UNIT I

PRAGMATICS AND DISCOURSE ANALYSIS

Pragmatics is a relatively new branch of linguistics. It appeared to satisfy the need of dealing with linguistic problems that could not be explained by the already existing linguistic branches. Since unsolved problems were usually thrown up by linguists in a sort of wastebasket, soon they become conscious that there were more problems waiting for answers in the wastebasket than problems solved. As a consequence, many of them began looking for and trying out different ways for finding answers. In the following paragraphs well examine the field of study of some of the traditional branches of linguistics and give some examples that could not be explained by them. Syntax studies how words combine to form sentences and the rules that govern the formation of those sentences. In this kind of study non-reference is made to the users of the language or to the communicative functions that those words or sentences are performing. For example, syntax explains us that in English adjectives precede nouns as in a nice book and that any sentence must have a subject as in It was a nice book, but it can not explain why the speakers can eventually use and understand constructions such as a childish adult where there seems to be a contradiction between the meaning of the noun being qualified and the quality attributed to it by the adjective, or Hungry? where the subject is omitted. One would expect to find the solution or explanation of the examples mentioned above in Semantics which studies meaning. It deals with the relations that exist between words and the objects, person or events for which they stand for, with the different kinds of meaning that a word or expression can have (connotation, denotation) or with the semantic structure of the sentence, but again without any reference to the users of the language or the communicative functions performed by those words or expressions. However, the example A childish adult also represents a problem for semantics because, even though it can explain the different features or characteristics that conventionally define the word childish (relating to or typical of a child) and the connotation it usually has, it can not explain which of those features are being attributed to the word adult which it is qualifying (the adult behave like a child but, in what sense? does he speak like a child, think like a child or cry easily like a child). If one were to answer all these questions satisfactorily, it would be necessary to find the information about the speaker and the situation in which the expression was uttered. Anyhow, since semantics does not deal with the user of the language or the communicative situation, these kinds of problems were also thrown up into the wastebasket.

As the wastebasket became full of the many cases that remained unexplained by syntax or semantics, it was necessary to use the multidisciplinary combination of the information provided by different sciences. This is how pragmatic was created. Pragmatics is the branch of linguistics that deals with the study of the use of language in communication, particularly the relationships that hold between sentences and the contexts and situations in which they are used. Some of the problems studied by pragmatics are: how the interpretation and use of utterances depend on our knowledge of the real word, how speakers use and understand speech acts and how the structure of the sentences that we produce during communication is influenced by the relationship between the speaker and the hearer.
SOCIOLINGUISTICS

Who speaks?, About what?, To Whom?, When?, Where? and with which purpose?

ETHNOGRAPHY

Cultural information about the speech community

PRAGMATICS

LINGUISTICS

Description of what people say or write

PSYCHOLINGUISTICS

How people learn, understand and produce language

CASES FOR ANALYSIS: analyze the following cases and propose in order to reach an agreement about the information necessary for giving them a convenient treatment: 1. Alice speaks English very well in informal situations; the problem is that when she is supposed to speak formally she keeps using colloquial expressions that make her look uneducated. I think Im quite competent in speaking and reading in English but Im a terrible writer. My teacher is very good at literature; the problem is in any situation where she speaks or writes she sounds like a poet. My students are tired of learning English grammar; they say that what they really want to learn is English. I dont know how to explain my students why American and Venezuelan jokes are different. Henry cant understand Shakespeare even though he is very good at English and reads The New York Times everyday. Lauras students are very good at answering syntactic exercises but their writing is terrible. Mary cant understand why she failed her reading comprehension test since she knew all the words included in the text. I dont have any problem in understanding the texts I write but my teacher says she cant understand them. I explained my mother as clear as possible the problems I had answering my phonetics test; however se couldnt understand anything. When Bob came home, he told his wife Josefa that he was tired to death and she took him to the hospital. How can I explain my students the difference between small and little. I already tried using grammar information but it didnt worked.

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DISCOURSE, CO-TEXT AND CONTEXT: a hierarquical relation

DICOURSE

CONTEXT

CO-TEXT

Many types of linguistic analysis use invented sentences. Even though that might be are sometimes necessary or justified, it is artificial because they leave out of consideration the language that we actually use in real communication. Our messages may be composed by one or more well formed grammatical sentences but can also have grammatical mistakes. This is because even though we normally use grammar rules as resources for communicating meanings, what really matters in a communicative situation is not that our expressions conform to the rules of grammar, but that they communicate messages that are recognized by their receivers as coherent discourse. Discourse is so defined as the use of language in real communication, within a specific context, with a given intention and with a determined audience in mind. Lets analyze the following example: A- Looks good, doesnt it? B- Hungry? This is an exchange that can be characterized as having a lot of mistakes from the linguistic point of view, but it is coherent and understandable when we are informed that it was hold between two guests at a dinner, a woman (A) and a man (B), while looking at the food. That is, those speakers are no trying to conform strictly to grammar rules but using them as resources for conveying the meaning that they want to express. This example illustrates how important the contextual information is in understanding discourse.

CONTEXTUAL INFORMATION RELEVANT FOR DISCOURSE UNDERSTANDING Speakers characteristics: their sex, age or nationality Speakers relationship: father and son, just friends, two politicians, schools secretary and schools principal Social context: a party, a class, a TV interview, a restaurant The channel: speech, writing, signing, smoke signs The communicative purpose: to entertain, to teach, to defend ones ideas The speakers knowledge about the topic: totally unknown, very familiar

In any piece of authentic discourse words, phrases, sentences or paragraphs co-occur with other units of the same type that modify or compliment their meaning. Those units form what is called co-text and are very important in the understanding and creation of meaning. Consider the following examples where the meaning of the underlined words depend on its co-text: What they got from the store was a can Can you get a can from the store

DISCOURSE ANALYSIS Grammar refers to the rules used in a language to form grammatical units such as clauses, phrases, and sentences, whereas discourse analysis is the study of how sentences in spoken or written language are used to form larger meaningful units such as paragraphs, conversations or interviews in real communicative situations. Some of the problems studied by discourse analysis are: What are the resources used to achieve coherence in a discourse, How the choice of articles, pronouns, and tenses affects the structure or meaning of the discourse, The relationship between the utterances in a discourse or the moves made by speakers to introduce a new topic, change the topic or assert a higher role relationship to the other participants.

The information gathered through discourse analysis is very important for language teaching, since it serves as a guide for: The selection of the content, the texts, the examples and the activities to be included in the classroom in order to develop the communicative competence of the students. The prediction of students possible difficulties for understanding or producing different types of discourse. The demonstration that it is the messages function which determines its form Putting the emphasis of English teaching on the communicative function of the language rather than its form

UNIT II

THE THEORY OF SPEECH ACTS

We usually think that what people say or write is the same as what they mean but most of the time what happens is the opposite. Whatever the language is people tend not to speak literally all the time. This is a universal phenomenon, which requires from speakers or readers an effort to guess what their interlocutors messages are. The frequency with which the lack of coincidence between what is said and what is meant occurs, the amassing number of times that we spend guessing our interlocutors messages or reading between lines during our speaking or reading hours in our lives, has make us unconscious of this phenomenon. As a consequence, we tend to believe that what we understand is exactly the same as what we listen or read. Another consequence of this belief in the field of linguistics has been the excessive attention that linguists have put on the study of language form ignoring the study on how those forms function in real communicative situations. The explanation between language form and language function has become one of the main objectives of pragmatics and one of the central theories for attaining this objective is The Speech act Theory which well study in this unit after we analyze the differences between four basic concepts: correctness and appropriateness and signification and value.

CORRECTNESS AND APPROPRIATENESS

Correctness [ ] is a concept that refers to the correct use of grammar rules in language without considering any other fact from the context or situation in which that language is used. Appropriateness [ ], on the contrary, refers to whether what we say or write is appropriate according to the context where the communication is taking place taking also into consideration the respect for the language rules involved. It is obvious that knowing a language implies having the ability or the intuition to recognize whether the sentences we are exposed to are correct or not; also for using a language we need the ability or knowledge to construct and understand grammatically correct sentences; otherwise we would not be understood by those who do know that language. However, it is important to recognize that using

grammar rules is not the only ability we need in order to acquire communicative competence in using a language. We also need to develop the ability to judge, recognize and use words, expressions, phrases, sentences and utterances which are contextually appropriate. The following examples illustrate different situations in which the concepts of correctness and appropriateness operate in communication. Analyze them and explain each applying both concepts. Then create similar examples of your own. CASE 1 *a. How is you? *b. Me eated late CASE 2 a. How are you? b. Im sitting on a chair, my hands are resting on my legs and CASE 3 a. How are you? b. Not bad, and you?

There is another pair of concepts which are related to the concepts of correctness and appropriateness and have equal importance but are more semantic. They are the concepts of signification and value.

SIGNIFICATION AND VALUE: two different kinds of meanings

Widdowson (1978) uses the term Signification to refer to the meaning that words, phrases, sentences or expressions take when they are used in isolation, that is decontextualized, and Value to design the meaning that those words, phrases, sentences or expressions adopt when they are used in context. That contextual meaning can change as the context changes which implies that the meaning they can adopt is infinite. The following examples illustrate different situations in which the concepts of signification and value operate in communication. Analyze them and explain each applying both concepts. Then create similar examples of your own. CASE 1 a. Lets go dancing b. Its too late CASE 2 a. What time is it? b. Its too late CASE 3 a. May I come in? b. Its too late

The previous examples illustrate that if we want to understand language used for communication rather than only language used for illustrating grammar rules, we have to go far beyond the linguistic analysis of what is said or written. We need to

take into consideration all the information relevant for understanding the contextual value of what we listen or read. The understanding of that need is the basis of the theory of speech act. This is a very important theory since it is the theoretical foundation of the communicative competence concept and the communicative and functional approach for language teaching. THE SPEECH ACT THEORY

Nowadays it is understood that discourse is a social phenomena rather than a linguistic one and that communicative behavior is constructed, acquired and learnt in social interactions. So, it is widely accepted that it is only by analyzing language use in natural contexts that we can draw reliable conclusions about what is grammatically possible, feasible, appropriate and really used in a language. The theory of speech acts explains how communication functions in social interactions, how is it that we come to understand what people mean when they say something. Before this theory the communicative process was considered as a linear process made up by three components: THE LINEAR COMMMUNICATION MODEL THE SPEAKER THE MESSAGE THE LISTENER

That linear model has been strongly criticized since it oversimplifies the communication process by implying that every massage said or written by the speaker/writer would be easily and perfectly understood by the listener/reader. Everybody knows that that is not always the case in many communicative interactions where frequently misunderstandings occur due to many different reasons. A more realistic and illuminating model is presented in the theory of speech acts which was created by Austin (1962) and Searle (1981). This theory states that anything that we say or write constitutes an speech act and that in every speech act we utter, three different acts are simultaneously performed: a locutionary, an illocutionary and a perlocutionary act.

ILLOCUTIONARY ACT LOCUTIONARY ACT

PERLOCUTIONARY ACT

The locutionary act is the act of saying or writing something in a language. That llocutionary act should be constructed in conformity to the rules of the language that we are speaking if we want to be understood; otherwise, the act would not be a real locutionary act but just a noise without any meaning. That act has a signification or a literal meaning which is conveyed by its particular syntactic structure and wording; it can be analyzed syntactically, morphologically, phonetically, etc. For example a locution such as I dont have any money can be understood as someone giving information about his/her financial actual condition, it can be classified as an active and simple negative sentence conjugated in the present tense. But if communication is to be successful we need to know more than that; we need to go beyond its signification; we need to know the contextual illocutionary value of that illocution. The Illocutionary Act is the intention that we have when we utter something, the real value that it takes because of the context where it is uttered. The locutionary act I dont have any money can be understood in different ways depending on the context where it was produced. For example, it could be taken 1) as a fathers negative answer to his sons request for money, 2) as a boyfriends excuse to his girlfriends invitation to the movie or, 3) as someone asking a classmate to pay her breakfast at the school cafeteria. This illustrates how the same language form can acquire different interpretations and how context makes this possible and helps to disambiguate the value of the speakers illocution or intention. The Perlocutionary Act is the effect produced in the listener or reader when they listen or read a locutionary act. The three possible illocutionary forces given to the locution I dont have any money in our example could produce different effects in the listener. In case 1, the son could get angry with his father, could try to get the money he needs from his mother or could just decide not to do what he had planned with the money he was asking for. In case 2, the girl could forget about going to the movie, decide going for a walk instead or offer his boyfriend to pay the ticket for him. Similarly, the third case could give rise to different possibilities. It is very important to understand that what this theory proposes is the existence of three separate acts existing simultaneously in every piece of language that we produce no matter what its extension, form or topic are. Every act of language is then a speech act involving three different acts and, as such, every act of language

can be analyzed from those three different perspectives. This theory is then much more realistic than the traditional linear model of communication since it permits us to explain more acceptably the difficulties that typically occur in natural communication at different levels: at the locutionary level which is the message level, at the illocutionary level which is the speakers level and at the perlocutionary level, which is the listeners level, or at a combination of some or all of them.

THE NON LINEAR COMMMUNICATION MODEL LOCUTION ILLOCUTION PERLOCUTION SPEAKER CONTEX MESSAJE CONTEXT LISTENER

CLASSIFICATION OF ILLOCUTIONARY SPEECH ACTS

For the understanding and production of coherent discourse it is necessary to infer the function of what is said. This is done by considering the form of what has been said or written and the contextual information relevant for its understanding. In speech act theory it is supposed that when we speak or write we do things with words (we suggest, describe, define, apologize, etc.). This is obvious in some ritualized expressions where saying is equivalent to doing. Some examples of such expressions are: I sentence you to death I pronounce them Man and Wife I name this building Arai I absolve you from all your sins I declare him elected to Parliament I confess all my faults I recognize my mistakes I swear at God I order you to clean the house The use of such ritualistic utterances operates properly only in situations were certain conditions are given and when the one who speaks is socially or academically

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invested with the authority necessary for saying them, like is the case of a judge, a priest or a lawyer. But in ordinary life situations they are never or seldom used. In colloquial language use what is more common to use instead are utterances that express indirectly what we mean. In these cases our listeners or readers have to infer our illocutionary acts taking into account the morphosyntactic characteristics of the message and the context where it is produced, since the meaning is not directly expressed in our utterances. The philosopher Searle (1965) established a classification which is useful for inferring the possible illocutionary force or value of an utterance in a given discourse. He classified them into commisive, declarative, expressive and representative acts. Commisive Illocutionary Acts: They are utterances in which the speaker commits himself to do something in the future, for example a promise or a thread: If you dont pay the bill well call the police Ill bring you a bunch of flowers on your birthday Declarative: They are utterances whose function is to get the listener to do something. Examples of declarative acts are suggestions, requests or a commands: Please come in Would you please close the window? Why dont you read the text throughout before discussing it? Expressive: An expressive speech act is one in which the speaker expresses feelings and attitudes about something; for example an apology, a complaint, when we thank or congratulate someone: The letter was so beautiful Im sorry for being late I hate fish Representative: A representative speech act is on in which the speaker or writer describes states or events from the real world; for example a claim, a report: This is a German car, The rain destroyed the crops

DIRECT AND INDIRECT SPEECH ACTS Any speech act. Can be direct or indirect. It is the speaker or the writer the one who decides to between on for or the other. Direct speech acts are those where the locutionary act and the illocutionary act coincide, such as in: A. Alice, come here and sit down in front of me B. I feel very upset because of his reaction C. I shall phone you tomorrow at ten

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In all this examples the structure used expresses almost literally the illocutionary intention of the speaker: in A a declarative illocutionary act has been expressed by means of an imperative sentence; in B and C declarative sentences has been chosen to express an expressive and a commisive speech acts respectively. With extraordinary frequency, however, speakers and writers chose not to code their messages directly but indirectly. An indirect speech act is one where there is no coincidence between the type of illocutionary act and the syntactic structure of the message. The following examples illustrate this point: A. Could you open the window? Please B. Dont you see I love you? C. Its too late for watching TV In these examples different types of illocutionary acts have been expressed indirectly: in A a declarative speech act has been coded as a question, while in B and C two expressive illocutionary acts have been coded indirectly using a question and a declarative sentence respectively. It is very important for English teachers to keep in mind that most of our illocutionary acts in normal communication are indirect. This is why it is not enough to teach our students grammar; it is our obligation to teach them the multiple and surprising ways in which the grammatical structures that they study in class are used in real life communication.

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UNIT III DISCOURSE COOPERATION

DIFFERENCES BETWEEN SPEECH AND WRITING The two main channels for language interaction are speech and writing. Speech is a natural faculty of normal human beings while writing is a human invention that appeared later in time. That is why if there is any abnormal condition that impedes so, oral language is acquired first and unconsciously by most human beings (Krashen, 1992), while written language must be learned formally. The processes of construing and processing speech and writing also vary in different ways and using any of them in stead of the other brings different consequences in how our speech acts are organized, produced and understood. It is important to keep in mind that nowadays speech and writing should not be seen as two completely different and opposing channels of communication but rather as two ends of a continuum. That is so because nowadays we frequently find language samples that can hardly be classified as either oral or written. As an example of this fact consider an informal note or an e-mail where what we find is a kind of speech written down; or a scientific lecture where the lecturers usually write down everything that will be said and then presents it orally. English teachers should be aware of the differences that exist between speech and writing if they are to help their students to communicate properly through both channels, to understand their different characteristics, the contexts in which each is used and the consequences that different contextual features might have on them. The following are some of the most determinant differences between them.

SPEE CH 1. It is transient. 2. Speakers are bound to take turns to speak. Otherwise, because of physical constraints they could not hear each other. 3. It is usually improvised so it frequently contains false starts, hesitations or mistakes which can be corrected immediately. 4. As the listener is present it is easier to have direct information of his understanding of the message and take the necessary steps in accordance.

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5. Immediate context and paralinguistic features help the speaker to express the message without much cohesion. 6. Speech tends to be redundant. Because speakers are never quite sure whether their listeners are paying attention, understanding or remembering what they are saying or not, they tend to make frequent use of repetitions, paraphrases and restatements. 7. It is usually linguistically informal and less organized which is mainly due to its improvisation, its transience and to the interlocutor presence.

WRITING 1. It is permanent so it can be stored and carries more prestige. 2. It is planned and can be analyzed and corrected after its production. 3. As the readers are absent and usually unknown it is difficult for the writer to predict and take the necessary steps to guide their understanding. 4. The absence of paralinguistic features is somehow supplied by drawings, graphics, letter type, titles. Subtitles, punctuation marks, connectives and cohesive devises. 5. It tends to avoid redundancy so it becomes more grammatically structured and lexically dense. 6. It has to be more formal from the linguistic point of view because of its permanence, of the possibility to plan it ant of the absence of the interlocutor. 7.

DISCOURSIVE COOPERATION
Any real speech act requires mutual cooperation from those who participate in it. The speaker/writer should take all the necessary steps in order that the listener/reader understands what s/he means; that is, the illocutionary force of his/her locutionary acts. We have already seen how frequent it is in normal communication that we use indirect speech acts. In other words, what we frequently say is totally different to what we mean. Anyhow in most of the communicative situations in which we get involved daily our messages are understood and the communication circle is satisfactorily completed by the perlocutionary responses that our messages generate in our interlocutors. There is a theoretical principle proposed by Paul Grice in 1975, which functions as an implicit agreement among speakers and helps us to understand how they cooperate to one another during communication:

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THE COOPERATIVE PRINCIPLE

This principle includes four maxims that govern tacitly human communication. They are not to be taken as rules but as suggestions that implicitly guide our interactions and help us in understanding each others. These maxims are: the quality maxim, the quantity maxim, the manner maxim and the relevance maxim. The quality maxim It states that we should try to make our contributions in any oral or written language interaction as sincere as possible. Otherwise, we can loose our listener/reader attention or be taken as a fool. The quantity maxim It recommends not to include in our interactions more information than necessary; that is it suggests us to be brief. This is because if we are not brief enough we can also loose our listeners attention because s/he can get impatient or bored. The manner maxim It says that our messages should be as clear as possible in order to be understood more easily. The relevance maxim It which states that we should tray to make our messages as relevant as possible according to the contextual situation; this means saying what is appropriate according to the situation, the topic of conversation, the relation we have with the person we are speak to. As everything we have studied so far, the respect for these maxims depends on contextual factors such as the type of relation between the speakers, the formality of the situation, the place where they are interacting, etc. For instance, two close friends at the movie might violate the quality and the manner maxims when speaking to each other during the film in order to avoid perturbing the rest of the public, teachers tend to violate the quantity maxim to reinforce their explanations and to increase their students understanding;

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two doctors speaking in front of their patient about his/her terminal health condition will violate the manner maxim by filling their discourse with technical vocabulary in order to avoid their patients concern.

The frequent violation of the cooperative maxims implies that when we acquire a language we also acquire the knowledge about when the cooperative maxims can be violated; that is, we know when we are socially allowed to do so. Some of the language resources most frequently used for doing so are what we call The Figures of Speech. In any language, we can find a multiple variety of figures of speech; some of them be explained and illustrated below.

THE FIGURES OF SPEECH A figure of speech is a word, phrase or sentence or paragraph which is used with the intention of producing a special effect on the listener or reader. The language that is used in a figurative way does not have its usual signification because it acquires in its context of use a special value or connotation. Many teachers see the figures of speech as resources which are only used in literature, but that is not the case since they are used very frequently in our everyday language: academic discourse, jokes, newspapers and in many other contexts. The most common types: Simile [ ]

A simile is an expression in which something is compared to something else and the comparison is made explicit by the use of a function word such as like or as. For example: My hands are as could as ice She sleeps like a beard in winter Robert eats like a horse Metaphor [ ]

A metaphor is an imaginative way of describing something by referring to something else which has the qualities that you want to express. Its similar to the simile in which it is also a kind of comparison but in a metaphor the comparison is implicit since the function word used in the simile does not appears. Examples: Tony is a rat Margaret Tacher is made of iron

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Mother Teresa is made of love

Hyperbole [

A hyperbolic expression is an exaggeration used in order to make something seem more impressive than it really is. Examples: Ive got millions of friends in my class Henrys cars breads down every minute Im starving since I had breakfast too early

Irony or Sarcasm: [

] [

These figures of speech are used as subtle forms of humor. They imply saying the opposite of what we really mean. Examples: What a nice surprise! Youre late again I love when you snore all night Your continue interruptions are so stimulating Metonymy [ ]

Metonymy is a figure of speech that consists on using the name of one thing to for that of another associated with or suggested by the first one. Examples: A home is what everybody needs to be happy Man has invented technology Give me a hand and Ill change the world There are many reasons why English teachers should try to teach their students how to understand, interpret and use different types of figures speech. The most important ones are: 1) As they are so frequently used, our students will find them every time they are exposed to oral or written English; 2) Given the fact that their signification is always different to their contextual value, they are a potential common cause of misunderstandings, and 3) If they develop the ability to use English in a figurative way, their communicative competence will be increased since the productivity of their linguistic repertoire will be multiplied.

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UNIT IV

DISCOURSIVE

COHERENCE

Our discussion in previous units makes clear that the use of language in communication requires much more than mere linguistic information; contextual information is necessary in order to make sense out of the linguistic input or locutionary acts that we receive. We have also studied how that input usually means something different to its signification. In this unit well study the process through which we attribute value or illocutionary force to those oral or written locutionary acts that are directed to us, so as to react perlocutionary to them; that is, the process through which we attribute coherence to discourse. The basic concepts that will be dealt with here are: inference, explicature, implicature, background knowledge, coherence, discourse markers, punctuation marks and adjacency.

INFERENCE [

Language can never be totally explicit. This is so because any time we use language we do not say everything that we know but only the information that we consider necessary for helping our interlocutors to understand what we mean. In other words, whenever we use language, we unconsciously apply the cooperative principle: we try not to violate the quantity maxim or the manner maxim in order to be relevant. This lacks of explicitness that characterizes human language implies that in any communicative interaction the listener/reader must make a cognitive inferential effort to complete our discourse in order to get its real illocutionary value. Inference is then defined as a comprehension strategy that consists on providing any missing information in discourse in order to understand it. the following example illustrates how inference functions in discourse understanding. Contextual situation: The family has just had dinner. Albert is sitting comfortably in his favorite armchair enjoying a cigarette and reading the newspaper when the door bell rings. Albert: Darling, theres someone at the door. Carol: Im washing the dishes.

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If we analyze this exchange, we can easily understand what has happened. First, Albert didnt inform Alice that the door bell was ringing since she must have heard it, so including that information would be a violation to the maxims of quantity and relevance. Third, Albert used an indirect act since though his locution is an informative sentence, he is not informing Alice but asking her to go and open the door. Carols answer let us know that she understood Alberts illocutionary intention but she refuses to obey his request because she is busy at the moment. She also used an indirect locutionary act; that is, an informative and affirmative sentence instead of a negative one such as I cant open the door now, but that informative sentence is function as an excuse: I cant go and open the door because Im washing the dishes. As the example above shows, when inferring, we make use of the contextual information and the co-text available. Within co-text we find linguistic explicit information, basically provided by the vocabulary and structures of the oral or written text; within the contextual environment we find different types of information needed to infer the implicit information necessary for the understanding of the illocutionary value on the text. That explicit information is referred to as explicature while the implicit information derived by the listener/reader from the contextual information is called implicature (Yule y Brown, 1983). It is important to understand that, no matter how polarized the terms might seem from the theoretical point of view, most of the time it is difficult to separate an implicature from its corresponding explicature, since most of the words of a language have several meanings; that is, they can have different implicatures. Therefore, the processing of language always require an inferential contribution from the part of the listener/reader; it requires the activation of their background knowledge in order to supply the information needed for discourse understanding. BACKGROUND KNOWLEDGE The term background knowledge refers to all the knowledge, experiences and information that we acquire during all our live and store in our memory waiting to be used when needed. It is within our background knowledge that we store information about the vocabulary and structure of the language, about the way how that linguistic information is pragmatically used in communication, about different topics and the relations that exist among them, about the culture we belong to as well as about other cultures, about the different social conditions and situations where language is used and the way in which it should be used; in sum, it is in our background knowledge that we store the information about how the world functions. In order to illustrate the concept of background knowledge, lets consider some familiar situations in which all of us are frequently involved: when we read a book about a subject we do not know without understanding it, when we listen to a song in a foreign language about which we have very few knowledge, when we are in a

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conversation about an incident that everybody knows except you or when someone tells a joke for which understanding some cultural information that you do not have is necessary. In all these situations the potential cause of the comprehension problems is the lack of background knowledge of different types. If we connect the concepts that we have studied so far in this unit, we can see that for understanding discourse we need to infer the information that is missing in it, and that we do so by activating our previous knowledge in order to establish appropriate connections between the co-text and the context; between the explicatures and the implicatures. English teachers should be aware of their role in helping their students to know develop and apply the strategy of inference because it is by performing this complex process that they can perceive the coherence of discourse.

COHERENCE

Coherence is a quality of discourse that depends not on the discourse itself but on the listener/reader ability to assign a meaningful interpretation to it (Widdowson, 1984). The relation between the concept of coherence and all the concepts we have studied so far is obvious: if the students dont have enough background knowledge about the topic being dealt with in a conversation or in a text, they wont be able to establish the necessary and appropriate connections between the co-text and the context between the explicatures and the implicatures- in order to infer the illocutionary force of the locutionary acts expressed by the speaker/reader in his/her discourse. Sometimes the connections between the sentences included in a piece of discourse are not made explicit by the author; in such cases it is the receiver who must infer them. Sometimes the author makes such connections explicit by using what we call Discourse Markers.

DISCOURSE MARKERS

Discourse markers, as their name implies units which are attributed the function of marking explicitly the relations that the author establishes between different parts of his or her discourse. Those parts can vary in their extensions: they can be two sentences, two paragraphs or two chapters in a book. For understanding the function that discourse markers perform in discourse, it is very important to understand that they are not syntactic units since they do not accomplish any syntactic role within the sentence; that is, they never function as subjects, verbs or objects. They do not have an identifiable grammatical function

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either, since a discourse marker can be a word (Since), a phrase (As a result) or even a complete sentence (This is the reason why), which implies that they can not be classified as nouns, adjectives, verbs, adverbs or preposition. Another distinguishing characteristic of discourse markers is the different positions that they can occupy in the text: they can appear at the beginning of a sentence, in the middle of it or at its end. Anyhow, their most frequent position is at the beginning. Also, discourse markers can express different types of semantic relations: Time: Before, during, after, yet*, at the time of, at the same time, as soon as, then*, once, while*, since*, as*, nowadays, sometimes, generally, at present, as a rule, eventually, suddenly, etc. Comparison/similarity: as*, like, while*, equally, similarly, likewise. Purpose: so that, in order to, in order for, so as, for. Result, consequence or conclusion: so, hence, as a result, consequently, therefore, then*, in short, in sum, for that reason, in conclusion. Order: next, then*, finally, second, at the end, at last, at the beginning, later, earlier, at first. Addition: and, moreover, even, besides, not only but, as well as*, also, in addition to, furthermore, including, bothand, still. Cause: because, for that reason, since*, because of, owing to, due to, thanks to. Explanation/paraphrase: thus, that is, that is to say, in other words, i.e., what is the same. Illustration: for example, for instance, as an example, to illustrate, such as. Agreement: in accordance with, according to, concerning, as to, with regard to. Emphasis: in fact, actually, really, as a matter of fact. Condition: if, provided (that),unless, whether, as long as. Contrast: although, however, but, in spite of, even though, on the other hand, whereas, unlike, otherwise, anyway, yet*, while*.

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Alternative: eitheror, neither nor, or, instead of, rather, in place of, none of them, one of them only. English teacher should never underestimate the importance of teaching discourse markers use and understanding, given the importance this unit have in orienting the listener/reader understanding, specially in written discourse where the respect of the cooperative maxims is more necessary due to the distance between the interlocutors and the lack of common contextual information. Dealing with these units appropriately in class requires much more than memorizing them and knowing their signification; it is mandatory that the students know how to use them in context, which implies knowing how to use them to express their ideas as well as being able to recognize their function in context and the different types of relations that they establish between the sentences, paragraphs or larger units of language that they connect. It is important to recognize that in spite of the importance of discourse markers, they are not used all the time since a text where all the sentences are connected to one another by a discourse marker would be unnatural at least. As an alternative, we have punctuation marks, which are used also as resources for connecting written language. This is why, though handling discourse markers appropriately is of great help in discourse production and comprehension, it is not everything that we need: we also need to know how to use or interpret punctuation marks.

PUNCTUATION MARKS The main function of punctuation marks is to indicate the intonation with which written texts should be read aloud. A second but no less important function is to indicate the way in which two contiguous words, phrases, sentences of paragraphs are connected. There are many different punctuation marks, but we concentrate mainly in those most frequently used in discourse, giving an example for each: The period [.]: I think that we can solve this problem. The best way of doing so is by The comma [,]: He didnt say that, as can be seen in the video tape, but he implied; Sheila brought eggs, cheese, milk and cereal for breakfast. The semicolon [;] Bert deserved better grades this semester; she studied vary hard. This use of the semicolon is very important since in this case it is replacing a connective; so if the proper inference is not made by the reader, the relation between the two sentences can be ignored or changed.

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The colon [:]: there are many different ways in which this disease can be approached: surgery, treatment or therapy; I prefer the first one. The question mark [?]: How can we avoid pollution? Mainly by making people become aware of their responsibility and of the dangerous consequences of pollution in health. . The quotation marks [ ..]: Im sorry, he said, but I dont believe you. The dash [-]: I was surprised no, offended would be more accurate- by his actions. ADJACENCY [ ]

So far we have analyzed two different resources for connecting ideas in a text which exhibit different grades of explicitness: discourse markers and punctuation marks. But there are many cases in which the connection between the sentences must be inferred contextually. English is know as a language with a very strong tendency towards linear argumentation where one idea leads to the next; where one sentence stands next to the other without explicit connection. This phenomenon is called adjacency and the sentences put together by this method are called adjacent sentences. The following examples are illustrative of this phenomenon: 1. There is considerable evidence to support the claim that l2 learners who begin learning as adults are unable to achieve a native-like competence in either grammar or pronunciation. Studies of immigrants in the United States show that if they arrive before puberty they go on to achieve much higher levels of grammar proficiency than if they arrive later. 2. The poorer countries in the world are called the developing countries. They have special problems: sometimes the land is too poor to grow anything on, the land can be improved by introducing new farming methods, the people must be educated and water must be found.

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UNIT V COHESION IN ENGLISH TEXTS

A speaker of English can normally decide without much difficulty whether what he hears or reads is a real text or is just a collection of unrelated sentences. This is because a TEXT is as a recognizable semantic unit that has TEXTURE, something that is provided by the cohesive relations that exists between the different parts of the text. COHESION is a semantic relation that is established by linguistic devises that express the continuity that exists between one part of a text and another, functioning as a guide for its understanding. Those devises help the reader or listener to cooperate mutually in the communication process by supplying information about where to find all the parts that are missing in a text but are necessary for its interpretation. There is a very close relation between cohesion and the pragmatic structure of discourse since it is basically with cohesive relations that Given information is coded and New information is signaled as new. TEXT

A semantic unit

TEXTURE COHESION

The effect caused by cohesion The effect produced by the connections that exist between function and content words in Texts

CLASIFICATION OF COHESION Cohesion is expressed partly through the grammar and partly through the vocabulary of the language. Only for pedagogic or practical purposes we can divide cohesion into grammatical cohesion and lexical cohesion because the distinction between these two types of cohesion is really only a matter of degree, since cohesion is not a purely formal relation but a semantic one.

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GRAMMATICAL COHESION This type of cohesion is realized through certain items that do not have value or can not be given a semantic interpretation but have to be interpreted by reference to other items or to an information that must be found somewhere else inside or outside the text. Such items have the property of REFERENCE, the item or the information needed for the understanding of a second item is called its REFERENT and they become COREFERENTIAL; that is, they mean contextually the same. The function of these items is to function as a signal to indicate the listener or the reader the place where the referent is to be found; for that reason they are classified according to the place where the referent is to be found as indicated in the following diagram. REFERENCE

EXOPHORA: Outside the text

ENDOPHORA: Inside the text ANAPHORA: Forward in the text CATAPHORA: Back in the text

Grammatical cohesion is further subdivided into 6 types. They are personals, demonstratives, comparatives, substitution, ellipsis and conjunction. 1. Personals: This category includes all the grammatical items that make possible the identification of who speaks to whom, who acts, etc. here we find personal pronouns (I/me, you/you, he/him, she/her, it/it, you/ you, we/us, they/them, one), possessive adjectives (my, your, his, her, its, your, their, our, ones), possessive pronouns (mine, yours, his, hers, its, ours, theirs), reflexive pronouns (myself, yourself, himself, herself, itself, yourselves, ourselves, themselves, oneself), and other extended personal kinds of reference. Example: It is important for us to know that a child who tells his teacher an imaginative story, which she subsequently writes down for him, is not engaged in creative speaking. So one should ask the students to write down their own stories themselves if what we want is to develop their writing skills.

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Personal grammatical cohesion is very frequent mainly in narrative and descriptive texts because in those kind of texts the authors need to refer back to the actions of a character or the characteristics of the object being described without being too repetitive or redundant. So, once the character or object are introduced in the text the are referred back by means of different anapforical personal cohesive devices. 2. - Demonstratives: This type of grammar cohesive device helps us in the identification of relevant contextual information such as time, place, and proximity. Here we include demonstrative adjectives and pronouns (this, these, that, those), the definite article (the) and some adverbs (here, there, now, then). Examples: A- This is what Ive ordered: two turkeys, a leg of this lamb here, these red apples, two pounds of that beef and some cooked ham. B- Ok, here you have everything. And this is the bill. The use of demonstrative reference is very common different types of texts: in narrations, descriptions and dialogues they provide information to the listener/reader about the locations of different items or characters in the scenes. They are also found in argumentative texts where they can have the additional function of signaling the author attitude towards the arguments that s/he is using. 3.- Comparatives: General: identity (some, equal, equally good, identical, identically); similarity (such, so/very similar, likewise); difference (other, different, differently, otherwise, opposite to). Particular numerative (more + adjective or adverb. fewer, less, further, additional, so/as...as, more...that, less...than). Examples: A- This is the same report as the one we received from him last week. B- No, I think differently. Notice that it contains more information than that one. I think that this report is different and better in the sense that it includes more concrete data and has a position to justify everything. A- You always take such a position to justify everything. B- You should imitate me. Otherwise youll act unfairly. Comparatives are a very useful cohesive device when we are describing something since they help us to express similarities or differences between items or characters. In argumentative tests they also accomplish an important function since by comparing we can emphasize or diminish the force of an argument in order to persuade the listener or reader to accept our view points

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4.- Substitution: nominal substitution (one/ones, the same); verbal substitution (auxiliaries and modals), and clausal substitution (the same, so).

Examples: 1. Ive heard some strange stories from our parents. But this one is perhaps the strangest one. 2. We asked Mary to bring a guest and she said she would. 3. Read the instructions. Then do the same with the text.

Substitutions are very frequent in oral discourse where the manner and quantity maxims are usually violated due to the fact that the presence of the speakers and the immediate context will help in the solution of any understanding problem.

5.- Ellipsis: Nominal ellipsis, verbal ellipsis, clausal ellipsis.

Examples: 1. I have many books. I can lend you one 0 if you want. 2. The parents enjoyed the play but the children didnt 0. 3. This was a nice novel but his first novel was the best 0. 4. Now that she was closer 0 she looked more attractive 0. 5. What was he reading? Of course, 0 the sport news.

The same as substitution and by identical reasons, ellipsis is very frequent in oral discourse. It is also used in written discourse but with less frequency, again because of contextual reasons: the reader and the author do not share the same immediate context since they are usually far from each other.

3.- Conjunctions: additive (and, and also, or, nor, furthermore, in addition, besides); adversative (though, yet, but, however, nevertheless, despite this, in spite of this, on the other hand, instead, by contrast); causal (so, then, as since, therefore, consequently, because of this, for this reason, as a result, for this purpose, for, so that), and temporal (then, next, first, since, at the same time, as, while, meanwhile, previously, before, briefly, to resume, to conclude).

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Examples: 1. Se was never really happy here. So she is leaving. 2. Perhaps she missed her train. Or else shes changed her mind and isnt coming. 3. The text was very difficult to read. However I could understand it because of your help. 4. We have advanced a lot since you arrived.

LEXICAL COHESION Lexical cohesion is the cohesive effect that is produced by the vocabulary used in a text. The understanding of the connections that exist between the lexical items on a text can help us to accomplish the following objectives: 1. To avoid redundancy in writing. 2. To learn new vocabulary contextually, without using the dictionary. 3. To infer the meaning of some words by making reference to other familiar words used on the text to refer back to the words that we dont know, and 4. To identify the position of an author in relation o a given topic being dealt with.

CLASSIFICATION OF LEXICAL RELATONS 1. Reiteration Reiteration is a form of lexical cohesion which involves the repetition of the meaning of the word that was previously used. It is realized through: 1. Pure repetition: The same lexical item Most parents have an incredible influence on their children. New research has identified how parents can use that influence to prevent their children from getting involved with drugs.

2. The use of a general world When my brother Samuel was transferred to Xkrftp his wife got very upset because the place is too far from their home. To resolve decided to move together and are now living happily there. 3. The use of a synonym or a near-synonym the problem they

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Arriving at the scene, the policeman learned that the nun had been knocked to the floor in the street, and the thief had run away with her bag. Then the cop realized that the mugger had left something on the pavement his wallet.

4. The use of a or a superordinate Memory loss? Asking repeated questions?, Having troubles using words?. If these sings are beginning to affect you everyday life, they may not be part of the normal aging process. They may be sings of Alzheimers disease, an incurable health problem that rods patients and their families of a lifetime of memories. 2. Collocation It is a type of lexical cohesion that is achieved through any recognizable lexicosemantic association of lexical items that regularly co-occur in a text. This includes the use of pairs of words that are opposite in different senses: a. Complementaries: These are pairs of words that are mutually exclusive. For example: boy...girl, stand up...sit down; b. Antonyms: like...hate, wet...dry; c. Converses: They share a sense of reciprocity. For example: order...obey, give...take; buy...sell); d. Pairs or words drawn from the same ordered series: For example, if Tuesday occurs in one sentence and Thursday in another, the effect will be cohesive; similarly will occur with words such as dollar...cent or north...south; e. Hyponyms of the same superordinate term: Car and bus in relation to means of transportation; apple and orange in relation to fruits; f. Members of unordered lexical sets: These are words that stand in some recognizable semantic relation to one another. They may be related as part to whole (car...brake; house...roof), or as part to part (mouth...chin).

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THE COHESION - COHERENCE RELATIONSHIP

Though the concepts of cohesion and coherence can be difficult to distinguish and are sometimes used as synonymous, there are conceptual reasons that make them different. Cohesion is seen as a property of the text that makes evident the syntaxdiscourse connection while coherence is considered a property of the readers response that can be induced by cohesion. As can be seen from the previous paragraph, cohesion and coherence are two distinct but complementary concepts: cohesion refers to the use that speakers and writers make of explicit grammatical and lexical devices as an important aid for text construction and understanding. There is not doubt that this function turns cohesion into an extremely useful text condition, an objective condition of the text while coherence comes from the subjective evaluation of the reader (Hatch, 1992). This becomes evident when we find texts that are not coherent in spite of exhibiting cohesive relations or texts that without including any single cohesive mark can be coherently interpreted (Widdowson, 1978). In conclusion, cohesion and coherence are not synonymous; instead they may be considered as ends of a bi-directional relation established between the writer and the reader through the text. It is true that the readers judgments about coherence can be induced by the cohesive relations present in the text, but the inevitable variability that exists between the background knowledge of different readers turns coherence into a relative condition that can be only graded according to the readers assessment. The cohesion coherence relationship has many implications in EFL teaching. EFL teachers should try: to raise their students awareness and ability to use cohesive devices as resources for writing cohesive texts that help their readers finding them coherent, to exploit cohesion in their daily pedagogical activities for helping their students to process texts flexibly and for activating and using their content, linguistic, rhetoric and strategic background knowledge, to widen their students vocabulary by inducing them to become aware that words do not have fixed meanings but instead that their meaning can be inferred by making use of cohesive relations and contextual information, to reduce the stunedts tendency to think that the main way to figure out the meaning of unknown words is the dictionary.

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Even though now a days it is well accepted that vocabulary is one of the most determinant features for effective language use, everybody knows that it is impossible to teach all the vocabulary that students need for reading or writing. A question to take into consideration is whether the meaning of words such as concept, relation, notion or belief, which are frequently used to refer anaphorically to chunks of texts, can be directly taught given their contextual dependence. Here again developing students capacity to discover contextual meaning is a solution. It is necessary that teachers become aware that problems with vocabulary knowledge vary so widely that it is important to offer the students a variety of strategies for dealing with vocabulary problems in context, without putting aside completely more traditionally word attack strategies such as morphological analysis or dictionary use. It is important to understand that there may be different kind of vocabulary problems since students can find: 1) Unknown words with unknown meanings; 2) Unknown words with familiar meanings; 3) Known words expressing familiar concepts, or 4) Known words expressing new meanings. All these different and frequent possibilities should be considered by the teacher when selecting teaching resources as well as when planning and applying teaching activities.

PRAGMATIC

STRUCTURE IN

TEXTS

There is considerable agreement among authors in their understanding of coherence as an abstract condition of the text that is not found in the text itself but is created by the speaker or the reader through their interaction with the listener or reader, which is mediated by the text. That is, it is a subjective evaluation of the reader in relation to how easy it was for him/her to process and understand the text (Hatch, 1992). The fact that coherence is not in the text becomes evident when we find: a) texts that are not coherent in spite of exhibiting some cohesive relations:

Yesterday I discussed with a party. The party was very funny but they could not dance it because she was dancing so loudly that I could not hear the class.
b) texts that are coherent in spite of lacking explicit cohesive relations:

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The phone is ringing Im in the bathroom

These examples show that coherence depends on the ability of the reader/listener to identify the relations between the illocutionary acts (the intention of the author, what he means) and the locutionary acts (the literal expression, what he said) found in the text (Widdowson, 1978) by activating his/her previous knowledge about the language, the topic being dealt with and the information provided by the cotext and the context where the text is or was produced. One of the main ways in which coherence is promoted is by providing continuity to the information included in the text (de Beaugrande and Dressler, 1997). This continuity is provided by the Pragmatic Structure of Discourse, which includes the Thematic structure and the Information Structure.

THEMATIC STRUCTURE

The thematic structure of a sentence is given by the order in which its elements are organized. What comes at the beginning is called the Theme and what comes next is known as the Rheme. It is important not to confuse the Theme with the subject and the Rheme with the predicate since they are different concepts that correspond to differet levels of analysis: the subject and predicate concepts correspond to the syntactic level of the language while the Theme and Rheme concepts operate at the pragmatic level. The following examples illustrate the differences between these two levels of analysis. THEME The teacher We A new text This morning, Who Give Please, RHEME gave us a new text this morning were given a new text by the teacher this morning was given to us by the teacher this morning a new text was given to us by the teacher gave us a new text this morning? us a new text this morning, please give us a new text

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When creating isolated sentences, we are free to use the structure we want; but when sentences are used in oral or written discourse the way in which they are structurally organized depends on what is before them and what is to be after them. This is so because when organizing discourse we usually take steps to help the receiver in the comprehension process. One of those steps is oriented to providing continuity to the message that we want to communicate. In order to be successful in doing this, the speaker or listener need to structure the information in such a way that it flows smoothly; s/he must balance the quantity of information presented at a time, avoiding ambiguity without being redundant or irrelevant. Lets see how this is done.

INFORMATION STRUCTURE

In discourse, information is segmented and organized in sentences. The information structure is given by the order in which Given and New information are distributed in the sentence. Given information is the information that has already been mentioned or is inferable from information already mentioned in previous parts of the text or from the contextual information shared by the interlocutors. On the contrary, New information refers to information that has not been mentioned or can not be inferred from the text or context. This articulated flow of New and Given information requires of the strategic use of language and is very related to the Thematic Structure of the sentence, since Given information usually coincides with the Theme position and New information with the Rheme position, as shown in the next figure.

Given Information

New information

Theme position: At the beginning of the clause

Rheme position: At the end of the clause

As shown in this figure, Given information usually occupies the Theme position, that is at the beginning of the clause, while New information is most frequently found in the Rheme position, at the end of the clause. This is the most common distribution of the information flow in English, but not the only one since

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because of stylistic reasons it is difficult to keep the same structure in texts of a considerable extension. The organizational patterns of Given and New information can also vary according to the whether the communicative function adopted for the organization of discourse is narrative, descriptive, argumentative, conversational and so on. There are three main types of thematic patterning: the constant pattern, the linear pattern and the complex combined pattern. 1) The constant pattern is one where the same Theme is repeated over several clauses or sentences and it is coded through different cohesive devices. The information flow in this patterns might be felt as rigid or static if kept through but works well with descriptive, classifying or narrative texts where keeping the same topic is important. This thematic flow can be represented as follows and is exemplified in the text about urea: T1 R1

T2 T3

R2 R3

Urea is a very important chemical because which is used in many industrial and biological processes. It is excreted in the urine as an end product of protein metabolism. It is produced on large scale and 0 used as a fertilizer and raw material in the manufacture of some plastics and drugs. It can be extracted from natural processes or 0 artificially prepared in laboratories. 2) The linear thematic pattern is one where the Theme of every sentence is chosen from the Rheme of the previous clause or sentence. This pattern looks more dynamic than the constant one since it allows writers to add one new idea to a given one. It is very common in explanatory and argumentative texts. The following diagram and text represent and illustrate this pattern respectively: T1 R1 T2 R2 T3 R3

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The early feminist movement was greatly influenced by the work on Mary Wollstonecraft. She proposed a feminist agenda whose aims were to expose the exclusion of women from traditionally male spheres like politics, economics, education and religion. These aims became a main focus for religious women in particular in the United States. 3) The complex combined pattern results from the combination of two or more of the patterns already described.

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UNIT VI

DISCOURSE

ORGANIZATION

RHETORICAL ORGANIZATION

Rhetoric deals with the study of how different pieces of discourse are organized according to their communicative function. It tells us how narration, descriptions, conversations and other communicative functions are typically initiated, continued and ended. This information is important in communicative language learning and teaching because: communication is an interactive process where speakers or writers have to make decisions; these decisions consist in choosing and organizing information with a specific communicative purpose and a specific audience in mind, so that the resulting discourse is cohesive and coherent; rhetorical information helps the students to perceive the communicative usefulness of the language structures they have already studied, practiced and used. When we listen or read a piece of discourse in our native language, it is regularly easy for us to identify it as either a narration, a description or a dialogue. We can even predict its type after listening or reading its first or second sentences. This means that we know, at least unconsciously, how discourse is organized in L1. Since this information helps us to produce and understand discourse, it is necessary that teachers: make foreign language (FL) students conscious of how discourse is organized in the language they are learning; make foreign language (FL) students conscious of the fact that discourse organization is similar among languages; help their students to take advantage of the knowledge they already have about how discourse is organized in their native language to improve their

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production and understanding of discourse in the language they are learning. We have already said that discourse is the study of language use in communication and that its units of analysis are usually units larger than the sentence. This does not mean that discourse units dont have a regular and predictable structure. What it means is that their structures are different. The main differences between discourse and sentence structures are: discourse has rhetorical structure while sentences have grammatical (syntactic or semantic) structure; the rhetoric structures of discourse are determined by the communicative needs of those who interact through language while sentence structure is governed by grammatical rules; discourse structure is flexible because it depends on the communicative needs of the speakers which vary according to the contextual situation. On the contrary, sentence structure is rigid because it depends on rules which were established before the communicative interaction. Since the human systems for information processing (ears, eyes, brain) have certain limitations, normal communication proceeds in a way conventionally organized to avoid overlapping and misunderstanding. That is why writers and speakers organize their discourse into units larger than the sentence which differ in writing and speaking. Such units become patterns followed as routines for sequencing the information according to communicative conventions. The identification of those patterns and those conventions helps us to understand the relation that connects a group of sentences in a given piece of discourse. In normal conversations speakers do not speak at the same time but take turns for regulating their participation. That is, in order to avoid overlapping, one speaker says something while the rest listens. In writing the information is not presented at the same time either but is organized hierarchically in paragraphs, sections, chapters and so on depending on the extension of the written text. There are rhetorical techniques that help us to organize the information within the oral turn and the written paragraph. They are also useful in the identification, understanding and production of different communicative functions in oral or written discourse.

RHETORICAL TECHNIQUES

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Trimble (1985) classifies rhetorical techniques into two types: natural patterns and logical patterns. It is important to have in mind, however, that the use of one rhetorical technique does not exclude the simultaneous use of the others. In fact, it would be difficult to find in natural communication pure examples of each type. For instance, a paragraph or turn that uses a time order organization to describe a process usually requires the use of causality and result to justify the steps of the process. We can also find two or more logical patterns working together, with one usually being dominant or a paragraph where details are organized according to their importance, compared or contrasted.

NATURAL PATTERNS They are called natural because they reflect the real nature of the information itself. The most frequent natural patterns are time order, space order and causality and result. A.- Time Order: The pattern followed in this case is chronological and it is shown linguistically through dates, clock times or through markers such as first, second, finally, next, now, then, after, during, immediately, at the same time, simultaneously, once, etc. B.- Space Order: It shows measurements and spatial relationships through prepositional phrases (in the box, out of the plane, in the center, to the left, next to, etc.) or by using expressions such as surrounding, not far away, at a 45 angle, 1mm directly above. C.- Causality and Result: It is often called cause and effect. We say that a causality and result order is natural in cases such as birds fly because they have wings, where the cause and the effect are natural. This type of order is marked by lexical items (thus, because, as a result, so that, causing, since, as a consequence of, etc.) or by juxtaposition of information using adjacent sentences; that is, sentences put together without any signal of the kind of relation that connects them. The difficulty for non-native speakers of English when faced with this implicit way of expressing relationships between pieces of information (adjacency) is that the only clues they have for inferring the kind of relationship are to be found in the logic of the context, and the ability to see this kind of logic is not easily developed. It must be taught.

LOGICAL PATTERNS

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They are so-called because they reflect the logical interpretation that the writer or the speaker gives to the information they are referring to. They are not determined by the real nature of the information but are chosen deliberately to make clear the relationships between the units of information that they want to present. According to Trimble (1985), the most commonly occurring logical patterns are causality and result, order of importance, comparison and contrast, analogy and, exemplification and illustration. Logical patterns can appear either mixed with one another (two or more logical patterns combined) or in conjunction with natural patterns, but with one of them receiving more prominence. A.- Causality and Result: This pattern is presented linguistically by the same recourses used in the causality and effect natural order. That is, by cause and effect connectives and adjacency. B.- Order of Importance: This order is shown linguistically by some of the following expressions: first, second, third, most important, of primary importance, least important, the main interest, the most frequent, etc. C.- Comparison and Contrast: When we compare we refer to the similarities of things that are basically alike by using expressions such as: in comparison, similarly, in like fashion, as does X, so does X, is/are alike, in the same way, equal, etc. When we contrast we relate differences with expressions such as: in contrast, on the other hand, however, nevertheless, by way of difference, is/are different/opposing, while, but, etc. D.- Analogy: We establish an analogy when we refer to the similarities between objects, facts or ideas that are basically different. It is expressed linguistically by: analogically, by analogy, by way of analogy. E.- Exemplification and Illustration: For example, for instance, as an example, a typical case of this, that is, as can be seen in Figure 2, see Fig. 5, to illustrate this, etc. are common linguistic signals used to announce something that illustrates what has been said previously. All these different ways of paragraphs or turn organization are techniques we have for organizing discourse. As all of them can appear in any communicative function, well find many examples of them in the following section. COMMUNICATIVE FUNCTIONS

The rhetorical structure of discourse is given by the way in which its constituent parts are organized and sequenced. This constituent units of information

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can be paragraphs, sections or chapters (in writing) or turns (in speech) which have an identifiable communicative function. The most common communicative functions are conversation, description, definition, classification, instructions, narration and argumentation. Within each type, there can be many different subtypes. For example, there are many different types of conversation: dialogues, interviews, phone calls or doctor-patient conversations; many different types of narrative texts: sport news, novels, short stories or biographies; many varieties of instructions: cooking recipes, manual or a doctors prescription. Each of these subtypes has specific social functions which influence their grammatical and lexical characteristics and the kind and amount of information each contains.

Conversation

In a conversation there can be two or more participants who will take turns to express their ideas, ask for others ideas or respond to others questions, comments or requests. This does not mean that while one speaker has his/her turn, the rest must be silently and indifferently waiting theirs. In authentic dialogues, listeners tend to act cooperatively. That is, they tend to show the speaker their understanding, sympathy, interest or attitude towards what is being said by using gestures, exclamations (oh! dont tell me, tell me more, so? really?), nodding, smiling, laughing or so on. Any conversation has a beginning, a development and an ending. All of them are easily recognized in spite of the fact that sometimes they are not expressed verbally. For instance, a greeting is very commonly the starting step of a conversation. After the greeting, there will be a development that can be made up by two or more turns through which the speakers will exchange different kinds of information. Of course, the turns number and extension will depend on the situational context (at home, at the office, in the street, at a party). The ending is also easily identified: there is frequently a closure of the topic of the conversation and some comment usually announces the end (my God! Its too late; sorry I must leave now; What about having lunch tomorrow)

Authentic dialogues are characterized by incomplete sentences (I wan to visitI mean, why don we go and visit), mispronunciations (I wanna), slips of the tongue (..my institution, sorry, my intuition), violation of grammar rules (He came?), frequent use of general (stuff, thing) and referential words (over here, that one) whose meaning is clarified by the immediate context or paralinguistic resources (pointing, touching, gestures). Description

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We can subcategorize it into types: physical descriptions function or process descriptions and emotional descriptions. Physical descriptions have to do with the physical description of an object, a person, a place, an animal, etc. The thing being described can be real or unreal (fictional). The physical characteristics most frequently described are dimension, shape, weight, material, volume, color, and texture. Commonly the information they include follows a natural spatial order since they are clearly tied together: when the main communicative function of a paragraph is to describe the physical properties of something, the writer needs to refer to spatial relations. In this kind of description we find many prepositional phrases, adverbs of place, nouns and adjectives. Function or process description is concerned with the use or purpose of some device and how its parts function separately and as a whole. This type of description usually contains causality and result orders, time orders, imperatives and modals. Emotional descriptions include the characteristic of ones personality: feelings, attitudes, preferences, reactions, etc. They usually contain abstract nouns and adjectives, as well as sense verbs (feel, see, perceive, consider, etc.) and causality and result order.

Narration This is one of the most common communicative functions. By narrating we describe our (or others) real or imaginary experiences; that is, we tell people what others or we did or what we imagined we did. Narratives usually include a description of the setting or the state of equilibrium, a conflict (the initial equilibrium is lost) and an eventual solution of the conflict, which is optional. This elements can follow a different order depending on the writers or the speakers style. The quantity of information included in each one of these elements also varies. This is the main difference between lets say a short story and a novel. This communicative function is characterized by the use of past tense, though the use of other tenses are permitted, physical and emotional descriptions including lots of adjectives (specially in the first part when the setting and the characters are introduced) and time, spatial and causality and result orders. Definition They can be formal, semiformal or non-formal. Formal definitions usually identify the following information: (T) the term being defined = (C) the class to which it belongs and, (D) the differences

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between the term being defined and the rest of the members of the same class. Example: An arachnid (T) is an invertebrate animal (C) having (or, which has) eight legs extending at equal intervals from a central body (D). Formal definitions can describe the physical characteristics or the functioning the term being defined. Semi formal definitions are very similar to the formal ones but they provide the reader with less information because they only contain two of the three elements that form the formal definitions. Non-formal definitions are not designed to provide the readers with very much basic, precise defining information but to familiarize them with the term being defined by reference to the words that the writer supposes the readers know. This can be done by means of a synonym (an arachnid is a spider), an antonym (The opposite of foreign is indigenous), a comparison or contrast (a T.V. set is similar to a radio but it permits us to see the image of those who speak. This advantage...) and by word origin (a sharpener, as its names implies, is a device used for sharpening pencils).

Classification This communicative function is as important as definitions because it is very related to human thinking. Classifications can be complete, partial or implicit. Complete classification give three kinds of information: the members of a class, the class to which they belong and the criteria for classification (a consonant is classified as voiced when during its pronunciations the vocal cords vibrate, consonants are classified as voiced or voiceless depending on whether they include vocal cord vibration during their production, according to the vibration of the vocal cords consonants can be classified as voiceless or voiced). Partial classifications are very similar to complete ones but in this type the bases or criteria used in the classification are not specified. For example: Consonants can be classified as voiced or voiceless. Implicit classifications refer to classifying information that is presented without including classification terms: Underground water reserves are much larger that those on the surface, but as they are unseen we tend to underestimate them.

Instructions

Instruction is the kind of communicative functions that tells someone to do or not to do something. Instructions can be of two types: direct or indirect. Direct

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instructions are characterized by the use of the imperative form of the verb (switch it on). In this type each instruction is presented separately in a sentence. Indirect instructions are characterized by the use of modal verbs (first, you must switch it on), the passive voice (first, it is switched on) or a combination or both: the passive modals (first, it must be switched on). In this type the instructions are connected in a paragraph that usually follows a natural time order combined with a causality and result order. Argumentation When we argue we state our ideas and opinions directly or indirectly supporting them with our reasons. The aim of the argumentation can be to convince the reader or listener to agree with us (as in political argumentation) or to just present our viewpoints for or against something without necessarily attempting to persuade them. When we argue we explain the relations that we perceive among the concepts, ideas or facts qualifying them positively or negatively. For doing so we need to use logical connectives. This is why the information presented usually follows a logical order, though other natural orders are also found since writers can decide to present a description or a narrative as a justification for their opinions. The prototypical rhetorical structure of an argumentative piece of discourse is: introduction, development and conclusion. In the introduction, a case, idea, statement or problem is presented identified (defined, described). The way in which the central topic is going to be developed should be stated as clearly as possible as well as the authors attitude (for, against or neutral). The introduction is very important because the whole argument that is to follow will be built on the topic that is being introduced. In the development, the arguments to support the topic or ideas stated in the introduction are provided. Such arguments can be examples, anecdotes, statistical data or reasons depending on the nature of the topic. The number of paragraphs devoted to this part depends, again, on the nature of the topic but it is important to have in mind that each paragraph must add something new and important to the argument. In the conclusion we must go back to the topic stated in the introduction and summarize the consequence that derives directly from the arguments analyzed.

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BIBLIOGRAPHY De Beugrand y Dressler (1997) Introduccin a la lingstica del texto. Ariel: Espaa. Halliday, M. y Hasan, R. (1976) Cohesion in English. Longman: Singapore. Hatch, E. (1992) Discourse and language education. Cambridge University Press: USA. Hoey, M. (1991) Patterns of lexis in texts. Oxford University Press: Hong Kong. McCarthy, M. (1991) Discourse analysis for language teachers. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Nuttall, Ch. (1996) Teaching reading skills in a foreign language. (6th edition) Heinemann: Great Britain. Richards, J.; Platt, J. and Platt, H. (1992) Dictionary of language teaching & applied linguistics. 2nd edition. Longman: Malaysia. Widdowson, H (1978) Teaching language as communication. Oxford University Press: Hong Kong.

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