Syntactic Complexity and Cohesion Spoken Discourse Syntactic Complexity and Cohesion

Cohesion: Anaphoric AND Cataphoric Cataphoric Reference: A cataphoric reference refers to another idea/person/thing that is introduced later on in the text/speech. To understand the idea/person/thing referred to by a cataphoric reference you would need to look ahead in the text/speech. Anaphoric Reference: An anaphoric reference, on the other hand, refers to another perosn/idea/thing that was introduced earlier on in the text/speech. To understand the unit referred to by an anaphoric reference you would need to look back in the text/speech.

Cataphoric Example 'When he arrived, John noticed that the door was open'.

Anaphoric Example ‘I went out with Jo on Sunday. She looked awful.' ´She` clearly refers to Jo, there is no need to repeat her name.

Cohesion: Deictic Expressions Deictic expressions relate the content of an utterance to the speaker, the addressee, and the time and place of utterance. Thus if I say to you: 1. Come over here and look at this! "here" refers to where I am as I speak, "come" refers to a direction that depends on where "here" is, and "this" refers to e.g. something I am pointing at. They are therefore deictic. 2. Yesterday he gave me a gold watch. Here, the meaning of "yesterday" depends on the time of speaking, and "me" depends on the identity of the speaker. Moreover, "gave" is also a deictic element, as it locates the act in relation to the time of speaking. "A gold watch" however isn't. (Gold watches are gold watches.)

Coherence: Implicature Implicature: In pragmatics, an indirect or implicit speech act: what is meant by a speaker's utterance that is not part of what is explicitly said. What a speaker intends to communicate is characteristically far richer than what she directly expresses; linguistic meaning radically underdetermines the message conveyed and understood. Husband: How much longer will you be? Wife: Mix yourself a drink.

Coherence: Inference In logic, the process of deriving logical conclusions from premises known or assumed to be true. I cant get to the door, you will have to answer it. The butter goes into the pot, we must have to melt it.

Syntactic Complexity: Sentence Structures The Parts of Speech One way to begin studying basic sentence structures is to consider the traditional parts of speech (also called word classes): nouns, pronouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs, prepositions, conjunctions, and interjections.

Sentence Structures Subjects, Verbs, and Objects The basic parts of a sentence are the subject, the verb, and (often, but not always) the object. The subject is usually a noun--a word that names a person, place, or thing. The verb (or predicate) usually follows the subject and identifies an action or a state of being. An object receives the action and usually follows the verb.

Sentence Structures: SIMPLE, COMPOUND, COMPLEX, COMPOUND COMPLEX Simple: One independent clause on its own. “Mother died today.”, “Children are always noisy.” Compound: A sentence that contains two independent clauses. Compound sentences can be formed in three ways: (1) using coordinating conjunctions (and, but, for, nor, or, so, yet); (2) using the semicolon (3) on occasion, using the colon. "It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen.“, "Always go to other people's funerals; otherwise, they won't go to yours.“, "Feasts must be solemn and rare, or else they cease to be feasts."

Sentence Structures SIMPLE, COMPOUND, COMPLEX, COMPOUND COMPLEX Complex: A complex sentence contains one independent clause and at least one dependent clause. Unlike a compound sentence, however, a complex sentence contains clauses which are not equal. The do not use coordinating conjunctions so you are able to determine which is the most important information. “Although my friend invited me to a party, I do not want to go.” “I waked to the shops today, they were closed.”

Sentence Structures SIMPLE, COMPOUND, COMPLEX, COMPOUND COMPLEX A compound-complex sentence is made from two independent clauses and one or more dependent clauses. Some examples: 1. Although I like to go camping, I haven't had the time to go lately, and I haven't found anyone to go with. independent clause: "I haven't had the time to go lately" independent clause: "I haven't found anyone to go with" dependent clause: "Although I like to go camping... " 2. We decided that the movie was too violent, but our children, who like to watch scary movies, thought that we were wrong. independent clause: "We decided that the movie was too violent" independent clause: "(but) our children thought that we were wrong" dependent clause: who like to watch scary movies