Discourse analysis lecture 3 May 2012 Carina Jahani

Discourse analysis, lecture 3 May 2012 Carina Jahani carina. jahani@lingfil. uu. se

Foreground and background • Divergent use of terminology ”The term ‘foregrounding’ may be used in a purely linguistic sense. In sentence structure, it then refers to new information, in contrast to elements in the sentence that form the background against which new elements are to be understood by the listener or the reader. ” The term foreground can also be used for ”prominence”, ”poetic effect”, etc. (van Peer & Hakemulder 2006: 547)

In this course • Foreground material carries the discourse forward, contributes to the progression of the narrative (or argument), develops theme of the discourse. • Background material serves as a commentary on theme, but does not itself contribute directly to the progression of theme. It fills out theme, but does not develop it.

Morphosyntactic features that tend to correlate with foreground/background (transitivity) high transitivity Participants: two or more low transitivity one I saw you Peter gave John the book I ran to the bus

Aspect and aktionsart Aspect (viewpoint, perspective) Aspect is a grammatical category associated with verbs that expresses a temporal view of the event or state expressed by the verb Aktionsart/telicity Aktionsart is a property of (mostly verbal) predicates. It concerns the internal temporal constituency of a (type of) situation denoted by a given predicate. The (originally German) term aktionsart is approx. equivalent to the English terms lexical aspect and kind of action. Greek télos meaning ”end, goal”. Telicity is the property of a verb of verb phrase that presents an action or event as being complete, having reached a goal. Kinesis (maybe an infelicitous term? )

Five commonly identified aktionsarten No Duration • Telic Achievement realise Has Duration Accomplishment drown • Atelic Semelfactive knock Activity walk States

Morphosyntactic features that tend to correlate with foreground/background (transitivity) high transitivity low transitivity Aktionsart action We bought the car non-action (state) We liked the car

Morphosyntactic features that tend to correlate with foreground/background (transitivity) high transitivity low transitivity Telicity telic atelic he finished the book he read the book

high transitivity low transitivity Duration non-durative I hit him I carried him

Morphosyntactic features that tend to correlate with foreground/background (transitivity) high transitivity low transitivity Aspect perfective imperfective/ progressive I eat je suis allé I am eating j’allais

Morphosyntactic features that tend to correlate with foreground/background (transitivity) high transitivity low transitivity Volitionality volitional I hit him I look at him non-volitional I met him I see him

Morphosyntactic features that tend to correlate with foreground/background (transitivity) high transitivity low transitivity Affirmation affirmative they came we see you negative they didn’t come we don’t see you

Morphosyntactic features that tend to correlate with foreground/background (transitivity) high transitivity low transitivity Modality realis irrealis they will come they may come I did it I would do it

Morphosyntactic features that tend to correlate with foreground/background (transitivity) high transitivity low transitivity Agentivity high agentivity low agentivity we eat our food we like our food we buy a car we have a car

High-Low agentivity • 1. Verbs with an affected experiencer as the noncanonically marked A/S expressing physiological states/events or inner feelings/psychological experiences • 2. Verbs with a less agentive non-canonically marked A/S, such as verbs of perception, cognition, liking, searching/finding, following/meeting, interacting, addressing and resembling • 3. Verbs with modal meanings, such as verbs of wanting, necessity/obligation, capability/possibility, trying/success/failure, and verbs with evidential meanings • 4. Verbs expressing happenings, particularly uncontrolled non-volitional events • 5. Verbs of possession, existence, and lacking

Morphosyntactic features that tend to correlate with foreground/background (transitivity) Agency high transitivity low transitivity animate A inanimate A George startled The picture me startled me

Morphosyntactic features that tend to correlate with foreground/background (transitivity) high transitivity low transitivity Affectedness O totally affected O partially affected I ate all the food I ate some of the food

Morphosyntactic features that tend to correlate with foreground/background (transitivity) high transitivity low transitivity Individuation individuated He drank the beer non-individuated He drank some beer

Background information Setting: It was a very cold day in January… Explanation: The other boy was ill… Evaluation: They found it very strange… Discourse irrealis: The other guests didn’t come • Performative information: … you know… • •

Signalling background • Special verb forms • Spacers Backgrounding within a sentence: • Subordinate clauses • Reported conversations

Special highlighting Climax or other particularly important sentences Can be marked by: slowing down the narrative right before it introducing non-events backgrounding the event right before heavier participant encoding tail-head linkage

Special highlighting • • prominence markers change of tense (narrative present) change of scene (new deixis) shorter sentences etc.