Direct Anaphora in Historical Explanations. A Comparative Analysis Between Oral and Written Discourse

Abstract

This study focuses on the production of anaphoric devices in history teachers’ oral explanations in comparison with those in textbooks. First, a revision of the anaphora concept and its classification in the specialized literature is made. A synthesis is proposed integrating two criteria: the type of word and inference, associated to 6 types of anaphora. Second, from this classification a system of categories is constructed to compare anaphora production in a sample of 19 history texts. The results reveal a higher frequency of grammatical anaphora (pronominal) in oral discourse and, on the contrary, a greater abundance of non-equivalent conceptual anaphora in written texts. Finally, the implications of these results are discussed in relation to the cohesion of historical explanations in the classroom.