The theoretical model for analysing business presentations has three basic premises and its starting point is the notion of intentionality as a general, umbrella term.
The first basic premise is the very simple and obvious principle that most human activities, including communicative events, are purposeful. Whether consciously or instinctively, all the parties engaged in communication have some sort of aim, a reason to talk or write and an expectation of an outcome or result. Communication cannot simply happen of its own accord. It must be instigated by the participants who intend (to echo Austin, 1962) to do something with their words.
Intentionality, the central notion of the model has been defined by de Beaugrand and Dressler (1981) to mean “the text producer’s intention to produce a cohesive and coherent text that will attain whatever goal s/he has planned that it should attain” (as cited in Malmkjær, 1991, p. 468). So, according to this definition, intentionality encompasses communicative purpose. However, because the current study focuses on presentations, the term as used here includes overall goals as well as more specific aims and speech acts which are frequently used in the analysis of oral communication.
The second premise is that there are levels of intentionality evident in each communicative event, which constitute a hierarchy of intentionality. This hierarchy is comprised of various levels of intentions ranging from the most general and largest unit, which is the communicative purpose of the exchange, to the most specific and minimal units which are the speech acts. In between these two boundary levels, there can be many others, depending on the length and complexity of the exchange. In language study, genre analysis, language functions and speech act theory all deal with different levels of intentionality.
Hence the notion of intentionality can be used as a common denominator to bring together and combine elements of genre analysis, speech act theory and language functions into a model for analysing business presentations. The model is tailored specifically for business presentations, but could possibly have wider applications. The system can be used to describe, from a pragmatic point of view, the context and content of a presentation and the level of consistency between what the presenter is saying and the circumstances of the talk. The aim of applying the analytical model would be to ascertain to what extent and by what means the presenter’s purpose has been achieved by comparing the match between the highest and lowest levels of intentionality. Namely, it is supposed that if the speaker’s overall aim is reflected in the types of speech acts used, the presentation will be considered to be more successful because the intentions expressed through the individual illocutions bring the speaker closer to accomplishing his/her general aim. Hence, the analysis of the fit between the different levels of intentionality could perhaps have very beneficial pedagogical implications in uncovering how to tailor the content of a presentation to accomplish a specific communicative purpose more effectively.
This is why the umbrella term intentionality is essential to the model. At the top of the hierarchy of intentionality is the notion of communicative purpose, which entails the overall aim and objective of the presentation. It is the highest ranking, most general aim that a speaker has in addressing an audience. Communicative purpose is a primary criterion in determining and describing genre. The explanatory power of genre analysis (Bhatia, 1993) will be employed by the model to define and describe business presentations, a genre that has so far had little attention in large-scale, comprehensive and systematic research. Genre analysis also provides insights into the roles of the participants
of the communicative event, which in the case of business presentations are the presenter and the audience. The discourse communities to which these participants belong will determine which communicative norms and practices govern the genre. This highest level of the hierarchy of intentionality will provide a top-down instrument of empirical analysis.
The mid-level intentions ranking between the general communicative purpose and the smallest units are described in various ways by different researchers. Swales (1990) and Bhatia (1993) view them as genre moves, while van Dijk (1977a, 1977b) refers to them as macro speech acts. For the purposes of this research the mid-level acts will be referred to as moves because macro speech acts may also refer to the whole of the presentation since a whole talk may act as an offer or a threat. The genre moves employed by the presenter to achieve the overall communicative purpose are another exponent of intentionality. They are a level lower than the communicative purpose, but still larger units than the minimal units of intentionality, i.e. speech acts.
Figure 1. The hierarchy of intentionality.
Highest Level in the Hierarchy of Intentionality:
Communicative Purpose / Macro Speech Act
Mid Level of Intentionality:
Genre Moves
Lowest Level:
Speech Acts
Mid Level of Intentionality:
Genre Moves
Lowest Level:
Speech Acts
Lowest Level:
Speech Acts
Lowest Level:
Speech Acts
Speech acts or illocutions are the smallest exponents of intentionality, thereby constituting the lowest and most specific level of analysis. This will provide bottom-up analysis in empirical studies. The third basic premise of the model is that the smallest units of intentionality, the speech acts, can be grouped into four categories according to the language functions they perform. This grouping results in a new taxonomy of speech acts based on the more general language functions or purposes that the illocutions fulfil. It is hoped that through these different levels of analysis, the model will be able to both describe and explain the contextual and content features of presentations. Figure 1 shows the basic hierarchy of intentionality. The chart can be extended horizontally at the middle and lowest level to reflect the expanding series of constituent parts in longer talks.