吴 洁
（浙江旅游职业学院，浙江 杭州 311231）
【摘 要】语篇分析研究的是使用中的语言。其理论的重要前提是语言只能在语境中才有意义，话语的理解必须依赖语言及言语之外的提示。语篇分析的研究内容主要是文章及话语中的语意连贯。语义连贯是个十分复杂的问题，有时语篇的连贯取决于说话的前提和发话者与受话者双方的共有知识。前者亦被称为“语境”。 语篇与语境相互依存、相辅相成。语篇产生于语境，也是语境组成的部分。语境是成功阅读的关键，也是英语教学的难重点。作者通过对《语篇分析》一书的阅读，对上述元素和问题进行了总结和探究，以期将利用相关成果应用于英语阅读教学。
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关键词 语篇分析，形连，意连，指向性
1 General introduction to the book
The aim of this book is to familiarize the prospective student with the most important concepts and the major issues in the field of discourse studies.
The book consists of four parts. In part 1, Chapters 2, 3, 4 and 5 provide a general orientation to the field. The focus is on four essential concepts in the field of discourse studies as it is defined in this book: the investigation of the relationship between form and function in verbal communication. In Chapter 2, Language as a verbal instrument, the term "verbal" plays a central role. At issue here are principles governing the use of the instrument language, and the strategies that are brought to bear when language is used. An important aspect of communication is discussed in Chapter 3, Communication as action. communication can be seen as the performance of acts. This chapter is limited to the discussion of speech acts and their interpretation in discourse.
Form and function are deceptively simple words. Chapter 4, Formal aspects, deals with the definition of discourse and discusses a number of concepts, like that of verbal communication, has an oral as well as a written mode. In Chapter 5, Functional aspects, an explanation of the term "function" as it is used in discourse studies is given. In addition, an explanation is given of the dependence of the discourse function on the situation in which discourse is used.
Part Ⅱ is an introduction to basic phenomena. In Chapters 6 and 7 the building blocks of discourse and the links between them are discussed. Chapter 6, structured meaning, deals with information units (propositions) about certain issues (topics) in the context of together Which words refer to preceding discourse, which to following discourse and which refer to something outside the discourse itself？
In the two chapters that follow, two well-known problems are addressed. Chapter 8, Types, discusses ways to describe the difference between literary and everyday language and possible discourse typologies. Chapter 9, Explores the question of what “style” is and the manner in which stylistic variation can be described.
In part Ⅲ specific types of discourse are dealt with. Verbal interaction is in many ways different from written text. Chapter 10, Interaction, focuses on a number of key concepts in the analysis of conversation. The study of narrative structure, which originated in literary research, has its own approach. In Chapter 11, Narration, an introduction is given to the socio-and psycho-linguistic approach to the investigation of narratives. Chapter 12, Argumentation, examines issues that are characteristic of research on argumentative and persuasive language use.
Part Ⅳ deals with the production and perception of discourse. The recipient of the message may already know something about the topic and will be looking primarily for new information. Likewise, a writer or speaker will emphasize some pieces of information or assume that they are already known to the reader or listener. A topic can also be dealt with from a specific viewpoint. These issues are discussed in Chapter 13. The presentation of information. In addition a recipient can often derive more from discourse than is stated. The concepts that play a role in this process are explained in Chapter 14, The derivation of information. The two following chapters deal with a number of important issues in writing and reading. Chapter 15, Producing discourse, is related to the presentation of information discussed in Chapter 13. It provides information about the writing process, the development of language proficiency and the study of text quality. In this chapter the line moves from process to product. In Chapter 16, Understanding discourse, which is connected to Chapter 14, on deriving information, the line moves from product to process. Chapter 16 goes from research into the readability of texts to the processes in discourse comprehension.
The final chapter, 17, provides more information on such central research issues as discourse functions of syntactic forms and problems concerning text quality. A framework of key concepts is also provided.
The material in this book has been organized to serve as a first introduction to discourse studies at university level. What’s more, examples of scientific applications are given whenever possible when dealing with the conceptual arsenal.
2 How to apply discourse analysis in teaching of reading comprehension？
Discourse analysis has been paid great attention to not only in theoretical research, but also in practice. Being an indispensable component of language teaching, discourse also plays an important role in reading comprehension training.
Reading is one of the basic skills of using the target language. It allows language learners to get enough information to further their study. The purpose of English teaching lies in cultivation and improvement of linguistic ability. Theoretically, reading comprehension can be divided into the following levels:
（1）Literal comprehension refers to readers’ comprehension of literal meaning of the article, which includes words’ meaning, sentence structure, general idea and details of the story, time, place and figures of the events.
（2）Inferential comprehension refers to readers’ ability to analyze the article systematically. To be specific, it includes deduction of author’s intention, cause and result of the events, character of figures and theme of the given article.
（3）Evaluative comprehension refers to readers’ analysis and evaluation of the article based on their knowledge and judgment, such as reliability of given information, possibility of events and rationality of the conclusion.
（4）Appreciative comprehension refers to readers’ understanding of author’s purpose of writing and skills used in the article based on their own point of views, feelings and preference.
However, many students have difficulties in comprehending the article they are reading, despite that they know literal meaning of every word. It is the traditional teaching mode that should be blamed. In traditional English teaching mode, people used to focus on teachers’ explanation of words’ meaning, sentences’ grammatical structure, instead of discourse analysis and overall comprehension. Recent research requires teachers to pay more attention to training of ability to use language on discourse level. Narrowed down to teaching of reading comprehension, we should introduce discourse analysis to students because it helps them get overall comprehension and evaluation of the article. To be more specific, it can make them pay more attention to form and function of language, as well as related cultural background information.
（1）Get familiar with variety of styles of article
Different styles show the discourse’s register, purpose and sentence patterns.
Distinguishing style of the given article enables students to grasp the theme of it quickly and correctly.
（2）Acquire enough cultural background information related to the article
Reading comprehension is also an interaction between readers’ cultural background and the article itself. Language is the carrier and reflection of culture and language learning must be connected with comprehension of its culture. Lack of cultural background information leads to failure in comprehension of given words or sentences. For example, “white elephant” means “something expensive and useless” in English culture, and that can’t be found in any dictionary. Without enough cultural background knowledge, readers may misunderstand what they are reading.
（3）Analyze discourse from perspective of cohesion and coherence
Cohesion and coherence are two of the important features of discourse. A cohesive discourse is supposed to have textual coherence such as grammar and vocabulary, contain logical relation among sentences and paragraphs, and follow rules of semantics, pragmatics and cognition. Familiarization of devices of cohesion contributes to understanding of author’s intention of writing the article and enables students to read between the lines.
3 Conclusion
Discourse analysis is the study of language in use. It rests on the basic premise that language cannot be understood without reference to the context, both linguistic and extra-linguistic, in which it is used. It draws from the findings and methodologies of a wide range of fields, such as anthropology, philosophy, sociology, social and cognitive psychology, and artificial intelligence. It is itself a broad field comprised of a large number of linguistic subfields and approaches, including speech act theory, conversation analysis, pragmatics, and the ethnography of speaking. At the same time, the lines between certain linguistic subfields, in particular psycholinguistics, anthropological linguistics, and cognitive linguistics and discourse analysis overlap, and approaches to the study of discourse are informed by these subfields, and in many cases findings are independently corroborated. Reading comprehension is interaction between language and thoughts, which is so complicated and involves linguistic knowledge, non-linguistic knowledge and reading skills. Discourse analysis helps students understand what they are reading from both macroscopical and microscopical perspective, so as to achieve further improvement of comprehension ability.
教育期刊网 http://www.jyqkw.com
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