Faculty of English Language and Literature – Introduction to Linguistics II – Prof. S.

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3. Text Linguistics / Discourse Analysis

3.1 Text and Text Linguistics

 Text can be defined as the linguistic expressions used in communication between people and
the interpretation interlocutors make of these expressions.
 Text linguistics is the study of how interlocutors manage to communicate via texts, i.e. how
they go beyond the words they produce to see the relations between the sentences, the
paragraphs, the sections, etc.
 In understanding texts, interlocutors bring to the task not only linguistic knowledge, but also
world knowledge, which provides the links that the language of the text leaves unspecified.
This knowledge comes in scripts, i.e. knowledge about specific events such as a murder, a
wedding, office practices, the car industry, football games, university life, family life, school life,
etc.
 A text is called coherent if it is possible to construct a coherent representation of it. Such a
representation relies both on
(a) linguistic means typically referred to as cohesive links, or cohesive ties, or
cohesive devices,
(b) world knowledge, and
(c) situational knowledge.

3.2 Text Coherence and Cohesion

 Coherence is a text property which emerges in the interlocutors’ effort to understand it on the
basis of world knowledge and linguistic knowledge.

Exercise 1: Use the following four sentences to create two pairs, independent of each other, which
seem coherent to you on the basis of the knowledge you have of the world. You can substitute “Susan”
with a pronoun when necessary, but you cannot use any additional linguistic material.

1. Susan was depressed.

2. Susan was going to take a trip to Tokyo.
3. Susan was reasonably happy.
4. Susan had just lost her job.

 What you did in Exercise 1 was to create two (mini) coherent texts on the basis of your
knowledge of language and your knowledge of the world.
 Cohesion is a text property which is achieved by the linguistic means through which the
texture (the unity) of a text is maintained.
 The cohesion of a text is the explicit marking of its coherence by means of cohesive links.

Exercise 2: In the pair of utterances of Exercise 1, try inserting linguistic material (cohesive links) that
makes the relation between the clauses of each pair explicit.

 When you substituted “Susan” with “she” in Exercise 1, and when you used a subordinating
conjunction to join the clauses of each pair, you provided the cohesive links that made your
texts explicitly coherent.

3.2.1 Coherence

 Coherence can be established in one of two ways: By (repeated) reference and association
between the entities or “mental objects” in a text, called referential coherence, and by linking
text parts with coherence relations (e.g. cause-consequence), called relational coherence.
 For example, the substitution of the name “Susan” with the pronoun “she” in Exercises 1 and 2
is an example of referential coherence. The relation between clauses in these exercises is an
instance of relational coherence. In Exercise 1 relational coherence is not marked by any
cohesive link, in Exercise 2 cohesive links have been inserted.
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3.2.1.1 Referential coherence

 Referential coherence is maintained by anaphoric reference, cataphoric reference, and

ellipsis.
 What exactly is reference?
 By reference we mean a relationship between a linguistic expression and an entity in the
world around us.
 Speakers use referring expressions to refer to such entities, to perform the act of referring.
 Referring expressions include proper names, definite and indefinite noun phrases, pronouns,
and definite or indefinite descriptions, as in the following examples:

1. Chomsky met Lakoff yesterday and they greeted each other joyfully.
2. Susan met a man with a huge hat at the party yesterday.
3. The boy who gave me the book I forgot on the train is a student.
4. What is that cat doing on my chair?

 Referring expressions are used to introduce referents into the discourse or to keep track of
referents already established in discourse in terms of previously used referring expressions.

Exercise 1: Identify the referring expressions in the following utterances:

1. My brother lives in Canada.

2. Mr. Schumacher is right behind me!
3. What is this blue thing doing here?

a. Reference can be anaphoric or cataphoric.

 Anaphora can be defined as subsequent reference to an already introduced entity.
 Anaphoric reference is typically achieved by pronouns, i.e. co-reference, (e.g. they),
repetition of the same linguistic expression, or by inference, when an anaphoric expression
is associated with the antecedent in our knowledge of the world.
 What does they refer to in example (1) above?
 How do we understand what the antecedents of seats and colours are in the following
examples?

5. He bought a new car, but the seats are not comfortable.

6. Have you seen her latest paintings? The colours are magnificent.

 Cataphoric reference typically characterizes instances whereby the referent of a pronoun is

to be found in the text following the pronoun.
 What are the referents of the pronouns in the following examples?

7. When she first went to school, Janet was very disappointed.

8. After they left Prague, my parents went to Spain.
9. As soon as it landed, the aeroplane caught fire.

 Ellipsis is another instance of referential coherence.

 When a referent can be inferred from the immediate context, the relevant referring expression
is ellipted. Consider the following examples and identify the ellipted referring expressions:

10. The students protested against this decision and left the room.
11. There were a few people at the beach, bathing in the sun.
12. The case was delicious, well-baked and topped with icing.
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Exercise 2: Identify referring expressions in the following utterances. Specify which ones are
cataphoric and which anaphoric and for the latter category specify antecedents. Identify instances of
co-reference, lexical repetition, inference, and ellipsis.

 This sports car is impressive. Do you know the driver?

 When I saw her, Sally was wearing a huge hat.
 This was a difficult exam. Did you manage to answer all the questions?
 He had a walk in the park but felt tired and sat at a bench for a while.
 Tom saw that the train was full, so he would have to wait. But Tom was not an impatient man,
so he sat on a bench to read his newspaper.
 Her garden is really beautiful. Did you notice the roses?
 The children were screaming and yelling at the top of their voices.
 As soon as she realized what had happened, the woman started screaming.
 Detective Philips switched off the lights, closed the door behind him and disappeared in the
dark of the night.
 I missed the bus because the driver didn’t see me.
 We stayed at a small, local hotel. The rooms were quite clean, actually, but the service was
practically non-existent.
 After she had climbed a few steps, the old woman saw the boy. She climbed a few more
steps. The boy was still there.
 After they had inspected the wooden horse, the Trojans decided to wheel it into the city.
 They met a few people in the street, wrapped in hats, coats and scarves.
 Margaret turned her head and smiled to him.

3.2.1.2 Relational coherence

 The understanding of a text requires the interpretation of coherence relations between

clauses. Such relations include:

 cause – consequence
“The U.S.A. produce more wheat than needed for internal consumption. That is why they
export the surplus.” (cause – consequence, ‘that is why’: conjunctive adverbial phrase)
 contrast
“Bergoss increased by twelve points. By contrast, Philips lost ten points” (contrast: ‘by
contrast’: conjunctive adverbial phrase)
 evidence
“20-year old Bill Hamers is the murderer of his father. Witnesses have seen him at the
murder scene”. (The second clause provides evidence for the truth of the first clause. No
connective).
 concession
“Although this material is toxic to certain animals, evidence is lacking that it has any
serious long-term effects on human beings”. (The second clause denies an expectation
raised by the first clause. The expectation raised by the first clause is that, since the
material is toxic to animals, it is probably also toxic to human beings. This expectation is
denied in the second clause. Concession by the subordination conjunction ‘although’).
 elaboration
“Jane is very particular about her clothes. For example, she never buys from cheap
department stores” (The second clause elaborates the content of the first clause.
Connective: the conjunctive adverbial phrase ‘for example’). “They regularly donate to
charities, such as Oxfam, Doctors of the World and Action Aid”. (The second part of the
clause elaborates the first. Connective: the conjunctive adverbial phrase ‘such as’.
 result
“The fire destroyed the factory. As a result, more than 2.000 people are in hospital.” (The
second clause presents the result of the fact described in the first clause. Connective: the
conjunctive adverbial phrase ‘as a result’.
 condition
“You should immediately contact your insurance company if there is a change in your
personal situation”. (The first clause presents a situation the realization of which depends
on the realization of the situation of the second. Connective: the subordinating conjunction
‘if’).
 sequence (paratactic)
Faculty of English Language and Literature – Introduction to Linguistics II – Prof. S. Marmaridou 4

“Soak the beans for at least 12 hours. Cook them until soft”. (The two clauses present a
succession of situations. No connective).

 These coherence relations can be encoded explicitly through the use of connectives
consisting of:

 subordinating conjunctions (because, if, although, etc.)

 coordinating conjunctions (and, but, either … or, etc.)
 conjunctive adverbs (so, therefore, yet, etc.)
 conjunctive adverbial phrases (as a consequence, in contrast with this, etc.).

Exercise 1: Identify the coherence relations in the examples below and specify the connectives, if
applicable:

1. She went to University because she wanted to meet interesting people.

2. Mary expected to write well in the exam. She has studied hard for the past two months.
3. Although I love swimming, I hardly have the time to go to the beach.
4. She will either go to the library or stay in to study.
5. It soon became dark. She stood up to switch on the light.

 Sometimes speakers use connectives that do not seem to match the coherence relation they
seek to establish, as in (6) and (7) below. Which are the connectives and what kind of relation
do they express?

6. After the operation, she had severe pains.

7. She hesitated to break the news, while everyone already knew.

Exercise 2: Find the connectives that are used to establish relational coherence in the following text
and identify their type (subordinating conjunctions, coordinating conjunctions, conjunctive adverbs,
conjunctive adverbial phrases).

If you want to make the best use of this book, you should note the following. This book can be used
either as a straightforward handbook for its recipes, or as full course in modern vegetarian cookery
because the recipes are all described in enough detail for anyone with only a little cooking experience
to be able to follow them. In addition, we have tried to anticipate, and provide remedies for, any snags
with might occur.

3.2.2 Cohesion

 As already mentioned above, cohesion is a text property which is achieved by the linguistic
means through which the texture (the unity) of a text is maintained.
 The cohesion of a text is the explicit marking of its coherence by means of cohesive links.
 Referential coherence is typically marked by cohesive links (e.g. pronominal or lexical).
 Relational coherence is often, but not necessarily, marked by cohesive links, i.e. connectives,
as already shown.
 Consider the following text and identify the cohesive links that guarantee its coherence:

15. My father once bought a Lincoln convertible. He did it by saving every penny he could. That
car would be worth a fortune nowadays. However, he sold it to help pay for my college
education. Sometimes I thin I’d rather have the convertible.

 Cohesive links do not always guarantee the coherence of a text. See below. As an exercise,
you can continue this text without invoking coherence to it.

16. My father once bought a Lincoln convertible. He who comes first will be served first. The first
time I saw him, I thought he was a nice boy. Boys can be noisy. This was a noisy town. It
starts at noon and finishes in the evening. Every evening I watch television.

Exercise 1: In the following passage identify the words that contribute to the cohesion of the text and
classify them according to type.
Faculty of English Language and Literature – Introduction to Linguistics II – Prof. S. Marmaridou 5

Alice did not much like keeping so close to her: first, because the Duchess was very ugly, and
secondly because she was exactly the right height to rest her chin on Alice’s shoulder, and it was an
uncomfortably sharp chin. However, she did not like to be rude: so, she bore it as well as she could.

(L. Carroll, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland)

3.3 Conversation Analysis

 Linguistic communication does not always occur in texts, but most often these texts take the
form of conversational interaction.
 Conversational interaction can be described as an activity in which, for the most part, two or
more people take turns at speaking.
 The current speaker indicates that she has finished talking usually by signalling a completion
point (also called a transition relevant point). Such completion points can be the end of a
question a speaker has asked, or by the speaker pausing at the end of a sentence, clause, or
phrase.
 Typically only one speaker speaks at a time, but sometimes speakers speak at the same time.
Simultaneous speech may be intentional (interruption) or unintentional (overlap).
 Absence of talk in the form of gaps, lapses and silences is also part of the turn-taking system
on the basis of which conversation is organized and interpreted.
 Consider the following extract from a conversation:

1. A: Didn’t you [know wh-

B: [But he must’ve been there by two
A: Yes, but you knew where he was going

Exercise 1: Analyse the following fragment of conversational speech with respect to turn-taking
strategies.

A: Well it wasn’t really a holiday more a . . . a . . . I don’t know . . . more an expedition

B: Why? [Did you
A: [Oh I guess because we ed- we ended up carrying so much . . .
[equipment and
C: [that sounds like a trip I took . . . em two years ago I think . . . yeah in the summer
and . . . I’ve never gone again . . .
B: So where did you go?
A: Oh we followed the river and the p—the idea you see was to find the
source you know . . . and . . . just to avoid the . . . the roads well . . .[unless th–
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C: [and did you?

A: What?
B: get
C: find the source . . . the river
A: Oh yes sorry . . . but we ended up . . . em walking on roads quite a bit because . . . it . . . it just
took too long.