9.10 Introduction to discourse analysis (Shaggy dog stories)

You all posted great blogs!   I will give you comments on Blogs 2 (analysis) and 3 (the group post on the shaggy dog stories) before class next Tuesday.  I read the list of turned in NIH certificates - everyone needs to have their certificate turned in for Sept 17.

Discourse.  We started class with a discussion of discourse.  The simple definition is language and use - which seems simple enough, but once we start thinking about the elements or components which shape how we use language -it gets pretty interesting.  In quick succession you identified 4 key features relevant to language in use:
the forms language takes
the identities, beliefs, values, everyday experiences of people who write/speak/enact it
the identities etc of people who make meanings (interpret/hear/read) it
the contexts (places) which surround and influence how language is used

Discourse analysis looks at these features: forms/users/audience/context - looks for relationships among them, uses those relationships to identify patterns => and then poses theories about how language "works" in terms of those theories, patterns and correlations. 

I pointed out that all of you are experts at discourse analysis - you make personal (local) theories about what it means when language is used in certain ways all the time.  You identify who will make a likely friend (and who to avoid), which teachers will teach their courses in ways that work for you, what people are interested in or "good" at = all by analyzing the ways they talk. It is not only what they say - but how they say it that you take in and analyze to come to your conclusions.

So you already know how to do discourse analysis - in an automatic, half conscious kind of way.  What we will do in this class is learn to identify the steps.  We will apply the language of analysis - naming, categorizing, looking for patterns & testing relationships & theories - to discourse.

Shaggy Dog Stories.
 Before we started our formal analysis, you shared some of your impressions of what the stories did. 
endings make everything in the story come together or make sense

• the storytelling has significant development
• there are repetitions
• a new twist appears at the end
• the audience needs some prior knowledge in order to "get" the joke = something that is OUTSIDE the joke itself

Then we analyzed the first Shaggy Dog Story - the one about florist friars. We made a general list of some of the "features" that we noticed that:

1. stories start out rational (innocent)
2. then build to the ending
3. readers need cultural knowledge to "get" the joke in terms of
the punchline
what a friar is
why "MacTaggart" would be a likely name for a bully ( this is a Scottish name - in NJ the cliché would be to expect an Italian name - right? so why Scottish?)
4. the punchline sounds like a garbled version of a famous phrase
5. the punchline elements are set up VERY early in the joke (except HUGH which is more toward the end)
6. punchline elements are repeated & emphasized
7.  gives clues to the listener that it is a joke (the line about asking the mother to speak to the priests)
8.  formal language - connects to storytelling (as if a narrator is telling it)
9.  rule of three

After we finished analyzing the Florist Friars joke, you worked on the following tasks:

Write a list of features of what makes a shaggy dog story a shaggy dog story.

To do this, you will need to:

1. Analyze all the jokes
2. Identify (name & list) their features
3. State which features all 4 jokes have in common.

The features which all shaggy dog stories have in common will be the "essential" features of shaggy dog stories.  The features which some have & some don't have - will be variants or variations on the general pattern.

My observation of your group work indicated that you all are making good progress on this. 

During the last 10 minutes of class I introduced the reading by Swales.  I asked you:

• to note the form and the content in this article. 
• to write down any terms/words/ideas you found confusing or hard and mention them in class
• to pay attention to Herzberg's definition of discourse
• to think about the differences between speech and language communities
• and to pay particular attention to Swales six features of discourse communities.

For next class:
Read: Swales (link to right) 
Write:  Blog 3:  group post discussing your findings about the essential features of shaggy dog stories.  Post your analysis (the names of the features in the four jokes), the essential features, and the variants. 

Good work today!   And we will talk about Swales and discourse communities in our next class.