Discourse Analysis Practice Questions

Correct answer: Cohesion is the surface grammatical and lexical ties; coherence is the underlying meaning

Cohesion involves the overt linguistic markers (such as pronouns, conjunctions, and ellipsis) that tie sentences together structurally. Coherence, by contrast, is the mental framework that allows a reader to perceive the text as unified and logically meaningful based on real-world knowledge. A text can be cohesive but completely lack coherence if the ideas do not make logical sense together.

Correct answer: An expected response that maintains conversational alignment, given without hesitation

In Conversation Analysis, adjacency pairs have preferred and dispreferred seconds. A preferred response (such as accepting an invitation) is structurally aligned, straightforward, and typically delivered immediately. Dispreferred responses (such as refusing an invitation) are often delayed, accompanied by hesitations, and require explicit justifications or prefaces.

Correct answer: CDA studies how power, inequality, and bias are enacted and resisted through language

Critical Discourse Analysis, championed by scholars like Norman Fairclough and Teun van Dijk, is explicitly political and socially engaged. It moves beyond describing linguistic features to expose how systemic power asymmetries and ideologies are hidden within everyday language. It aims to reveal how discourse shapes and is shaped by broader socio-political structures.

Correct answer: The Interpersonal Metafunction

The interpersonal metafunction handles how speakers use language to interact with others, establish social status, and signal personal evaluations or attitudes. It is realized through grammatical systems like mood, modality, and polarity. The other two primary metafunctions are the ideational (representing experiences) and the textual (organizing the flow of information).

Correct answer: Two ordered utterances by different speakers; the first expects a specific second

Adjacency pairs are foundational units of talk-in-interaction, consisting of two ordered parts spoken by different people (e.g., Question/Answer, Greeting/Greeting, Offer/Acceptance). The production of the first part creates a condition of 'conditional relevance' for the second part. If the expected second part is missing, its absence is noticeable and carries communicative meaning.

Correct answer: When Sarah arrived at the lecture hall, she realized her notebook was missing.

An endophoric reference points to something within the text itself rather than the external physical environment. Specifically, anaphora occurs when a linguistic expression refers back to a previously introduced entity (the antecedent), as 'she' refers back to 'Sarah'. If the pronoun pointed forward to an entity introduced later, it would be a cataphora.

Correct answer: How a text echoes, references, transforms, or relies on other pre-existing texts

Intertextuality asserts that no text exists in a vacuum; every discourse is a mosaic of cultural quotes, allusions, and structural echoes of prior texts. Recognizing these connections allows readers to unpack deeper layers of meaning, irony, or authority. It is a central concept for analyzing both literary works and everyday media discourse.

Correct answer: The Maxim of Quantity

The Maxim of Quantity dictates that a speaker should make their contribution as informative as required for the current purpose of exchange, but not more informative than necessary. Over-explaining or dumping excessive details violates the second sub-maxim of Quantity. This conversational breach can trigger a conversational implicature as listeners look for a hidden meaning behind the extra detail.

Correct answer: A Conversational Implicature

Flouting occurs when a speaker blatantly fails to follow a Gricean maxim, not to deceive the listener, but to prompt them to look for an indirect meaning. For example, using extreme sarcasm flouts the Maxim of Quality ('Be truthful'). The listener bridges this gap by calculating a conversational implicature to infer what the speaker actually means.

Correct answer: Short listener cues ('mm-hmm', 'yeah') showing attention without taking the turn

Backchanneling consists of minimal, non-intrusive responses that provide continuous feedback to the current speaker, confirming that the listener is tracking the conversation. These cues are vital for maintaining the social flow and showing active engagement in spontaneous dialogue. They signal comprehension and interest without trying to seize control of the conversational floor.

Correct answer: Substitution

Substitution occurs when a speaker replaces a specific linguistic item or clause with a filler word (such as 'so', 'one', or 'do') to avoid repeating it. In this example, 'so' replaces the entire subordinate clause 'that I am attending the faculty seminar.' This device streamlines text production and enhances cohesion without causing redundancy.

Correct answer: Omitting a grammatically required element that is easily inferred from context

Ellipsis is a form of structural cohesion where a piece of grammatical architecture is left unsaid because it is already known from the surrounding text (e.g., 'John won a medal, and Mary [won] a trophy'). It relies on the reader or listener's ability to mentally fill in the blank. It prevents clunky repetition while maintaining clear structural links between clauses.

Correct answer: Key (the tone, manner, or spirit behind a communicative act)

The 'Key' in Hymes' ethnography of communication framework describes the emotional tone or delivery style of an interaction, such as whether it is serious, mock, sarcastic, or playful. A change in key can completely alter how a message is interpreted, even if the words stay exactly the same. It provides essential contextual framing for understanding discourse events.

Correct answer: A word or phrase ('well', 'anyway', 'so') that structures or transitions talk

Discourse markers are sequentially dependent elements that bracket units of talk and point to structural transitions. They do not add much to the literal semantic content of a sentence, but they are crucial for guiding the listener through shifts in topic, stance, or logic. Examples include 'on the other hand' in writing or 'look' and 'mind you' in speech.

Correct answer: Rule-governed methods for managing who speaks when, avoiding overlap and gaps

Turn-taking is a highly organized, collaborative system that keeps human conversation moving smoothly with minimal gaps and overlaps. It operates around Transition Relevance Places (TRPs), which are moments where a speaker's turn could logically end. The system uses subtle signals like pitch drops, gaze shifts, or grammatical completion to smoothly hand off control.

Correct answer: The role relationships, social status, and power or intimacy between participants

In systemic functional linguistics, register is split into three parts: Field (what is happening), Tenor (who is taking part), and Mode (what part language is playing). Tenor captures the social distance, power hierarchies, and affective bonds between the speakers. It explains why a person speaks differently to a judge than they would to a close friend.

Correct answer: Fixing trouble in speaking, hearing, or understanding by adjusting the utterance

Repairs are interactional moves used to fix hitches or misunderstandings in real-time talk. They are classified into self-initiated self-repairs (the speaker catches and fixes their own mistake, e.g., 'I saw him on Tuesday—no, Wednesday') and other-initiated repairs (the listener flags a problem). Studying repair mechanisms reveals how deeply invested conversationalists are in maintaining shared understanding.

Correct answer: Reference to an entity outside the text, needing shared situational context

Exophoric reference directs the listener's attention away from the text and out into the physical, immediate environment or broader cultural context (e.g., pointing and saying, 'Pass me that book over there'). Because the referent is not named anywhere in the text, it cannot be decoded without analyzing the immediate situational surroundings. It contrasts with endophoric references, which look inside the text.

Correct answer: Hedging

Hedging is a cautious rhetorical strategy common in both academic writing and polite conversation. It protects the speaker or writer from absolute commitment to a claim, leaving room for alternative interpretations or mitigating potential face-threatening assertions. The opposite strategy is boosting, which uses intensifiers ('clearly', 'definitely') to express absolute certainty.

Correct answer: A turn that prepares a coming action, e.g. checking availability before a request

Pre-sequences are preparatory turns used to clear the path for a main conversational move, helping speakers avoid rejection or awkwardness. Common examples include pre-invitations ('Are you busy tonight?') or pre-announcements ('You'll never guess what happened!'). They allow participants to test the waters and anticipate whether their main action will receive a preferred or dispreferred response.