Discourse Description
Diverse linguistic analyses of a fund-raising text
Published on 8. April 1992
Book
Hardback
409 pages
978-1-55619-282-1 (ISBN)
Description
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.
More details
Series
Language
English
Place of publication
Amsterdam/Philadelphia
United States
Target group
Professional and scholarly
Dimensions
Height: 245 mm
Width: 164 mm
Weight
710 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-55619-282-1 (9781556192821)
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Schweitzer Classification
Content
1. Introduction; 2. I. Text Organization; 3. Text as Purposive Communication: A Meaning-based Analysis (by Callow, Kathleen); 4. Rhetorical Structure Theory and Text Analysis (by Mann, William C.); 5. An Analysis of a Plea for Money (by Meyer, Bonnie J.F.); 6. The Discourse Strategy of an Appeals Letter (by Longacre, Robert E.); 7. The Notion of Unspecific versus Specific as one Way of Analysing the Information of a Fund-Raising Letter (by Winter, Eugene); 8. An Integrated Three-Pronged Analysis of a Fund-Raising Letter (by Jordan, Michael P.); 9. How I Understand a Text - via the Structure of the Happenings and the Telling of Them (by Pike, Evelyn G.); 10. II. Lexico-Grammatical Approaches to the Text; 11. The Flow of Ideas in a Sample of Written Language (by Chafe, Wallace); 12. The ZPG Letter: Subjects, Definiteness, and Information-status (by Prince, Ellen F.); 13. Some Lexicogrammatical Features of the Zero Population Growth Text (by Halliday, M.A.K.); 14. Macro-Proposals: Meaning by Degree (by Martin, J.R.); 15. Collocation and Field of Discourse (by Benson, James D.)