Stylistics and Discourse Analysis

Test I - Multiple Choice – Directions: Read and understand carefully the statements or
questions. Choose the option that best answer each.

1. The following are some aspects or elements you will look into in a critical
discourse analysis at word or phrase level. Which DOES NOT belong?
A. The choice of words which express degrees of certainty and attitude.
B. Connotations of particular words and phrases.
C. Text’s degree of formality or informality, degree of technicality.
D. who has the most authority and power in the discourse.

2. Who introduced the notion of texture which expresses the property of being a text?
A. Halliday and McCarthy C. Cecilia-Murcia
B. Harvey Sacks D. Halliday and Hasan

 Hughes & McCarthy (1998):

Both argued that traditional explanations of grammar do not adequately capture
grammatical selection in longer, real-world texts. As they have shown, a number of
linguistic items show quite different patterns of use when looked at from a discourse
perspective.
 Harvey Sacks (July 19, 1935 – November 14, 1975) was an
American sociologist influenced by the ethnomethodology tradition. He pioneered
extremely detailed studies of the way people use language in everyday life. Despite his
early death in a car crash and the fact that he did not publish widely, he founded the
discipline of conversation analysis. His work has had significant influence on fields
such as linguistics, discourse analysis, and discursive psychology.
 Halliday and Hasan classify the categories of grammatical cohesion into four types:

reference, substitution, ellipsis, and conjunction. Both have also done work in the area of
discourse grammar, although from rather a different perspective. Their interest has been in
patterns of grammar and vocabulary that: (1) combine to tie meanings in the text together
as well as (2) connect the text to the social context in which it occurs; that is, (3) items that
combine together to make the text cohesive and give it unity of texture.
 Celce-Murcia ( 1997 ):
1. Argued for contextual analyses that look at grammatical form in relation
to where, why and how frequently it is used in written and spoken discourse
rather than in isolated sentences.
2. She makes a similar argument to McCarthy about this and that
showing how, in extended texts, this and that: function in ways other than
just pointing to something.
3. She also shows how tense and aspect choices differ in extended
discourse.

3. Which of the following refers to the way in which resources such as patterns of
 cohesion create both cohesive and coherent texts?
A. Unity of texture C. Unity of structure
B. Unity of text D. Cohesion and Coherence

 Unity of structure: refers to patterns which combine together to create information

structure, focus and flow in a text, including the schematic structure of the text.
 Coherence: The ways a text makes sense to readers & writer through the relevance
and accessibility of its configuration of concepts, ideas and theories.
 Cohesion: The grammatical and lexical relationship between different elements of a
text which hold it together

4. This refers to a grammatical framework that grew out of the analysis of spoken
and written linguistic discourse. What is being referred to?
A. Unity of Structure C. Discourse Grammar
B. Grammar Structure D. Critical and Discourse
 Grammar Structure sentence-level comprehension of text, including how the
arrangement of words within sentences impacts the meaning.

 Critical discourse analysis is a methodology that enables a vigorous

assessment of what is meant when language is used to describe and
explain.

5. What is the dispreferred second pair part for “blame”?

A. Acceptance C. Admission
B. Denial D. Refusal
Preferred and dispreferred seconds

first preferred second dispreferred second

request compliance refusal

assessment agreement disagreement

blame denial admission

What are preferred and dispreferred seconds in adjacency pairs?

 Request - Acceptance/Refusal type is a type of adjacency pairs which is

uttered when the person needs or asks someone to do something. There
are 2 responses of this type: acceptance and refusal. Acceptance indicates
the preferred response, while refusal indicates the dispreferred response.

 The first structure is preferred action, which is the action of the second pair
part which gives an expected respond to the first pair parts. The second one
is dispreferred action, which is the action of the second pair part which
gives an unexpected respond to the first pair part
 6. In doing discourse analysis, which step requires you to look at the structural features of
the texts?
A. Examine the structure of the text.
B. Collect and examine discursive statements.
C. Code your material.
D. Establish the context.

Getting technical: discourse analysis in ten steps

So you have formulated a research question, have collected source material, and are now ready to roll up your
sleeves and dig into your sources. But how do you make sure that you have covered all your bases and that
you will later be able to make a good case for yourself and your work? Here are  ten work steps that will help
you conduct a systematic and professional discourse analysis.

1) Establish the context

Before you start chiselling away at your source material, jot down where the material comes from and how it
fits into the big picture. You should ask yourself what the social and historical context is in which each of your
sources was produced. Write down what language your source is written in, what country and place it is from,
who wrote it (and when), and who published it (and when). Also try to have a record of when and how you got
your hands on your sources, and to explain where others might find copies. Finally, find out whether your
sources are responses to any major event, whether they tie into broader debates, and how they
were received at the time of publication.

2) Explore the production process

You have already recorded who wrote and published your sources, but you still need to do a more
thorough background check. Try to find additional information on the producer of your source material, as
well as their institutional and personal background. For example, if you are analysing news articles, take a look
at the kind of newspaper that the articles are from (Jäger 2004: 175): Who are the author and the editorial staff,
what is the general political position of the paper, and what is its affiliation with other organizations? Are any of
the people who are involved in the production process known for their journalistic style or their political views?
Is there any information on the production expenditures and general finances of the paper? Do you know who
the general target audience of the paper is? In many cases, media outlets themselves provide some of this
information online, for instance in the “about” sections of their websites. In other cases, you will find such
information in the secondary academic literature. Don’t hesitate to write the editors an email or call them up:
personal interviews can be a great way to explore production backgrounds.

Once you have established the institutional background, take notes on the medium and the genre you are
working with. Some scholars go as far to argue that “the medium is the message” (McLuhan 1964/2001), or in
other words that the medium in which information is presented is the crucial element that shapes meaning.
While I am skeptical of such extreme technological determinism, I do agree that the medium matters: reading
an article online is not the same as reading it in a printed newspaper, or in a hardcover collection of essays.
Make sure to identify the different media types in which your source appeared, and to also be clear about the
version that you yourself are analysing.

For instance, the layout of a newspaper article and its position on the page will be different in a print edition
than in an online edition. The latter will also offer comments, links, multi-media content, etc. All of these
factors frame the meaning of the actual text and should be considered in an analysis. This may also mean
that you should think about the technical quality and readability of your source, for instance by looking at paper
quality (or resolution for online sources), type set, etc. You should also take notes on the length of your source
(number of pages and/or words) and any additional features of the medium that might contribute to or shape
meaning (such as images).

Finally, ask yourself what genre your source belongs to. Are you analysing an editorial comment, and op-ed, a
reader’s letter, a commentary, a news item, a report, an interview, or something else? Establishing this
background information will later help you assess what genre-specific mechanism your source deploys (or
ignores) to get its message across.

3) Prepare your material for analysis

In order to analyse the actual text, it is wise to prepare it in a way that will allow you to work with the source,
home in on specific details, and make precise references later. If you are working with a  hard copy I would
recommend making a number of additional copies of your source material, so that you can write on these
versions and mark important features. If you haven’t already, try to digitize your source or get a digital
copy. Then add references that others can use to follow your work later: add numbers for lines, headers,
paragraphs, figures, or any other features that will help you keep your bearings.

4) Code your material

When you code data, it means that you are assigning attributes to specific units of analysis, such as
paragraphs, sentences, or individual words. Think of how many of us tag online information like pictures, links,
or articles. Coding is simply an academic version of this tagging process.

For instance, you might be analysing a presidential speech to see what globalization discourse it draws from. It
makes sense to mark all statements in the speech that deal with globalization and its related themes
(or discourse strands). Before you start with this process, you need to come up with your coding categories.
The first step is to outline a few such categories theoretically: based on the kind of question you are asking,
and your knowledge of the subject matter, you will already have a few key themes in mind that you expect to
find, for instance “trade”, “migration”, “transportation”, “communication”, and so on. A thorough review of the
secondary literature on your topic will likely offer inspiration. Write down your first considerations, and also
write down topics that you think might be related to these key themes. These are your starting categories.

You then go over the text to see if it contains any of these themes. Take notes on the ones that are not
included, since you may have to delete these categories later. Other categories might be too broad, so try
breaking them down into sub-categories. Also, the text may include interesting themes that you did not expect
to find, so jot down any such additional discourse strands. At the end of this first review, revise your list of
coding categories to reflect your findings. If you are working with several documents, repeat the process for
each of them, until you have your final list of coding categories. This is what Mayring (2002: 120)
calls evolutionary coding, since your categories evolve from theoretical considerations into a full-
fledged operational list based on empirical data.

How the actual coding process works will depend on the tools you use. You can code paper-based sources by
highlighting text sections in different colours, or by jotting down specific symbols. If you are working with a
computer, you can similarly highlight text sections in a word processor. In either case, the risk is that you will
not be able to represent multiple categories adequately, for instance when a statement ties into three or four
discourse strands at once. You could mark individual words, but this might not be ideal if you want to see how
the discourse works within the larger sentence structure, and how discourse strands overlap.

A real alternative is using other types of software. If you have access to professional research
programmes like NVivo, then the software already has built-in coding mechanisms that you can customize
and use. There is also open-source software available, for instance the Mac programme  TAMS, but I have not
tested their functionality. However, even if you only have regular office tools at your disposal, such as
Microsoft’s Office or a Mac equivalent, there are at least two ways in which you can code material.

The first is to copy your text into an Excel table. Place the text in one column and use the next column to add
the coding categories. You’ll of course have to decide where the line-breaks should be. A sensible approach is
to place each sentence of your original text on a new line, but you could also choose smaller units of text.

Another tool that provides coding assistance is Microsoft OneNote 2010, or the Mac equivalent Growly Notes.
In OneNote, you can right click anywhere in the text and select “tag” to assign a category to any sentence. You
can also customize your tags, create new ones, and easily search and monitor your coding categories and
activities. The downside is that you can only tag full sentences, not single words or phrases, but depending on
your intentions, this may not be a crucial drawback.

5) Examine the structure of the text

Now that you have prepared your materials and have coded the discourse strands, it is time to look at
the structural features of the texts. Are there sections that overwhelmingly deal with one discourse? Are there
ways in which different discourse strands overlap in the text? See if you can identify how the argument is
structured: does the text go through several issues one by one? Does it first make a counter-factual case, only
to then refute that case and make the main argument? You should at this point also consider how
the headers and other layout features guide the argument, and what role
the introduction and conclusion play in the overall scheme of things.

6) Collect and examine discursive statements

Once you have a good idea of the macro-features of your text, you can zoom in on the individual statements,
or discourse fragments. A good way to do this is to collect all statements with a specific code, and to
examine what they have to say on the respective discourse strand. This collection of statements will allow you
to map out what “truths” the text establishes on each major topic.

7) Identify cultural references

You have already established what the context of your source material is. Now think about  how the context
informs the argument. Does your material contain references to other sources, or imply knowledge of another
subject matter? What meaning does the text attribute to such other sources? Exploring these questions will
help you figure out what function intertextuality serves in light of the overall argument.

8) Identify linguistic and rhetorical mechanisms

The next step in your analysis is likely going to be the most laborious, but also the most enlightening when it
comes to exploring how a discourse works in detail. You will need to identify how the various statements
function at the level of language. In order to do this, you may have to use additional copies of your text for
each work-step, or you may need to create separate coding categories for your digital files. Here are some of
the things you should be on the lookout for:

 Word groups: does the text deploy words that have a common contextual background? For instance,
the vocabulary may be drawn directly from military language, or business language, or highly colloquial
youth language. Take a closer look at nouns, verbs, and adjectives in your text and see if you find any
common features. Such regularities can shed light on the sort of logic that the text implies. For
example, talking about a natural disaster in the language of war creates a very different reasoning than
 talking about the same event in religious terms.
 Grammar features: check who or what the subjects and objects in the various statements are. Are
there any regularities, for instance frequently used pronouns like “we” and “they”? If so, can you identify
who the protagonists and antagonists are? A look at adjectives and adverbs might tell you more about
judgements that the text passes on these groups. Also, take a closer look at the main and auxiliary
verbs that the text uses, and check what tense they appear in. Particularly interesting are active versus
passive phrases – does the text delete actors from its arguments by using passive phrases? A
statement like “we are under economic pressure” is very different from “X puts us under economic
pressure”… particularly if “X” is self-inflicted. Passive phrases and impersonal chains of nouns are a
common way to obscure relationships behind the text and shirk responsibility. Make such strategies
visible through your analysis.
 Rhetorical and literary figures: see if you can identify and mark any of the following five elements in
your text: allegories, metaphors, similes, idioms, and proverbs. Take a look at how they are deployed in
the service of the overall argument. Inviting the reader to entertain certain associations, for instance in
the form of an allegory, helps construct certain kinds of categories and relations, which in turn shape
the argument. For instance, if I use a simile that equates the state with a parent, and the citizens with
children, then I am not only significantly simplifying what is actually a very complex relationship, I am
also conjuring up categories and relationships that legitimize certain kinds of politics, for instance strict
government intervention in the social sphere. Once you have checked for the five elements listed
above, follow up by examining additional rhetorical figures to see how these frame the meaning of
specific statements. Things to look for include parallelisms, hyperboles, tri-colons, synecdoches,
rhetorical questions, and anaphora, to name only the most common.
 Direct and indirect speech:  does the text include quotes? If so, are they paraphrased or are they cited
as direct speech? In either case, you should track down the original phrases to see what their context
was, and what function they now play in your source material.
 Modalities: see if the text includes any statements on what “should” or “could” be. Such phrases may
create a sense of urgency, serve as a call to action, or imply hypothetical scenarios.
 Evidentialities: lastly, are there any phrases in the text that suggest factuality? Sample phrases might
include “of course”, “obviously”, or “as everyone knows”. A related question then is what kinds of “facts”
the text actually presents in support of its argument. Does the text report factuality, actively
demonstrate it, or merely suggested it as self-evident? One of the strongest features of discourse is
how it “naturalizes” certain statements as “common sense” or “fact”, even if the statements are actually
controversial (and in discourse theory, all statements are controversial). Be on the look-out for such
discursive moves.
9) Interpret the data

You now have all the elements of your analysis together, but the most important question still remains:  what
does it all mean? In your interpretation, you need to tie all of your results together in order to explain that the
discourse is about, and how it works. This means combing your knowledge of structural features and individual
statements, and then placing those findings into the broader context that you established at the beginning.
Throughout this process, keep the following questions in mind: who created the material you are analysing?
What is their position on the topic you examined? How do their arguments draw from and in turn contribute to
commonly accepted knowledge of the topic at the time and in the place that this argument was made? And
maybe most importantly: who might benefit from the discourse that your sources construct?

10) Present your findings

Once you have the answer to your original question, it is time to get your results across to your target
audience. If you have conducted a good analysis, then you now have a huge amount of notes from which you
can build your presentation, paper, or thesis. Make sure to stress the relevance, and to move through your
analysis based on the issues that you want to present. Always ask yourself: what is interesting about my
findings, and why should anyone care? A talk or a paper that simply lists one discourse feature after another is
tedious to follow, so try to focus on making a compelling case. You can then add evidence from your work
as needed, for instance by adding original and translated examples to illustrate your point. For some academic
papers, particularly graduation theses, you may want to compile the full account of your data analysis in
an appendix or some other separate file so that your assessors can check your work.

7. Which material preparation process where you jot down where the material comes
from?
A. Explore the production process
B. Establish the context.
C. Prepare your material for analysis.
D. Code your material.

8. The following are criteria for developing a discourse analysis project. Which does not
belong?
A. being comfortable with and competent in the ways of collecting the discourse
data required by the project.
B. familiarity with the people who are involved in the discourse and access
to their personal information which will be used for further analysis.
C. an understanding of how discourse analytic techniques can be used to answer the
research question(s) you are asking.
D. a well-focused idea about spoken or written discourse that is phrased as a
question or a set of closely related questions.

9. Who introduced the criteria for developing discourse analysis projects?

A. Johnnies C. Johnstone
B. McCarthy D. Schneider
Barbara Johnstone is Professor of Rhetoric and Linguistics at Carnegie Mellon University,
USA. She is the author of several books as well as numerous articles and book chapters
on topics related to language, place, and the individual.
Klaus P. Schneider- He is one of the writers and/or authors in the publication “Discourse
pragmatics: signposting a vast field”

10. Which of the following is said to be the key to any good research project like a
discourse analysis project?
A. Research topic C. Research procedures
B. Research question D. Criteria

11. The following are the different ways to achieve lexical cohesion. Which does not
belong?
 A. Synonym C. Deviation
B. Repetition D. Meronymy
Lexical cohesion: refers to relationships in meaning between lexical items in a text and, in particular,
content words and the relationship between them.The main kind of lexical cohesion are:
 Repetition: refers to words that are repeated in a text. This includes words which are inflected
for tense or number and words which are derived from particular items.
 Synonymy: refers to words which are similar in meaning.
 Antonymy: describes opposite or contrastive meanings.
 Hyponymy: refers to classes of lexical items where the relationship between them is one of
‘general-specific’, ‘an example of’ or in a ‘class to member’ type relationship.

 Meronymy: is where lexical items are in a ‘whole-to-part’ relationship with each other.

 C
ollocation: describes
associations between
vocabulary items which
have a tendency to co-
occur such as combinations
of adjectives and nouns.

12. “I know! Well, they’d better get here soon or it will get cold.” What kind of
reference is evident in the sentence?
 A. Cataphoric C. Anaphoric
B. Homophoric D. Exophoric

Reference: refers to the situation where the identity of an item can be retrieved from either
within or outside the text.

The Main reference patterns are: The Secondary reference patterns are
-Anaphoric -Comparative
- Cataphoric - Bridging
-Exophoric
-Homophoric

• Anaphoric reference: is where a word or phrase refers-back to another word or phrase

used earlier in a text.
• Cataphoric reference: describes an item which refers forward to another word or phrase
which is used later in the text.
• Exophoric reference: looks outside the text to the situation in which the text occurs for
the identity of the item being referred to.
• Homophoric reference: is where the identity of the item can be retrieved by reference
to cultural knowledge, in general, rather than the specific context of the text.
• Comparative reference: ‘the identity of the presumed item is retrieved not because it
has already been mentioned or will be mentioned in the text, but because an item with
which it is being compared has been mentioned’ (Eggins 2004 : 35).
• Bridging reference: is where an item refers to something that has to be inferentially
derived from the text or situation; that is, something that has to be presumed indirectly.
(Martin 1992 , Martin and Rose 2007)

13. “Karina is a great person. She loves to take care of everyone.” What kind of
reference is evident in the sentence?
A. Exophoric C. Cataphoric
B. Anaphoric D. Homophoric

14. In substitution word, the “so” is usually a substitute .

A. Verb C. Noun
B. Clause D. Subject

15. The word “done” is usually a substitute of .

A. Verb C. Noun
B. Clause D. Subject

16. The following are principles of critical discourse analysis. Which DOES NOT belong?
A. Social and political issues are constructed and reflected in discourse.
B. Power relations are negotiated and performed through discourse.
C. Critical discourse analysis trace underlying ideologies and values from the
 linguistic features of a text.
D. Ideologies are produced and reflected in the use of discourse.

17. One way this principle can be looked at is through an analysis of who controls
conversational interactions, who allows a person to speak and how they do this. Which
principle of Discourse Analysis is being referred to?
A. Critical discourse analysis trace underlying ideologies and values from the
linguistic features of a text.
B. Power relations are negotiated and performed through discourse;
C. Discourse both reflects and reproduces social relations; and
D. Ideologies are produced and reflected in the use of discourse.

18. Which of the following is said to be closely related to foregrounding?

A. Critical discourse analysis C. Framing
B. Genre D. Discourse analysis
Foregrounding is a key concept in stylistics, a field of study in linguistics. It involves the use of linguistic
devices to emphasize certain elements in a text, making them stand out, or 'foregrounded.' Foregrounding
can create effects such as surprise, focus, or emphasis, and is often used in poetry and literature to enhance
meaning, style, and aesthetic appeal. We will explore the meaning of foregrounding in English and take a
look at some examples in literature. We will also consider foregrounding techniques; parallelism and
deviation.

Foregrounding - key takeaways

 Foregrounding is a literary device that emphasizes ideas and symbols through attention-seeking
techniques.
 Foregrounding is used to estrange or defamiliarise the reader so they gain new perspectives on the
text.
 Foregrounding makes an image, symbol, or language a prominent or important feature.
 Parallelism repeats content with unexpected regularity to emphasize relations.
 Deviation is an unexpected irregularity that enhances the reader's sense of dislocation from the
literary work. External and internal deviations are deviations from some norm which is internal or
external to the text.

19. Which of the following is an approach to the study of social action which sought
to investigate social order as it was produced through the practices of everyday talk?
A. Interactionism C. Discourse Analysis
B. Conversation D. Conversation Analysis

20. Who was the sociologist that was credited in founding conversational analysis?
A. Harley Sacks C. Harley Socks
B. Harris Quirk D. Harvey Sacks

21. What does this sign mean :: in conversational analysis transcription?

A. Rising intonation C. Stress
 B. prolongation of the immediately prior sound D. Latched utterances

Transcription Conventions

The glossary of transcript symbols given below is meant to explain the major conventions for rendering details of the vocal
production of utterances in talk-in-interaction as these are used in most current CA publications. Most if not all of these
have been developed by Gail Jefferson, but are now commonly used with minor individual variations. The glosses given
below are mostly based on, and simplified from, the descriptions provided in Jefferson (1989: 193-6; see also 2004a), at
times using those in Heritage and Atkinson (1984), Psathas and Anderson (1990); see also Psathas (1995), and Ten Have
and Psathas (1995). I have restricted the set given below to the ones most commonly used, omitting some of the subtleties
provided by Jefferson

Sequencing

[ A single left bracket indicates the point of overlap onset. 

] A single right bracket indicates the point at which an utterance or utterance-part terminates vis-à-
vis another. 

= Equal signs, one at the end of one line and one at the beginning of a next, indicate no 'gap' between
the two lines. This is often called latching

Timed intervals

(0.0) Numbers in parentheses indicate elapsed time in silence by tenth of seconds, so (7.1) is a pause

of 7 seconds and one-tenth of a second.

(.) A dot in parentheses indicates a tiny 'gap' within or between utterances. 

Characteristics of speech production

word Underscoring indicates some form of stress, via pitch and/or amplitude; an alternative method
is to print the stressed part in italics.

:: Colons indicate prolongation of the immediately prior sound. Multiple colons indicate a more
prolonged sound. 

- A dash indicates a cut-off. 

.,??, Punctuation marks are used to indicate characteristics of speech production, especially

intonation; they are not referring to grammatical units. 

. A period indicates a stopping fall in tone. 

, A comma indicates a continuing intonation, like when you are reading items from a list. 

? A question mark indicates a rising intonation. 

,? The combined question mark/comma indicates a stronger rise than a comma but weaker than a
question mark; an alternative is an italicised question mark: ?

The absence of an utterance-flnal marker indicates some sort of 'indeterminate' contour.

Arrows indicate marked shifts into higher or lower pitch in the utterance-part immediately following
the arrow. 

WORD Upper case indicates especially loud sounds relative to the surrounding talk. 

º Utterances or utterance parts bracketed by degree signs are relatively quieter than the surrounding
talk. 

< > Right/left carets bracketing an utterance or utterance-part indicate speeding up. 

.
hhh A dot-preflxed row of hs indicates an inbreath. Without the dot, the hs indicate an outbreath. 

w(h)ord A parenthesized h, or a row of hs within a word, indicates breathiness, as in laughter,

crying, etc. 

Transcriber's doubts and comments

( ) Empty parentheses indicate the transcriber's inability to hear what was said. The length of the
parenthesized space indicates the length of the untranscribed talk. In the speaker designation column,
the empty parentheses indicate inability to identify a speaker. 

(word) Parenthesized words are especially dubious hearings or speaker identifications. 

(( )) Double parentheses contain transcriber's descriptions rather than, or in addition to,

transcriptions. 

22. What does this sign mean = in conversational analysis transcription?

A. Latched utterances C. Shift into high pitch
B. Stress D. Falling intonation

23. What does this sign mean ↑ in conversational analysis transcription?

A. Rising intonation C. Shift into high pitch
B. Brief interval D. Stress

24. The following are aspects of conversational interactions. Which DOES NOT belong?
A. Turn taking C. Feedback
B. Adjacency pairs D. Conversational Transcription

25. The words “okay” and “alright” with falling intonation are used in which part of a
 conversation?
A. Closing C. Opening
B. Pre-closing D. Pre-opening

26. Which aspect of conversational interaction follows the basic rule in English
conversation is that one person speaks at a time, after which they may nominate
another speaker, or another speaker may take up the turn without being nominated?
A. Opening C. Turn taking
B. Adjacency pairs D. Feedback

Conversation analysis is an approach to the study of social interaction and talk-in-interaction that,
although rooted in the sociological study of everyday life, has exerted significant influence across the
humanities and social sciences including linguistics. Drawing on recordings (both audio and video)
naturalistic interaction (unscripted, non-elicited, etc.) conversation analysts attempt to describe the
stable practices and underlying normative organizations of interaction by moving back and forth
between the close study of singular instances and the analysis of patterns exhibited across collections
of cases. Four important domains of research within conversation analysis are:
 turn-taking- We can begin by noting, as the authors of Sacks et al. (1974) do, that
there are various ways in which turn-taking for conversation (and indeed the
distribution of opportunities to participate in interaction more generally) could be
organized. For instance, turns could be pre-allocated so that every potential
participant was entitled to talk for two minutes and the order of speakers was decided
in advance (by their age, gender, status, first initial, height, weight, etc.)
 repair- A second important area of research within conversation analysis concerns the
systematically organized set of practices of “repair” that participants use to address
troubles of speaking, hearing, and understanding. Episodes of repair are composed of
parts (Schegloff, 1997; Schegloff, Jefferson, & Sacks, 1977). A repair initiation marks
a “possible disjunction with the immediately preceding talk,” while a repair outcome
results either in a “solution or abandonment of the problem” (Schegloff, 2000, p. 207).
That problem, the particular segment of talk to which the repair is addressed, is
termed the “trouble source” or “repairable.”Repair can be initiated either by the
speaker of the repairable item or by some other participant (e.g., the recipient).
Likewise the repair itself can be done either by the speaker of the trouble source or
someone else. 
 action formation and ascription- A basic question addressed by research within linguistic
pragmatics concerns how saying something can count as doing something. Much of
the work in this area has drawn on the ideas of John Searle and others who have
argued for a solution to the problem based on a theory of speech acts. While there
are different versions of the theory, some common assumptions seem to be that
actions are relatively discrete and can therefore be classified or categorized. Applied
to interaction, the theory suggests that recipients listen for cues (or clues) that allow
for the identification of whatever act the talk is meant to be doing (e.g., greeting,
complaining, requesting, inviting). Moreover, the theory seems to presume a closed
set or inventory of actions that are cued by a delimited range of linguistic devices. On
this formulation, the basic problem to be accounted for by scholars of interaction is
how participants are able to recognize so quickly what action is being done (see
Levinson, 2012).
 action sequencing- As we have already seen, in conversation, actions are organized
 into sequences. The most basic form such sequences can take is as a set of two
paired actions, a first and a second, known as an adjacency pair. For instance,
production of a question establishes a next position within which an answer is relevant
and expected next. In order to capture this aspect of organization, Schegloff (1968, p.
1083) introduced the concept of conditional relevance

27. Which form involves omission of some essential elements from a text?
A. Substitution B. Ellipsis C. Reference D. Cohesion

Cohesion and Its Main Patterns

Cohesion: refers to the relationship between items in a text such as words, phrases and clauses and
other items such as pronouns, nouns and conjunctions.
1. This includes the relationship between words and pronouns that refer to that word (reference items).
2. It also includes words that commonly co-occur in texts (collocation)
3. The relationship between words with similar, related and different meanings (lexical cohesion).
4. Cohesion also considers semantic relationships between clauses and the ways this is expressed
through the use of conjunctions.
5. A further aspect of cohesion is the way in which words such as ‘one’ and ‘do’ are used to substitute
for other words in a text (substitution)
6. and the ways in which words or phrases are left out, or ellipsed, from a text (ellipsis).

28. Which of the following is NOT one of the ways to signal that a speaker has come to the
end of his or her turn?
A. Using signal “mmm” or “anyway”
B. Through eye contact, body position, movement and voice pitch.
C. Use of falling intonation and then, pausing.
D. Pausing in the middle of a sentence.

29. The analysis of turn taking may go deeper into these topics, EXCEPT:
A. how many pauses to commit.
B. how much overlap there is between speakers.
C. how people know when it's their turn to speak.
D. how to consider regional or gender differences.

30. John sent a love letter to his girlfriend. What kind of element is the underlined letter?

A. Subject C. Direct Object

B. Complement D. Indirect Object
31. He was a great man. What kind of element is the underlined letter?

A. Complement C. Adjunct
B. Subject D. Indirect Object
32. The house was built. What voice is used in the sentence?
 A. Active C. Agentless passive
B. Agented passive D. None of the above

Summary of Subtypes of Passive Voice Constructions

1. In reversible passive constructions, the subject can be exchanged with the agent in the
by-phrase and still leave a correct logical sentence

2. In nonreversible passive constructions, the subject can not be exchanged with the agent
in the by-phrase and still leave a correct logical sentence.

3. In agentless passive constructions, there is no expressed agent by-phrase.

33. Which of the following is said to be a very vital instrument of stylistics since it
deals with the variations and the options that are available to an author.

A. Style as a man C. Style as Deviation

B. Style as a choice D. Style as Conformity

Stylistics looks at style from the following perspectives:

1. Style as Choice: In this, the writer makes certain choices of the words an expressions to describe the
situations or the characters. The poets make use of certain words or expressions to highlight his
or her intensely felt emotions.
2. Style as Deviation: Here, the writer/poet avoids the standard form of writing and makes use of
deviations to sound stylistically significant. In other words, the writer does not conform to the standard
form of writing. Thus, we can say that the writer has a poetic license to break the rules
of grammar.
3. Style as Situation: Here, the situation is the context in which the text comes to life. The situation could
be social, cultural, political or pragmatic. We come to know the situation in a literary text via the style of
the writer.
4. Style as the Temporal Phenomenon: Here, the time factor plays an important role. When the writer wants
to write a text, he/she has to consider the time factor. For example, Shakespeare wrote the plays and used
the language that wsa relevant to his period. The modern playwrights do not write the same way as
Shakespeare did. Therefore, there is a marked difference between Old English and Modern English.
5. Style as Individual: It is often said that man is known by his style. Every individual is unique in his style
of speech and writing. There are some specific characteristic features associated with particular
individuals.

34. What particular feature or level of stylistics where a stylistician can reasonably
explore and give descriptions of the physical appearance of a literary text?

A. Graphological C. Lexico-semantic
B. Syntactic D. Linguistic

35. Which refers to the choice of words/expressions in a given context by a given person,
for a given purpose, and so on?

A. Stylistics C. Choice
B. Deviation D. Style
36. Which refers to the intentional selection or choice of language outside of the
range of normal language?

A. Style as conformity C. Style as deviation

B. Style as situation D. Style as choice

37. Which of the following is a study of vocabulary of a language in all its aspects and
/or describes the entire storage of words and expressions in a language?

A. semantics C. Grammar
B. Lexis D. Linguistics

38. Which refers to the study of the relationship between the signs of a language and their
meanings?

A. syntactic C. lexical semantics

B. linguistics D. Phonetics

39. Stylistics studies the peculiarities that that characterize the discourse of a writer,
speaker, period, people or genre. What goal of stylistics is being described?
A. to establish peculiarities
B. to induce appreciation of discourse
C. to ascertain linguistic habits
D. to make critical judgments
Goals of Stylistics:

 To establish discourse peculiarities - Stylistics studies the peculiarities that characterize

the discourse of a writer, speaker, period, people or genre. Hence, stylistics
could bring out certain features ofSoyinka’s works which are different from Osofisan’s
works. It could help us identify the British English style as different from the American
English style, etc.
 To induce appreciation of discourses - Stylistics involves the appreciation of a discourse
in order to increase our enjoyment of the discourse. It opens the reader’s mind to the form
and function of a particular discourse. Stylistics is sensitive to different linguistic
manipulations and choices in a give text. It unfolds the beauty in authorial and characters’
linguistic choices and opens the reader or listener’s mind to the aesthetic appeals of such
choices.
 To ascertain linguistic habits - An author’s style is the product of a particular linguistic
habit, conditioned by some social, cultural and ideological environments. The objective of
stylistics is to help determine the linguistic background and orientation of a given writer or
speaker. Thus, according to Chatman (1971), every analysis of style can be seen as an
attempt to discover the artistic principles that underpin the choice a writer has made.

40. An author’s style is the product of a particular linguistic habit, conditioned by some
social, cultural and ideological environment. What goal of stylistics is being referred to
the line above?
A. to establish peculiarities
B. to induce appreciation of discourse
 C. to ascertain linguistic habits
D. to make critical judgments

41. Which statement is INCORRECT about literary stylistics?

A. It is synonymous to literary criticism, in a way.
B. Its ultimate purpose is to explain the individual message clear to others.
C. It is primarily concerned with messages and the interest in codes (language)
lies in the meaning they convey in particular instances.
D. It only explores the linguistic features of a text.
42. What analysis is this which involves the deployment of phonological units of segmental
and suprasegmentals at one level and those of the graphic substance of language—
features relating to the writing system?
A. Graphological level C. Phono-graphological
B. Phonological Level D. Lexico- Semantic Level

43. It is a phonic substance wherein its unit consists of twenty vowels and twenty-four
consonants. Which of the following is referred to?
A. Segmental C. Phonic
B. Sounds D. Suprasegmentals
The segmental features involve consonant and vowel sounds or phonemes, whereas the
suprasegmental features include stress, rhythm, intonation, pitch, length.

44. The following are nonexamples of suprasegmental units. Which DOES NOT belong?
A. Voiceless consonants C. Diphthongs
B. Stress D. Vowels

45. Which of the following relates to how texts are held together lexically and
grammatically as a whole?
A. Parallelism C. Cohesion
B. Coherence D. Grammatical

46. Which of the following terms has to do with sense wherein text is called with
this term if a discourse makes sense to the readers?
A. Lexical cohesion C. Coherence
B. Illocutionary D. Cohesion

47. The following are the different ways to create a cohesive text. Which DOES NOT
belong?
A. Elliptical C. Substitution
B. Performative D. Parallelism

48. Which ways of creating cohesive text relies on the reader’s minds to assume and fill in
 the missing bits from what they have read or heard?
A. Performative C. Referential
B. Elliptical D. Lexical Cohesion

49. Which ways of giving a text cohesion uses pronouns or determiners to refer to the
known nouns in a text?
A. Parallelism C. Elliptical
B. Substitution D. Referential

50. Who introduced the term “Foregrounding”?

A. Wales C. Garvin
B. Halliday D. McCarthy
C.
The term originated in English through the translation by Paul Garvin of the Czech aktualisace
(literally "to actualize"), borrowing the terms from Jan Mukařovský of the Prague school of the1930s.

51. Which of the following best describes “foregrounding”?

A. It is an approach which provides a text with cohesion and coherence.
B. The term is used in the literary world to mean “aesthetic use of language”.
C. This is a framework which aims to analyze the uniqueness and aesthetic use of a
text.
D. This concept refers to making certain features of a language prominent or
noticeable in a text.

52. Foregrounding has two types and these are .

A. Repetition and Deviation C. Graphology and Deviation
B. Repetition and Prominence D. Language and Prominence

53. Which of the following concepts is said to be closely related to foregrounding?

A. Prominence C. Deviation
B. Actualization D. Repetition

54. Who said that the prominence in foregrounding is motivated?

A. Wales C. Stern
B. Halliday D. Quirk

55. The following are the different ways in which foregrounding can be manifested. Which
DOES NOT belong?
A. Contractions C. Pictures
B. Capitalizations D. Rhyming

56. Which of the following refers to violations on linguistic norms such as grammatical or
semantic norms, strange metaphors, similes or collocations that are deployed to achieve
special effects in a text?
 A. Contractions C. Deviation
B. Prominence D. Flouting

57. This term refers to breaking the normal rules of usage by over-frequency. Which of the
following is referred to?
A. Foregrounded C. Prominence
B. Deviation D. Repetition

58. Which of the following is said to be one of the cues needed to identify coherence in a
discourse?
A. Knowledge of the world and conventional structure of interaction.
A. Knowledge of the language and its structure.
B. Wide perspective on coherence.
C. Knowing the difference between cohesion and coherence.

59. Cohesion can be achieved through using words in a text that go with each other.
What kind of lexical cohesion is that?
A. Elliptical C. Collocation
B. Synonymy D. Conjunctive

60. Which of the following refers to a type of voice where the subject of the verb do the
actions?
A. Agented passive C. Agent-less
B. Active D. Non-active