Course title
Usage Events
Teacher
Gerard Steen
E-mail:
gj.steen@let.vu.nl
Postal Address:
Dept of Language and Communication, Faculty of Arts, VU University
Amsterdam,
P O Box 7161, 1007 MC Amsterdam
Homepage:
http://www.let.vu.nl/nl/staf/gj.steen/index.asp
Intermediate
There is a familiar
opposition in linguistics between the notions of 'language' and 'use',
referring to the distinction between the formal, semiotic system and its
application in concrete expressions. The oppositions corresponds with
Saussure's notions of 'language' and 'parole' and Chomsky's notions of
'competence' and 'performance' in different ways.
What is often forgotten, however, is that the notion of 'use' can be taken
in a narrow or a broad sense, the narrow sense pertaining to the use of
linguistic signs by themselves and the broad sense pertaining to the full
situations in which language is used. The rise of discourse analysis has
promoted the second approach, in which language use is seen as one essential
and functional element of more encompassing events of discourse. It is this
full richness of situated language use which is beginning to inform the
notion of usage, and of usage event.
In this course, we will examine how this more encompassing approach to
language use via usage events can be studied. We will begin with a
discussion about the notion of usage itself, and its opposition to grammar,
and then move on to develop a coherent approach to the complexities of usage
events via genre. Part of a genre approach is the role of register, style,
and rhetoric as distinct parameters of language use in relation to genre.
These are the three empirical aspects of the study of usage that we will
concentrate on in the second half of the course.
The overall aim of the course is to acquire a theoretically encompassing and
explicit model for the study of language in usage events.
Monday:
usage events
In this first session we will consider one explicit model of usage events,
develop by Ron Langacker in cognitive linguistics, and a critical assessment
of this type of attempt, by Fred Newmeyer. This type of usage event,
however, is located at the more restricted level of interpretation, and
concentrates on language only.
Tuesday: genre events
The second session will discuss my own model of genre analysis, which is an
attempt to offer a discourse-analytical perspective on usage events via the
assumption that people's language use is always situated in specific genre
contexts.
Wednesday: register
Part of a genre model of usage events is the knowledge people have of
appropriate language varieties. These are best conceptualized as registers,
for which we will examine the work by Douglas Biber.
Thursday: style
Another part of a genre model of usage events is the knowledge people have
of individual variation in appropriate language use. This is best
conceptualized as style, for which we will examine the work by Leech &
Short.
Friday:
rhetoric
A final part of a genre model of usage events is the knowledge people
have of ways in which they can manipulate language for a wide range of
intended effects. This is best conceptualized as rhetoric, for which we
will examine work in social psychology.
Course readings:
Biber, D. (1989). A typology of English texts. Linguistics, 27, 3-43.
Biber, D., Conrad, S., Reppen, R., Byrd, P., & Helt, M. (2002). Speaking and writing in the university: A multi-dimensional comparison. TESOL Quarterly, 36(1), 9-48.
Langacker, R. W. (2000). A dynamic usage-based model. In M. Barlow & S. Kemmer (Eds.), Usage based models of language (pp. 1-64). Stanford, CA: CSLI Publications.
Leech, G.N, & Short, M.H. (1980/2007). Style in fiction (2nd ed.). London: Longman. Chapters 1 and 3.
Newmeyer, F. J. (2003). Grammar is grammar and usage is usage. Language, 79(4), 682-707.
O'Keefe, D.J. (2002). Persuasion: Theory and Research (2nd edition). Thousand Oaks, CA., etc.: Sage. Chapter 9: Message factors.
Steen, G. J. (2003). 'Love stories': Cognitive scenarios in love poetry. In J. Gavins & G. J. Steen (Eds.), Cognitive poetics in practice. London: Routledge.
Steen, G.J. (MS). Genre between the humanities and the sciences. Manuscript avaliable from instructor after 1 December 2009.
Background and preparatory readings:
N A
Further readings:
N A