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Laurea Magistrale L.M. 19
Informazione, Editoria e Giornalismo
A.A. 2016/17
Lingua Inglese - Corso rogredito
(6 Cfu)
Prof. Enrico Grazzi
LESSONS 1-2

Timetable:
Tuesdays
14:00/16:00
room 8
Wednesdays 11:00/13:00
room 8

Meet me: Tuesdays 10:00, V. Ostiense, 234 – room 3.09
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Contacts: [email protected]
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Textbook: L.Lombardo, L.Haarman, J.Morley; C.Taylor,
MASSED MEDIAS, edizioni LED, Milano 1999
ISBN 88-7916-123-7
www.ledeizioni.it
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 Discourse
analysis
provides
the
theoretical framework to examine all
naturally occurring language in a
systematic and scientific way (e.g.
identifying the differences between
spontaneous, face-to face conversation and
formal prose of an academic or specialistic
nature. Discourse analysis studies the
elements of cohesion and coherence
that create text.
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TEXT VS. DISCOURSE
 Text
grammar (syntactic rules)
 Discourse
analysis (cohesion/coherence)
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OTHER DICHOTOMIES

competence/performance (Chomsky, 1965)

sentence/utterance (Austin, 1955)

signified/signifier (Saussure, 1916)
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THE MEANING OF A SIGN
 The
meaning of a sign (valeur) is
given by its difference from all other
signs. In a visual text the signifier is
an image:
a) a literal picture (icon)
b) a symbol.
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Peirce proposed that signs could be defined as three categories:
Icon, Index and Symbol.
Icon - An Icon sign is a sign that resembles something.
Index - An Index signs is a sign where there is a direct
link between the sign and the object.
A symbol has no logical meaning between it and the
object. Flags are symbols which represent countries or
organisations.
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MEANING
 Meaning
is emergent in communication as a
result of negotiation. The sender and the
receiver are part of the communicative
context.
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COHESION
 Cohesion
is the grammatical and
lexical relationship within a text or
sentence. Cohesion can be defined as
the links that hold a text together
and give it meaning.
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COHESIVE DEVICES
Halliday and Hasan identify five general
categories of cohesive devices that create
coherence in texts:
 Reference
 Ellipsis
 Substitution
 Lexical cohesion
 Conjunction
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1-REFERENCES
Referential devices:


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Anaphoric reference occurs when the writer refers back to
someone or something that has been previously identified, to
avoid repetition.
Cataphoric reference is less common in speech but can be
used for dramatic effect in writing. It occurs when the
audience is introduced to someone as an abstract, before later
learning his or her name. For example: "Here he comes, our
award-winning host... it's John Doe!" Cataphoric references
can also be found in written text, for example "see page 10".
Exophoric reference is also uncommon in speech but can be
used to describe generic or abstract situations in writing. It
occurs when the writer chooses not to introduce a character (or
group of characters), but instead refers to them by a generic
word such as "everyone". The prefix "exo" means "outside",
and the persons or events referred to in this manner will never
be identified by the writer.
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2- ELLIPSIS

Ellipsis is another cohesive device. It happens
when, after a more specific mention, words are
omitted when the phrase needs to be repeated.
Example:
A: Where are you going?
B: To town.

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3 - SUBSTITUTION



Substitution is very similar to ellipsis. It occurs
when instead of leaving a word or phrase out, as in
ellipsis, it is substituted for another, more general
word.
Example: "Which ice-cream would you like?“
"I would like the pink one“
Example: “I dropped the green ice-cream, it was the
only one I had”.
This sentence contains the pronoun (It), and the
substitution (One). Don't mix up the two because they
both serve different purposes: one to link back and
one to replace.
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4- LEXICAL COHESION


Lexical cohesion is basically created by
repetition (reiteration) of the same lexeme, or
general (aka shell) nouns, or other lexemes
sharing the majority of semantic features.
Example: The bus ... - the vehicle ... - the chassis
Hypernyms (John Lyons)
 Hyponyms (John Lyons)
 Synonyms.

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5- CONJUNCTION
 Conjunction
creates cohesion by relating
sentences and paragraphs to each other by
using words from the class of conjunction, or
numerals. This can be:
 temporal (after, before)
 causal (because)
 coordinating (and, or)
 adversative (but, however)
 additive (further)
 discourse markers (now, well, after all).
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COHERENCE


Coherence can be defined as the way
statements match our view of the world.
Fairclough: “Ideological power, the power to
project one’s practices as universal and
“common sense”, is a significant complement to
economic and political power, and of particular
significance here because it is exercised in
discourse.”
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HOMEWORK
 Introduction
and Preface, pp. 9/17
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