- Code
- ELL 511
- Name
- Post - Graduating Seminar
- Semester
- 3
- Lecture hours
- 4.00
- Seminar hours
- 0.00
- Laborator hours
- 0.00
- Credits
- 4.00
- ECTS
- 8.00
- Description
-
This course presents an approach to textual analysis. Texts are crucially important in modern societies. For that reason, they are also important objects of analysis for the social sciences. Through its different disciplines, people in societies are researched. Different approaches to textual analysis are about identifying and studying different parts of texts and different phenomena. Some of the approaches used are: content analysis, argumentation analysis, qualitative analysis of ideas and ideological content, narrative analysis, metaphor analysis and critical linguistics, multimodal discourse analysis, and discourse analysis.
- Objectives
-
This course aims to demonstrate how different methodological approach can be used in social science studies. It tries to deepen the understanding of each approach in studying language and discourse. During this course, students will be able to choose which methods are relevant for answering particular research questions.
- Java
- Tema
- 1
- Introduction to the course. Presentation of the syllabus and assessment. Why text analysis? Language is a huge source of data about complex phenomena. Texts can be either a trace of something larger or something interesting to study on their own. There are some types of Structured Textual Analysis. Content analysis examines small text units in isolation, e.g. categories (yields e.g., category schemes, frequencies, trends). Semantic analysis is to examine the relationship between content units, e.g. associations and grammar (yields e.g., scripts, networks of associated concepts, causal maps). Narrative analysis refers to structure of larger text units, e.g. elements, turns, plots in a story (yields more complex stories and rhetorical practices and beliefs). Discourse analysis includes several texts.
- 2
- A basic concept in textual analysis is that of the sign and Semiotics is the science of signs within human communication. There exist two opposing views regarding using language in interpreting reality. It is possible to gain knowledge by using our senses and scientific knowledge can be reached using a neutral observation language, a language for scientific descriptions that would be neutral and objective in the sense of being related to the sensory experiences common to human beings. According to a constructivist view of language and reality, the two cannot be separated. We cannot meaningfully speak about reality without language working as a lens that makes us see things in certain ways.
- 3
- Content analysis is represented in both a quantitative and qualitative analysis of texts and is insensitive to the context in which units like words are counted, which could reduce validity. The approach is especially suitable for finding patterns in larger corpora, for categorizations and comparisons, and may be complemented with other types of analyses. Manually conducted content analysis makes more advanced judgments and interpretations possible, but leads to the processing of less material than computer-based analysis.
- 4
- Rhetoric, the study of persuasion, was developed by Greek and Roman scholars during antiquity. Rhetoric takes a broad grip on attempts to persuade by speech or writing in particular situations and can be defined as the systematic study and intentional practice of effective symbolic expression. The three central concepts of rhetoric are logos, ethos and pathos. Argumentation analysis is a development of rhetoric that focuses on logos rather than ethos or pathos. The study of logos in argumentations has, since antiquity, been related to logic. A scholarly text such as an article in a scientific journal is expected to be driven by logos, while in journalistic works more pathos is allowed but logos is also expected to be well developed.
- 5
- The primary aim of the approach “analysis of ideas and ideological content” is to single out the component ideas and the ideological content of: a) an established mode of thought, b) a propagated message, or c) an ongoing debate or ideational strife. Terms like ‘ideas’ or ‘ideologies’ are commonplace in ordinary language. The words ‘ideas’ and ‘ideologies’ allude to thinking that motivates and guides social action and interaction. But ideas normally do not appear on their own. In all the messages, communication and discourse around us they are combined into more or less coherent and more or less convincing systems of ideas, also called belief systems or ideologies. Systems of ideas, or belief systems, or ideologies, have a common inner structure or a common morphological composition. hey are composed of three interlaced dimensions of thought which are central to the methodological approach here: 1) the value dimension; 2) the descriptive dimension; and 3) the prescriptive dimension.
- 6
- Many of the texts we read contain narratives. Studying narratives thus provides insights into the formation and maintenance of identity. Cultures “work ‘mentally’ in common”, through a process of “joint narrative accrual”. Narrative is comprised of a story and a discourse. The story is familiar from the structuralist take on narrative, comprised of the content of the tale or chain of events and the ‘existents’, or the characters and other components of the setting. When analyzing the narratives, it is useful to operationalize the features of the story (be they abstract, orientation, complicating actions, resolution or whatever) as questions to be posed to the text. When analyzing the ‘discourse’ of the narrative, it is useful to keep the question ‘how’ to the fore: how is this story being told so that its content leads to a given evaluation?
- 7
- Metaphor analysis has its roots in cognitive linguistics – the branch of linguistics that studies how human thinking is related to linguistic expressions. By studying which metaphors are used in texts one might learn something about our way of thinking that is not explicitly expressed. This analysis focuses on the ideational function of texts. Analyzing grammar and lexicon (e.g. studying the vocabulary of a corpus) in the way demonstrated here has its roots in critical linguistics, an early form of discourse analysis.
- 8
- Midterm Exam
- 9
- Multimodal analyis. Images, illustrations and information graphics play key roles for the production and interpretation of meaning. This is obviously the case in contemporary mass media texts, on many websites and in advertisements, but also, for instance, in pamphlets and leaflets from organizations as well as in textbooks and reports in various formats. Such texts are often referred to as multimodal texts. The concept of text is extended to include modes of communication other than just writing or speaking. Too strict a focus on the linguistic parts of these texts comes with the risk of missing out on other relevant meanings conveyed by other modes, such as images.
- 10
- Discourse is defined in the narrow and wider definition. In the narrow sense it means “samples of spoken dialogue, in contrast with written texts”, or “spoken and written language”. When ‘discourse’ is in this way imbued with the meaning of a cohesive chunk of written or spoken language, discourse analysis then primarily becomes the analysis of text without any connection to the context in which it occurs. CDA is an example of the second generation within discourse analysis, and the term ‘discourse’ is broadened to include linguistic aspects of social practice as well. The distinction between broad and narrow discourse definitions, the narrowest way of conceptualizing discourse is when the term refers to chunks of text without context, while the second broadest definition refers to linguistic practices, related to other kinds of social practice.
- 11
- Steps in discourse analysis. After formulating a research question that is consistent with a discourse analysis tradition, it is necessary to ponder over what materials are needed in order to answer the question. An initial question to resolve is whether to use a concept of discourse that includes non-linguistic practices as well. Second, even if limited to a focus on speech and written texts, a decision must be reached about the arenas in relation to which the discourse is to be delimited. Third, it is important to consider the temporal delimitations. How long a time period is needed in order to study a potential discursive change, and, conversely, how long a time span can be said to still reflect ‘the present’? Fourth, the texts that can be considered to reflect the chosen discourse need to be chosen.
- 12
- Practical analysis. Students choose one method and bring a variety of texts for analysis. They investigate primarily the literature related to the topic of interest. Secondly, students research on justifying the methodology used and its appropiateness for the field of study.
- 13
- Practical analysis-2
- 14
- Practical analysis-3
- 15
- Presentations
- 16
- Final exam
- 1
- Students will be able to increase understanding of text analysis and types of text analysis.
- 2
- Students will analyze texts based on different approaches.
- 3
- Students will be able to write essays that reflect their critical evaluation of texts.
- Quantity Percentage Total percent
- Midterms
- 1 30% 30%
- Quizzes
- 0 0% 0%
- Projects
- 1 20% 20%
- Term projects
- 0 0% 0%
- Laboratories
- 0 0% 0%
- Class participation
- 0 0% 0%
- Total term evaluation percent
- 50%
- Final exam percent
- 50%
- Total percent
- 100%
- Quantity Duration (hours) Total (hours)
- Course duration (including exam weeks)
- 16 4 64
- Off class study hours
- 14 8 112
- Duties
- 1 10 10
- Midterms
- 1 2 2
- Final exam
- 1 2 2
- Other
- 0 0 0
- Total workLoad
- 190
- Total workload / 25 (hours)
- 7.60
- ECTS
- 8.00