What is a text?

A text is a sequence of paragraphs that represents an extended unit of speech.

According to De Beaugrande and Dressler, a

text will be defined as a communicative

occurrence which meets seven standards of

textuality.

Text-centered notions:

• Cohesion

• Coherence

User-centered notions:

• Intentionality

• Acceptability

• Informativity

• Situationality

• Intertextuality

Text-centered notions: cohesion

• Cohesion concerns the way in which the components of the surface text, i.e. the actual words we hear or see, are mutually connected within a sequence.

• Cohesion rests upon grammatical forms and conventions

Text-centered notions: coherence

Coherence concerns the ways in which the meanings within a text (concepts, relations among them and their relations to the external world) are established and developed.

Some of the major relations of coherence are logical sequences:

cause-consequence (and so), condition-consequence (if), contrast (however), compatibility (and), etc.

Cohesion and coherence are text-centered notions, designating operations directed at the text materials.

User-centered notions

• Intentionality: refers to the text writer’s attitude.

• Acceptability: refers to the receiver’s attitude to the text

Informativity refers to the extent to which the

message of the text is expected or

unexpected, known or unknown.

Situationality concerns the factors which make

a text relevant to a situation

Intertextuality refers to the factors which make the utilization of one text dependent upon knowledge of one or more texts:

If you are on a diet, your question may be:

To eat or not to eat

If you are ready to any compromise, you can borrow Henry IV’s statement Paris is worth a mass.

Channel

• Oral texts • Written texts

Intent of the Communicator

Various types of texts (procedural, expository, persuasive, narrative, descriptive)

Intent of the communicator • According to the intent of the communicator

texts are classified into genres:

– Procedural

– Expository (Informative)

– Persuasive

– Descriptive

– Narrative

Genres express norms and conventions

When are they used?

• procedural text: gives instructions on how to do something.

• expository text: is used to explain something, describe, give information

• persuasive text: is used to encourage or to get someone to do something. As a matter of fact, it is argumentation

• descriptive text: lists the characteristics of something.

• narrative text: account of events (novel, newspaper article, biography)

TEXT FORMS

• Text forms evolve and change

• Authentic text forms are often mixed

• According to modern studies, there may be even more text types. Nonetheless, practical suggestions tend to classify texts in 3 main types:

Text Types (Sabatini) Group 1

• scientific texts

• technical texts

• legal, normative texts (treatises – formal, systematic discourse - essays, technical textbooks and essays; laws and decrees; regulations, administrative acts)

Text Types (Sabatini) Group 2

• expository and didactic texts

• popularising informative texts (e.g. textbooks on social, historical,political topics, popularising texts of various topics,newspaper and magazine articles)

Text Types (Sabatini) Group 3

• literary texts (poetry, drama, and fiction).

A text is a sequence of paragraphs that represents an extended unit of speech.