Discourse Analysis

1. Elaborate what you have learned through out the course. Discourse, the word in itself was a foreign concept to me until this course. However, the things I've learnt throughout the course, ranging from fairclough's theories to feminism are all too familiar. This introduction to discourse has given me the opportunity to fully understand and realize the meaning of linguistics. This is especially crucial to myself, as a learning individual and also to my career as a designer. It has led me to understand the factors which makes advertising what it is and how it impacts us. Particularly, concepts such as speech acts, Grice's maxims and intertextuality has helped me gain a new understanding on conversations and the world around me. Linguistics is something I've overlooked for far too long and knowing the ins and outs of it is crucial to my comprehension. For example, Grice's conversational maxims has helped me avoid or at least understand miscommunications. Leanin...

1. In your own words, explain Intertextuality. Intertextuality is defined to be text that is shaped by another text. This means that the particular text references another text directly or indirectly. This is usually seen in pop culture such as TV shows, music videos and movies. One such example is the animated show, Simpsons which relies heavily on parodies and meta-reflexivity. Like so, these scenes entice the viewers and keeps them engaged to indentify as many references as possible. However intertextuality is not limited to mass media. It is also seen in literature and print advertisements but serve a similar purpose. Intertextuality in these mediums make use of not only pop culture, but sociocultural references as well. 2. What is the evidence of intertextuality in these ads? These are advertisements for the brand, Absolut Vodka; they are owned by Pernod Ricard and is the third largest brand of alcoholic spirits in the world. Absolut Vodka uses intertextu...

J. L. Austin’s most celebrated contribution to philosophy is his theory of speech acts. And he distinguishes three different acts: locutionary, illocutionary and perlocutionary. The locutionary act: It is the act of making a meaningful utterance, a stretch of spoken language that is preceded by silence and followed by silence or a change of speaker—also known as a locution or an utterance act. It may furthermore be analyzed into a phonetic act (the act of uttering certain noises), a phatic act (the act of uttering words, that is, sounds as conforming to a certain vocabulary and grammar), and a rhetic act (the act of using these words with a certain meaning – sense or reference). The perlocutionary act: Corresponds to the effects brought about by performing an illocutionary act, to its consequences (intentional or non-intentional) on the feelings, thoughts, or actions of the participants. "The illocutionary force is the speaker's intent. [It is] a true 'spe...

Grice (1975) proposed a theory of conversation which consists of a Cooperative Principle and associated maxims: -         The maxim of quantity , relates to the amount of information provided in conversations where one tries to be as informative as one possibly can, and gives as much information as is needed, and no more. -         The maxim of quality , where one tries to be truthful, and does not give information that is false or that is not supported by evidence. This requires information contributed to be authentic in each turn of the conversation. -         The maxim of relation , where one tries to be relevant, and says things that are pertinent to the discussion. Grice proposed this maxim as a conversational regulatory in regards to the relevance of information being contributed. -         The maxim of manner , relates to the way ...