Linguistic Procedures and Forms of Utterance in Discourse
Linguistic Procedures in Argument
It is difficult to establish generic features of elocution as it varies widely in content, expression levels, intentions, and author perspectives. However, some general features are:
- Use of semantically related terms belonging to the same field. Abundant use of evaluative adjectives to build or contradict the thesis.
- Appearance of technical terms from the relevant discipline.
- Use of long sentences. Subordination is the sentence structure best suited to expressing reasoning: conjunctions show causality or consistency between ideas, comparisons between concepts, and how they occur or condition a possible event.
- Development through declarative sentences, but often incorporating exclamatory sentences or punctuation marks to capture the receiver’s attention and encourage reflection.
- Use of recurrence to reinforce difficult-to-understand subjects.
- Use of textual markers to signal text progression, define paragraphs, and indicate changes in topic development.
Forms of Utterance
Dialogue
Dialogue is the reproduction of a conversation between two or more people. It conveys thoughts, events, and descriptions. Literary dialogue is used in theater and storytelling. The writer recreates characters’ speech as a real or stylized conversation. Non-literary dialogue includes interviews.
Literary Dialogue in Narrative
In stories, dialogue reveals characters’ thoughts and actions. There are two presentation methods:
- Direct style: verbatim conversations. This gives dynamism and allows direct character understanding. Introductory verbs are used, and dialogue placement varies.
- Indirect speech: conversation reported by a narrator or character. Tenses, person markers, and time/space elements are affected. A subordinate clause introduced by “that” or “if” is used. Free indirect style reflects the character’s thoughts, blending narrator and character perspectives. Direct style markers (dashes or colons) and introductory verbs are absent, but the mood retains direct style expressiveness.
Literary Dialogue in Theater
In theater, character interventions are on separate lines, identified by character names. Gestures, movements, and circumstances are included, often in parentheses. Dialogue has three functions:
- Develops dramatic action: reveals events through characters’ words.
- Provides information about circumstances: reveals time and place.
- Completes character personalities: reveals character through behavior and speech (no narrator).
Monologue
In a monologue, a character speaks to themselves, revealing inner thoughts and feelings. This is hidden from other characters but revealed to the audience/reader.
- In theater: types include soliloquies (character thinking aloud), asides (softly expressing thoughts), and dialogues with absent characters. Narrative monologues inform the reader/viewer of events not shown on stage.
- In narrative: interior monologues reproduce character impressions and feelings, often with disorganized sentences and first-person perspective. Second-person perspective can be used to represent split personality.
The Interview
The interview is a significant news genre. It’s a dialogue between interviewer and interviewee. Three types exist:
- Statement interview: focuses on a topic, highlighting the interviewee’s personality and perspective (e.g., witness, expert, politician).
- Personality interview: focuses on the interviewee’s personality, often with photos. Narration and dialogue are used.
- Formula interview: the interviewee answers concisely to a series of questions.