OJV1 Introduction to Text Analysis – Final Revision Final revision January 15, 2019 1
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• Explain the most important structural and functional differences between sentences and texts. • Explain the concept of lexeme. Provide one example of a lexeme in English. • Explain the difference between lexeme and morpheme. • What is lexical ambiguity? Provide two examples in English. How about structural ambiguity? 2
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• What is logic in textual analysis? How does it work? • Define the concept of a syllogism and provide one example. • List the most important concepts belonging to logical vocabulary. • How would you explain the concept of a logical fallacy? 3
• Define the fallacy Post Hoc Ergo Propter Hoc and provide one example. • Explain the fallacy Red Herring and provide one example. • Explain the fallacy Moral Equivalence, and provide one example. 4
• Define CONTEXT. What types of context do you know? • Define DEIXIS in textual analysis and provide two examples of deictic expressions. • Define ANTHROPOMORPHIC metaphore, and provide one example in English.
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Activity 1: Rewrite the text in the passive voice leaving the agent phrase whenever possible: They drove the car quickly away from the scene of the crime. They had blown open the safe, shot the security guard and left him for dead. A bystander called the emergency services and a passing motorist comforted the guard until they arrived. I took a group of 40 people and surveyed their attitudes to alcohol. I found that most of the people surveyed drank more alcohol per week than the level that the government recommends. If you take out a mortgage, the building society will repossess your house if you do not keep up the monthly payments. You must let the building society know if you are going to make late or reduced payments at any time. 6
Activity 2: Which type of metaphore is present in the following paragraph? He took her hand, and raised it to his lips with something like a sob. But he stood with his hat and gloves in the other hand and might have done for the portrait of a Royalist. Still it was difficult to loose the hand, and Dorothea, withdrawing it in a confusion that distressed her, looked and moved away. ‘See how dark the clouds have become, and how the trees are tossed’, she said, walking towards the window with only a dim sense of what she was doing…. While he [Will] was speaking there came a flash of lightning which lit each of them up for the other—and the light seemed to be the terror of a hopeless love. 7
Activity 3: JUMBLED TEXT •
He had a little boat, and he rowed about quite quietly on the lake; for lake it was, wide and deep and deadly cold. Only old people go fishing. Not he. The only fish you ever catch are tiny (yet in every pond there is a giant pike big enough to swallow a swan whole). He was Gollum - as dark as darkness, except for two big round pale eyes in his thin face. Fishing may be the most popular participatory sport in the UK, but most people don't have a clue what actually goes on out there on our rivers, lakes, and seas. I don't know where he came from, nor who or what he was. Only old blokes go fishing. Deep down here by the dark water lived old Gollum, a small slimy creature. It's boring. He paddled it with large feet dangling over the side, but never a ripple did he make. It's always raining. He was looking out of his pale lamp-like eyes for blind fish, which he grabbed with his long fingers as quick as thinking. The average Briton has his or her fair share of preconceptions about fishing, of course. 8
Activity 4 • Which type of metaphor is used in the text below? • Identify and analyze each specific metaphor in the paragraph. • • "Well, if punctuation is the stitching of language, language comes apart, obviously, and all the buttons fall off. If punctuation provides the traffic signals, words bang into each other and everyone ends up in Minehead. If one can bear for a moment to think of punctuation marks as those invisibly beneficent fairies (I'm sorry), our poor deprived language goes parched and pillowless to bed. And if you take the courtesy analogy, a sentence no longer holds the door open for you to walk in, but drops it in your face as you approach." • • 9
Activity 5: JUMBLED TEXT • Being away from family, loved ones or friends during their birthday doesn't mean that you can't send them a gift. Creating a sentimental and well thought of present will help them to connect back to you. If you are planning out a special presentation, then considering a birthday video is a simple way to send them wishes. This offers a new connection for the year to your friends and family while adding into the celebration. There are simple and easy ways to create a birthday video for those that you love. Following these steps will help you to send your best to someone that is far away. 10
Activity 6: Identify the logical fallacy below: Bob True is the best qualified candidate for tax assessor. I've known him eight years and he is an honorable man, a devout individual, and an outstanding father. a. Cherry picking b. Straw man c. Non Sequitur 11
We must put God back in our schools, or else American society will degenerate. a. Bandwagon b. Either/or c. Red Herring
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• Which of the following statements is the best ad hominem definition? A. An argument that is backed up by evidence and logic. B. An argument that attacks a person’s character rather than the validity of his or her point. C. An argument that is a lie. 13