Each form of communication, from the nightly newscast to the everyday conversation, has its own internal structure. A speech, for example, can be divided into a beginning, a middle, and an end, each of which does something different. In this section, we’ll illustrate the importance of structure by taking a brief look at conversational endings.
Endings play an important role in conversation. They signal that interaction is about to wind down, establish a sense of closure, reassure participants that the interaction has been successful, and establish conditions for future interaction. Often they also contain specific directions for future behavior on the part of both speaker and listener.
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Because walking away abruptly the instant talk ceases is unconscionably rude, the end of a conversation is signaled in advance. A statement about upcoming commitments (“I suppose I should get back to work soon”) or a comment on the interaction (“I’m so glad we could get together”) lets others know the conversation is drawing to an end and establishes closure. A good conversational ending also contains a statement of concern and goodwill (“It was great to see you”) as well as a brief summary of the conversation (“Now, don’t worry; things will work out”). Finally, it’s a good idea to mention future contact (“I’ll call you”). As Robin Lakoff points out, “Farewells stress the speaker’s unwillingness to depart, offering it as a necessity imposed by cruel circumstances rather than the speaker's desire. We say, ‘Gotta go!’ not, ‘Wanna go!’”
Endings are equally important in other forms of discourse. In courtroom communication, for example, the summation is a lawyer’s last chance to impress the jury; it is here that he or she will summarize arguments and make the strongest appeals. Conclusions are also vital in public speeches, because a weak ending can undermine the entire effect of a speech.
Yet endings are only one part of discourse structure. To be truly competent communicators, we must understand the entire structure of a given kind of discourse. (Beginnings, for example, are another important part of messages.) Although some forms of discourse are structured and formulaic and others are open and spontaneous, all must be well organized to be effective.
Guidelines for Understanding Discourse
To communicate successfully, we must master many types of discourse. We must know the purpose, rules, and stylistic properties of each type, and we must be aware of hidden assumptions and unintended effects. To become more aware of the way a specific form of discourse works, we should ask ourselves the four sets of questions listed below.
1. What is the purpose of this discourse?
What do I and my partners hope to achieve? Do we agree about the purpose of this interaction? What would mark the success of this discourse, and what would mark its failure?
2. What rules regulate this discourse?
What speech acts are expected of each participant? What speech acts should participants avoid?
3. What are the normal style and structure of this discourse?
What specialized language choices are called for? How does one begin and end interaction? How might meanings here differ from those elsewhere?
4. What are the effects of engaging in this form of discourse?
What values and assumptions are presupposed in this discourse? Do I agree with these beliefs? Can this discourse be used to manipulate or dominate? How?
Language and Social Identity
Although modes of discourse dictate certain language choices, they do not completely control communication. Not every teacher or public speaker or lawyer communicates in the same way. In this section we will look at how group memberships affect language use, beginning with one of our most important group identities: gender.
Genderlects: When Men’s and Women’s Talk Differs
As we’ve seen, a dialect is a local or regional variation of a language. Recently, a number of scholars have argued that men and women use different dialects. These scholars have coined the term genderlect to refer to linguistic variations based on gender. In You Just Don’t Understand, linguist Deborah Tannen discusses some of the ways genderlects can lead to miscommunication.
Let’s begin with a few examples. On the way to visit friends in another part of the city, George and Demy get lost. Demy suggests they stop and ask the way, but George refuses. He is uncomfortable asking for help and believes there’s no guarantee that a stranger will give accurate information anyway. He’d prefer to drive around until he finds the way. This doesn’t make sense to Demy, who isn't at all embarrassed about asking for information and believes that anyone who doesn't know where he or she is should admit it.
Martha can’t wait until Denis gets home from work so that they can talk about the day. As Denis enters the house, Martha begins a barrage of questions. What did he do? How was his presentation? Where did he and his colleagues go for lunch, and what did everyone order? She is interested in every detail, and his evasive answers hurt her. Denis, on the other hand, feels overwhelmed by Martha’s “third degree” about things he barely noticed.
Deborah Tannen believes that misunderstandings like these occur because men and women grow up in different cultures. Women’s culture, she believes, stresses intimacy and connection, whereas men’s culture values autonomy and individual achievement. These orientations affect men’s and women’s topics of conversation, their conversational styles, and their interpretations of one another's meanings.
Mykola Blyznyuk, Natalia Bida
National University of Chernivtsi
PARADIGM OF PHRASAL VERBS IN ENGLISHFICTIONAL DISCOURSE
Every language uses a system of devices to derive words fromderivational bases [11; 12]. The words derived on the basis of one and the samelexeme make up the class of words, including monowords and phrase-words. E.Y.Morokhovskasuggests that in accordance with the peculiarities of their stem-structure,English nominative words should be classed into: simple words (fox, go, see),affixed words (fisher, shorten, betake), compound words (swim-suit,cold-blooded), composite words (make up, go down, take in),phrase-words (to take place, to give a push) [7, p. 67-69].
The objective of this article is to reveal the peculiarities offunctioning of English phrasal verbs in literary discourse. For this purpose weanalyse the status of phrasal verbs in modern English, elucidate the notion ofa literary discourse, and establish the paradigm of phrasal verbs in fictionaldiscourse. The investigation is carried out on the material of fiction by E.R.Burroughs,D.Defoe, Ch.Dickens, W.Collins, J.Conrad, Th. Dreiser,
Phrasal verbs are analytical formations of a word-status [7, p. 68].They have in their structure an auxiliary derivational element which causessemantic shifting of the stem. A very large group of composite units isrepresented by composite verbs with adverbial postfixes which may be ofword-derivational value. They areusually addedto the “verbs of directed movement” and specify the directionality of thedenoted movement. Different nominative words are capable of forming such pairs:to run – to run away; to jump – tojump down; to sit – to sit down, etc. The adverbial postfixesbear very clear significative circumstantial meanings and specify the semanticsof the stem itself. The verbs with postfixes seem to be specialized variants ofnominative verbs not their nominative counterparts: give in, give up, bring up, copewith, carry out, take after.
Discourse, as defined by M.Foucault [4, p. 15], refers to ways ofconstituting knowledge, together with social practices, forms of subjectivityand power relations which are inherent in such knowledge. Discourses are morethan ways of thinking and producing meaning. They constitute the ‘nature’ ofthe body, unconscious and conscious mind and emotional life of the subjectsthey seek to govern.
Discourse is determined as the product of speech activity or as a textin its oral form or as a text in social context [6, p. 6].
New Webster’s Dictionary of the English Language [9, p. 448] providesthe following definitions of “discourse”:
Table 1
Definitions of Discourse
(n) discourse |
|
(v) discoursed, discoursing, discourses |
|
The scholars N. Asher and A. Lascarrides suggest that the definition ofdiscourse operates with the following meanings: any segment of signs (meanings)larger than a sentence; any kind of message; a specific ensemble of ideas,concepts, categories and so on, that are produced, reproduced and transformedin a particular set of practices [1, p. 45].
Thus, discourse is a stretch of language in use, taking on a particular meaningin the context for its users; it is usually perceived by them as purposeful,meaningful, and connected. This quality of perceived purpose, meaning, andconnection is known as coherence. That is why discourse is a coherent stretchof language.
A narrative discourse is a discourse that presents an account of events,usually in the past, that employs verbs of speech, motion, and action todescribe a series of events that are contingent one on another, and aretypically focuses on one or more performers of actions (narrative and literarydiscourses here are considered synonymous).
Cultural consideration in discourse determines cultural markation of aliterary work. L.Wittgenstein closely connects language and culture withsocietal conventions, norms, and rules falling under the general rubric ofculture. They are “customs” for L.Wittgenstein: “To obey a rule, to make areport, to give an order, to play a game of chess, there are customs” [8, p.53].
L.Wittgenstein is not the first or only language analyst to make suchconnections with regard to discourse. That culture heavily influences discoursein systematic ways is the central tenet of the approach to discourse analysisknown as the ethnography of communication, which examines how culturallygenerated roles determine the underlying structure of discourse. For theseethnographers, “culture encompasses or embraces a totality of knowledge andpractices,” including discourse [8, p. 54].
Phrasal verbs in a literary discoursedeserve a more detailed study from phraseological viewpoint. An almostunlimited number of such units may be formed by the use of simpler, generallymonosyllabic verbs combined with elements that have been variously treated as“adverbs”, “preposition-like adverbs”, “postpositions of adverbial origin”,“postpositives” or even “postpositive prefixes”. The problem on the whole is avery complex one and has been in the limelight of many scholars [3; 5].
The verbs most frequent in phrasalunits are: bear, blow, break, bring, call, carry, cast, catch, come, cut,do, draw, drive, eat, fall, fly, get, give, go, hurry, hold, keep, lay, let,look, make, move, play, pull, put, ride, run, sell, set, shake, show, shut,sit, speak, stand, strike, take, throw, turn, walk, etc. To these theadverbs: about, across, along, around, away, back, by, down, forth, in, off,on, out, over, past, round, through, to, under, and particularly frequent upare added.
The pattern is especially common withverbs denoting motion. Some examples possible with the verb go are: goahead – “to proceed without hesitation”; go away – “to leave”; goback – “to return”; go by – “to pass”; go down – (a) “tosink” (for a ship); (b) “to set” (of the sun, moon, etc.); (c) “to beremembered” (of people or events); (d) “to become quiet” (of the sea, wind,etc.) and many other combinations. The list of meanings for go down couldbe increased. Units of this type are remarkable for their multiple meaning. Forexample, bring up may mean not only “to rear from childhood, educate”but also “to cause to stop”, “to introduce to notice”, “to make prominent”,etc.
Only combinations forming integralwholes, the meaning of which is not readily derived from the meaning of thecomponents, so that the lexical meaning of one of the components is stronglyinfluenced by the presence of the other, are referred to set expressions orcompounds. For example, come off – “to take place”, fall out – “toquarrel”, give in – “to surrender”, leave off – “to cease”.Alongside with these combinations showing idiomatic character there are freecombinations built on the same pattern and of the same elements. In these thesecond element may:
(1) retain its adverbial propertiesof showing direction (come : : come back; go : : go in; turn :: turn away);
(2) change the aspect of the verb (eat:: eat up; speak : : speak out; stand : : stand up; thesecond element then may mark the completeness or the beginning of an action);
(3) intensify the meaning of theaction (end : : end up; talk : : talk away).
The second elements with theexception of about and around may
There are also cases where thecriteria of motivation serving to differentiate between compounds, free phrasesand set expressions do not appear to yield definite results, because motivationis partially retained, as for instance in drop in, put on or shut up,so that the existence of boundary cases must be admitted.
The borderline between free phrasesand set expressions is not always sharp and distinct [2, p. 120]. It is quitenatural, as set expressions originate as imaginative free phrases and onlygradually become stereotyped. So this is another instance where understandingof synchronic facts is incomplete without diachronistic considerations.
Lexicographical source [9, p. 1565] defines the phrasal verb to takein in the following way:
1) to admit or bring into one’s house;
2) to encompass or include;
3) to comprehend;
4) to accept for payment;
5) to furl, as a sail;
6) to note with the eyes, observe;
7) to visit;
8) to cheat;
9) to absorb into the body.
Our investigation of fictional discourse shows that some of the meaningsof the verb to take in are realized in the text more often than others.
Table 2
Realization of Dictionary Meanings of the Phrasal Verbto take in in Fiction
Dictionary meanings of the phrasal verb to take in | Examples from English fiction |
1) to admit or bring into one’s house | But when he saw the canoe come down the river and take in Rokoff, when he saw it make for the Kincaid, he realized that only by possessing himself of a canoe could he hope to transport the beasts of the pack within striking distance of the enemy (E.R.Burroughs. The Beast of Tarzan) [10]. ... people come frequently with bundles and small parcels to those inns, and call for such carriers or coaches as they want, to carry them into the country; and there generally attend women, porters’ wives or daughters, ready to take in such things for their respective people that employ them (D.Defoe. Mole Flanders) [10]. |
2) to encompass or include | I had some difficulty in persuading him to take in my name, though I could not get from him the nature of his objection (J.Conrad. Twixt Land and Sea) [10]. “We’ll make a four-handed game of it, and take in Groves,” said the stout man (Ch.Dickens. The Old Curiosity shop) [10]. |
3) to comprehend | I doubted if her mind was in a fit condition to take in what I had said to her (W.Collins. The Moonstone) [10]. That’s as much as the ordinary male mind can take in; and that will do (W.Collins. Man and Wife) [10]. |
4) to accept for payment | ... and they determined to dispatch it by the next steamboat going the right way, that might call to take in wood at Eden ... (Ch.Dickens. Life and Adventures of Martin Chuzzlewit) [10]. The time wore on, and other steamboats coming from the point on which their hopes were fixed, arrived to take in wood ... (Ch.Dickens. Life and Adventures of Martin Chuzzlewit) [10]. |
5) to furl, as a sail | “More than we want,” the captain replied, shortly; and then, to my astonishment, ordered the crew aloft to take in sail (W. Collins. The Queen of Hearts) [10]. |
6) to note with the eyes, observe | Will not your mind misgive you when you find yourself in this gloomy chamber – too lofty and extensive for you, with only the feeble rays of a single lamp to take in its size – its walls hung with tapestry exhibiting figures as large as life, and the bed, of dark green stuff or purple velvet, presenting even a funereal appearance? (J. Austen. Northanger Abbey). [10] Of course I did not take in all these details upon the instant of my capture, for I was busy with other matters (E.R.Burroughs. The Land That Time Forgot) [10]. |
7) to visit | Guess I’ll drop down a bit, and take in the sights (L.F.Baum. The Master Key) [10]. I take in “The Times” regularly, and you may trust my wary eye not to miss the right advertisement (W.Collins. Armadale) [10]. |
8) to cheat | “Well, and don’t you think, old feller,” remonstrated Mr. Weller, “that if you let your master take in this here young lady, you’re a precious rascal?” (Ch.Dickens. The Pickwick Papers) [10]. |
9) to absorb into the body | “And now,” said Joe, “you ain’t that strong yet, old chap, that you can take in more nor one additional shovel-full to-day” (Ch.Dickens. Great Expectations) [10]. |
Discourse Markdown Theory
The data of our research represented in figures are presented in thefollowing table.
Table 3
Quantitative results of the research
Meaning | Number of examples | Percentage |
1 | 7 | 19,4 % |
2 | 2 | 5,5 % |
3 | 7 | 19,4 % |
4 | 3 | 8,3 % |
5 | 1 | 2,8 % |
6 | 11 | 30,5% |
7 | 3 | 8,3 % |
8 | 1 | 2,8 % |
9 | 1 | 2,8 % |
Discourse Markdown Meaning
Thus, we may come to the conclusion that the most frequently usedmeaning of the phrasal verb to take in is to note with the eyes,observe; next in frequency comes the meaning to admit or bring intoone’s house and to comprehend.
We view the perspective of our further research in the analysis ofquantitative characteristics of phrasal verbs in fictional discourse ofdifferent authors.
Bibliography