Discourse Organization and Information Structure : Analysis of a Hortatory Text

Abstract

In this paper discourse is considered as an actualization of the problem-solving process the speaker has in his mind. By taking this notion as a basic strategy for the analysis of discourse structure, this paper analyzes an English hortatory discourse, which has received little attention in the area of discourse analysis, in terms of both discourse organization and information structure. The analysis shows that (1)hortatory discourse is organized by the slots, 'preface, situation, problem, motivation, command, and summary,' and that (2)concerning the information structure of hortatory discourse, directive performative information appears to be pivotal while event which is central in narrative discourse is peripheral, in hortatory discourse. Especially this paper brings us one important notion; context, i.e. the situation in which discourse is produced acts as a main feature affecting both discourse structure and the choice of lexico-grammatical device.