Build Bright University

Faculty of Arts, Humanities and Languages

Discourse Analysis in English 1

Topic 5
Schematic Conventions
Lecturer: Prof. Bede O.C. Uwalaka
 Frames and Cultural Assumptions
• When we encounter text that does not fit our
culturally schematized world, we naturally find it
hard to make sense out of it.
• In order to explain frames and cultural assumptions,
we consider the following scenario:
A man was taking a walk with his son one day and as
they were crossing the road, a car came round a
corner unexpectedly and hit the boy, injuring him
badly. An ambulance was called for and the boy was
taken to the nearest hospital and into the operating
theater. On seeing the boy, the surgeon suddenly let
out a cry of horror: “My God this is my son!”
7/1/2020 Prepared by Prof. B.O.C. Uwalaka 2
• Anybody who reads this text for the first time may
well be mystified by it.
 How can it be that the surgeon suddenly
recognized his son at the hospital, when he was
with the boy earlier at the time of the accident ?
 Anyway, how can the father be out walking with
the son and working at the hospital at the same
time?
 Now suppose the surgeon is a woman – the
mother of the child, then the mystery disappears.

7/1/2020 Prepared by Prof. B.O.C. Uwalaka 3

• The idea that the surgeon is a woman does not,
for many people, come immediately to mind
because in most societies, there is the schematic
expectation that surgeons refer to men.
• If we were to change the surgeon with nurse,
there is no mystery at all.
• The mystery is the result of our preconceived
schematic assumptions.

7/1/2020 Prepared by Prof. B.O.C. Uwalaka 4

• The idea that the surgeon is a woman does not, for
many people, come immediately to mind because
the mind is naturally inclined to interpret things by
relating them to what is schematically established as
normal and customary.
• There is a schematic convention in some societies
that surgeons are usually male not female.
• It is not that the idea of a woman surgeon is difficult
to entertain; it is simply that it is less directly
accessible.
• Schemata provides us with a convenient framework
for understanding.
• Without them, we would not be able to make sense
of any text or any of the circumstances of everyday
life.
 Interpersonal Routines

• There are ideational constructs which a group,

large or small, consider to be customary, normal,
natural ways of thinking about events.
• Interpersonal schemata refers to the customary
ways in which we engage with second persons i.e.
how people interact with each other one on one.
• These conventions are engaged when people
interact with each other.

7/1/2020 Prepared by Prof. B.O.C. Uwalaka 6

• The customary ways of doing these things are so
familiar to us that we take them for granted, until we
discover sometimes to our discomfiture, that they do
not always apply, and that other people from
different cultures or social groups, follow rather
different schematic conventions of behavior.
• Consider this routine of introduction and first
meeting:
Introduction: Tom, this is Jane.
(Tom) Greeting: How do you do?
(Jane) Greeting: How do you do?

7/1/2020 Prepared by Prof. B.O.C. Uwalaka 7

• There are, however, all kinds of variations that might
occur in the actual wording of these moves.
• The introduction might be formally expressed as:
Tom, may I introduce you to Jane, OR informally
as
Tom – Jane, depending on the occasion or the
people involved.
• These factors are also likely to affect which terms of
address are used for the first person:
(Mr. Jones, Professor Jones, Sir Tom Jones) and
which terms of reference for the second person:
(may I introduce Jane Grey, Mrs. Grey, Lady Jane
Grey).
7/1/2020 Prepared by Prof. B.O.C. Uwalaka 8
 Greeting Moves
• The two greeting moves might be differently
expressed as, for example,
 How are you?
 How are you doing?
 Nice to meet you.
 Hi.
• Because these are in free variation, it doesn’t matter
which expression is used.
• In some situations such as the status of the people
being introduced, the use of Hi or How do you do? is
considered out of place
7/1/2020 Prepared by Prof. B.O.C. Uwalaka 9
• We might note, too, that although the greetings in
these examples take the form of interrogative
sentences, they do not function as questions in this
routine.
• The first greeting does not call for an answer.
• It would sound rather odd and unexpected if one
would say: I am doing very well, thank you.
• Also, in a rather different routine customarily used for
greeting people you know already, it would be equally
odd to use the expression: How do you do?
• However, Hi with or without How are you would be
appropriate in some communities and on some
occasions.
7/1/2020 Prepared by Prof. B.O.C. Uwalaka 10
• Sometimes, difficulties arise when we find ourselves
in situations where the interpersonal routines are
different from those we have become accustomed to.
• Consider the scenario in the following ) example:
• Mrs. Eynsford Hill: (introducing) My daughter Clara.
• Liza: How do you do?...
• Freddy: I’ve certainly had the pleasure.
• Mrs. Eynsford Hill: My son Freddy.
• Liza: How do you do?
(a long and painful pause ensues)
• Mrs. Higgins: (at last, conversationally) Will it rain, do
you think?
7/1/2020 Prepared by Prof. B.O.C. Uwalaka 11
• Liza: The shallow depression to the west of these
islands is likely to move slowly in an easterly
direction. There are no indications of any great
change in the barometrical situation.
• Freddy: Ha! Ha! How awfully funny.
• Liza: What is wrong with that, young man. I bet I got
it right.
• Liza did get the language right in that she made no
mistakes in her grammar and pronunciation.
• What is wrong with her utterance is that it does not
conform to the convention that the mention of
weather is only a cue to get a conversation going.

7/1/2020 Prepared by Prof. B.O.C. Uwalaka 12

• Liza, unaware of this produces a totally inappropriate
and unexpected reply and does not understand why
Freddy finds it funny.
• For his part, Freddy would naturally assume she
knows the convention and so is deliberately flouting
it in order to be amusing.
• The point to note is that what we take for granted as
‘ordinary’ or ‘normal’ behavior actually presupposes
a mutual understanding of quite complex schematic
conventions.

7/1/2020 Prepared by Prof. B.O.C. Uwalaka 13

• Another convention has to do with accompanying
physical actions.
• Do you shake hands or not?
• Do the people being introduced look at each other?
• Another convention concerns proximity.
• How close do people stand to each other – not only
when they meet and greet but also when they
engage in conversation more generally?

7/1/2020 Prepared by Prof. B.O.C. Uwalaka 14

 Adjacency Pairs
• An adjacency pair is a unit of conversation that
contains an exchange of one turn each by two
speakers.
• The turns are functionally related to each other in
such a fashion that the first turn requires a certain
type or range of types of second turn.
• Examples:
• A greeting – greeting pair:
Good morning. → Good morning.
• A question – answer pair:
"What's your name?“→ "I'm James".
7/1/2020 Prepared by Prof. B.O.C. Uwalaka 15
 Adjacency Pairs in Conversational Exchanges
• Speech acts are clearly related to what
conversation analysts have called adjacency
pairs or pairs of utterances that usually occur
together.
• The production of a speech act such as an offer
will normally be accompanied by a response.
• This response may be a preferred one, that is,
acceptance, or a dispreferred, one or refusal
(Cook, 1989: 53).

7/1/2020 Prepared by Prof. B.O.C. Uwalaka 16

• Adjacency pairs are pairs of utterances that usually
occur together.
• The most often used adjacency pair is question –
answer but there are others such as:
a. greeting-greeting;
b. congratulations-thanks;
c. apology-acceptance;
d. inform-acknowledge;
e. leave taking-leave taking

7/1/2020 Prepared by Prof. B.O.C. Uwalaka 17

• Many actions in conversation are accomplished
through established adjacency pairs, examples of
which include:
• gree ng → gree ng
"Hello!" → "Oh, hi!“
• offer → acceptance/rejec on
"Would you like to visit the museum with me this
evening?" → "I'd love to!“
• request → acceptance/rejec on
"Is it OK if I borrow this book?" → "I'd rather you
didn't, it's due back at the library tomorrow“

7/1/2020 Prepared by Prof. B.O.C. Uwalaka 18

• ques on → answer
"What does this big red button do?" → "It causes
two-thirds of the universe to implode“
• complaint → excuse/remedy
"It's awfully cold in here" → "Oh, sorry, I'll close the
window“
• degreeting → degree ng
"See you!" → "Yeah, see you later!“
• inform → acknowledge
"Your phone is over there" → "I know"

7/1/2020 Prepared by Prof. B.O.C. Uwalaka 19

 Genres
• Genre is the term for any category of literature or
other forms of art or entertainment, e.g. music,
whether written or spoken, audio or visual, based on
some set of stylistic criteria.
• Genres are formed by conventions that change over
time as new genres are invented and the use of old
ones are discontinued.
• Often, words fit into multiple genres by way of
borrowing and recombining these conventions.

7/1/2020 Prepared by Prof. B.O.C. Uwalaka 20

• In speech events of specific kinds, we have names
attached to genres.
• These relate to the following:
• Meeting
• Interview
• Cross-examination
• Debate

7/1/2020 Prepared by Prof. B.O.C. Uwalaka 21