Примењена лингвистика у част Ранку Бугарском - Језик у

JEZIK U UPOTREBI / LANGUAGE IN USE
mar elements which are assumed as obvious from the context. It can be nominal,
verbal or clausal, just like substitution. In the sentence above, the first clause contains
the noun boxes, which is in the second clause substituted by the indefinite
pronoun ones. Here, again, we do not consider all these phrases and verbs only
from the grammatical point of view, but rather as language elements that build
the discourse.
The same goes for individual letters. We can explain L from the phonemic
point of view, but when seen as a sign, it can be interpreted as an abbreviation
for (1) learner, used on cars as a sign that the driver is a learner; (b) lake, on
geographical maps; or (c) large, on clothes, showing size. Thus, one letter can be
interpreted in three different ways, depending on the context in which it is found.
Here, L is seen as a discourse unit, rather than a phoneme or grapheme.
In the same manner, we can explain the use of “Ah.” Whether it expresses
surprise, happiness, agreement, understanding, pleasure, pain or something else
is very much discourse driven. The way it is pronounced (prosodic features such
as intonation, pitch, or loudness) and the context in which it appears will determine
its meaning.
As already mentioned, meaning is studied by semantics. However, individual
words, just like isolated sentences, can be associated with an appropriate
meaning only in a context. Meaning is certainly dependent on context and is
therefore studied by discourse analysis, which inevitably leads us to conclude
that discourse is much more than one level above the sentence. The question is
whether discourse is, in a way, the semantics of text.
Crystal (2002: 287) writes: “When we construct a piece of connected
speech or writing, whether in monologue or dialogue, we are constantly tapping
the lexical and grammatical resources of the language to find ways of making our
composition flow fluently while at the same time expressing the nuances we wish
to convey”. These words confirm my claim that discourse is both below sentence
level and also much wider than pure linguistic form, extending to context and
meaning.
This leads us to conclude that discourse is constructed from the language
units at lower levels, but is also largely dependent on the wider context that requires
a certain selection of language units to match the context.
3.2. Above sentence level
Context is often of a non-linguistic nature, as in Coulthard (1985), where an academic
course, for example, represents a non-linguistic context for a lesson, which
is the highest level of discourse organisation. Of course, we must not forget that
there is a textual context, equally important in discourse analysis.
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