Text and Text-types
-
Upload
sara-consiglio-lp -
Category
Documents
-
view
67 -
download
4
description
Transcript of Text and Text-types
-
TEXT AND TEXT-TYPES
Lingua Inglese II - a.a. 2014/2015
-
WHAT IS A TEXT?
A text is an extended structure of syntactic
units [i.e. text as super-sentence] such as words,
groups, and clauses and textual units that is
marked by both coherence among the elements
and completion.
[Whereas] A non-text consists of random
sequences of linguistic units such as sentences,
paragraphs, or sections in any temporal and/or
spatial extension (Werlich 1976: 23)
-
WHAT IS A TEXT?
A naturally occurring manifestation of language, i.e.
as a communicative language event in a
context. The SURFACE TEXT is the set of
expressions actually used; these expressions make
some knowledge EXPLICIT, while other knowledge
remains IMPLICIT, though still applied during
processing. (De Beaugrande and Dressler 1981:
63)
-
DOES THIS MEAN THAT EVERY SPECIMEN OF OUR
OWN LANGUAGE CONSTITUTES A TEXT?
A text must be difined according to standards of textuality,
must be relevant to a situation of occurrence. A text is a
manifestation of a human action in which a person
intends to instruct the receivers to build relationships of
various kinds. (De Baugrande & Dressler 1981)
-
STANDARDS OF TEXTUALITY
Standards of textuality (De Baugrande & Dressler 1981)
1. Cohesion
2. Coherence
-
STANDARDS OF TEXTUALITY
1. Cohesion
The ways in which the components of the
surface text, i.e. the actual words we hear or
see, are mutually connected within a
sequence.
-
STANDARDS OF TEXTUALITY
2. Coherence
The ways in which the components of
the textual world, i.e. the configuration
of concepts and relations which
underlie the surface text, are mutually
accessible and relevant.
-
COHESION
Cohesion is linguistically explicit and signals
underlying semantic relationships between text
elements.
Cohesion is necessary, though not sufficient, in the
creation of coherent texts.
-
Cohesion
Lexical
Grammatical
reference
ellipsis
substitution
conjunctions
exophoric
endophoric
Cataphoric
Anaphoric
repetitions
synonyms
superordinates
General words
-
GRAMMATICAL COHESION
Reference
References are resources to refer to a
participant or to a circumstantial element
whose identity is recoverable.
Speakers use linguistic forms, known as
referring expressions, to enable hearers to
identify the entity being referred to, which is in
turn known as the referent.
-
REFERENCE
[situational]
Exophoric
[textual]
endophoric
[to preceeding text]
anaphora
[to following text]
cataphora
-
EXOPHORIC REFERENCE
Child: Why does THAT one come out?
Parent: that what?
Child: THAT one
Parent: That what?
Child:That ONE!
Parent: That one what?
Child: That lever there that you push to let the water
out. (Halliday &
Hasan 1976: 34)
-
ENDOPHORIC REFERENCE
Anaphoric reference it links back to something that went before in the text:
The first row of cottages looked empty and decrepit . But
behind them stood another row, well kept and with small
bright gardens
Cataphoric reference it links forward to a referent in the text that follows
I would never believed it. Theyve accepted the whole scheme
-
GRAMMATICAL COHESION
SUBSTITUTION
It holds the text together by avoiding
repletion. It tends to be endophoric, that is,
the noun phrase being substituted is usually
in the text:
You think Joan already knows? - I think
everybody does.
-
GRAMMATICAL COHESION
ELLIPSIS
it is mainly used to avoid repetition and it
depends on the hearer or readers being able to retrieve the missing words from the
surrounding context:
Joan bought some carnations, and
Catherine some sweet peas (Halliday &
Hasan 1976: 143)
-
GRAMMATICAL COHESION
CONJUNCTIONS
They are resources which connect
messages via addition, comparison,
temporality and causality:
He fell asleep, in spite of his great
discomfort (Halliday & Hasan 1976: 229)
-
Cohesion
Lexical
Grammatical
reference
ellipsis
substitution
conjunctions
exophoric
endophoric
Cataphoric
Anaphoric
repetitions
synonyms
superordinates
General words
-
LEXICAL COHESION
REPETITION
It is simply repeated words or word-phrases.
While substitution and ellipsis avoid
repetition, lexical repetition exploits it for
stylistic effect
-
LEXICAL COHESION
SYNONYMS
A speaker or a writer can use another word
which means the same or almost the same.
It allows language users to avoid repetition
-
SUPERORDINATES
They are another way of avoiding repetition by using:
hyponymya word or a word-phrase whose semantic field is included within that of another word; scarlet , vermilion are hyponyms of red
hypernymya word or a word-phrase whose semantic field is more generic than a given word; red is hypernym of colour
-
GENERAL WORDS
They can be general nouns, such as thing, stuff, place, person,woman,man,etc.,or general verbs, such as do or happen, which are higher level superordinates: they are the
umbrella terms that can cover almost everything.
-
COHERENCE
stretches of language are connected to each other
by virtue of conceptual or meaning dependencies
as perceived by language users
The ways in which the components of the textual
world, i.e. the configuration of concepts and
relations which underlie the surface text, are
mutually accessible and relevant.
-
TEXT-TYPES
Texts can be grouped into categories and types on
the basis of their linguistic and conceptual features
and of their communication function (their purpose).
-
Werlich (1976) bases his classification of
texts on criteria called dominant contextual focus. According to him texts distinctively correlate with the contextual factors in a
communicative situation. They
conventionally focus the addressees attention only on specific factors and
circumstances from the whole set of factors.
-
1. The focus is on factual phenomena (i.e. persons, objects, and relations). Texts of this group will be referred to as descriptive texts.
2. The focus is on factual and/or conceptual phenomena in the temporal context. Texts of this group will be referred to as narrative texts.
3. The focus is on the de-composition (analysis) into or the composition (synthesis) from constituent elements of concepts of phenomena that the communicants have. Texts of this group will be referred to as expository texts.
4. The focus is on the relations between concepts of phenomena that the communicants have. Texts of this group will be referred to as argumentative texts.
5. The focus is on the composition of observable future behaviour, with reference to phenomena, in one of the communicants, that is either in the speaker/writer or hearer/reader. Texts of this group will be referred to as instructive texts.
-
DESCRIPTIVE TEXTS
They are concerned with the location of persons
and things in space.
State verbs and relational processes plus adverbial
expressions.
Use of adjectives.
-
NARRATIVE TEXTS
May be fictional or non-fictional
Sequencing of events expressed by dynamic verbs
and by adverbials such as and then, first, second, third
-
EXPOSITORY
may be subjective (essay) or objective
(summary,explication).
are characterized by state verbs and epistemic
modals or by verbs indicating typical activities or
qualities.
Use of the simple present tense.
-
ARGUMENTATIVE TEXTS
Usually tries to appear objective and to
persuade by the logic of the argument.
Use of connectors to reveal the structure of
the argument:
Secondly, thus, as evidence of this,
however, etc
Reference to authorities Scientists believe
-
INSTRUCTIVE TEXTS
Central to these texts are imperatives (open the
box).
Conditional Adjuncts: When the box is open
Purpose Adjuncts: To open the box
-
TOURISM TEXTS
Editorial (travel books, travel guides, tourist magazine)
Institutional (official leaflets, brochures, websites, advertisments)
Commercial (hotel brochure, leaflets, advertisments, travel agent websites)
Organisational (tickets, bookings, cards, invoices)
Legal (regulations, norms)
Scientific and academic (critical volumes, articles, essays)
Informal (travel blogs, travel chats)
-
SPECIALISED AND NON-SPECIALISED TEXTS
Specialists (formal tourist documents - highly
technical/specialised lexis)
Specialists and non -specialists (textbooks, essays,
manuals - features of general languague mix to
specialised language)
Specialists and a wider audience (reports in travel
magazine)
Non-specialists C2C ( Travel blogs, travel chats -
genaral language with some specialised words).
-
STAGES OF A TRIP
Dann identifies three general stages:
Pre-trip (brochures, leaflets) - promotional
On-trip (tourist guides, maps) - informative and
instructive
Post-trip (postcards, souvenirs) - fix the trip
experience in the readers mind and remind the torurist of the destination
-
TEXT-GENRES AND THEIR GENRE VALUES
Some values may be predominant in some text-
genres for example:
The narrative genre value is predominant in
travel books, diaries and word-of-mouth and in
some specific history sections of the travel
guides
The descriptive genre value is predominant in
the description of geographical areas in travel
guides, reports and diaries.
-
The instructive genre value can be found in
guidebooks (itinerary sections, giving advice about
tours, events, eating and sleeping options).
The expositive genre value is found in some
guidebook sections offering detailed information such
as timetables, wheather conditions.
The argumentative genre value can be found in travel
reports where both positive and negative elements of a
destination are discussed. It is also used in travel books,
guides and diaries.