Supplement Features of Discourse

Discourse is one of the four systems of language, the others being vocabulary, grammar and phonology. Discourse has various definitions but one way of thinking about it is as any piece of extended language, written or spoken, that has unity and meaning and purpose. There are several principles and conventions which are to be followed in discourse.

1. Ordering information

The first principle to be adhered to in discourse is the correct ordering of information in every sentence (“theme–rheme” principle). In linguistics, the term theme (or topic) is often understood as “known,” “given,” “previously mentioned,” or “presupposed” information present in the context, while the rheme (or focus, comment) is defined as the negation of these characteristics. Informally, the theme is what is being talked about, and the rheme is what is being said about the topic.

Different languages mark themes in different ways. Distinct intonation and word-order are the most common means. The tendency to place topicalized constituents at the beginning (topic fronting) is quite widespread. However, in English, unlike free word-order languages, intonation is the primary means, although word order and other syntactic (passive constructions, clefting) or lexical means (As for..., Regarding...) are also employed.

When we move from something known (already mentioned or obvious from the context) at the beginning of the sentence to something new at the end, both word order and intonation are involved. Besides, starting sentences with information which relates back to facts already mentioned helps the text to flow smoothly and makes it easier for the recipient to understand it:

E.g.: The other social category “Mondeo Man” is usually described as a fairly prosperous person employed in the private sector in a salesman or entry level management position who drives a company car such as a Ford Mondeo. These people are unlikely to have a good education, but are keen to “move up in the world” (known information is underlined, new information is given in bold type).

When the text continues discussing a previously established topic, pronouns are normally used to refer to the topic. Topics of this sort show a tendency to be subjects, as shown in the example above.

It also illustrates another common tendency in English discourse – to put long and complex phrases at the end of a sentence, so English sentences are “light” at the beginning and “heavy” at the end. Long complex clauses usually contain new information:

E.g.: The lower-middle-class workers are not so well-to-do as the salaried professionals and therefore are less socially secure, besides, they have limited cultural aspirations and normally use a mixture of accents depending on their origin.

Sentences with a heavy clause at the beginning seem clumsy and difficult to understand:

E.g.: The elegant classical squares which were originally laid out by aristocratic developers in the eighteenth century are a striking feature of the central areas of the capital.

But the information principle is more important in text than the end-weight principle, so we can put a heavy clause at the beginning of a sentence if it contains familiar information linking it to the preceding text:

E.g.: London has many public parks and squares which date from the previous centuries. The elegant classical squares which were originally laid out by aristocratic developers in the eighteenth century are a striking feature of the central areas of the capital.

Focus is a concept in linguistic theory that deals with the new information in discourse and the way it relates to the information mentioned before. Focus has been analyzed in a variety of ways by linguists. In the generative approach, the term focus is used to refer to words or expressions that are either prosodically or syntactically prominent, generally because they introduce “new” information. In the functional approach, the term is used to refer to words or expressions that establish coherence in the text or conversation.

Focus directly affects the semantics, or meaning, of a sentence. Thus, different ways of pronouncing the sentence affects its actual sense, or, what the speaker intends to convey. We often emphasize a particular part of a sentence to focus the reader’s attention on the most essential information, to contradict what has been stated before, or for dramatic effect.

The same effects can be achieved by means of word order and particular syntactic constructions that show which part of a sentence contains the most important information.

1) Fronting

Though English word order is strongly regulated (as a rule, the subject precedes the verb phrase, which, in turn, is followed by other elements such as objects, attributes, adverbials), certain elements which are usually found after the verb (i.e. in post-verbal position) can be moved forward to the beginning of a sentence to give them greater prominence or to make a strong contrast with some statement in the previous context. This device is called fronting. Here are some examples:

- fronted predicative

A Welshman I was born and a Welshman I shall die.

“She is such a lovely person, so friendly and reliable.” – “Friendly she may be, but reliable she isn’t!”

- fronted object

“Why don't you take up swimming for relaxation?” “Relaxation you call it.”

Some things you forget. Other things you never do.

The main discourse functions of fronting are:

- organizing information flow to achieve cohesion (i.e. linking directly back to something that was said before)

- expression of contrast

- emphasizing particular elements.

Fronting is very common both in speech and in conventional written material.