Text, textuality, text types Paola Catenaccio Lingua Inglese I (LIN) 2009-2010

Podcast – London’s art scene http://www.guardian.co.uk/travel/audio/2009/sep/29/london-art How would you define what you have just been listening to? Why? On the basis of what criteria?

What is a text? An extended structure of syntactic units (W) A communicative occurrence (dB-D) The larger units in terms of which utterances (i.e. sequences of sentences) should be constructed ["Utterances should be constructed in terms of a larger unit, viz that of text."] The term is used "to denote the abstract theoretical construct underlying what is usually called a discourse” (vD 3)

H-H: "The word text is used in linguistics to refer to any passage, spoken or written, of whatever length, that does form a unified whole. […] A text is a unit of language in use.”

What makes a text a text? "The concept of texture is entirely appropriate to express the property of 'being a text'. A text has texture and this is what distinguishes it from something that is not a text". (H&H) For Werlich the standards to be met for a sequence of linguistic units to qualify as a text are coherence and completion (W 23-25) For De Beaugrande-Dressler the standards to be met are seven and they serve as constitutive principles of textual communication, the most important of them being cohesion and coherence. It is to be noted that the two elements of this conceptual distinction taken together correspond broadly to Werlich's coherence.

Also vD (93) defines only coherence: he sees it as "a semantic property of discourses, based on the interpretation of each individual sentence relative to the interpretation of other sentences".

Cohesion and coherence (cf. dB-D and H-H): 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 (authors' italics) (dB-D 3) coherence "concerns the way 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." (dB-D 4)

"[W]riting must have not only coherence, an effective design, but cohesion, an explicit set of 'hooks' and 'ties' that ensure a reader's interest and comprehension. Coherence is the kind of 'holding together' that a good design will give any discourse, whether written or spoken. Cohesion is the result of giving readers the right kind of explicit help in figuring out the design. Cohesion gives readers the clues for discovering coherence." (Wayne C. Booth and Marshall W. Gregory, The Harper & Row Rhetoric: Writing as Thinking/Thinking as Writing, 1987)

cohesion = connectivity of the surface coherence = connectivity of underlying content

Coherence / cohesion (1) I went to a concert yesterday. It was a performance by a violinist called Janine Jansen. She is one of the most promising young talents in today’s classical scenario, and last night she certainly proved that her reputation is well deserved.

Coherence / cohesion (2) I am a teacher. The teacher was late for class. Class rhymes with grass. The grass is always greener on the other side of the fence. But it wasn't.

Coherence / Cohesion (3) A:         There's the phone. B:         I'm in the bath. A:         OK.

the other five standards of textuality: intentionality acceptability informativity situationality intertextuality W adds completion: "completion is created in linguistic communication whenever the encoder introduces signals which indicate both the beginning and the end of one or more of the sequences that have established coherence. Completion in linguistic communication can be indicated both by linguistic and referential suggestions of initiation and termination in a text (24).

Texts and context of situation Warning. Customers are advised that videoscan closed circuit television is in operation with video-recording. I'll need a 19 gauge needle, IV tubing and a preptic swab. SKYE lounger. Grey lacquered tubular steel frame. Light brown buffalo leather cover padded with foam and fibres. W68, L160, H98 cm, seat height 35 cm £295 Take it home today. See page 218 for details. E 180 This VHS videocassette is designed exclusively for use with video recorders bearing the VHS mark. Williams cleared over Senna death

Werlich E. (1979), A Text Grammar of English, Heidelberg, Quelle & Meyer: 17-26. De Beaugrande R.A., Dressler W.U. (1981), An Introduction to Text Linguistics, London & New York, Longman: 1-13 (una sintesi disponibile all’indirizzo: http://www.beaugrande.bizland.com/introduction_to_text_linguistics.htm). Van Dijk T.A. (1977), Text and Context. Explorations in the Semantics and Pragmatics of Discourse, London & New York, Longman: 1-15; 93-129. Halliday M.A.K., Hasan R. (1976), Cohesion in English, London & New York, Longman: 1-30.