Discourse analysis of cohesion and coherence in written Iraqi Arabic conversation

Other Title(s)

تحليل الخطاب للتجانس و التماسك في المحادثة المكتوبة باللهجة العراقية

Dissertant

Ali, Ali Husayn

Thesis advisor

Khanfar, Adil Malik

University

University of Basrah

Faculty

Art College

Department

Arabic Language Department

University Country

Iraq

Degree

Master

Degree Date

2013

English Abstract

The computer has become more than just a tool for calculating or processing texts.

Now, it constitutes an important means of communication.

Computer–mediated communication is rapidly spreading.

The language of this type of communication draws attention by means of its characteristics which are drawn from both speech and writing.

Although, the limitations of this medium constitute a problem for carrying out smooth and comprehensible conversations, yet its popularity is in a continuous growing.

The nature of the medium and its limitations, the most important of which are lack of both simultaneous feedback and paralinguistic features, shape the language and make it different from the two main mediums of communication, i.

e.

speech and writing, in different aspects.

This study investigates only two concepts in the field of discourse analysis which are cohesion and coherence.

In text-only computer-mediated communication, cohesion and coherence are realized differently from those in speech and writing due to the nature of the medium.

Text-only computer-mediated communication is highly cohesive and poorly coherent and cohesion in this medium supports coherence as the three hypotheses of this study state and as the findings assert.

The models which are adopted in this thesis are: Halliday and Hasan's (1976) model of cohesion with modifications by Abu Ubeid (2009) to suit the standard Arabic language and some further modifications suggested by the present researcher to go well with the Iraqi dialect.

Coherence model for two-participants simultaneous text-only computer-mediated communication is not established yet, which is being investigated in this study, but the researcher gathered the categories which are depended on in measuring coherence in other kinds of computer-mediated-communication, such as email asimultaneous conversations and multi-participants conversations, from the previous works of researchers.

The study is divided into five chapters.

Chapter one presents the problem, the hypotheses, the procedures, data collection, limitations and importance of the study.

Chapter two is a review of literature to the concepts of: communication in general, conversation, writing and computer-mediated communication.

Chapter three presents the two models of cohesion and coherence, which are adopted in this study.

Chapter four and chapter five represent the practical part of this study and chapter five contains the final conclusions and suggestions for further studies.

The study has come out with some significant conclusions concerning cohesion and coherence in computer-mediated-communication.

The analysis of the data has proved that cohesion is dense in this medium since it is only written, and coherence is reduced because of the absence of simultaneous feedback and paralinguistic features as well as the limitations of the medium.

Main Subjects

Languages & Comparative Literature

No. of Pages

161

Table of Contents

• APA
• MLA
• AMA

Language

English

Data Type

Arab Theses

Record ID

BIM-748094