MAAL7005 Spoken Discourse Analysis
COURSE TEACHERS:
Dr. Matthew Yeung
E-mail: matty@hku.hk
Dr. Parco Wong
E-mail: pmtw2@hku.hk
Overview
This course introduces candidates to a range of approaches to the analysis of spoken discourse. These include Pragmatics, Conversation Analysis, and Semantics. At the end of the course, participants should be able to describe, compare, and apply the different approaches to analyse spoken texts.
Aims
This course aims to introduce participants to different linguistic approaches to the description and analysis of spoken English Discourse – Pragmatics, Conversation Analysis and Semantics. It also aims to provide opportunities for participants to analyse naturally occurring spoken data using the analytical methods introduced.
Course Learning Outcomes
Upon successful completion of this course, students should be able to:
- explain and demonstrate how language use is related to communicative goals and social contexts;
- demonstrate a working knowledge of different approaches to the description and analysis of spoken discourse;
- apply that knowledge in analysing naturally occurring texts;
- transcribe and analyse a spoken text using different approaches to spoken discourse analysis covered in the course.
Assessment
100% coursework
GenAI Policy
A balanced policy is adopted.
Key References
Liddicoat, A. J. (2021). An introduction to conversation analysis (3rd ed.). Bloomsbury Academic.
Paltridge, B. (2022). Discourse analysis: An introduction (3rd ed.). Bloomsbury Academic.
Schedule (Semester 1)
| Session | Topic |
| 1 | Pragmatics (I) – Introduction to Discourse Analysis – Language above the sentence level: Cohesion and coherence – Information structure (given-new structure, end focus, and front focus) |
| 2 | Pragmatics (II) – Speech Act Theory – Direct vs. indirect speech acts and felicity conditions – Politeness Theory – Politeness as relational work and politic behaviour |
| 3 | Pragmatics (III)+ Practice Session – Pragmatic inference and Grice’s Cooperative Principle – Conventional, conversational, and scalar implicatures – Entailment and detecting logical fallacies – Types of presupposition |
| 4 | Pragmatics (IV) + Practice Session – Recapitulation and consolidation of pragmatic inference – The interaction between entailment and implicature – In-class practices and data analysis (applying presuppositions, entailment, and implicatures to texts and dialogues) |
| 5 | Semantics – The meaning of meaning i.e. Odgen & Richards’ Triangle – Lexical relations e.g., synonymy, antonymy, hyponymy, meronymy – Lexical ambiguity – Semantic roles – Semantic features |
| 6 | Conversation Analysis (I) – Introduction to Conversation Analysis – The turn-taking system – Non-verbal communication i.e., paralinguistic features |
| 7 | Conversation Analysis (II) + Practice Session – Data transcription – Conversational structure e.g., adjacency pairs, preference organization, pre-sequences |
| 8 | Conversation Analysis (III) + Practice Session – Data transcription – Conversational structure e.g., insertion sequences, repair – Institutional talk e.g., courtroom communication, medical consultations |