Language as a System Unit 4. Discourse

Unit 4. Discourse

Competence: Identify the main differences between spoken and written texts, and the different types of discourse.


Presentation
In this unit, we will explore some other aspects that grammar implies, including its definition. We will also look at the differences between spoken and written discourses and the importance of the context in which discourses appear to transmit a message with an intended meaning.
To be assessed in this unit, you will have to send on due time the portfolio activities, participate in forum discussions, and include your insights on the unit topic in a short essay.

Introduction
There are several misconceptions of grammar, and although it can be defined according to different perspectives, it is important to differentiate what grammar is mistakenly believed to be from what grammar really is. We cannot attempt to teach grammar to our students if we are not aware of what grammar actually involves and implies. In the same way, it is important to highlight the differences between spoken and written discourses, as this has an impact on the way the language is used, and therefore, on its grammar.
Although grammar is usually regarded as a different language aspect from semantics, language is structured in one way or another because it is meanings that we want to convey. Therefore, grammar has a very close relationship with semantics, as we have to consider not only the meaning, but the different meanings that a given structure has depending on its function and context in which it is used.

Getting started

Before you start this unit, read the following sentences and say whether you consider them to be true or false. Once you finish, save it as a PDF file; you will need it for Acticvity 3. LAS 403 Grammar to participate in the forum.

4.1 What is grammar?

Click on the arrows to read the information.

There are several ways to look at grammar, but some of them are actually common misconceptions. Nevertheless, it is not always easy do to determine what is a misconception and what is an accurate perception of grammar. There will usually be room for discussion regarding this matter.

Let’s take the statements in the Getting started activity as an example. When analyzing the statement ‘A grammar of a language is a book written about it’ we find that although “a book about grammar” can be called “a grammar”, it cannot be said that grammar reduces to being ‘a book’. However, the assertion ‘the rules or patterns presented in good, modern grammar books constitute to a great extent the grammar of a language’ is actually an acknowledged way to look at grammar. In fact, it is one way which turns out to be very useful for teachers, because they can base their explanations of the language on the rules that these books present. This ‘kind of grammar’ is known as prescriptive, because it establishes what can be said or written.

1/5

Thus, the statement ‘Grammar is something that can be good or bad, correct or incorrect’ does not sound out of the question. If there are certain rules that dictate what can be said or not, there are certain language uses that are correct and some that are incorrect. However, it is actually society and the specific context in which language is used that establish what to accept and what not to. Therefore, the same language instance could be correct or not depending on the circumstances. In the end, ‘good’ or ‘bad’, ‘correct’ or ‘incorrect’ are very subjective labels.

In this way, in terms of real language usage, another way to look at grammar is from a descriptivist perspective. The statement that exemplifies this perspective is ‘The language rules or patterns underlying the discourse of a speech community can be considered as the grammar of their language.’ This is a descriptive perspective because it relies on observing how the language is actually being used to establish generalizations about the language structure and its patterns.

2/5

If the use that native speakers, usually the educated ones, give to their language is where the grammar of the language comes from, therefore the statement ‘The grammar of the language is found only in the written language’ is false. Native speakers, belonging to a speech community, do not limit themselves to speak. They obviously also use the written means to communicate to each other. Actually, there are very specific conventions both regarding spoken and written texts in the different speech communities part of a society of native speakers of a language.

It is true, though, that written texts tend to be more formal and strict with respect to the use of the language. This is one of the characteristics that differentiate written from spoken language.
But this topic will be seen in more detailed in the following section.

3/5

There is still another perspective from which to look at grammar. This is expressed through the statements ‘Grammar is the intuitive language rules or patterns in fluent users’ heads’ and ‘Grammar is the set of rules and principles native speakers use in producing and understanding their language.’ This is a more abstract perspective of grammar known as mental grammar. This kind of grammar is mostly acquired by native speakers when they are children, and it becomes something intuitive for them to use the language.

Therefore, the statement ‘Some people know the grammar of their language, others do not’ is not true. What is true is that some people may not use the conventions established by the members of their speech communities in certain contexts, or that some people do not use the language established in the good, modern grammar books of their language. These people may be judged as ‘ignorant’, but only of some the rules, patterns or conventions of the language.

4/5

So far, grammar has been conceived as a set of rules and patterns regarding the use of the language, whether in people’s heads or in books. But what does grammar entail? The answer to this question is in the statement ‘Grammar involves the study of the syntax and morphology of sentences.’ In the previous unit we looked at syntax as the part of grammar that establishes the order of words in a sentence. But words themselves have an internal grammar and can take different forms, as we saw in unit 2 when discussing word formation. This aspect of grammar is precisely morphology, which refers to the structure of words.

Even if words are arranged correctly to form a sentence, if they do not present the corresponding form, the sentence is not considered correct. Therefore, the grammar of a language, broadly speaking, comprises the grammar of sentences, that is, syntax, and the grammar of words, that is, morphology. For this reason, the statement ‘Some languages have grammar, others do not’ cannot be considered true. Some languages may lack of morphology, or the morphology they imply is very little, but they still follow certain rules to put words together in order to communicate, so they do have grammar.

5/5



Activity 1. LAS 401 Types of grammar

There are three different perspectives to look at grammar mentioned in this section. Look at the following questions and complete the table below with your answers.

  • What kind of grammar do they refer to?
  • What are the statements from the Getting started activity that exemplify these different perspectives or kinds of grammar?
  • Why do the statements exemplify their corresponding kind of grammar?
#
Kind of grammar
Statements
Why? (Explain with your own words)
1
2
3

Write an answer, please.


Now, save it as a PDF file; you will need it for Acticvity 3. LAS 403 Grammar to participate in the forum.

Activity 1. LAS 401 Types of grammar

Answer the following questions

  • What kind of grammar do they refer to?
  • What are the statements from the Getting started activity that exemplify these different perspectives or kinds of grammar?
  • Why do the statements exemplify their corresponding kind of grammar?
1
Kind of grammar
Statements
Why? (Explain with your own words)
2
Kind of grammar
Statements
Why? (Explain with your own words)
3
Kind of grammar
Statements
Why? (Explain with your own words)

Write an answer, please.


Now, save it as a PDF file; you will need it for Acticvity 3. LAS 403 Grammar to participate in the forum.


Activity 2. LAS 402 Parts of grammar

Say to which part of grammar the following examples belong to and explain why. Don’t worry if your explanations are not exactly the same as the ones provided in the key when checking the correct answers, just check if they were similar enough, or if you had a completely different idea.


Forum Grammar

Go back to the Getting Started activity, do it again and save it as a PDF file. Compare your answers with your first file. Then, go to the forum “Activity 3. LAS 403 FORUM Grammar” when indicated and comment on your answers for the Getting started activity and LAS 401 and LAS 402.



4.2 Spoken vs written discourse

Evidently, even if we are talking about the same language, there are differences between its spoken and its written ‘versions’. It is not really that there are two versions of the same language; it is just that there are two means to use the language to communicate. Spoken and written language do have similarities, for instance, they both use the same language system; but in this section we will focus on the differences between them.


Stop and think

It is clear that there are differences between spoken and written language.
Think of as many differences as you can.



Activity 4. LAS 404 Spoken vs written discourse

Classify the following characteristics into spoken or written discourse features. After you finish, check the PART TWO of the activity.

Activity 5. LAS 405 Contrasting spoken vs written discourse (PORTFOLIO)

Study the following conversation and see if you can work out what it is about. If possible, dramatise the dialogue by reading it aloud.

Jim: Oh, this is beautiful!
Ros: Oh, yes, that’s right.
Jim: Is that how you… you wanted it hard boiled, didn’t you?
Ros: Yes, that’s… that’s what I call hard.
Jim: Well, uhh… do you want to have this one?
Ros: No, you have that one, ‘cause this one must be harder, mustn’t it?
Jim: Doesn’t necessarily follow.
Ros: Yes, surely it… oh, you’re right, it doesn’t.
Jim: Depends which one went in first, you know.
Ros: Yes, you’re right, well, look, ehh… in a minute we’ll know.

* Now consider this written account of the conversation

Fran, Jim and Ros went away together one Easter holiday weekend. They spent the first night in a holiday cabin. In the morning, they got up and prepared breakfast in the tiny kitchen.
Ros and Jim both decided to have boiled egg, while Fran, who didn’t like eggs, settled simply for a toasted Easter bun and coffee. The breakfast preparations proceeded very cordially, though some confusion was caused by the fact that Ros placed the two eggs in the boiling water at different times. Subsequently, she was not able to tell which egg had been in the water longer, though she particularly wanted a hard-boiled egg herself.


What differences can you notice between the two extracts? Enumerate the differences and relate as many of them as possible to the features of spoken and written discourse mentioned in LAS 404 Spoken vs written discourse. There is an example for each case at the beginning.

Adapted from Nunan, D. (1993) Introducing Discourse Analysis. London: Penguin


Spoken Discourse
Deixis (reference to the situational context) is common.
Oh, this is beautiful! do you want to have this one?
Spoken Discourse
Written Discourse
Reference outside the text is usually to background knowledge.
Ros and Jim both decided to have boiled egg. (people know what a boiled egg is due to background knowledge)
Written Discourse

Write an answer, please.


Once you finish this activity, save it as PDF, name it Portfolio LAS 405, and upload it in Eminus in the corresponding section in ‘Actividades’.

As can be seen, unplanned spoken discourse and planned written discourse are very different from each other. Nevertheless, we have also mentioned that they do not always occur under these circumstances. To write this guide, I have actually used a few expressions that are more commonly found in spoken discourse, such as question tags or fillers. Why do you think I did so? Well, it is mainly because I wanted to make the guide not that formal and more interactive in order to establish a sort of more personal relationship with the readers… Hope it’s kind of worked…

4.3 Meanings and functions

Both grammar and vocabulary are used to communicate the user’s meanings. Although grammar’s role is more important in written texts, given that contextual information in this case is very little, its importance in spoken contexts is undeniable. Grammar is necessary in both written and spoken contexts to widen the variety of meanings that people may want or need to express.

Generally speaking, there are two kinds of meanings that can be conveyed through grammar based on the two main purposes of the language. First, there is the representational role. In this case, the purpose of using the language is to represent the world as people experience it: What happens? Who is involved? What effects do events have on others? When do they happen? Where? How? And second, there is the interpersonal role. This role has to do with the different lexical and grammatical options there are to convey the same meaning.

It has been established that the same meaning can be conveyed through different grammatical options, but it is also possible that the same grammatical option expresses different meanings. This is possible due to the fact that the same grammatical option may have different functions depending on the intention of the person who is using it. For instance, the function of the form I’m sorry can be apologising or asking for repetition. Moreover, the same function can be expressed using different forms. For example, the function of the form Would you like to come with us? is inviting, but this function can also be expressed through forms such as We have the pleasure to invite you… or Let’s go to ... .


Stop and think

Apologising, asking for repetition and inviting have been mentioned as functions of the language. Make a list of as many functions of this type as you can, and add an example of the forms in which they can be expressed.




Forum Language functions

Go to the forum “Activity 6. LAS 406 FORUM Language Functions” when indicated and comment on different functions of the language of your choice and the possible forms in which they can be expressed.



Activity 7. LAS 407 Discourse analysis (PORTFOLIO)

Click on each tab to read the information.

  • Record a conversation in English and transcribe two minutes of it. You can use a conversation from a movie. In either case, make sure there are enough instances of the spoken language features mentioned in section 4.2.
  • Write the written account of the conversation as in the example of LAS 405.
  • Enumerate and exemplify the differences between the two texts.
  • Find examples of forms and their functions in both texts.
  • Upload your file in the corresponding activity.
  • First: transcription of conversation (in case it is from a film, specify it), with each line numbered.
  • Second: written account of the conversation, indicating the number of lines every five lines.
  • Third: list of differences with examples (using the number of lines in both transcription and written account).
  • Fourth: examples of functions, indicating text (transcription or written account) and line.
  • Name your file LAS_407_YourName (eg. LAS_407_PatriciaNúñez)
  • On the header: your name (left margin) and the course (right margin), font Arial, size 10
  • The rest of the paper: font Arial, size 12
  • The heading Unit 4 – LAS 407 Discourse analysis, centred and in bold and in font size 16
  • Margins: 2.5 cm
  • Block style: justified, space between lines: 1.5, double space between paragraphs


Forum Discourse

Go to the forum “Activity 8. LAS 408 FORUM Discourse” when indicated to share you insights on the issues of this unit. Feel free to focus on what you found the most interesting, or any aspects that caught your attention the most. This discussion will support your work on the unit essay.



Activity 9. LAS 409 Short essay 2 (Grammar and Discourse)

Click on each tab to read the information.

Write an essay about your insights on units 3 and 4 (Grammar and Discourse):


  • Begin your paper with an introduction presenting what you will include in your essay in a general way.
  • Summarize the topics that you found more interesting/relevant succinctly, justifying your choice of these topics in terms of your English teaching (or learning) experience (e.g. How do these topics contribute to your understanding of grammar and discourse?).
  • Include a description of your experience as an English teacher (or student) in relation to the topics describing how you have dealt with them in the classroom (This is the most important part of your essay in terms of content).
  • Finish with a restatement of your reasons for your choice of topics and how the contents of the unit have contributed to your understanding of them.
  • Do not use any subheadings (such as 'Introduction', 'Conclusion' or any other). Just give an appropriate title to your essay.
  • Use YOUR OWN WORDS. Any sign of plagiarism will render your work invalid.

Upload your file in the corresponding Activity.

Your essay will be evaluated under the following criteria:

  • Content (Summary of most relevant topics for you, justification for your choice of these topics, description of your teaching/learning experience in relation to the topics)
    • 4
  • Organization (Order of ideas – Introduction, Development, Conclusion; Paragraphing; Cohesion and Coherence; Punctuation and Mechanics)
    • 4
  • Language (Grammar, Vocabulary and Register – semi-formal)
    • 1
  • Format (Format requirements)
    • 1
    Total
    10

    Format requirements:

    • Name your file: LAS_ShortEssay2_YourName (eg. LAS_ShortEssay2_PatriciaNúñez)
    • 1 page maximum
    • 280 words minimum (title and header do not count)
    • On the header: your name (left margin) and the course (right margin), font Arial, size 10
    • The rest of the paper: font Arial, size 12
    • Appropriate title (not just the names of the units), in bold and centred
    • APA style referencing (if needed)
    • Margins: 2.5 cm
    • Block Style: Justified, space between lines: 1.5, NO indentation in the first line of each paragraph, double space between paragraphs (NOT TRIPLE, if you are using the Word paragraph spacing, then DO NOT use double space).
    • Number of words at the end (right margin) in a text box

    Bibliography

    • Crystal, D. (1995). The Cambridge Encyclopaedia of Language. Cambridge: CUP.
    • Davies, P. And A. Fraenkel (2003). The Language in English Teaching. London: Richmond Publishing.
    • Jacobs, R.A. (1995). English Syntax: A Grammar for English Language Professionals. Oxford: OUP.
    • Nunan, D. (1993). Introducing Discourse Analysis. London: Penguin English.
    • Palmer, F. (1984). Grammar and Grammars. In F. Palmer, Grammar (pp. 9-14). London: Penguin.
    • Thornbury, S. (1999). How to Teach Grammar. Harlow, Essex: Longman.
    • Thornbury, S. (2005). Beyond the Sentence. Oxford: MacMillan.