Contextual Analysis Context governs our linguistics choice Eg

Contextual Analysis • Context governs our linguistics choice. • Eg. I like to read vs I like reading. • What is the context that leads us to select one form over the other?

Contextual analysis • The analysis often begin with an interesting qs. • When do we use active vs passive form • What is in the context that leads us to choose one over the other? • Eg. 1. Teachers are respected by their students. 2. Students respect their teachers.

§ Eg. (H. 266) High on the bluff stood Sergeant Begay. Old/ Theme/ Topic (Something unexpected happened) § Sergeant Begay stood high on the bluff. (To describe the location) § Native speakers’ intuition is very much evidence of which linguistic form is appropriate in certain context.

• The advent of the computers and with it the availability of large text corpora allow us to check natural language texts. • Based on corpus, Ronkin suggested that if clause is used when sarcasm supercedes. • Eg. If he’s intelligent, than I’m Albert Einstein. § Eg. If she says she ‘s the leader, she’s the leader. § The if-clause is used first when certain deduction is made § Eg. If you’ve already learned to use the computer, this should be easy for you.

• The second method • Look for examples for particular structures within a discourse database • This is to validate findings • Celce-Murcia found that a shift in the formality of discourse register may cause a shift in choice between “if” and “whether” • Eg. I wonder if you have time to help out • I wonder whether you might be willing to assist me in this matter?

• According to Celce-Murcia, the modals will, should and must are more formal than going to, ought to and have to. • Contextual analysis also found that just is used in informal spoken data seven times more often than written data. • Just is also found to be used as evaluative device in spoken discourse. • Maybe has a high usage in spoken data. • These findings are relevant in designing teaching materials.

Research Areas • How students fr. various background and proficiency use particular structure? • How different genres use different structures or lexical items eg. In narrative & descriptive • Compare bet. Science texts & novels / science texts & science fictions • Context therefore is a broad term that is in all areas of discourse • Scripts, speech events, rhetorical forms, cohesion, coherence- all are governed by contexts.

In utterances • Context- assumptions or beliefs held by hearers. • According to Blakemore (1992), a hearer has enormous background info and thus can be used in the interpretation of utterances • Monologues & conversation might show different functions for specific form. • Ford (1988) suggests that Contextual Analysis be combined w/ conversational analysis to help understand why speakers select certain forms when all options are available.

• This includes, memories of occasions, individuals, cultural assumptions, religious beliefs, knowledge of specific fields, assumptions about interlocutors’ emotional state. • In short- mutual knowledge

Exercise • Hatch page. 275.