Discourse Analysis Coursework: Old Delhi (Coursework Sample)

Analysis and interpretation of ideational and textual meanings in Old Delhi walking tour, India: A feast to overcome 'Delhi belly' fears
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Analysis and interpretation of ideational and textual meanings in Old Delhi walking tour, India: A feast to overcome 'Delhi belly' fears
Discourse analysis presents a means of engaging in the imperative human element of thinking deeply about people’s words and the meanings we give to their words or language. For this purpose analysis data, also referred to as text, can be taken from tape recordings or written texts (Rose, 2006, p. 68). In this paper, the discourse analysis will focus on published media. The social discourse analyzed is a newspaper article titled Old Delhi walking tour, India: A feast to overcome 'Delhi belly' fears, by Julie Miller which was published in the Traveller on Friday, the 27th of Friday 2012.
The main aim of this analysis is to relate the tools of discourse analysis in order to extend our appreciation of ideational and textual meanings, with respect, to a level further than that of the clause. The analysis embarks with a dedicated focus on the ideation element of discourse. This is the first part of the analysis where focus is on discourse contents relating to the activities that embody the main event and how the participants present in these activities are described, categorized and classified. From this part, our analysis proceeds to the second constituent of the discourse system which is the analysis of textual meanings in the text. It entails analysis of periodicity which corresponds to the regularity of information flow in the text as the text unfolds.
Details of the analyzed text, including tables and excerpts incorporated in the body of the assignment to illustrate key points, is presented in the appendix section which is the latter part of the paper.
Theoretical background of ideational and Textual Meanings metafunctions
Within Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL), Ideational and textual metafunctions are two of the three distinct social functions, the other being the interpersonal metafunction, that language in social context uses. According to Martin and Rose (2007), Ideational meanings characterize experience while textual meanings serve to arrange text in a discourse. Ideation focuses on how experience is interpreted or construed in a certain text or talk, interaction, or discourse (Martin, 2004, p.74). Focus is emphasized on activity sequence, the things and people involved in the activities, the places, the associated qualities, and how such elements develop and relate to each as the text develops and spreads out (Hood, 2008, p. 356 ).
Martin and Rose (2007, p.75) have explained that an ideation system is made up of lexical relations, which are semantic relations that unfold in the interaction of particular people, processes, things, qualities, things and places presented in a text. Thus ideation meaning in any human experience model entails processes that engage and involve people, places, things, and qualities. In this regard, ideation is informed by three sets of lexical elements which are taxonomic relations, nuclear relations, and activity sequence.
Taxonomic relations are the relations among the elements in a text that build up a picture of the elements as the text advances. As a text unfolds, taxonomic relations between elements in a clause can further be classified on the basis of textual styles such as synonymy and contrast, and repetition (Hasan, Matthiessen, & Webster, 2007, p. 673).
Nuclear relations are the lexical relations between the various clauses of a text (Martin & Rose 2007). They revolve around the relations between the various elements in a way that shows how participants in a text contribute to the events in the text.
Activity sequence describes the pattern which activities in a clause are configured in the field of experience. It describes the phases and steps of the events and activities in the text. In the field, the series of the occurrences is expected, and the participation by various elements is expressed (Martin & Rose 2007). Various types of activities referred to as going-ons help in creating ideational meanings (Hood 2013b).
The textual perspective is based on how information flows from one point to the other, referred to as periodicity, in the field of text. Information flows in various levels in a text, in a nutshell, the top-down mode. Thus, analyzing discourse for textual meaning focus considerably shifts from lexical strings to the actual modes of communication applied in the text. The flow of information can be in the form of a theme or a new. Themes and news can be advanced into hyperthemes and hypernews, as well as MacroThemes and MacroNews, as the text advances in the various paragraph levels (Hood 2013a; Martin & Rose 2007).
IDEATION
In a discourse analysis, ideational meanings involve participants, processes, and circumstances (Hood, 2013b). For example, at the beginning of her story, Julie embarks on constructing the vegetarian nature of her diet. As a vegetarian, she will obviously miss out on the "delectable offerings" at the "Muslim section”; "the lamb, mutton, chicken…." This excerpt brings out a deeper sense of classification. These classes include food, social, and diet modes. The various classes of meat that one can enjoy include mutton, lamb, chicken, and so on. Another class that emerges here is Muslim and the section which deals with meat delicacies is named with respect to that (Miller, 2015).
The initial events of Julie’s story principally relate to herself and her friend, who are seen from varying perspectives vis-à-vis the unfolding of the story’s events. She, for example classifies herself and her friend as vegetarians, as opposed to their guide Ramit whose love for tasty treats of "lamb, mutton, and chicken" is evident (Miller 2015). There are further classifications of the elements and the mentions of these classifications are highlighted in bold and italics in the excerpt below.
"Ramit looks crestfallen when my friend and I inform him we are vegetarians.”Oh no!" he wails, dodging beggars, strewn garbage and sidewalk ear cleaners as he strides through the ancient marketplace of Chandni Chowk. "You're going to miss out on so many tasty treats! I wanted to take you to the Muslim section – oh my, the lamb, mutton, chicken – so good."
At the thought of such delectable offerings, our bespectacled guide has become a veritable Indian Homer Simpson, salivating with gleeful anticipation. Clearly this is a man who loves to eat and the perfect person to lead us on a Foodies and Heritage walking tour" (Miller 2015)
From the highlighted instances it can be seen more clearly how Julie, her friend, Ramit, and other participants have been classified in the text.
Repetition and synonymy in Julie’s story is as regular as the various classifications. In Julie’s story, use of repetition and synonymy helps in making the lexical strings relatively simple. For example, Julie is a vegetarian whose culinary restrictions mean that she is going to miss out various tasty treats….chicken, mutton, and so on. Julie’s tour guide, salivating with anticipation, is a man who "who loves to eat" as well as the ideal person to lead Julie and her friend on their "foodies" tour. A variety of words which possess different meanings have been used. Nonetheless, these terms are considered synonymous and repetitive because they add to the information being passed by the text. For instance, the term vegetarian and culinary restrictions imply the diet restrictions that the travelers cannot compromise. In addition, tasty treats are reinforced with the descriptions Muslim section, Lamb, chicken, Mutton; Salivating is made synonymous with descriptions such as "Love to eat "and foodies. The relations in this section also inform the subsequent perspectives of nuclear relations and activity sequence.
Nuclear relations, the other component of ideation, are created in Julie’s story. Within the various clauses of the text, the lexical relations present are the nuclear relations. A nuclear relation is made complete by the presence of a process and a medium for such process. In a nuclear relation, a process can affect the medium but cannot affect the agent. For example "He leads us through massive wooden doors into a private Haveli”. The nuclear relation here involves a process, which is leads; it also includes a medium which may be affected by the process, in this case, us. In the relation, the agent, massive wooden doors is left implied.
Activity sequence, the other theoretical component of ideational meaning, is significantly explicit in Julie’s text filed. The activities of the participants demonstrate recurrent sequences. In a field, the events’ series are expected. The predictability of the activity sequences is high. The guide "stops in front of a street stall and directs us to a cluster….While he stands in line to Oder… He returns with a metal plate with two spoons….and two unusual looking pastries”. In this excerpt, the activities are expected. Once the guide is done with ordering, it expected that he will return with the food to the sited travelers. As expected in a heritage tour, intended for new discoveries, the guide returns carrying pastries that, to the travelers, look unusual. The guide is thus expected to offer a description of the food to Julie and her friend, and does so; "these are Japanese Samosas”. "We bite into the flaky pyramid with a satisfying crunch…….stimulating our taste buds”. The activity of biting into the Samosa is satisfying, leading to the sti...