Language Methods

Language Methods

1. Audience

   • The individuals who the text is aimed at

2. Purpose

   • Why has the text been written?

3. Topic

   • What is the text about? What ideas/concepts is it talking about?

4. Context

5. Form/Genre

   • Formal/Informal - Relaxed tone/Tense tone - Is it a written or spoken text?

6. Lexis and Semantics

   • Lexis = words that are written/spoken. Semantics = the meanings of the words

7. Discourse features/structures

   • Collocations
   • Referencing
     • Anaphoric, cataphoric or exophoric
   • Listing
     • Syndetic and Asyndetic
   • Phonological
     • Rhyme, rhythm, repetition, alliteration
   • Spontaneous Speech
     • Adjency pairs, fillers, tag questions, topic shifts, discourse markers, elisions

8. Grammar and Syntax

   • Declarative, exclamative, imperative and interrogative
   • Simple, compound and complex and elliptical sentences (part of sentence missing)

9. Pragmatics

   • Implied meaning

10. Phonology

    • Sounds - alliteration, consonants, sibilance, rhyme and assonance

11. Graphology

    • Images, fonts, bold/italics

12. Representation

    • Concepts, ideas, culture, race, religion, accent, dialect, occupation, sexuality

13. Register

    • Formal or Informal

14. Paralinguistic communication

    • Non verbal communication - hand gestures, body language, posture etc

15. Concepts and Theorists

    • Concepts - specific ideas which are not proposed. Theory - related to specific theory e.g. Lakoff