Discourse as a dialogue chapter 5 by Ahmet YUSUF

from the book Discourse by Guy COOK

1. Discourse as dialogue By Ahmad YOUSSEF

2. OUTLINE 5.1 Introduction 5.2 Dialogue in communicative development 5.3 Discourse typology: reciprocity 5.4 Reciprocity, dialogue, and word order 5.5 Information structure in discourse

3. introduction  Dialogue is one of the fundamental structuring principles of all discourse, written and spoken alike .  Paradoxically, this is true in discourse which appears to be created by one person alone (monologue) as in discourse which is created by two or more (dialogue).

4. Dialogue in communicative development There is no hard evidence of the originates of language in prehistoric communities, but it seems reasonable to assume that speech precedes writing and dialogue precedes monologue . Turn-taking and interaction are among the first communicative skills . Parents hold ‘conversations’, even with very young babies. They make a dialogue with their babies and try to interpret their earliest noises as turns.

5. Discourse typology : reciprocity Two fundamental types of discourse: reciprocal, non-reciprocal Reciprocal : there is at least a potential for interaction تفاعل , the sender can monitor and adjust to it or to put it another way, where the receiver can influence the development of what is being said. prototype : face-to-face conversation Non-reciprocal : sender and receiver may have no opportunity for interaction . prototype: a book by a dead author Pay attention: all discourse is more or less reciprocal, because it is based on assumptions about receivers.

6. Reciprocity, dialogue, and word order Talking about the reciprocity, connecting it to the mechanism of monologues are often constructed with the receiver in mind. A kind of formal connection in monologic discourse is very intimately related to dialogue with an imagined receiver . we might even be justified as regarding the end of each sentence as the point at which the sender assess the effect on a potential receiver, imagines a reply, and adjusts the next sentence accordingly.

7. word order There are many ways of saying the same thing: • John ate fish and chips. • It was John who ate fish and chips. • Fish and chips John ate. • Fish is what John ate – and chips. • John, he eats fish and chips . these are different ways of arranging the same information. Some of them seem odd, but actual discourse provides a surprising number.

8. Information structure in discourse We can divide information into two types: given and new given information: the sender thinks the receiver already knows. new information: the sender thinks the receiver doesn’t already know. Given information (topic) precedes new information (comment ). Given information: Previously mentioned in the text Inferable from the text or content Shared world knowledge of writer and reader

9. There was a man called Ernest Hemingway . Given new Ernest Hemingway was born in 1899 at Oak Park, a suburb of Chicago. Given new So what was new in one sentence, becomes given in the next precisely, because it has just been said. Communication might be defined as the conversion of new information into given information, and a successful communicator as a person who correctly assesses the state of knowledge of his or her interlocutor .

10. If we misjudge and treat what is given as new, we will be boring; in the reverse case when we assume the new as given, we will be incomprehensible. The choices we make about the order of the information in discourse reveal our own assumptions about the world and about the people we are trying to communicate with . The truth of those assumptions gives unity to our discourse and success to our communication. Their falsehood puts it in danger of collapse.

11. THE END