AJP69011 Text and Discourse Analysis

Faculty of Arts
Autumn 2023
Extent and Intensity
1/1/0. 4 credit(s). Type of Completion: zk (examination).
Taught in person.
Teacher(s)
Mgr. Renata Kamenická, Ph.D. (lecturer)
Guaranteed by
Mgr. Renata Kamenická, Ph.D.
Department of English and American Studies – Faculty of Arts
Contact Person: Tomáš Hanzálek
Supplier department: Department of English and American Studies – Faculty of Arts
Timetable
Tue 8:00–9:40 G25, except Tue 14. 11.
Prerequisites
Proficiency in Czech and English.
Course Enrolment Limitations
The course is only offered to the students of the study fields the course is directly associated with.

The capacity limit for the course is 25 student(s).
Current registration and enrolment status: enrolled: 14/25, only registered: 0/25
fields of study / plans the course is directly associated with
Course objectives
Having finished the course in Text and Discourse Analysis, students will understand how the discipline can be useful to to professionals in the translation profession. They will be able to relate important concepts in DA to specific texts and justify their translation decisions based on DA concepts and approaches. They will have hightened their sensitivity to genre, register, cohesion and coherence, implicature and other discursive features in translation.
Learning outcomes
Having finished the course, the student will: - be familar with basic concepts and in discourse analysis and understand how they are relevant to translation
- be able to analyze textuality invarious discourses and shape it in translation to achieve relevant communication goals in the target language
- be able to shape and justify their translation decisions with reference to basic concepts in discourse analysis
Syllabus
  • (1) Course objectives, pathways to achieving them. Course organization instructions: teaching block structuring, requirements placed on students, course completion requirements.
  • (2) Concepts “text” and “discourse”, seven standards of textuality, relations between “genre”, “discourse” and “text” (based on Hatim and Mason).
  • (3) Functionalist approaches to text: text typologies proposed by Jakobson/Bűhler/Newmark/Reiss, text functions and language functions; Hallidayian theory of language and language functions based on Halliday.
  • (4) Register and context of situation; language variation – by user and use; field, tenor and mode of discourse.
  • (5) Communication dimension of context/context of situation; application within the skopos theory; text intentionality and acceptability.
  • (6) Pragmatic dimension of context, illocutionary structure of text, basic concepts in conversational analysis; Grice’s cooperation principle; inference, relevance.
  • (7) Semiotic dimension of context, translator as an intercultural communicator.
  • (8) Cohesion and coherence in text and translation.
  • (9) Lexical cohesion; collocations. Written and spoken texts.
  • (10) Text types: argumentative, expository, instructional, descriptive, narrative.
  • (11) Text structure.
  • (12) Thematic structure of texts; functional sentence perspective vs. iconicity in language.
  • (13) Intertextuality, signals of intertextuality, typology of intertextual reference; text hybridization.
Literature
  • BAKER, Mona. In other words : a coursebook on translation. New York: Routledge. x, 304. ISBN 0415030862. 1992. info
  • BEAUGRANDE, Robert-Alain de and Wolfgang U. DRESSLER. Introduction to text linguistics. 1st publ. London: Longman. 270 s. : g. ISBN 0-582-55486-1. 1981. info
  • BROWN, Gillian and George YULE. Discourse analysis. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. xii, 288. ISBN 0521284759. 1998. info
  • HATIM, B. Communication across cultures :translation theory and contrastive text linguistics. Exeter: University of Exeter Press. xvi, 235 s. ISBN 0-85989-497-5. 1997. info
  • HOEY, Michael. Textual interaction : an introduction to written discourse analysis. 1st pub. London: Routledge. xvii, 203. ISBN 0415231698. 2001. info
  • MARTIN, J. R. and David ROSE. Working with discourse : meaning beyond the clause. New York: Continuum. x, 293. ISBN 0826455085. 2003. info
  • HATIM, B. and Ian MASON. Discourse and the translator. London: Longman. xiv, 258 s. ISBN 0-582-02190-1. 1990. info
  • NORD, Christiane. Translating as a Purposeful Activity: Fuctionalist Approaches Explained. Manchester: St. Jerome Publishing. 154 pp. ISBN 1900650029. 1997. info
  • HALLIDAY, M. A. K. and Ruqaiya HASAN. Cohesion in English. Harlow: Longman. xv, 374 s. ISBN 0-582-55041-6. 1976. info
  • YULE, George. Pragmatics. First published. Oxford: Oxford University Press. xiv, 138. ISBN 0194372073. 1996. info
Teaching methods
The course combines a lecture and a seminar, with forms used freely within the 90-minute teaching blocks. Once in every two weeks, students submit a translation to be discussed, for which they receive also individualized feedback.
Assessment methods
Credits will be granted to students upon passing a practically oriented written exam (consisting of discourse analysis of an assigned text, translation of a part of the text, and answers to questions including basic DA questions applied to the text) and a face-to-face 15-minute interview dedicated to discussing the feedback to the student's translations submitted over the semester between the student and the teacher.
Language of instruction
English
Further comments (probably available only in Czech)
Study Materials
The course is taught annually.
Information about innovation of course.
This course has been innovated under the project "Faculty of Arts as Centre of Excellence in Education: Complex Innovation of Study Programmes and Fields at FF MU with Regard to the Requirements of the Knowledge Economy“ – Reg. No. CZ.1.07/2.2.00/28.0228, which is cofinanced by the European Social Fond and the national budget of the Czech Republic.

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Teacher's information
The course is a practical one and unfortunately cannot be enrolled by Erasmus students unless they are proficient in Czech (including written Czech) - ability to use Czech actively is a necessary prerequisite.
The course is also listed under the following terms Autumn 2019, Autumn 2020, Autumn 2021, Autumn 2022, Autumn 2024.
  • Enrolment Statistics (recent)
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