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DISCOURSE Office: Petre Ramneantu 2 a, Room 206 Phone: 0256.40.40.

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ANALYSIS Office Hours: Monday 14.00 18.00 Email: daniel.dejica@upt.ro
Daniel DEJICA, PhD Wednesday 14.00 18.00 Email: stoian.claudia@gmail.com
Claudia STOIAN, PhD

1. Read the following text. Exemplify the semantic conditions which ensure linear
coherence, paying special attention to: a) the identity of the individuals; b) their related
properties and relations, and c) the time/period and place identity associated with the
series of facts and action sequence presented by it.

Barack Hussein Obama II (born August 4, 1961) is the 44th and current President of the United
States, and the first African American to hold the office. Born in Honolulu, Hawaii, Obama is a
graduate of Columbia University and Harvard Law School, where he served as president of the
Harvard Law Review. He was a community organizer in Chicago before earning his law degree.
He worked as a civil rights attorney and taught constitutional law at the University of Chicago
Law School from 1992 to 2004. He served three terms representing the 13th District in the
Illinois Senate from 1997 to 2004, running unsuccessfully for the United States House of
Representatives in 2000.

In 2004, Obama received national attention during his campaign to represent Illinois in the United
States Senate with his victory in the March Democratic Party primary, his keynote address at the
Democratic National Convention in July, and his election to the Senate in November. He began
his presidential campaign in 2007 and, after a close primary campaign against Hillary Rodham
Clinton in 2008, he won sufficient delegates in the Democratic Party primaries to receive the
presidential nomination. He then defeated Republican nominee John McCain in the general
election, and was inaugurated as president on January 20, 2009. Nine months after his election,
Obama was named the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize laureate.

(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barack_Obama)

2. Decide which type of normal ordering relation is typical for each of the following
excerpts selected from action discourse:

a) This piece of rudeness was more than Alice could bear: she got up in great disgust, and walked
off
(L. Carroll, Alices Adventures in Wonderland, 1865: 110)
b) He (The Hatter) moved on as he spoke, and the Dormouse followed him: the March Hare
moved into the Dormouses place, and Alice rather unwillingly took the place of the March Hare.
(L. Carroll, Alices Adventures in Wonderland, 1865: 105)

c) We went to the movies. John didnt come. He was ill.


(T. van Dijk, 1977: 105)

3. Decide which type of normal ordering relation is typical for each of the following
excerpts selected from descriptive and expository discourse:

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a) Next month we will be in Berkeley. We will be staying with friends.
(T. van Dijk, 1985: 109)

b) They have n big house on the hill. It has at least 10 rooms.


(T. van Dijk, 1985: 109)

c) There were three large vases of flowers on the table. The largest one was placed on the middle.
Some of the flowers were red.

d) There was a jar in the fridge. In it was a reddish substance.

e) You could see the skyscrapers touching the sky. Next to them, the houses seemed midgets.

f) Jane was beautiful. Her face was one to remember.

g) We came to an isolated inn. The lights were already on.


(T. van Dijk, 1977: 107)

4. Read the text and decide on what type of data structure it is built.

A combination of hardware and software forms a usable computing system. Computer hardware
(usually simply called hardware when a computing context is implicit) is the collection of
physical elements that constitutes a computer system. Computer hardware is the physical parts or
components of a computer, such as the monitor, mouse, keyboard, computer data storage, hard
disk drive (HDD), system unit (graphic cards, sound cards, memory, motherboard and chips), and
so on, all of which are physical objects that can be touched (that is, they are tangible). In contrast,
software is instructions that can be stored and run by hardware. Software is any set of machine-
readable instructions that directs a computer's processor to perform specific operations.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computer_hardware)

5. Read the text and establish the speech acts at the micro and macro level. Then, decide
if it is coherent.

A LITTLE PLUG FOR BRITISH TELECOM S NEW SOCKET


At British Telecom, were rather proud of ourselves. Our new plug and socket is going to
revolutionise the way you use the phone. No longer will it be fixed in one place. Thanks to our
little device, youll be able to make and take calls wherever you want. From now on, itll be the
standard fitting with all new extensions we install in the home. While they re doing that job, our
engineers will convert any existing instruments free. And theyll be happy to put extra sockets in
any other rooms you like for a small charge. Apart from making it possible to move phones
around, the new plug and socket makes it easier and cheaper to replace one phone with another.
Eventually, all new phones will use the system, which has been developed exclusively by British
Telecom. It s the beginning of our great plan for the 80s.
(T. van Dijk, 1985: 127)

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