Linguistic Theories and Discourse Analysis Essay

If one is to define "but" or "oh" as the dictionary defines it and only as such, it would be difficult to understand why a speaker is using these words the way they do.

Intonation also plays a part in discourse markers. In her book, Discourse Markers, Schiffrin (1988, 6) states that discourse markers are expression used to organize discourse, however, the impact of this single expression on discourse will differ depending on the way it is said (i.e., the intonation). For example, "oh" with a rising intonation might be interpreted as a request for confirmation, as in: "I think the party's at six o'clock." "Oh?" But this same expression with a falling intonation might be interpreted not as a request for confirmation, but as an acknowledgement: "I think the party's at six o'clock." "Oh" (1988, 6).

Meter: Some texts take on a metrical structure that is characterized by a pre-existing patter of the prosodic phonological structure -- for example, patterns like iambic pentameter. Iambic pentameter is characterized as a sequence of five "iambic" feet. The effect of this characterization is that the even-numbered positions can support a lexically stressed syllable (a syllable that would have a stress mark in a dictionary); odd-numbered positions do so only under duress (Aarts & McMahon 2006, 420). The former are considered "strong" positions and the latter "weak" positions.An example:

Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?

Thou art more lovely and more temperate:

Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May,

And summer's lease hath all too short a date:

There are very few stresses occurring in odd positions; the only time it occurs is a line-initial monosyllabic word adjacent to another lexical stress: "Rough winds…" This is quite common in the English metrical tradition.

References:

Aarts, B. & McMahon, a. (2006). The handbook of English linguistics. Wiley-Blackwell;

1st edition.

Akmajian, a., Demers, R.A., Farmer, a.K., & Harnish, R.M. (2010). Linguistics: An introduction to language and communication. The MIT Press; 6th edition.

Brown, G. (1983). Discourse analysis. MA: Cambridge University Press.

Clark, H.H. (1996). Using language. MA: Cambridge University Press.

Fabb, Nigel. (1997). Linguistics and literature: Language in….....