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Comunicação Política e Económica Dimensões Cognitivas e Discursivas Organizadores Augusto Soares da Silva José Cândido Martins Luísa Magalhães Miguel Gonçalves Publicações da Faculdade de Filosofia Universidade Católica Portuguesa BGA 2013

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Page 1: Comunicação Política e Económicawebs.ucm.es/info/dime/jgarrido/garrido2013constituents.pdf · Comunicação Política e Económica Dimensões Cognitivas e Discursivas Organizadores

ComunicaçãoPolítica

e EconómicaDimensões Cognitivas e Discursivas

OrganizadoresAugusto Soares da SilvaJosé Cândido Martins

Luísa MagalhãesMiguel Gonçalves

Publicações da Faculdade de FilosofiaUniversidade Católica Portuguesa

BRAGA 2013

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O conteúdo dos artigos e a norma ortográfica usada são da responsabilidade dos autores.

Ficha Técnica

Título: Comunicação Política e Económica Dimensões Cognitivas e Discursivas

Organização: Augusto Soares da Silva . José Cândido Martins Luísa Magalhães . Miguel Gonçalves

Edição: ALETHEIA – Associação Científica e Cultural Distribuição: Faculdade de Filosofia e Venda: Universidade Católica Portuguesa Praça da Faculdade de Filosofia, 1 4710‑297 BRAGA Tel. 253 208 080 / Fax 253 213 940 www.publicacoesfacfil.pt

Tiragem: 150 exemplares

Dezembro 2013

© Todos os direitos reservados

Design da capa: Whatdesign, Lda. ‑ Braga

Execução gráfica: Graficamares, Lda. R. Parque Industrial Monte Rabadas, 10 4720‑608 Prozelo ‑ Amares

Depósito Legal: 367512/13

ISBN: 978‑972‑697‑213‑6

9 7 8 9 7 2 6 9 7 2 1 3 6

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Discourse constituent structure in political commentary

Joaquín Garrido

AbstractSentences in texts are elementary discourse units, and they undergo a construction process in terms of discourse relations, building complex discourse units. Discourse relations are explained as a result of the interplay of components in complex discourse units, assuming a constituent structure in a configurational rather than a cartographic approach to relations. The process of connection of lower units into higher complex units with their associated discourse topic and semantic frame follows the configurational pattern that places each unit in a discourse constituent structure, in terms extended from those of sentence grammar. Rhetorical moves and discourse topics are properties of the intermediate or complex discourse units in the structure. The interpreter’s paradox, where different discourse relations and different weight to discourse units in the hierarchy are given by different readers, is explained by the individual readers’ personal evaluation of specific items in the configuration.

Keywords : discourse constituent structure, discourse relations, frame, topic

1. Introduction

Sentences in texts are elementary discourse units, and they undergo a construction process in terms of discourse relations building complex discourse units that may be approached in two ways.* Relations can be specified in a detailed way, in inventories such as Asher and Lascarides (2003), among many others, in a cartographic approach. Or they may be explained in terms of the interplay of components in complex discourse units, assuming a constituent structure, a configuration, that gives as a result the relations themselves. What is crucial in this configurational approach, which is described in section 2, is the integration of discourse constituent units into larger ones, so that they build higher constituents in the structure. The corresponding frames that the units activate are thus integrated one into the other, and they build larger composite frames. A cartographic approach draws a map of relations, often based on the markers that represent them explicitly; in a configurational approach, relations obtain through the syntactic discourse structures

* This text is part of the research project FFI2010-20862 “Grammar and discourse” of the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation, within the framework of the UCM Research Group “Dime: Discourse in the Media”, http://www.ucm.es/info/dime/.

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that represent the building of composite frames in the discourse semantics. In the cartographic approach, relations belong to an inventory and they are often lexically marked by discourse markers, or by other means. In the configurational approach, relations are built out of the discourse structures by the syntax.

In section 3 the working of this process is shown in the discourse construction analysis of a specific short text of political commentary, a newspaper column on Catalonian independence. This is part of an ongoing analysis of discourse structure (Garrido 1998) that covers different types of news texts, ranging from science news (Garrido 2000) and interviews (Garrido 2001) to immigration news (Garrido 2008) and metaphor in political commentary (Garrido 2011). Then the overall discourse structure is analyzed in section 4, with intermediate units between the sentence and the text, units which are sometimes considered to be rhetorical moves o topical chains. Here they will be included as complex discourse units in a constituent structure that fits in the larger text structure, which has components such as the heading, the opening and the closure of the newspaper column under consideration. As a conclusion, the constituent-structure approach to discourse units and relations integrates them in a wider conception of grammar that includes discourse.

2. A configurational approach to discourse construction

Sentences in texts are elementary discourse units. We can take “a discourse to be a piece of language behavior that typically involves multiple utterances and multiple participants” (Grosz and Sidner 1986: 176), and, more specifically, a set of ordered sentences uttered (or written) and interpreted by those participants. I will claim that sentences or elementary discourse units are built into discourse constituents or complex discourse units, in a similar way to what Grosz and Sidner call discourse segments: “Just as the words in a single sentence form constituent phrases, the utterances in a discourse are naturally aggregated into discourse segments” (Grosz and Sidner 1986: 177).

Following Gallego (2013: 19), we could consider this approach configurational, since complex discourse units are, just like units in left-periphery structure, “likely to be syntagmatic entities, since they emerge in the syntax –through a configuration”. The other approach (with many discourse relations, anything from 60 to 400) could be called cartographic, using the term that Gallego applies to the approach where there would be around 400 functional heads in “the functional sequence postulated by cartographers” (Gallego 2013: 19).

This not to say that discourse relations, and the discourse markers that may lexically represent them, cannot be as many as posited by researchers; my point is

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that those relations are constructed within a discourse constituent structure where it is the position that lexical items (and discourse markers, for that matter) occupy which accounts for the resulting interpretation of the discourse relation. Discourse structure is thus explained in terms of the lexical properties of the units that hold the key syntactic positions in the structure. Discourse relations may be formally defined in terms of discourse representation structures, and they belong to two different kinds, just as any of the customary syntactic relations within the sentence: hypotactic or subordinating and paratactic or coordinating. A new sentence is either part of the same discourse unit of the preceding sentences, or it starts a new discourse unit, that is, it is part of a different one.

In a semantics of understanding (Fillmore 1985), lexical meaning goes beyond relations represented as features in opposition, and it is associated to knowledge organized in data structures, called frames, linking them to other lexical units. A frame is “any kind of experience-based conceptual structure or relation that constitutes the experiential background for understanding particular lexical meanings” (Fillmore et al. 2012: 284); frames are what Vicente and Groefsema (2013) call structured conceptual representations, and they may be linked to a specific lexical unit, while holding partial relations to other lexical units as well. At the same time, when placed in certain positions (when constructed according to their properties), lexical units select or force the way their meaning contribution is connected, in “a lexically driven operations of coercion” (Pustejovsky and Jezek 2008: 186), extracting the required extra information from the higher unit into which they are connected (Garrido 2003), which often involves the lexical unit or the phrase that has scope over the item in question.

Discourse construction is dynamic: in a discourse, “interpretation of the new sentence must rely on two kinds of structures, the syntactic structure of the sentence itself and the structure representing the context of the earlier sentences” (Kamp & Reyle 1993, 59). This dynamic nature of language is taken into account in Cann, Kempson and Wedgwood’s (2009) dynamic syntax and in Vicente and Groefsema’s (2013) analysis of unarticulated constituents, among others.

In a configurational approach, the basic main two syntactic relations that make up discourse constituent structure are subordinating versus coordinating or hypotactic versus paratactic. The resulting node in the structure has either one elementary discourse unit or sentence as its head in the subordinating or additive relation, or it has two coordinated elementary discourse units, in the integrative or coordinating relation.

In this way, crossed dependencies as posited by Wolf and Gibson (2005) in (1) are here considered to be a layered structure with only one dependency at a time. They argue that there is a contrast relation in (1) between (a) and (b) and between

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(c) and (d) and that, at the same time, there is an elaboration relation between (a) and (c). Dependencies are thus crossed, as shown in Figure 1.

(1) a. Schools tried to teach students history of science. b. At the same time they tried to teach them how to think logically and inductively. c. Some success has been reached in the first of these aims. d. However, none at all has been reached in the second.

contrast elaboration elaboration contrast

a b c d

Figure 1. Cross dependencies

Wolf and Gibson say that there is an elaboration relation in (1) between (a) and (c), but there is no direct discourse relation between them. In (a) and (b) sentence topic is maintained, that is, they share a discourse topic (‘schools’, ‘they’); while in (c) a new topic is introduced (‘some success’) and then maintained (‘none’) in (d). We thus have two topical units (a-b) and (c-d), or two moves (Upton and Cohen 2005). Now (a) and (b) in (1) are related by coordination (union or join, from the viewpoint of semantics): the two aims are represented as simultaneous events, building a complex event by means of a relation made explicit by the ‘At the same time’ phrase at the left periphery or initial external position in (b). ‘However’, placed at the same initial external position in (d), makes explicit the contrast relation between (c) and (d). Result is a subordinating relation, so that (a-b) in (1) is the satellite (in Mann, Matthiessen and Thompson’s 1992 terms) and (c-d) is the nucleus, as in Figure 2; or, using Asher and Vieu’s (2005) representations, where coordinating relations are horizontal and subordinating ones are vertical, as in Figure 3.

result

contrastunion

a b c d

result

contrast

union

d

a b

c

Figure 2. Relational structure without crossed dependencies

Figure 3. Coordination and subordination

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Both union and contrast are coordinating relations, so that its component units are heads. Following conventions for representing constituent structure, where N’ stands for an NP with N as its head (c-d)’ in Figure 4 stands for the whole constituent (a) (b) (c) (d), with constituent (c-d) as its head.

(c-d)´

(c-d)(a-b)

a b c d

Figure 4. Constituent structure

Instead of the previous approach to relations, a configurational one can streamline the issue. The syntactic structure represented in Figure 4 is one of a complex discourse unit (c-d)’ in (1), built out of another complex discourse unit, a satellite (a-b), and another complex discourse unit, a head (c-d). And instead of only a result relation, we are dealing with a subordinating relation where the result meaning is built our of the verb meaning in (a) and (b), ‘tried’, and the meaning of ‘some success’ and ‘the first of these aims’ in (c) and ‘none’ and ‘the second’ in (d) interacting with the other words and phrases in their respective sentences, as well as across them by means of anaphoric relations (including lexical ones). In other words, a frame is activated where there is first the attempts at teaching in (a) and (b), and then these two attempts (from ‘tried’) are turned into ‘aims’ which reach ‘some success’ and ‘none’, respectively, in (c) and (d). In this way, the result relation obtains configurationally, out of the process of meaning construction following the syntactic organizing of the discourse. The result relation is, in Duque’s (2013) terms, signalled “indirectly”, that is, instead of “overt signalling” (Taboada 2006), the “signalling” is configurational.

3. Discourse construction in a political column

Complex discourse units represent a given frame, with topic continuity. This means that a sentence or elementary discourse unit must be either integrated in the same frame of the preceding sentence, enriching it in any way that it may fit into it, thus creating a topic chain, or it must build a new one, with new topic introduction, so that this frame and the preceding one together build a larger frame, with topic

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advancement (Smith 2003). Let’s apply this connection heuristics to a column by Spanish journalist Manuel Vicent, “Erotismo” (eroticism), published in El País, 23.09.2012 (see the Spanish text and the English translation in the appendix).

The first two sentences are more closely related between themselves that they are with the third one (example numbering is restarted here so that the position in the text is not distorted).

(1) Independencia es una palabra muy cálida que enciende el corazón de los jóvenes.

(2) Más o menos eso dice John Wayne sentado con las piernas extendidas en lo alto de la muralla del fuerte del Álamo mientras fuma un cigarro ante una puesta de sol que dora su frente.

The first complex unit (1´) is about the fact stated in (1), with the additional information in (2) that this fact is being stated by the actor John Wayne while the sun on the Alamo, since sentence (3) is linked to (1), about the word independence, not to (2), about John Wayne.

(3) Una vez pronunciada esa palabra fervientemente por la multitud ya es muy difícil detenerse.

Unit (3) may be taken to offer an example of the fact in (1) (the word is feverishly pronounced), to present a consequence (the crowd cannot be stopped); or (1) may be taken be the background or setting when the crowd in (3) says the word. Since this is a dynamic process, we hold judgment until we get enough information to solve the question. Provisionally, since there has been a change of topic, we consider (1´) to be this wider setting of what the word independence does to young hearts, and we focus on the event of a crowd saying it in (3) and the following sentences. The discourse has a complex unit (1´) that is a satellite to the head (3) in complex unit (3´), as in Figure 5.

1 2 3

Figure 5. Constituents in (1) to (3)

Sentences (4) and (5) elaborate on the point made in (3) (5) further elaborating on (4), so that the complex discourse unit to the right of (3) has (3) as a head and

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(4´) as its satellite; (4) (the word is not owned by anyone) is the head in (4´) and (5) (no one can take it back once said) is the satellite in Figure 6.

(4) Ya no tiene propietarios.

(5) Nadie podrá bajarla del aire o recogerla del suelo para devolverla a los libros.

3 4 5

Figure 6. Constituents in (3) to (5)

Sentence (3) has the satellite (1´), so that the resulting constituent structure is a second tier complex discourse unit (3´´), when satellite (4´) is considered, as in Figure 7: according to one interpretation of Marcu’s (1996) nuclearity principle, the relation in (3´´) between complex units (3´) and (4´) implies the relation between the head of (3´), that is (3), and (4´).

3´´

4´1´

1 2 3 4 5

Figure 7. Constituents in (1) to (5)

In (6) there is a change of topic: ‘the passion of love’ is introduced, while (7) elaborates on the thesis in (6) that it happens the same in love: once you start there is no stopping you, in (7). The structure in (6) to (7) is then (6´).

(6) Sucede lo mismo con la pasión amorosa.

(7) Si la mujer a la que has declarado abiertamente tu deseo de poseerla comienza a desabro-charte con estudiada lentitud la camisa mirándote a los ojos en silencio, ¿qué amante enamo-rado será capaz de pedirle que se detenga?

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This is, in a cartographic approach, a similarity relation, which is a coordinating relation: love cannot be stopped (6´), similarly to independence once it has been called by the crowd (3´´). Coordinated complex units are represented with the two members joined by a hyphen, as in (3´´-6´). Since complex discourse unit formation is recursive, the internal structure of the conjoined members is irrelevant. That is why members with different layers of inner structure can be conjoined; constituent structure in (3´´) has two levels of constituent formation, while that of (6´) has only one level.

Unit (8) starts with a change of topic, introduced on the initial external sentence position by a statement about what the subject of the column at that point is: sex and politics.

(8) Puesto que estoy hablando de sexo y política, conviene tener clara la diferencia que existe entre erotismo y pornografía.

(9) Erotismo es todo lo que se hace antes de llegar a la cama.

(10) Pornografía es aquello que se realiza ya sobre el colchón.

The initial linking clause in (8) refers to all the preceding discourse as the author’s ‘estoy hablando de sexo y política’, I am talking about sex and politics; the whole sentence in (8) introduces the list structure in which two concepts are explained, in (9) and (10), respectively. Thus (8) is a satellite of the coordinated (9-10), as shown in Figure 8.

(9-10)´

(9-10)

8 9 10

Figure 8. Constituent structure in (8) to (10)

By virtue of the topic changing initial clause and the lexical anaphor there (‘sexo y política’), the preceding discourse is made (dynamically reanalyzed) into a single complex unit (3´´-6´), which it was on its own right.

There is a new topic or pivot in (11), ‘el deseo de independencia de un pueblo’, the craving for independence of a people, defined in the comment or coda as a political eroticism difficult to stop once it has started.

(11) El deseo de independencia de un pueblo es un erotismo político muy difícil de controlar cuando se ha puesto en marcha.

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Then (12) through (14) elaborate on independence, while (15) and (16) argue with an example of lovers before the setting sun incapable of stopping to think who will pay for the wedding.

(12) Ningún patriota encendido analiza con frialdad los peligros, las ventajas e inconvenientes.

(13) Hacer números y cuentas en una libreta de mercader va directamente contra el romanti-cismo.

(14) Cualquier análisis serio baja la libido.

The lexical anaphor ‘análisis’ in (14) ‘cualquier análisis serio’ (any serious analysis) refers to the coordinated complex unit of (12-13), building the complex unit (14´). This is an example of the dynamic working of discourse construction, in both production and interpretation: (12) elaborates on (11), yielding a complex unit (11´); then (13) is coordinated to (12), redoing the subordinate complex unit in (11´) so that (12) is replaced by (12-13); and adding (14) restructures the complex unit again, so that (12-13) is now a satellite to (14) and the whole (14´) is in turn a satellite to (11). There are two questions pending: the relation of (1´) and (9-10)’ to the rest.

Coordinated units (15-16) elaborate on (14) and, therefore, on (14´), building (14´´), as shown in Figure 9.

(15) Ante una maravillosa puesta de sol en una tarde de domingo ningún amante, que no fuera un idiota, trataría de detener la desbocada pasión de su novia recordándole el dificultoso per-miso de los padres para casarse, cuál de las dos familias va a pagar el banquete de boda, a qué banco pedirán la hipoteca del piso, a qué colegio llevarán a los niños.

(16) Nada, vamos a fundirnos sin pensar qué será de nosotros mañana.

11´

14´´

12-1314´

11 12 13 14 15

15-16

16

Figure 9. Constituent structure in (11) to (16)

In (16), while representing the rejection of the idea of thinking of the inevitable consequences of love (no way, ‘nada’), the reaction to this rejection is described: let’s

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make love, melt (‘fundirnos’), without thinking of what tomorrow will bring, what will happen to us tomorrow.

Unit (17) introduces a new topic, Catalonia, with a lexical anaphor ‘esta fase de erotismo político’ that refers to complex unit (11) to (16), that is, that places this entity, Catalonia, in stage one, eroticism, of (9), and a political kind of eroticism, that of the craving for independence as defined in (11), and partitially mentioned in the column’s title, as just ‘erotismo’, eroticism.

Then follows (18), elaborating on this first stage, calling it ‘su deriva hacia la independencia’, its drifts towards independence. Units (19) and (20) elaborate on this drift, first in (19) a soft current, ‘una corriente suave’, then in (20), going back to the lovers before the setting sun in (15), in terms of ‘tres botones desabrochados’, three buttons undone. After the coordinated (19-20), in (21) there is a time adverbial at sentence initial position, a change in verb tense and aspect, so that what was a soft current is now, ‘hoy’, today, a storm, but a romantic one. The drift in (18) was first small in (19-20), erotic in (20), and now it is strong and still romantic in (21). The cluster of (18) to (21) elaborating on (17) has the constituent structure shown in Figure 10.

(17) Cataluña se halla ahora en esta fase de erotismo político.

(18) Es excitante su deriva hacia la independencia.

(19) Primero fue una corriente suave.

(20) Solo tres botones desabrochados.

(21) Hoy es una tormenta romántica.

17´

18´

19´

17 18 19 20

19´-21

21

Figure 10. Constituent structure in (17) to (21)

Things will not remain at this first stage, however: in (22), linked by initial ‘pero’, but, the second stage is announced as inevitable, and it is further described in (23).

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(22) Pero si la independencia se produce y Cataluña se convierte en Estado, deberá subir a la cama y en ese momento comenzará la pornografía.

(23) Deberá tener un ejército, comprar bombas, misiles y aviones, ya no habrá nacionalistas sino nacionales.

The metaphor in (22) has the following structure: if A and B, then C and D; if the change of state of becoming independent, A-B, happens, then getting on the bed and the pornography, C-D, will happen too. Both A and B deal with the political situation of independence and becoming a state; and C and D refer to getting to bed on the bed and pornography starting. That is exactly the way pornography was defined in (10), while eroticism was defined in (9) as what happens before getting to bed.

In (22) the specific term for independence as applied to Catalonia is mentioned, ‘Estado’, state; in (23) what a state entails is spelled out, as an army, as well as bombs, missiles and airplanes. This is categorized as ‘pornografía’, pornography, on its own here, not just by way of the definition in (10), since the lexical cataphor ‘pornografía’, placed at the end of (22), is what starts when Catalonia will have to have an army and so on. Besides weapons and an army, Catalan nationalists will become “nationals”, meaning both citizens of a state and the bearers of the same name the dictator’s side in the Spanish Civil War gave themselves, ‘nacionales’ or nationals. So (22) and (23) build complex unit (22´), while (17´) is coordinated (linked by ‘pero’, but) with (22´), as shown in Figure 11.

17´-22´

22´

17´ 22 23

Figure 11. Constituent structure in (17) to (23)

The two last sentences go back to the first two, and they are symmetrical to them. In (24) John Wayne is quoted (the attribution relation defined by Wolf and Gibson), and (25) gives his words that are almost identical to those in (1), so that (25) is the head and (24) the satellite in (25´).

(24) Ya lo decía John Wayne en El Álamo.

(25) Independencia es una palabra que enciende el corazón de los jóvenes.

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Only ‘muy cálida’, very warm, in (1) is not present in (25). If (1´) is construed as giving the background for (3´), forming (3´´), then (25´), being symmetrical to (1´), should also be considered as background of (22´) and therefore of the higher constituent (17´-22´); or, if we enrich the interpretation (25´) would be the explanation for (17´-22´) in (17´-22´)´ or, for that matter, for the whole preceding discourse, excluding the symmetrical (1´), that is. This brings up the question of the overall structure of the discourse in the column.

4. Discourse constituent structure

So far we have four complex discourse units: (3´´-6´) (9-10) (11´) (17´-22´)´. From a discourse topic point of view, that is, from the view point of the topic chains created by maintaining the topic versus changing it, there are four discourse topics, marked by the topics in the respective head unit. I am summarizing their content for easier reading.

 1 to  7: both independence and passion are difficult to stop (coordinated heads 3 and 6)

 8 to 10: there are two stages in sex and politics, eroticism and pornography (coordinated heads 9 and 10)

11 to 16: independence is political eroticism (head 11)

17 to 25: Catalonia is on the first stage of independence, but if the second comes it will need an army (coordinated heads 17 and 22).

These discourse-topical units have been called moves (Upton and Cohen 2005), originally by Swales (1990), since they were defined as “specific communi-cative functions performed by specific sections of the introductions – that defined the rhetorical structure of research article introductions” (Biber, Connor and Upton 2007: 25). The problem, if we want to take into consideration the rhetorical nature of the units, which we do, is that they do involve a discourse topic as well as a rhetorical function.

This is a first problem. According to the discourse topic approach, the units about John Wayne and his remark have clearly a discourse topic of their own. The second problem is that, from the view point of text structure, they occupy key positions in it: the opening and the closure of the text. And they are symmetrically placed, so that the beginning statement is repeated at the end. Repetition is (remember not the

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Alamo but the work of Sperber & Wilson 1986 and irony) an enrichment procedure in that the second time some key information is playing, so that the interpretation is enriched by it. In this case, it is as though John Wayne was made right by the points about independence in general and as it applies to Catalonia. And while they occupy the key positions in the text, they have been construed above as being satellites to the central units.

From a discourse topic point of view, unit (11), for the current-affairs newspaper reader, refers not just to any people craving for independence, just as unit (3) refers not just to any crowd calling out for independence, but to Catalonia and to the people on the streets of Barcelona calling for independence a few days before the column was published.

So, once ‘multitud’ and ‘pueblo’ are referred to Catalonia, the crowd in Barcelona and the people of Catalonia, the three units are more tightly knit, so to speak. The have the same topic interpretation, a people that might create the state they are demanding. Their success, eroticism now, will become pornography then.

The opening and the closure stand out against this only topic: John Wayne before and after the reasoning about Catalonia’s craving for independence. Without the opening, instead of (3´´) we have (3´) in Figure 6, and the complex unit is (3´-6´), not (3´´-6´); without the closing, we have (17´-22´) in Figure 11, instead of (17´-22´)´.

The third unit standing out is the author’s definition of eroticism and pornography. The status of this unit will provide us the solution to the problem of the opening and closing units of the text.

Unit (9-10) stands out in the flow of discourse. As we just saw, the three other intermediate units can be put together without problems:

(3´-6´) : both independence and passion are difficult to stop

(11´) : independence is political eroticism

(17´-22´) : Catalonia is on the first stage of independence, but if the second comes it will need an army

So (9-10) is a parenthetical in the structure above. In sentence structure, parentheticals, as vocatives and discourse markers, include material that is out and above the sentence hierarchy. Parentheticals in discourse structure, in a similar way, are located out and above the discourse unit they oversee. As Potts writes on apposition, “it is superior to a sequence of sentences when it comes to resolving the context dependency” (Potts 2012, 26). In the example, the existence of two stages organizes (“contextualizes”, in Potts’ term) the stages in (17´-23´) of Catalonia’s

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“drift” to independence, but it also organizes the information in complex unit (3´-6´) and its continuation (11´), about how independence and passion are similar in that both are difficult to stop. Unit (11) is central in that complex unit since it states the basic equivalence between independence and passion as “political eroticism”; before it, the similarity has been stated and, after it, is further elaborated, then as political eroticism. So (11) is the head of the whole complex unit, and it makes sense that the parenthetical that organizes the whole is placed exactly before it: the craving for independence is only the first of the two stages. Then the unit (17´-22´) specifies the two stages for Catalonia, starting in (17) with the first one.

Immediately before (17) there is the end of the (11´) complex unit where the difficulty of stopping independence and passion is elaborated on. Now in (17) the new topic, ‘Cataluña’, is introduced (new even if it had been foreshadowed in the preceding discourse), and it is placed in ‘esta fase de erotismo político’. In this way, the author has “disposed of the preceding stage by encapsulating or packaging it in a single nominalization” (Francis 1994, 86). This is the stage where passionate love equals the desire for independence, and this is the stage where it is difficult to stop. So the noun phrase ‘esta fase de erotismo político’ actually refers not just to the preceding unit (16), about loving and not thinking about tomorrow, but to the whole process described in the complex unit (11´) and, for that matter, to its background in (1´). Complex unit (11´) describes the property of the stage in (17´) and its transition to the later one in (22´): it cannot be stopped. So one plausible way of connecting them would be the join relation, but if it is a property, then it is a satellite of the wider frame represented in the head, the going from one stage to the other.

So, we have a complex discourse unit (17´-22´)´ or CDU made up of (11´) and (17´-22´); this unit is organized into the two stages by the definitions in unit (9-10), forming with it a higher complex discourse unit (17´-22´)´´ or CDU´, as shown in Figure 12. The opening and closing nature of the remark by John Wayne is reflected in the representation in Figure 13, with the opening (1´) together with the body of the text (17´-22´)´´ making up the first CDU, and this unit and the closing (25´) making up the second and higher complex unit, CDU´.

CDU´

CDU

9-10 11´ 17´-22´

CDU´

CDU

1´ (17´-22´)´´ 25´

Figure 12. Constituent structure in (3) to (23) Figure 13. Constituent structure in (1) to (25)

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In other words, the opening units 1 to 2, that is (1´), with the whole 3 to 23, that is (17´-22´)´´, make up the lower CDU in Figure 13; then the satellite of the closing units 24 to 25, that is (25´), is added, resulting in CDU´.

The two discourse structures are put together in Figure 14, where (17´-22´)´ is the head and (11´) is the satellite, organized then by satellite (9-10) into (17´-22´)´´; together with the initial (1´), they make up the lower unit CDU; then comes its satellite (25´), so that the whole discourse is the higher unit CDU´, or (17´-22´)´´´´.

CDU´

(17´-22´) ́́

1´ 9-10 11´ 17´-22´ 25´

CDU

(17´-22´)´

Figure 14. Constituent structure in (1) to (25)

We now have a discourse structure that fits into the text structure (of an opening, a body of text, and a closing). This structure is supporting an argumentative chain: you cannot stop the crowd once they demand independence in (3), just as you can’t stop lovers in (6), so that the craving for independence is a political eroticism that cannnot be stopped in (11). Since there is first eroticism and then pornography in passion in (9-10), Catalonia is now in the first stage in (17) but the second one will arrive in (22). The nature of the first step had been supported by John Wayne’s remark in (1), and the whole argument goes to prove that Wayne was right: independence is something that people desire, but, as in The Alamo, without regarding the consequences of their desire. As the column’s title emphasizes, the politics of independence is a kind of eroticism: an eroticism that will later turn into pornography.

5. Conclusion

Discourse structure, but way of topic management and frame integration, builds up by fitting into the larger text structure of the column. A “right” reading or a “better” reading is thus revealed in that it is constructed in a dynamic way from the properties of the component elementary discourse units and the way the

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fit into each other, building larger and higher units in the structure, in a process of connection that has in every step a better if not best solution. This is a covert structure which accounts for discourse production and interpretation, whereas the overt structure maybe the result of the reader’s conscious evaluation of the text structure (its opening and closing, or its title, “eroticism”) or of specific points, on independence as unstoppable passion or as a way to unintended consequences.

This overt structure is a second, conscious step in interpretation, subject to the interpreter’s paradox: we all understand a text in the same way (excluding misunderstandings), and then we discuss it giving it different explanations, that is, different connections to our general representations of personal experience. Discourse constituent structure accounts for the first, covert, indispensable understanding that allows readers (and hearers) to make the second, conscious connections to personal experience.

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AppenDIx

Erotismo

Independencia es una palabra muy cálida que enciende el corazón de los jóvenes. Más o menos eso dice John Wayne sentado con las piernas extendidas en lo alto de la muralla del fuerte del Álamo mientras fuma un cigarro ante una puesta de sol que dora su frente. Una vez pronunciada esa palabra fervientemente por la multitud ya es muy difícil detenerse. Ya no tiene propietarios. Nadie podrá bajarla del aire o recogerla del suelo para devolverla a los libros. Sucede lo mismo con la pasión amorosa. Si la mujer a la que has declarado abiertamente tu deseo de poseerla comienza a desabrocharte con estudiada lentitud la camisa mirándote a los ojos en silencio, ¿qué amante enamorado será capaz de pedirle que se detenga? Puesto que estoy hablando de sexo y política, conviene tener clara la diferencia que existe entre erotismo y pornografía. Erotismo es todo lo que se hace antes de llegar a la cama. Pornografía es aquello que se realiza ya sobre el colchón. El deseo de independencia de un pueblo es un erotismo político muy difícil de controlar cuando se ha puesto en marcha. Ningún patriota encendido analiza con frialdad los peligros, las ventajas e inconvenientes. Hacer números y cuentas en una libreta de mercader va directamente contra el romanticismo. Cualquier análisis serio baja la libido. Ante una maravillosa puesta de sol en una tarde de domingo ningún amante, que no fuera un idiota, trataría de detener la desbocada pasión de su novia recordándole el dificultoso permiso de los padres para casarse, cuál de las dos familias va a pagar el banquete de boda, a qué banco pedirán la hipoteca del piso, a qué colegio llevarán a los niños. Nada, vamos a fundirnos sin pensar qué será de nosotros mañana. Cataluña se halla ahora en esta fase de erotismo político. Es excitante su deriva hacia la independencia. Primero fue una corriente suave. Solo tres botones desabrochados. Hoy es una tormenta romántica. Pero si la independencia se produce y Cataluña se convierte en Estado, deberá subir a la cama y en ese momento comenzará la pornografía. Deberá tener un ejército, comprar bombas, misiles y aviones, ya no habrá nacionalistas sino nacionales. Ya lo decía John Wayne en El Alamo. Independencia es una palabra que enciende el corazón de los jóvenes.

Eroticism

Independence is a very warm word that sets the hearts of the young on fire. More or less that says John Wayne sitting with legs outstretched at the top of the fort wall of the Alamo, smoking a cigar while the sunset gilds his forehead. Once that word is pronounced fervently by the crowd, it is very difficult to stop it. It no longer has an owner. Nobody can pick it off the air or from the ground to return it to books. The same thing happens with the passion of love. If the woman you have openly declared your desire to begins to unbutton your shirt with studied slowness looking into your eyes in silence, what lover truly in love will be able to ask her to stop? Since I’m talking about sex and politics, let’s make clear the difference between eroticism and pornography. Eroticism is whatever happens before you get to bed. Pornography is what you do on the mattress. The desire for independence of a people is a political eroticism very difficult to control when launched. No patriot weighs up

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coldly the dangers, advantages and disadvantages. Figuring out numbers and accounts in a merchant’s book goes head-on against romanticism. Any serious analysis lowers the libido. Before a wonderful sunset on a Sunday afternoon no lover who is not an idiot will try to stop the unbridled passion of his girlfriend, reminding her of the difficult parents’ permission to marry, which of the two families will pay for the wedding, which bank they will ask for the mortgage, which school they’ll take their children to. Forget it, let’s melt together without thinking what will become of us tomorrow. Catalonia is now at this stage of political eroticism. Its drift toward independence is exciting. First came a gentle stream. Only three buttons undone. Today it is a romantic storm. But if independence happens and Catalonia becomes a state, it will climb into bed and then pornography will start. It will have to have an army, buy bombs, missiles and planes, and the nationalists will become nationals. John Wayne said it in The Alamo. Independence is a word that sets the hearts of the young on fire.

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