss., Connect to a 24 p. preview or request complete full text in PDF format. Access restricted to UC campuses, 2003. http://wwwlib.umi.com/cr/ucsd/fullcit?p3099909.
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Durrant-Peatfield, Mark Robert. "Semantics and focus in immediate discourse interpretation." Thesis, Birkbeck (University of London), 1996. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.243910.
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The aim of utterance interpretation is to integrate what is being said with what has been said so far. This paper examines some factors which affect the "on-line" construction of a coherent discourse representation. Building on ideas presented in Garrod and Sanford (1977) and others we report a series of studies showing that the time taken to assign an antecedent to a gerund can be influenced by semantic featural overlap between material in the prior discourse and the New/incoming material. Whether the effect is facilitatory or inhibitory depends on the item's role in the discourse representation. The data distinguish between two types of response to semantic overlap between the immediate input and the semantic properties of the discourse representation. The first is a reflexive allocation of processing resources to discourse entity linked to semantic overlap information. The second is a facilitatory effect on the evaluation processes which determine the appropriate antecedent. When the prior discourse contains a word (e.g., jogging) denoting a conceptual property which is semantically similar to the immediate speech signal (e.g., Running towards ... ), antecedent assignment is facilitated but only when the property is linked to the pragmatically likely subject of the gerund. Antecedent assignment times are slowed when the conceptual property is linked to the less pragmatically likely subject of the gerund. We suggest that a processing conflict occurs when there is a mismatch between the semantic structure and the focus structure of the discourse representation
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Silvestri, Sara. "A Comparative Analysis of Donald Trump's and Hillary Clinton's Political Discourse." Bachelor's thesis, Alma Mater Studiorum - Università di Bologna, 2018. http://amslaurea.unibo.it/16545/.
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In this dissertation, I carry out an analysis of Hillary Clinton's and Donald Trump's political discourse in the 2016 US presidential campaign, in order to identify non-obvious meanings and patterns in their distinctive use of language. This comparison is carried out using a corpus-assisted approach, taking advantage of tools developed within corpus linguistics, such as the corpus query tool 'AntConc'. Based on the comparison of lists of keywords for both corpora, the analysis highlights aspects of their political rhetoric that would not be noticeable by simply reading the transcripts.
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Farag, S. M. "A linguistic analysis of spoken and written narrative discourse." Thesis, Aston University, 1986. http://publications.aston.ac.uk/10270/.
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Sazalie, Azimah Bt. "Malay discourse particles as semantic constraints on interpretation." Thesis, University of Strathclyde, 1999. http://oleg.lib.strath.ac.uk:80/R/?func=dbin-jump-full&object_id=21432.
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Gaddafi, Ahmed Mohamed. "Study of discourse markers in Libyan spoken Arabic." Thesis, Birkbeck (University of London), 1990. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.284960.
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Wu, Guobin. "A discourse structural approach to anaphora in Chinese." Thesis, University of York, 1995. http://etheses.whiterose.ac.uk/10806/.
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Donaldson, Bryan. "Discourse competence in near-native speakers of French." [Bloomington, Ind.] : Indiana University, 2008. http://gateway.proquest.com/openurl?url_ver=Z39.88-2004&rft_val_fmt=info:ofi/fmt:kev:mtx:dissertation&res_dat=xri:pqdiss&rft_dat=xri:pqdiss:3319913.
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Thesis (Ph.D.)--Indiana University, Dept. of French & Italian Studies, 2008.Title from PDF t.p. (viewed on May 11, 2009). Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 69-08, Section: A, page: 3129. Advisers: Kathleen Bardovi-Harlig; Laurent Dekydtspotter.
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Krige, Jana. "Constructing victims and perpetrators of sexual violence in Drum magazine between 1984 and 2004 : a discourse analytical study." Thesis, Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University, 2013. http://hdl.handle.net/10019.1/85867.
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Thesis (MA)--Stellenbosch University, 2013.ENGLISH ABSTRACT: This thesis reports on the ways in which rape perpetrated by males on females is constructed in news stories and the advice column, Dear Dolly, published in the South African publication, Drum magazine. The data collected for the study spans from 1984 to 2004, encompassing both 10 years before and 10 years after a democracy. The paper uses critical discourse analysis (Fairclough 2003) as main analytical tool and but also draws on critical feminist theory (Bourke 2007) and other strands of discourse analysis such as Van Dijk‟s (1998) socio-cognitive approach. The findings suggest that there is on the one hand a decrease in explicit victim blaming after 1994, but that subtle and opaque victim blaming is still evident in the news stories, letters to the advice column, and the responses from the columnist. These rape discourses presented in Drum magazine after 1994 are as Bakhtin (1981) suggests made up of multiple voices articulating different gendered discourses. Discourses that make women responsible for their safety and protection against rape are prevalent while at the same time rape is constructed as a “horror story” and the perpetrator as the “monster”. In this thesis, I argue that even though the use of less explicit victim blaming might seem like a positive move in the representation of rape and gender, this is not always the case. The more subtle forms of victim blaming avoid contestation and consequently often go unchecked (Fairclough 2003: 58). This makes the manufacturing of consent easier and makes it more difficult to counteract dominant discourses. I subsequently call for more studies on this underrepresented topic in discourse analysis in South Africa.
AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Hierdie tesis doen verslag oor die maniere waarop verkragting met mans as oortreders en vroue as slagoffer gekonstrueer word in nuus stories en in die advies kolom Dear Dolly in die Suid-Afrikaanse publikasie, Drum magazine. Die data verteenwoordig die tydperk vanaf 1984 tot 2004 (insluitend tien jaar voor en 10 jaar na demokrasie). Die tesis gebruik kritiese diskoers analise (Fairclough 2003) as hoof analitiese instrument maar leen ook van kritiese feministiese teorie (Bourke 2007) en ander tipes diskoersanalise soos Van Dijk (1998) se sosiokognitiewe benadering. Die bevindinge van die tesis stel voor dat daar aan die een kant ‟n afname in is in die eksplisiete blamering van slagoffers na 1994, maar dat subtiele en ondeursigtige blamering van slagoffers nog steeds voorkom in die nuusstories, briewe na die advies kolom en in die antwoorde van die kolomskrywer. Die diskoerse wat in Drum magazine na 1994 gevind word bestaan soos Bakhtin (1981) voorstel uit vele verskillende stemme wat verskillende diskoerse oor geslagsverhoudinge verteenwoordig. Diskoerse wat vroue verantwoordelik hou vir hul eie veiligheid en beskerming kom wyd voor, terwyl verkragting ook gekonstrueer word as ‟n “erotiese riller” en die oortreders gekonstrueer word as monsters. In hierdie tesis stel ek voor dat hoewel die gebruik van minder eksplisiete slagoffer blamering lyk soos ʼn positiewe beweging in die representasie van verkragting en geslagsgelykheid, is dit nie noodwendig die geval nie. Subtiele vorme van slagoffer blamering is moeiliker om te bevraagteken en word dikwels nie krities beskou nie (Fairclough 2003: 58). Dit maak die produksie van konsent makliker en maak dit moeiliker om dominante diskoerse teë te gaan. Gevolglik stel ek voor dat baie meer studies oor hierdie onderverteenwoordige onderwerp in diskoersanalise in Suid-Afrika gedoen moet word.
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樊詩琪. "漢語語篇中主位推進模式理論研究 = A study of thematic progression theory in Chinese discourse." HKBU Institutional Repository, 2009. http://repository.hkbu.edu.hk/etd_ra/980.
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Thomas, Andrew Lambert. "The grammar and pragmatics of context-dependence in discourse." Thesis, Lancaster University, 1989. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.281423.
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Ozbeck, Nurdan. "Discourse markers in Turkish and English : a comparative study." Thesis, University of Nottingham, 1995. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.281623.
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Jones, Tamiryn. "Linguistic strategies used in the construction of performance assessment discourse in the South African workplace." Thesis, Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University, 2013. http://hdl.handle.net/10019.1/80171.
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Thesis (PhD)--Stellenbosch University, 2013.ENGLISH ABSTRACT: This study investigates the construction of Performance Assessment Discourses in three companies in the Western Cape, South Africa. The specific interest of is in how Performance Assessment Interviews (PAIs) are performed in terms of content, form, structure and social practice, and how managers and employees experience and make sense of this organizational practice. The study further investigates how individuals express their membership to communities of practice (CofPs) within the workplace, and seeks to identify obstacles (boundaries) in terms of acquiring and maintaining membership. This study is conducted within the broader framework of discourse analysis (DA) and employs genre theory and small story analysis as analytical tools. The 31 participants in this study are managers and employees of three participating companies in the Western Cape. They are L1 speakers of Afrikaans, English, isiXhosa and isiZulu, and are representative of a wide range of employment levels (lower-level employees to top management). Each individual participated in either a one-on-one interview or in a focus group discussion, which were audio-recorded and transcribed. During these interviews and discussion groups, individuals frequently resorted telling small stories in order to explicate their feelings, perceptions and positions on certain matters. The data confirms that several generic features of PAIs are identifiable and across all three companies, but that some unique features are also reported. Furthermore, the analysis shows that Performance Assessments are sites of struggles as dominant and competing discourses emerge from the data. Additionally, the study reveals that acquiring membership to CofPs in a diverse workplace is a complex endeavour and that language plays a determining role in acquiring membership, as well as in the construction of workplace identities. In conclusion, this study argues for further linguistic research within professional setting in South Africa, and suggests that CofP theory be revised and further developed to be more descriptive of diverse communities.
AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Hierdie studie ondersoek hoe Prestasiebestuur (PB) diskoerse in drie maatskappye in die Wes-Kaap gekonstrueer word. Die studie stel spesifiek belang in hoe prestasiebestuur gesprekke (PBG) uitgevoer word in terme van inhoud, vorm, struktuur en die sosiale praktyke wat daarmee saamhang. Verder word die manier waarop bestuurders en werkers PBGs ervaar en interpreteer ondersoek. Die studie ondersoek ook hoe individue hul lidmaatskap tot praktyk gemeenskappe (verskeie groeperinge wat praktyke deel) binne die werksplek beskryf en die struikelblokke identifiseer wat hulle verhoed om lidmaatskap te verwerf en te behou. Hierdie studie is uitgevoer binne die breër raamwerk van diskoersanalise (DA) en gebruik genre analise en klein verhaal analise as ontledingsmetodes. Die 31 deelnemers in die studie is bestuurders en werkers van drie deelnemende maatskappye in die Wes-Kaap. Hulle is eerstetaalsprekers van Afrikaans, Engels, Xhosa en Zoeloe en is verteenwoordigend van ʼn wye reeks posisies (vanaf junior posisies tot topbestuur). Elke individu het deelgeneem aan óf ʼn individuele onderhoud óf ʼn groepsbespreking. Hierdie onderhoude en besprekings is opgeneem en getranskribeer. Tydens die onderhoude en besprekings het die deelnemers telkens van ‘klein verhale’ gebruik gemaak om hul ervaringe en gevoelens te verwoord. Die data bevestig dat verskeie generiese eienskappe in PBGs geïdentifiseer kan word in al drie maatskappye maar dat daar wel sommige unieke eienskappe voorkom. Verder wys die analise uit dat binne PBs daar baie teenstellings bestaan en dat daar dominante en mededingende diskoerse in die data geïdentifiseer kan word. Die studie wys ook dat lidmaatskap tot ʼn praktykgemeenskap in ʼn diverse werksomgewing ʼn komplekse onderneming is. Dit blyk ook dat taal ʼn bepalende rol speel in die verwerwing van lidmaatskap, sowel as die manier waarop professionele identiteit gekonstrueer word. Verdere navorsing in professionele kontekste binne ʼn linguistiese raamwerk word aanbeveel. Die waarde van klein verhaal analise om diskoerse in professionele kontekste te ondersoek word beklemtoon en voorstelle word gemaak oor hoe die konsep ‘praktykgemeenskappe’ verder ontwikkel kan word om dit meer relevant te maak in die Suid-Afrikaanse konteks.
The ADA for funding this study
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J'Fellers, J., and Theresa McGarry. "Language and Linguistics." Digital Commons @ East Tennessee State University, 2009. https://dc.etsu.edu/etsu-works/6151.
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Smart, Cameron. "The role of discourse reflexivity in a linear description of grammar and discourse : the case of IMDb message boards." Thesis, University of Birmingham, 2014. http://etheses.bham.ac.uk//id/eprint/4787/.
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This study investigates the role of discourse reflexivity in the linear structure of both grammar and discourse by proposing an integrated model combining an adaptation of Sinclair and Mauranen’s (2006) model of Linear Unit Grammar with two of Sinclair’s models for the analysis of discourse (Sinclair 1992, 1993/2004e). It is a model which can be applied both to spoken and written as well as to monologic, dialogic and polylogic discourse. In order to demonstrate the model and how it can be employed in the investigation of the role of discourse reflexivity in the linear structure of discourse, a corpus of online message board discourse of the Internet Movie Database (IMDb) website is used. Within the scope of grammar, it is found that discourse reflexivity is particularly salient in initial suspensive elements in the linear unit and that these elements perform a variety of functions depending on the type of element sequence in which they occur and on their position in the linear structure. In discourse, it is found that there is large number of suspensive linear units between turns, i.e. those in which participants do not comply with expectations, coinciding with points where negative evaluation or antagonism is expressed. Discourse reflexivity is particularly salient at such points and therefore can be seen to play a central role in the linear structure and character of the discourse.
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Taing, Austin. "Application of Boolean Logic to Natural Language Complexity in Political Discourse." UKnowledge, 2019. https://uknowledge.uky.edu/cs_etds/77.
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Press releases serve as a major influence on public opinion of a politician, since they are a primary means of communicating with the public and directing discussion. Thus, the public’s ability to digest them is an important factor for politicians to consider. This study employs several well-studied measures of linguistic complexity and proposes a new one to examine whether politicians change their language to become more or less difficult to parse in different situations. This study uses 27,500 press releases from the US Senate between 2004–2008 and examines election cycles and natural disasters, namely hurricanes, as situations where politicians’ language may change. We calculate the syntactic complexity measures clauses per sentence, T-unit length, and complex-T ratio, as well as the Automated Readability Index and Flesch Reading Ease of each press release. We also propose a proof-of-concept measure called logical complexity to find if classical Boolean logic can be applied as a practical linguistic complexity measure. We find that language becomes more complex in coastal senators’ press releases concerning hurricanes, but see no significant change for those in election cycles. Our measure shows similar results to the well-established ones, showing that logical complexity is a useful lens for measuring linguistic complexity.
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Jordanidou, Anna Darda. "'Read me the old news' : a study of discourse practice." Thesis, Lancaster University, 1990. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.306731.
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Calderon, de Bolivar Adriana. "Interaction through written text : a discourse analysis of newspaper editorials." Thesis, University of Birmingham, 1986. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.312040.
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Basturkmen, Helen L. "The discourse of academic seminars : structures and strategies of interaction." Thesis, Aston University, 1995. http://publications.aston.ac.uk/14855/.
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Seminar discussion is an important mode of instruction in Higher Education. However, the discourse of discussion in academic seminars has been little investigated. Until now, there has existed only a limited amount of empirically based language description which could be used to inform those working in the field of English for Academic Purposes. The present study investigates discussion in seminars on a MBA programme and offers frameworks to account for central aspects of the verbal interaction: exchange patterns; acts and moves initiating exchanges and strategies. Three subgenres of seminar discussion are examined: the discussion following the presentation by an outside speaker; the discussion following the presentation by students and non-presentation tutorial discussion. Exchanges are found to be basically two-part structures of initiation and response. Some extended patterns are brought to light and it is argued that the major impetus prolonging exchanges in discussion is a third-part move registering dissatisfaction with the initial responses given. Exchanges are observed to be driven by moves functioning as elicitations although acts at initiation both ask for information and ideas and propose them. Initiation may be complex and involves a mixture of the acts. Textual signalling and attitudinal strategies used in seminars are explicated. The latter are accounted for in terms of the face concerns of the speakers. The features are examined across the three subgenres. Some quantitative variations were observed. These variations are discussed in the light of situational variables such as levels of participant status and knowledge. Theoretical implications are drawn and applications for syllabus and methodology in English for Academic Purposes are suggested.
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Rista-Dema, Mimoza. "Inverse-order constructions in Albanian English discourse and prototype effects /." [Bloomington, Ind.] : Indiana University, 2006. http://gateway.proquest.com/openurl?url_ver=Z39.88-2004&rft_val_fmt=info:ofi/fmt:kev:mtx:dissertation&res_dat=xri:pqdiss&rft_dat=xri:pqdiss:3230547.
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Thesis (Ph.D.)--Indiana University, Dept. of Linguistics, 2006.Title from PDF t.p. (viewed Dec. 4, 2008). Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 67-08, Section: A, page: 2963. Adviser: Beverly S. Hartford.
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Simpson, David (David Ian). "Pragmatics and the politics of discourse." Phd thesis, Department of General Philosophy, 1986. http://hdl.handle.net/2123/9032.
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Alzahrani, Najwa. "The discourse of liberalism in Saudi context : a diachronic corpus-assisted discourse study of the construction of 'alibraliah' in the Saudi press." Thesis, Cardiff University, 2018. http://orca.cf.ac.uk/119123/.
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The broad aim of this study is to investigate the discourse of 'alibrāliyah' in the Saudi socio-political context. 'alibrāliyah', corresponding to liberalism in English, is a loanword to Arabic that started to be contested recently amongst opposing groups who attempt to charge it with their own ideological meaning. Due to the lack of studies that investigate the ideological battles between the groups in contesting movements in Saudi context, it is found significant to examine the recent movement of 'alibrāliyah' as identified by different groups, mainly conservatives and progressives, in their battle to gain or maintain hegemony. This thesis designs a framework for examining the diachronic construction of 'alibrāliyah' at macro and micro levels. It combines Corpus Linguistics methods with Discourse-Historical Approach (DHA) and Discourse Theory (DT). The thesis employed the developed model by examining the discourse of 'alibrāliyah' in a corpus of Saudi newspaper articles that discuses mainly the issue of 'alibrāliyah'. The macro corpus analysis of 575 articles has revealed that 'alibrāliyah' is mainly associated with the discourse of religion and the discourse of human rights in which it shifts from being associated with the religious discourse to associating it with the discourse of freedom and human rights at the end of the period. The micro discourse analysis of a sample of texts shows in general that the construction of 'alibrāliyah' shifts from being secular and contradictory to Islam into being compatible to non-fundamental Islam in which 'alibrāliyah' can be adopted within Islam to guarantee the freedom of individuals. It is concluded that this shift in meaning represents the success of liberals to establish their identity and to have power in Saudi society. It is also concluded that the developed model for this thesis can help by intricately investigating the construction of ideological movements and the relation between the groups struggling for hegemony.
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Burgess, Sally. "Discourse variation across cultures : a genre-analytic study of writing on linguistics." Thesis, University of Reading, 1997. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.360078.
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Kowalik, Natalie. "The engagement of top management in IT discourse." Thesis, Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University, 2012. http://hdl.handle.net/10019.1/20072.
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Thesis (MPhil)--Stellenbosch University, 2012ENGLISH ABSTRACT: In small to medium sized enterprises (SMEs) top management is responsible for the risk management in their company. In today‟s world, businesses are relying more and more heavily on IT and often this can be seen as a huge risk. As a potential risk factor and an integral part of any business, IT therefore falls under the portfolio of top management. However, there is a general perception, especially among dedicated IT professionals, that there is a gap between business, that is top management, and IT and that successful communication is not always achieved. The lack of successful communication between top management and IT role players could have a negative impact on a business‟ ability to operate fully. This study is therefore concerned with the investigation of how top management (the IT decision makers in a company) engage in the discourse of IT. It aims to identify whether a communication gap between business (top management) and IT truly does exist and, if so, why. The data for this study takes the form of recorded, semi-structured interviews with IT role-players and directors/managers who have IT as part of their portfolio, from ten SMEs in the greater Cape Town area. This study is undertaken in the framework of semantic discourse analysis, concentrating on two notions of coherence, that of van Dijk‟s (1985) model of macrostructures and Brown and Yule‟s (1983) notion of „discourse topic‟. This approach is used in order to analyse the transcribed interviews with both top management and IT role players in order to determine whether the perception of a communication gap between business (top management) and IT is true and if so, what the reasons for this communication gap are. The analysis of the transcriptions allows the researcher to confirm the perception that a communication gap does exist and to identify two possible reasons as to why this communication gap exists, firstly, that there seems to be a lack of communication between IT and top management and, secondly, that top management‟s interpretation of what IT means to their company differs from that of their IT role players.
AFRIKAANSE OPSMOMMING: In klein tot mediumgrootte ondernemings (KMOs) is topbestuur verantwoordelik vir die risikobestuur in hul maatskappy. In vandag se wêreld, maak besighede meer en meer staat op IT en dit kan dikwels beskou word as 'n groot risiko. As 'n potensiële risikofaktor en' n integrale deel van enige besigheid, val dit dus onder die portefeulje van die top bestuur. Daar is egter 'n algemene persepsie, veral onder toegewyde IT-profesionele, dat daar' n gaping tussen die besigheid, in ander woorde die topbestuur, en IT bestaan en dat suksesvolle kommunikasie nie altyd bereik word nie. Die gebrek aan suksesvolle kommunikasie tussen topbestuur en IT kan 'n negatiewe impak op' n onderneming se vermoë om ten volle te funksioneer he. Hierdie studie is dus gemoeid met die ondersoek van hoe topbestuur (die IT-besluitnemers in 'n maatskappy) betrokke raak in die diskoers met IT. Die doel is om vas te stel of 'n kommunikasie gaping tussen die besigheid (topbestuur) en IT werklik bestaan, en indien wel, waarom te identifiseer. Die data vir hierdie studie neem die vorm van aangetekende, semi-gestruktureerde onderhoude met rolspelers en direkteure / bestuurders wat IT as deel van hul portefeulje het in tien KMOs in die groter Kaapstad-gebied. Hierdie studie is onderneem met die raamwerk van`n semantiese diskoers-analise, en konsentreer op die twee begrippe van samehang, dié van Van Dyk (1985) se model van makrostrukture en Brown en Yule (1983) se idee van `n 'diskoers onderwerp'. Hierdie benadering word gebruik om die getranskribeerde onderhoude met beide topbestuur en IT-rolspelers te analiseer en ten einde te bepaal of die persepsie van 'n kommunikasie gaping tussen die besigheid (topbestuur) en IT-rolspelers waar is en indien wel, wat die redes vir hierdie kommunikasie gaping is. Die ontleding van die transkripsies stel die navorser in staat om die persepsie dat 'n kommunikasie gaping bestaan te bevestig en om twee moontlike redes daarvoor te identifeer, in die eerste plek dat dit lyk asof daar' n gebrek aan kommunikasie tussen IT-rolspelers en die topbestuur bestaan, en tweedens, dat die topbestuur se interpretasie van wat IT beteken vir hul maatskappy verskil van dié van hul IT-rolspelers.
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Washington, Corey Glenn. "Discourse interpretation and the temporality of states and events." Thesis, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 1987. http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/105011.
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Thesis (M.S.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Linguistics and Philosophy, 1987.MICROFICHE COPY AVAILABLE IN ARCHIVES AND HUMANITIES.
Bibliography: leaves 196-197.
by Corey Glenn Washington.
M.S.
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Adler, Allison Nicole. "Syntax and discourse in the acquisition of adjunct control." Thesis, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 2006. http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/37417.
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Includes bibliographical references (p. 211-219).Thesis (Ph. D.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Linguistics and Philosophy, 2006.
(cont.) I suggest that the control principles are intact, and that a separate aspect of grammar is responsible for these non-adult interpretations. I argue that adjunct attachment height, which is crucial to determining what type of control will obtain in the adult grammar, must be learned from the input and exhibits gradual development. If the child has failed to embed an adjunct clause at a sufficiently low level (e.g., within the VP), the null subject will fall into the domain of discourse control rather than syntactic control. If these claims are correct, we expect children to show adult-like control in adjuncts, albeit contingent upon the adjunct type. Three experiments were conducted to test these predictions. We find correlations between non-adult control and non-adult pronoun interpretation, both argued to be due to the misattachment of the adjunct clause. Children's interpretations of PRO in misattached adjuncts are also similar to those in true discourse control contexts, as expected.
This dissertation is a study of null subjects in adjunct clauses in English. The goal is twofold: to establish a comprehensive theory of control in adjuncts, and to utilize this theory to understand the adjunct control interpretations of children aged 3-6. The theoretical basis of this work is Landau (2000, 2001), who characterizes the complement control mechanism as a syntactic Agree relation (Chomsky 1995, et seq.). I argue that the same mechanism governs control into low-attaching adjuncts (like before, after, while and without) as well. High-attaching adjuncts and gerund subjects, on the other hand, are subject to discourse-governed control rather than the syntactic Agree relation. I argue that the topic of the sentence is the controller in these cases. This theory makes certain predictions for acquisition. We expect control in verb complements and low-attaching adjuncts to develop at the same age, given that they are governed by the same mechanism. Discourse-governed control, on the other hand, is predicted to develop much later in childhood. However, many researchers have observed that control in some low-attaching adjuncts may be delayed until age 5, beyond the age at which children master complement control.
by Allison Nicole Adler.
Ph.D.
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Zahir, Zalmai. "Elements of Lushootseed Grammar in Discourse Perspective." Thesis, University of Oregon, 2019. http://hdl.handle.net/1794/24542.
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Previous analyses have made insightful progress on how Lushootseed functions primarily based upon elicitation work and morphosyntactic observations. Much of this work is based upon a structural linguistic analysis. For years, this form of analysis has been the primary way Lushootseed has been presented and these insights have been helpful in understanding how Lushootseed functions. Indeed, much of what has been said about Lushootseed on this level is the basis for my analysis in this dissertation.
However, there are elements of Lushootseed that do not fit well within this more traditional frame work and are not fully understood through just a structural linguistic analysis. This includes morphological elements, such as: the functions of the s- ‘nominalizer’; ʔu-, previously analyzed as a perfective marker; and =əxʷ, previously analyzed as marking a change of state. In addition, previous analysis on the diachronic Salish passive construction does not hold as a synchronic passive among four Central Salish languages. The methodology in this dissertation examines natural speech patterns and leans towards analyzing morphosyntactic elements in terms of focus and discourse marking. When certain Lushootseed constructions are analyzed using this approach, their distributions have promising results.
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Brawley, Hartman. "What Informs Event Descriptions: Language, Salience, and Discourse in English and Japanese." The Ohio State University, 2012. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1338275303.
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Vessey, Rachelle. "Language ideologies and discourses of national identity in Canadian newspapers : a cross-linguistic corpus-assisted discourse study." Thesis, Queen Mary, University of London, 2013. http://qmro.qmul.ac.uk/xmlui/handle/123456789/8763.
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The idea that Canada consists of “two solitudes” (MacLennan, 1945), according to which the two dominant (English and French) linguistic groups live in separate worlds with little interaction or communication, has also received attention in sociolinguistic circles (e.g. Heller, 1999). This thesis examines this claim further, by comparing the content of English and French Canadian newspapers. More specifically, the thesis compares how English and French serve different purposes in three coexisting conceptualisations of national identity in Canada: Quebec national identity, English Canadian national identity, and pan-Canadian national identity. In each corresponding national identity discourse, the nation and its language(s) are imagined differently. With a corpus of 7.5 million words in English and 3.5 million words in French, the thesis employs corpus linguistics and discourse analysis tools to test the salience of these ideologies and discourses, as well as to compare and contrast findings across languages. Adopting the theoretical framework of language ideologies (e.g. Woolard, 1998; Milani and Johnson, 2008), it seeks to contextualise languages with regard to discourses of national identity. In other words, the thesis compares and contrasts language ideology findings within the three discourses examined. More specifically, three research questions are addressed: (1) How do the French and English Canadian media discursively represent languages and language issues in the news? (2) How do these representations differ? (3) How do the different representations relate to understandings of national identity in Canada? The findings indicate that French and English serve predominantly different purposes, thus helping to reinforce the image of a Canada comprising “two solitudes”.
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Salama, Amir Hamza Youssef. "Ideological collocation in meta-Wahhabi discourse post-9/11: a symbiosis of critical discourse analysis and corpus linguistics." Thesis, Lancaster University, 2011. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.652016.
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This thesis attempts to answer the following overarching question: How has Wahhabi Islam been ideologically recontextualized across post-9/11 opposing discourses via collocation? Drawing on a methodological synergy of corpus linguistics and CDA (Baker et al. 2008; 8alama 2011 1 ), I propose a linguistic model for explicating the ideological nature of collocation between two clashing books: Stephen Schwartz's (2002) The Two Faces of Islam: The House of Sa'ud from Tradition to Terror and Natana DeLong-Bas's (2004) Wahhabi Islam: From Revival and Reform to Global Jihad. The two books, produced post-91l1, take diametrically opposing stances towards the same socio-religious practice of Wahhabi IslarnlWahhabism. First, using WorSmith5, keywords were used to identify the different semantic foci in the two texts, along with their relevant 'macropropositions' (Van Dijk 1980, 1995, 2009b). A small number of keywords were selected for further analysis, and their functions in contributing towards ideologies were investigated by examining their collocates, relying on the concepts of textual synonymy, oppositional paradigms and argumentative fallacies. Second, the meta-Wahhabi discourses underlying the two texts are analysed by focusing on the discourse processes of producing, intelpreting and explaining the patterns of collocations in the texts. Contextual information, such as relevant biographical information relating to the text producers, was taken into account. Additionally, a socio-cognitive approach was used to consider ideological coherence and socio-religious schernas which motivated the ideological use of collocations in both texts. Finally, from a social-semiotic perspective, interdiscursive meanings and the symbolic power invested with the collocating words as religious or political signs are queried. The findings offered in the present thesis cover methodological and theoretical aspects. First, on a theoretical level, there are findings that relate to how collocation as a micro textual resource can closely interface with other macro discourse and language processes, e.g. ideology, (social) cognition, semiotics and interdiscursivity. Second, on a methodological level, this study has contributed to the presently well-established 'methodological synergy' of corpus linguistics and CDA in a symbiotic fashion. This can be recognized in two respects: I) compared to pure CDA research, the methodological procedure followed in this study (which goes from the quantitative to the qualitative methods) rcnders the identification of the linguistic phenomenon - collocation - studied in this research far lcss subjectively identified; 2) the possibility of contextualizing the keywords extracted from onc text by conducting a macropropositional analysis (i.e. identifying the topics and themes) in this text.
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Nkurikiye, Sylvestre. "The pragmatics of Kirundi marriage discourse : speech acts and discourse strategies." Virtual Press, 1991. http://liblink.bsu.edu/uhtbin/catkey/833004.
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This dissertation is a descriptive study of speech acts encoded in Kirundi marriage transactional discourse and the strategies used by the participants to encode them and attempts to understand the interrelationships between the speech acts and the strategies.Chapter 1 states the objectives and describes the data to be studied and the approach to go about it. Chapter 2 provides the reader with some background information on Burundian society and culture in the area of matrimony.Chapter 3 explores the conversation activities and the management of the interactions between the interactants in the sociocultural context of marriage transactions. Formality participation status are discussed and shown to be crucial factors for the semantic and pragmatic interpretation of the participants' verbal contributions. Chapter 4 investigates the nature and the function of the speech acts performed by the interactants. The speech act identification and categorization are based on the social aspects of linguistic action and on the conventionality and contextuality of discourse. Chapter 5 inquires into the strategies applied by the interactants to encode and decode them. Chapter 6 is a summary and conclusion.Department of English
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Bargiela, Francesca. "The language of business : discourse patterns in British and Italian meetings." Thesis, Nottingham Trent University, 1993. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.332655.
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Cox, Clive John. "A graph-theoretic approach to the semantics of discourse and anaphora." Thesis, University of Sussex, 1996. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.307724.
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Botley, Simon Philip. "Corpora and discourse anaphora : using corpus evidence to test theoretical claims." Thesis, Lancaster University, 1999. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.322510.
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Geluykens, Ronald. "The pragmatics of discourse anaphora in English : evidence from conversational repair." Thesis, University of Cambridge, 1990. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.359356.
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Gokcen, Ajda Zeynep. "A Matter of Debate: Using Dialogue Relation Labels to Augment (Dis)agreement Analysis of Debate Data." The Ohio State University, 2016. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1462813013.
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Law, Yee Wah Mary. "The study of register differentiation of two types of press text : opinion article & feature news." HKBU Institutional Repository, 2003. http://repository.hkbu.edu.hk/etd_ra/488.
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Koller, Veronika. "Metaphor clusters in business media discourse : a social cognition approach." Thesis, Lancaster University, 2003. http://eprints.lancs.ac.uk/26683/.
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MacLeod, Nicola Joan. "Police interviews with women reporting rape : A critical discourse analysis." Thesis, Aston University, 2010. http://publications.aston.ac.uk/15206/.
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This study investigates the discursive patterns of interactions between police interviewers and women reporting rape in significant witness interviews. Data in the form of video recorded interviews were obtained from a UK police force for the purposes of this study. The data are analysed using a multi-method approach, incorporating tools from micro-sociology, Conversation Analysis and Discursive Psychology, to reveal patterns of interactional control, negotiation, and interpretation. The study adopts a critical approach, which is to say that as well as describing discursive patterns, it explains them in light of the discourse processes involved in the production and consumption of police interview talk, and comments on the relationship between these discourse processes and the social context in which they occur. A central focus of the study is how interviewers draw on particular interactional resources to shape interviewees? accounts in particular ways, and this is discussed in relation to the institutional role of the significant witness interview. The discussion is also extended to the ways in which mainstream rape ideology is both reflected in, and maintained by, the discursive choices of participants. The findings of this study indicate that there are a number of issues to be addressed in terms of the training currently offered to officers at Level 2 of the Professionalising Investigation Programme (PIP) (NPIA, 2009) who intend to conduct significant witness interviews. Furthermore, a need is identified to bring the linguistic and discursive processes of negotiation and transformation identified by the study to the attention of the justice system as a whole. This is a particularly pressing need in light of judicial reluctance to replace written witness statements, the current „end product? of significant witness interviews, with the video recorded interview in place of direct examination in cases of rape.