{"id":888,"date":"2016-01-02T13:29:24","date_gmt":"2016-01-02T18:29:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/susie-l\/?p=888"},"modified":"2021-12-06T17:47:58","modified_gmt":"2021-12-06T22:47:58","slug":"what-is-discourse-analysis","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/susie-l\/2016\/01\/02\/what-is-discourse-analysis\/","title":{"rendered":"What IS discourse analysis?"},"content":{"rendered":"

A week before Christmas I took part in some discourse analysis training in Florida.\u00a0 But what exactly is <\/em>discourse analysis?<\/p>\n

It\u2019s kind of a hard thing to explain, since it talks about subconscious things that we do when we use language, so we don\u2019t realize that we\u2019re doing them.\u00a0 However, if someone doesn\u2019t<\/em> follow these rules, we know that there\u2019s something wrong even if we can\u2019t quite put our finger on it.\u00a0 So let me try to give you a few examples to show you some of the things that you do and expect others to do while they\u2019re talking, even though you may never have been aware of it before.\u00a0 Here\u2019s a journey into your subconscious mind . . .<\/p>\n

The following is a quotation from the book Don Quixote<\/u>:<\/p>\n

\u201cWell, I\u2019ll tell you,\u201d Sancho continued, \u201cthat somewhere in Extremadura there was a goatherd, I mean to say the man tended goats, and this goatherd I was telling you about in my story was named Lope . . ., and this Lope . . . was in love with a shepherdess named Torralba, and this\u00a0 shepherdess named Torralba was the daughter of a rich herder, and this rich herder\u2026\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cIf you tell your story this way, Sancho,\u201d said Don Quixote, \u201crepeating everything you say two times, you will not finish in two days; tell it in a continuous way, and speak like a man of understanding, or do not say anything at all.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cThe way I\u2019m telling it,\u201d responded Sancho, \u201cis how tales are told in my village, and I don\u2019t know any other way to tell it, and it isn\u2019t right for your grace to ask me to do things in new ways.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cTell it however you wish,\u201d responded Don Quixote. \u201cFate has willed that I cannot help listening to you, and so continue.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

What would you think if someone started telling you a story the way that Sancho was telling his?\u00a0 It sounds quite awkward and cumbersome in English, but in some languages of the world a story would sound funny and be hard to follow any other <\/em>way.<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s another example.\u00a0 The following is a rather literal translation of the Christmas story told in Jula, a language that I know in My Country.<\/p>\n

Today I am going to tell a few things about Christmas.\u00a0 Not everything!\u00a0 I am only going to tell a little today.\u00a0 Christmas – what is it?\u00a0 What is Christmas?\u00a0 Why do they celebrate Christmas?\u00a0 Christmas tells us about Jesus’ birth.<\/em><\/p>\n

In the beginning, there was an Israeli family.\u00a0 Joseph’s family – Joseph’s parents existed.\u00a0 Mary’s parents also existed.\u00a0 Joseph, he was a carpenter.\u00a0 He had engaged Mary to be his fianc\u00e9e.\u00a0 But Mary was a virgin.\u00a0 They called her the Virgin Mary because she hadn’t ever slept with a man; she hadn’t done “the man thing” yet, never, never.\u00a0 They call that kind of a person a virgin.<\/em><\/p>\n

So, now, they stayed in their engaged state; Joseph hadn’t ever touched Mary yet. An angel came and said to Mary that Mary will become pregnant and give birth to a child this child to be the savior. Mary said to the angel that “How can this happen because I haven’t ever slept with a man yet. My husband and I haven’t touched each other yet. How will I become pregnant?” The angel told her that the Holy Spirit will come down on her that’s what will become a pregnancy for her so that she can give birth to this savior. It happened like that. Mary also got pregnant.<\/em><\/p>\n

Mary got pregnant, her fianc\u00e9 Joseph found out about it and right then he wanted to break up with Mary. He made the decision that he break up with her, because he thinks that she prostituted herself and so got this pregnancy. So, he wants to break up with her and because of that, one night he was sleeping and dreams. An angel told him that he shouldn’t break up with Mary because of this pregnancy. That God made a promise that Mary give birth to this baby this baby to be the savior. That Mary didn’t prostitute herself. That it’s God’s all-mighty-ness. Joseph also agreed with this message.<\/em><\/p>\n

He agreed with this message, and they stayed together. This stomach continued to ripen and just kept ripening.<\/em><\/p>\n

Now, a certain time came, Rome’s king the leader Caesar, he said now that everyone should go write their names at their father’s house. And anyway, Joseph, his ancestors came from Bethlehem. So Joseph took his fianc\u00e9e that they would go write their names in Bethlehem. They got there now. Haya.\u00a0 This stomach ripened. She gave birth. Anyway, they made it to this Bethlehem; there were many visitors. In the inn, there wasn’t any more room. So Joseph and his wife went to the barn. The woman went to give birth there. The woman gave birth. The savior who had been talked about, this woman gave birth to this savior. They wrapped this child in old clothes and laid him in the place where they put the cow’s food.<\/em><\/p>\n

Anyway, shepherds are in the field, they are keeping sheep. An angel went and told the shepherds that a child was born to them, in a barn, that it’s the savior. The shepherds also really came and found this baby like that. They worshipped this child and gave him their belongings and left.<\/em><\/p>\n

Anyway, many angels surrounded this barn. As they are worshipping this child they are saying, \u201cPraise God. Praise God. Praise God\u201d to worship this child.<\/em><\/p>\n

At this same time, a star is above this place where the child was born. This star, it wasn’t a simple star. The wisemen saw this star and they knew that it wasn’t a simple star. They walked and followed this star aaalll theee waaaayyy until they made it to where this star is standing. They also stopped there and saw this barn. They went into this barn and went to see this child. They worshipped this child there and gave all their gifts\/belongings to him also.<\/em><\/p>\n

That was the birth of this child.<\/em><\/p>\n

If someone asked you what Christmas is all about, is this the way you\u2019d explain it to them?\u00a0 Even if you can\u2019t put your finger on it, I think you\u2019d agree that there is something a little different about it.\u00a0 Maybe the verb tenses?\u00a0 Maybe the repetition that\u2019s used?\u00a0 Maybe the funny way that it expresses what people (or angels) said?\u00a0 Maybe it\u2019s the funny use of the word \u201cthis?\u201d\u00a0 Whatever it is that doesn\u2019t feel quite right is what we study in discourse analysis.\u00a0 We want to know how ideas are expressed in one language so that as we share the gospel or translate the Word of God, it will sound natural to them and not a little off.\u00a0 If you were to tell the Christmas story in a way that would seem more natural to you, they would think that it would sound a bit off, just as you thought that their version sounded a bit off.<\/p>\n

Ok, I\u2019ll give you one more example.\u00a0 The following is a story I had posted on my blog last year, but with a few changes. . .<\/p>\n

On Wednesday, as part of the research I was going to do with the another missionary family, 4 of us had taken a major road trip.\u00a0 We had been gone for 13 \u00bd hours, of which I had been on the back of a moto for at least 6.\u00a0 I won\u2019t understand those people who did cross-country motorcycle trips \u2013 by the end of the day I had been exhausted and filthy (see the \u201cSpray-On Tan\u201d<\/em>\u009d post) and sore.\u00a0 Over every bump that we had taken a little too fast, just trying to get home, my slightly-too-big helmet had crashed against my head, having given me a headache.\u00a0 My stomach had been queasy from driving on crazy roads.\u00a0 My muscles had been sore from sitting on a motorcycle.<\/em><\/p>\n

But then a great thing had happened \u2013 we had reached the first paved roads we had seen that day about 20 minutes before we will make it home.\u00a0 Paved roads will not always be very nice here, but this one had felt great \u2013 no crazy bumps and potholes, there had even been street lights, and I had known that I was going to be home soon.\u00a0 Pavement \u2013 an invention I will not be sure that I\u2019d ever appreciated as much as I did on Wednesday.\u00a0 The end.<\/em><\/p>\n

The only things I changed were some of the verb tenses and adding \u201cThe end.\u201d\u00a0 Everything is still completely grammatically correct \u2013 Microsoft Word isn\u2019t underlining any of it as being grammatically incorrect.\u00a0 But even with that, I think you\u2019ll admit that there is something wrong.\u00a0 There is something (or many things) wrong on the discourse<\/em> level.\u00a0 One thing is that most everything sounds like is being told as background material, so you were probably still waiting for the story to really start when I said \u201cThe end.\u201d\u00a0 Sometimes missionaries have been known to make similar mistakes when learning another language because the language they are learning doesn\u2019t use verb tenses to show that kind of stuff in the same way.\u00a0 Crazy!<\/p>\n

(If you want to read the previous story in the original version to see how they compare, go to https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/susie-l\/2014\/10\/18\/pavement-what-a-brilliant-invention<\/a>, where I had originally posted the story.)<\/p>\n

Well, there you go.\u00a0 There\u2019s a whole lot more to learn, and after a week and a half of full-time class I feel like I\u2019ve just barely cracked the door open to a new and exciting world, so I know that I have a lot more to learn and discover as well.\u00a0 But if I talk about discourse analysis in the future and someone asks you what it is, you\u2019ll now be the smart one who can give them some idea of what I\u2019m talking about.\u00a0 \u00a0 Welcome to the adventure of language.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A week before Christmas I took part in some discourse analysis training in Florida.\u00a0 But what exactly is discourse analysis? It\u2019s kind of a hard thing to explain, since it talks about subconscious things that we do when we use language, so we don\u2019t realize that we\u2019re doing them.\u00a0 However, if someone doesn\u2019t follow these […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":945,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[448],"class_list":{"0":"post-888","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-uncategorized","7":"tag-ethnos360","8":"entry"},"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/susie-l\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/888","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/susie-l\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/susie-l\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/susie-l\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/945"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/susie-l\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=888"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/susie-l\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/888\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/susie-l\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=888"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/susie-l\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=888"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/susie-l\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=888"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}