Discourse Description
Diverse linguistic analyses of a fund-raising text
Editors
Paperback – Other edition available
ISBN 9789027250315 (Eur)
ISBN 9781556192876 (USA)
Discourse Description presents in one convenient volume a variety of approaches to text description that have been proposed in the linguistic literature in the last decade or so. The book is organized to make it easy to understand and compare the various approaches. Since all of the researchers are analyzing the same text, their differences are readily seen.
The text they analyze is a letter, mailed in bulk by a Washington-based lobbying organization which is supported by contributions from donors. Far from simply informing the readers, the letter seeks to appeal to them on many levels, intellectual, emotional, and financial. It is a fascinating study in how texts do their work.
Discourse Description is expected to serve both as a research document and as a case textbook for graduate and undergraduate courses in discourse and text analysis, as well as a resource for text analysts.
The text they analyze is a letter, mailed in bulk by a Washington-based lobbying organization which is supported by contributions from donors. Far from simply informing the readers, the letter seeks to appeal to them on many levels, intellectual, emotional, and financial. It is a fascinating study in how texts do their work.
Discourse Description is expected to serve both as a research document and as a case textbook for graduate and undergraduate courses in discourse and text analysis, as well as a resource for text analysts.
[Pragmatics & Beyond New Series, 16] 1992. xiii, 409 pp.
Publishing status: Available
© John Benjamins Publishing Company
Table of Contents
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Introduction | p. vii
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I. Text Organization
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Text as Purposive Communication: A Meaning-based AnalysisKathleen Callow and John C. Callow | p. 5
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Rhetorical Structure Theory and Text AnalysisWilliam C. Mann, Christian M.I.M. Matthiessen and Sandra A. Thompson | p. 39
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An Analysis of a Plea for MoneyBonnie J.F. Meyer | p. 79
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The Discourse Strategy of an Appeals LetterRobert E. Longacre | p. 109
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The Notion of Unspecific versus Specific as one Way of Analysing the Information of a Fund-Raising LetterEugene Winter | p. 131
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An Integrated Three-Pronged Analysis of a Fund-Raising LetterMichael P. Jordan | p. 171
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How I Understand a Text — via the Structure of the Happenings and the Telling of ThemEvelyn G. Pike | p. 227
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II. Lexico-Grammatical Approaches to the Text
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The Flow of Ideas in a Sample of Written LanguageWallace Chafe | p. 267
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The ZPG Letter: Subjects, Definiteness, and Information-statusEllen F. Prince | p. 295
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Some Lexicogrammatical Features of the Zero Population Growth TextM.A.K. Halliday | p. 327
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Macro-Proposals: Meaning by DegreeJ.R. Martin | p. 359
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Collocation and Field of DiscourseJames D. Benson and William S. Greaves | p. 397
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Subjects & Metadata
BIC Subject: CF – Linguistics
BISAC Subject: LAN009000 – LANGUAGE ARTS & DISCIPLINES / Linguistics / General