Daily Archives: February 17, 2018

approaches to lang in context part 2


what is discourse analysis? why analyse it?

discourse analysis happens in texts.

scientific  – Clancy does not like it in relation to that.

substances means sounds and symbols

lang as form.

words combin with others. these interact with syntax


two parts of presentation. lexis as discourse. grammar as discourse.

hwo do we talk about these in relation to discourse.

what doo we mean by discourse. look at it from form viewpoint

”fish” in  relation to a person. we have to imagine a situation wherea fish can represent a person?

construct a world around the sentence. ”which one of you is the fish?”

context in which sentence is used. forum does not prvide meaning


ABOUT all irish counties besides NI and donegal

two speakers in 20s fixing something

”so whas the problem”

”we needed to replace the print head.”

lexis as discourse.

”so” is not connected to noun or noun phrase. so is optional.

optionality to discourse markers. speaker choose to use them

participants – radio show on tattoos

”they saw capatins has tattoos.”

anywayand so have no grammatical function. they have a discoure function. in leaner dictionary – these say tht

so and anyway – introduce new comments

words used to change topic. singals to other particpants. managing discourse. discoursive.

words in lexical

look at words though lens of discourse.

most frequent t2,3 ad 4 word chunks n BNC baby

you know – most frequent use in BNC baby. it is not lexical.

you know – appeal to shared knowledge and soliaorty.

you know is optional. not attached to clause. I mean

”I mean” softens discourse agreement. prefaces disagreement. pushed disagreement further out. inter personal use.

you know and I mean. features of discourse manage roles and responsibilities.

soften things or make them more polite.

a lot of – vague category markers

vague category markers – that kind of thing

vague category marker can have meaning if it alludes to something else.

VCMs are interpersonal. they are in group markers. They are polite.

VCMs – also have a structural use in conversation. look at lang as discourse. when speakers say and that kind of thing.

or anything like that – british English 65 per cent of occurences followed by speaker change

native speaker or non native speaker interaction. native speaker uses VCM.

non native speaker does not realise that the native has finished speaking. inter cultural difficulties.

non native speaker uses VCM but do not use turn. #

50 per cent of VCM followd by speaker change

one last slide.

synonomy. speaker says ”so I have no lectures.”

”which is harder like” agreeing through synonomy. synonomy used to agree.

”it is cold outside.” ”yes it is freezing.”

building solidarity through agreement

BNC. stereotypical getting. opening exchange.

looking at lang in context. lang as form. go on to talk about grammar.

grammar as discourse. example – illustrate grammar. sentence. I have just had my breakfast. present perfect. relating to function of recent time to present time.

”I am only after having me breakfast” Irish. this is like present perfect.

”Be + after + ing” marks outcome not time.

not a time marker-  looked at lang in contexts, refusal of offers of food.

”you finsihed”. ?


auxiliary verbs sometimes omitted. we sometime suse grammaticall correct techniqyes

ellipsis signal informality and friendshop.

we indicate it is a ifnormal situation. shouw our recintion that it is an ifromal sotuaion. maintain relatiomnship between people

use grammar as discouse.

family members. speaker says ”tell dad about th prawsn mary”

canonical past simple tense – to tell a tale

”Kieran came out and he was like how mch wee the prawns. she foes I don’t know. he said roughly how uch are they?”

change frim past simple to present tense. historic present. see it in narratives. choice not cimpulsory

use correct option in context

I narrative present becomes marked becase it is different. present indicates that I will tlaj about an iportn even in sotry.

co construction. finishing one anohters sentences.

these are friends. in 20s.

”she is supposed to be a right bitch.”

”she has a sexy arse n fairness”

completing another’s utterance. unproblematic to finish another’s sentence.

a lot of co construction goes on

conditionals co constructed 1 in 10 times

these are not static

if clauses are ofte tricky. inter personal. ”if there is anything you can do.”

grammar is used unusually. lexis is not always used in a dictionary sense.

lexis and grammar are shared resources. inter action


we must ask what speakers are saying?

what are their gooals?

where are they? what are they doing?










Unit 1.5 language in context. collocation


collocation for lang analysis

generate conclusuons about cllocations

collocations are words that come together in a certain pattern

what do collocations tell us?

collocation is approach to word meaning aboyt how often words close to each other

when wrds appear in company another and this is statistically significan – there are collocants

shed – blood, garden, tears, skin, jobs, pounds, clothes

no grammatical or semantic reason why one word should keep company with another

strng tea ir powerful car and not the other way around.

probabilistic events

collocation – generate a list.

hand 240 time sin LCIE

left with hand on 16 occasions and righ 10.

collocates in columns.

republicans and democrats. democrats go with ruling, Russian yellow

republicans – anti tax , extremist , mean spirited.

do we have more favourable impression of one or other?

look at word collocation we form opinions

what co occurs with which word

connotational meaning of lexis

connotation can be about expressivity or attitude

semantic prosody.  louw 1993. positive or engatve nviroment

words that hang around with another

negative or positive.

cause . company. hunston 2007.

cause hangs out with negatibe things like damage

”somewhat” – adverb. 20 concordance lines with them. cycnical comment, tedous, neglected, fuddled with drink, superficial. negative.

polite enough. piously. boys attention had wandered.

prosody for bent on , commit,dalings and happen


Why did Germany almost have a communist revolution in 1919?


In 1919 the First World War had just ended. The Weimar Republic had been founded in Germany in 1918. The republic was detested both by conservatives and communists. The country was polarised and therefore ripe for revolution.

There were several reasons why Germany almost had a communist revolution at this time. These were – suffering caused by the war, the lack of respect for the government, the example of Russia and the anti-democratic character of the German elite.

Germany had lost the First World War. The horrific suffering engendered by war made people furious. Many of them had lost faith in their government. The Allies kept up the blockade of Germany until the Treaty of Versailles was signed in June 1919. The blockade meant that many Germans were almost starving. Because they were malnourished and irate they were susceptible to communist propaganda. They sought a radical solution to their problems.

The old system of Imperial Germany seemed to have failed the working class. The Kaiser and his acolytes had started an unnecessary war in 1914. They had caused the deaths of millions of Germans and still lost. In October 1918 soldiers and sailors in Germany had mutinied. They had hoisted the red flag of communism.

Russia had had a communist revolution in October 1918. This inspired many Germans. They believed that in Russia a new state was being built that would advantage the working class. Germans who had been Prisoners of War in Russia during the war came home in 1918. They had been exposed to communist ideas. Many of them wanted to launch a communist revolution in Germany.

In January 1919 the Spartakists (communists) had attempted a communist revolution in Berlin. They had tried to overthrow the social democrat government headed by Friedrich Ebert. Ebert had asked the head of the army General Groener to defeat the Spartakists. Groener had done so. Groener used the Free Corps to help him. The Free Corps were right wing ex-soldiers.

The social democrats wanted some of the same things as the communists. They wanted to redistribute wealth. They wanted good public services paid for by high taxes. However, the social democrats believed they could accomplish their goals through peaceful and democratic means. Communists said that parliamentary methods were a sham. They rejected bourgeois legality because they said that reactionary elements in the army, the police, the courts and the civil service would thwart them. Communists said that armed revolution was the only way to bring about radical social change.

In conclusion, Germany came close to a communist revolution because of its social, economic and political conditions. A wave of revolution was sweeping Europe at the time. Communist revolution was only averted because the conservative elite joined forces with the social democrats to crush the communists.




Yes, six million really did die.


Holocaust denail

I MET SURVIVOR. I met brit jimmie ames.

Wannsee conference.

minute in archives. word evacuation used as a euphemism


conspiracy film

lack of records. Polycratic regime. chaos. oral commands.

evacuation. goebells in speech let it slip

Soviet POWs slain by Nziaz. gypsies. freemasons, jehovans; witnesse,s MANU CIVILAISN

diabale din action T4

documents crete din arhcies. people brief. flase tesimty n tirla.s eichman;s trial. tattoos. remains,

even irivng admits it s true.