ABDUL LATIF AKHMAD
F1F008112
SCHEMATIC STRUCTURE
Bakhtin suggested that we recognize speech genres because they have
predictable compositional structure. Genres develop linguistic expression
trough a limited number of functional stages, occurring in a particular
sequence. for example horoscope text, typically involve the following stages,
occurring in the following order:
General outlook: a stage in which the astrologer makes a
general statement about the period covered by the horoscope. (e.g. it will
be the rosy month for you)
Uncontingent predictions: a
stage in which general predictions are made about your immediate future.(e.g.
you will meet and marry a tall man)
Contingent predictions: a stage in which different advice is offered
according to the salient category membership of readers.(if single, x will
happen, if married, y)
Advice: a stage in
which astrologers offer advices and warnings.
We cannot make all the meaning we want to at once. Each of the
stages in the genre contributes a part of the overall meanings that must be
made for the genre to be accomplished successfully.
Describing the schematic structure of genres bring us to two fundamental
concepts in linguistic analyses: constituency and labeling.
Constituency
As the name suggests, constituency simply means that things are
made up of, or built out of, other things.
When we describe the schematic structure of a genre, what we are describing
is constituent structure- the structure by which the whole, complete
interaction is made up of part.
The aim of this description is both to identify the part that
constitute the whole, and preferably at the same time, explain how the part
related to each other in constituting that whole. This can be achieved by using
functional labelling in the next generic explanation.
Functional Labelling
Once we begin thinking about dividing text into its constituents we
must consider on what we will establish that two parts of constitute separated
stages. There are essentially two kinds of criteria we could use:
1.
Formal
Criteria: this approach emphasizes
sameness, as we divide the text so that each unit is constituents of the same
type.
2.
Functional
criteria: this approach emphasizes difference, as we divide the text according
to the different function of each stage.
If we took formal approach to constituent analyses of genres, we
could divide up the horoscope text into paragraph, then each paragraph into sentence,
and each sentences into words and so on.
While this approach certainly tells us something about the class of
linguistic items that occur within genres, it does not help us to answer the
short of functionally oriented question we are concerned with: how does each
stage in the genre contribute toward achieving the overall purpose of the next?
Ventola(1987) identify the stages in the book(text 3.2:post office
transaction)
Sales Initiation
1 sales person yes
please
(Costumer steps forward)
Sales Requests
2 costumer can
I have these two like that
(Costumer hands over two letters)
Sales Compliance
Sales Person yes
Price
(3 sec-sales person weight one letter)
4 sales person one’s
forty
(3 sec-sales person weight another letter)
5 ales person one
twenty five
Sales Request
Costumer and
.. have you got.. the … first day covers of…
Salesperson yes
Sales Clarification
salespeson how
many would you like?
Costumer four
please
Purchase
costumer I
will take two of each
salesperson uhum
Price
salesperson right…
that’s a dollar seventy thank you
Payment
salesperson here
we are
costumer thank
you
Change
salesperson dollar
seventy that’s two four and one’s five
thank
you very much
Purchase Closure.
salesperson they
will be right I’ll fix those up in a moment
costumer ok
(costumer leaves)
The more complex description of the generic structure of this text
can be achieved by writing the stage out in a linear sequence with the symbol ^
between stages to indicate that stages
are ordered with respect to each other. Thus, a linear description of the
schematic structure of the post office text becomes:
Sales initiation^ sales request^ sales compliance^ price^ sales
request^ sales clarification^ purchase^ price^ payment^ change^ purchase
closure
As our description of schematic structure has indicated, the order
of element of schematic structure is significant constraint. In many genres
such as the transactional one most element are fixed in their order of
occurrence. For example the stage of payment can only appear after
payment. The linearity of interaction
means order often carries dimensions of meaning.
DESCRIPTIVE GRAMMAR AND THE NOTION OF ‘APPROPRIACY’
Grammar closely related to how we should use any language. The
study of grammar equates with the study of how we talk or write correctly. but
linguists argue for a clear distinction between, on the one hand, the
grammatical system of a language that enables people to use language the way
they do, and on the other hand, the moral and social judgments made by people
about how the grammar English should be used.
Grammars that impose moral judgments, which view grammar in term of
right and wrong, are prescriptive grammar. An account of how we should speak is
a perspective or normative grammar. Such as grammar is interesting in linguists
not for what it tells us about the fact of language, but for what it tells us
about the values and prejudices of society at a given time.
The kinds of grammar linguists are use are descriptive grammars. It
makes no judgment abut the goodness/the badness, rightness/wrongness of
language use. A descriptive grammar is an account of how speakers actually use
the language. Linguists are not interested in making a judgment about whether
people should or shouldn’t use particular structures. They simply describe
grammar that enables language user to do what they do.
A descriptive grammar will run by making statements and assessments
not about good/bad, right/wrong, but about appropiacy or inappropiacy. Degree
of appropiacy is assessed not in term of arbitrary blanker statements about
inflexible grammar rule, but as statements about grammar as a set of choices
use in context.
Therefore our descriptive grammar will explain that not standard
use of the past participle for the simple past (seen) or the form youz
as a plural second person pronoun, while quite appropriate in informal
situations and are appropriate for formal occasions. As such form has become an
information about socio-economic information (social class, ethnic), and it has
a correlation with an implicit ideological belief (fantasy) that we interact
with others as equals.
Descriptive grammar will allow us to make statements about the
appropiacy of certain linguistic given in the context of their use. it is a
potential skill you must possess if you want to be able to describe, discuss,
compare and understand how people use to do social life.
