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Analyzing discourse topics and topic keywords

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Published/Copyright: March 22, 2011
Semiotica
From the journal Volume 2011 Issue 184

Abstract

Discourse topic is an intractable and inherently subjective notion making analysis problematic. This paper overcomes some of the problems by treating topic as a fuzzy concept and views discourse topics as sets of topic keywords. The study examines the identification of topic boundaries and topic keywords by informants and by four methods of analyzing topics — topical structure analysis, given-new progression, lexical analysis, and topic-based analysis. Comparing the findings from these four methods against those from the informants, it was found that given-new progression is the most valid method for identifying topic boundaries, and topic-based analysis is the most valid for identifying topic keywords. There are also notable differences in the types of keywords identified and the bases for identifying keywords between the methods and the informants.

Keywords:: discourse topic; topic keyword; topic boundary; lexical analysis; topic-based analysis; given-new progression
Published Online: 2011-03-22
Published in Print: 2011-April

© 2011 Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co. KG, Berlin/New York

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https://doi.org/10.1515/semi.2011.029
Keywords for this article
discourse topic; topic keyword; topic boundary; lexical analysis; topic-based analysis; given-new progression

Articles in the same Issue

  1. Nigerian dress as a symbolic language
  2. Language and brain: Recasting meaning in the definition of human language
  3. An exploration of the other side of semantic communication: How the spontaneous movements of the human hand add crucial meaning to narrative
  4. Rethinking gesture phases: Articulatory features of gestural movement?
  5. Peirce's 10, 28, and 66 sign-types: The simplest mathematics
  6. Qualitative-quantitative analysis of narrative structures: The narrative roles of immigrants in Spanish television series
  7. Rethinking our understanding of diagrams
  8. Old and new covenants: Historical and theological contexts in Scribe's and Halévy's La Juive
  9. The rod and the crocodile. Temporal relations in textual hermeneutics: An application of Petri nets to semantics
  10. Transcendence and alterity: On life, communication, and subjectivity
  11. Analyzing discourse topics and topic keywords
  12. The fate of semiotics in China
  13. Victoria Welby and the Signific Movement
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