Tuesday, January 29, 2008
Underlying Discourse
In the last class, Dr. Edwin explained to us more about the underlying discourse and implicature. The example he gives us is about the mother who doesn’t want her son to go out and she gives a lot of reason for him to stay. She didn’t really say that she doesn’t want him to go but she said it indirectly. It is really up to the other person to understand the reason behind all these new reasons she comes up with and relate it with the real intention of her not wanting to let him go out. With this underlying discourse, we can also find out about a person’s character. In the case of the mother, we can make a conclusion that she is a rather obsessive, possessive and lonely woman whereas the son can be said as a polite person as he tries to reason it out with his mother. The implicature from all the mother’s underlying discourse is the son not listening to any more of her speech. Maybe the mother would want a different implicature from it, which would be the son not going to that party.
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3 comments:
I still remember about the extract. This kind of conversation is always used in our culture, if you notice. People are trying to save other people'sface when rejecting something so they will speak with underlying meaning in their conversation. It is weird if people in our culture speak directly. Instead, he/she will be labeled as rude and ignorant person.well, that is only my opinion though.
hi syakira! aka xiah keera..
what a commercial name of you!!=)
anyway, i think underlying discourse is normal in our life. yes, it may sound mean but that is the reality. in our daily life, we could not run out of this thing. Like faezah said, in our culture especially,save others people's face is far more crucial than telling the truth. we can also find this in plays that we study for drama course. many characters have their undelying line/speech. In Oedipus Rex for instance, Teiresias used many figurative language to avoid himself from telling the truth to Oedipus.
mmm..that is all i think. hope u can drop comments on my blog too..
daaaa
I would like to comment about the underlying discourse that you have discussed. It is a good example you want to share with us. The connection between the underlying discourse and the characteristics of the character is clear based on the example given. We can say that underlying discourse is the meaning that is not directly spoken. It must be well understood by the readers and audience. As the example given, the mother is actually afraid that she might lose her son, after she lost her husband. For her, she needs a man in his life, so she will keep on pledging her son by giving many excuses to make sure he is always by her side. She is an insecure person, and did not believe in fate. So, that is the reason why she keep on with the excuses.
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