Linguistic Analysis of Discourse Types

Understanding Discourse Types: A Linguistic Analysis

Conversational Discourse

Conversational discourse is characterized by its dynamic and interactive nature, involving two or more speakers.

Purpose

• To converse and interact.
• Involves two or more speakers.

Structure

• Based on successive shifts of the floor between participants.

Cohesion and Deixis

• Personal Deixis: Achieved through pronouns, possessive verbs, and verbs in the 1st and 2nd person.
• Spatial Deixis:
  • Proximity: "here," "this"
  • Average Distance: "such"
  • Remoteness: "there," "then," "that"
• Temporal Deixis:
  • Verbs indicating past or future time.
  • Time phrases and adverbs: "now," "before," "later this year," "yesterday," "this morning," "that day."

Discursive Markers & Lexicon

• Discursive Markers: Greetings, goodbyes.
• Sentence Structure: Short or unfinished sentences, often with repetitions.
• Conversational Connectors: Used to mark the end of each intervention.
• Lexicon: Often blurred or informal, includes onomatopoeia and interjections.
• Sentence Types: Predominance of questions.

Syntactic Features & Functions

• Syntactic Predominance: Juxtaposition, variety, and coordination.
• Phatic Role: Elements like "listening?" (checking for understanding/engagement).
• Intonational Elements: Crucial for conveying meaning and emotion.
• Functions: Expressive and conative.
• Register: Generally standard or colloquial.

Instructive Discourse

Instructive discourse aims to provide clear directions, advice, or commands, explaining how to perform a task or understand a concept.

Purpose

• To give directions, advice, or orders.
• To explain how to do something.

Structure

• Enumerative, or divided into phases of a process or scheme.

Cohesion & Deixis

• Grammatical Features: Use of imperative, future tense, conditional periphrasis, and expressions of liability.
• Deixis: Predominantly second person (e.g., "you").

Connectors & Punctuation

• Connectors of Order: "first," "second," "then," etc.
• Punctuation Marks: Used for clear management of scenarios, numbers, and letters (e.g., lists, steps).

Functions & Register

• Functions: Primarily conative (influencing the receiver).
• Register: Generally standard, but may include specific jargon and specialized lexicon depending on the subject matter.

Aesthetic & Rhetorical Discourse

Aesthetic and rhetorical discourse aims to attract the receiver's attention and evoke various sensations, such as attraction, amusement, or beauty.

Purpose

• To engage the receiver through aesthetics and rhetoric.
• To produce sensations like attraction, amusement, or beauty.

Structure

• Varies significantly depending on the text type, from sonnets to visual poems that incorporate non-verbal elements.

Cohesion & Rhetorical Figures

• Rhetorical Figures: Employed to create linguistic transgression and semantic effects.
• Semantic Figures:
  • Hyperbole
  • Synesthesia
  • Metaphor
  • Metonymy
• Syntactic Figures:
  • Polysyndeton
  • Hyperbaton
• Wordplay: Puns, often involving twofold polysemy.

Functions & Register

• Functions: Poetic and expressive.
• Register: Can range from standard to highly formal or elevated.

Predictive Discourse

Predictive discourse aims to report on what might happen or what is expected to happen.

Purpose

• To inform about potential or future events.

Structure

• Varies depending on the specific text and context.

Cohesion & Temporal Elements

• Verb Tense: Predominantly future tense.
• Temporal Connectors: "now," "then," "tomorrow," etc.
• Adverbs of Probability: "possibly," "probably," "surely," "can be."

Functions & Register

• Functions: Primarily referential (conveying information).
• Register: Generally standard.