Introduction to Text Analysis Integrated Language Skills 1, Winter Semester 2017/18
Sentence vs. Text • Sentence: a syntactic unit expressing a grammatical relation of predication. Traditionally, it is said that a sentence expresses a tought or an idea. • Text: language material outside a single sentence boundaries. Traditionally speaking, texts consist of sentences.
What can be considered as text?
...text • The word text itself originally meant ‘something woven’ (Latin texere, textum —‘to weave’), and you can see a relationship between text, textile (‘capable of being woven’) and texture (‘having the quality of woven cloth’) • Written language is also often referred to as ‘material’.
• In fact, we use the weaving metaphor very often in our own talk about talk: for example, we talk about ‘losing the thread of the conversation’, ‘cottoning on’, ‘tying up loose ends’, etc.
Text vs. Discourse • The basic meaning of ‘discourse’, in modern ordinary usage, is ‘talk’. • Originally the term ‘discourse’ came from Latin, discursus, meaning ‘to run’, ‘to run on’, • Again traditionally, it has been applied more to various forms of spoken language. • Contemporary models of analysis see discourse as structure and formating of both spoken and written texts.
More about discourse... • The modern meaning of DISCOURSE (encompassing all forms of ‘talk’) has evolved because conversations, like formal speeches, ‘run’. • This means that speakers make an effort to give their interactions shape and coherence – this may not always happen consciously, but as an integral part of co-operating with another speaker to create meaning.
It’s the intention that counts!
• So when we refer to talk(ing)/writ(e(ing)) as discourse we are drawing attention to the way in which text is a crafted medium.
In an academic sense... • But it’s not only spoken language that ‘runs’ or gets woven into patterns. • This is also true of written language; and the modern use of the word ‘discourse’ can also be used to refer to aspects of written texts. • This tends to be used much more within the academic world than outside it.
Structure vs. Texture • Like speakers, then, writers manipulate different aspects of language in order to weave their texts and give their material ‘texture’. • So to talk about discourse in written texts is to focus on the way written texts are constructed and structured.
Tracing the patterns 1 Lexical cohesion • This looks at the way aspects of vocabulary link parts of texts together. 2 Grammatical cohesion • Here you will be exploring some of the important ways that grammar holds texts together across sentence boundaries. 3 Information structure • This focuses on the role of grammatical features in the ordering and presentation of information within texts.
• Lexical Cohesion is a linguistic device which helps to create unity of text and discourse. • It is the cohesive effect achieved by the selection of vocabulary.
• Grammatical Cohesion refers to grammatical organisation of textual information: usage of pronouns, sequence of tenses, modality, hedging, etc.
• Information structure: non-liear organization of the text, cultural inferences, contextual implication, intertextuality, etc.
Text (Textual) Linguistics • Text Linguistics is the branch of linguistics primarily concerned with the analysis of written texts. • It is concerned with understanding how texts function both as internally coherent systems, but also how certain kinds of texts function in relation to their larger sociological contexts.
• Recently, text linguistics has expanded to include many diverse systems of communication. • For example, it is closely allied with other fields such as discourse analysis and literary criticism.
Cohesion and Coherence Revisited • Text linguistics is largely concerned with cohesion, understanding how texts are put together, and coherence, which is how the construction of a text develops and affects meaning and interpretation (logical structure of texts). • Together, these can largely be thought of as the internal mechanics of a text.
Why do we need Textual • Text linguistics is utilized primarily by academics Linguistics? across a variety of disciplines. • For example, anthropologists may use it to help them better understand the role of texts in a given culture, such as what kinds of texts are used for rituals and what those rituals mean.
• Linguists may use it to better understand the structures of languages. Sociologists use text linguistics to understand how people relate through their language and how they make use of particular kinds of written texts in their social interactions. • Literary critics use text linguistics to understand how texts create meaning, and how those meanings can provide insights into other aspects of culture and society.
Intertextuality • Your reception and understanding of a particular text is largely dependent upon your experience of other texts you have encountered. • This includes making sense of analogies, identifying genres or forms, and recognizable social and cultural rules and conventions. • This notion can be reasonably extended so far as to include (all of) your prior experience with language itself.
Context and Situation
• Your interpretation of a text may also largely depend upon your knowledge of the text's historical or social context.
• Additionally, the way you interact with a text may differ depending upon the situation in which you experience it. • For example, you will interact differently with a satirical essay from the 18th century, which you read deeply in order to understand the speaker's use of irony, than when you interact with a web page, which you only scan to retrieve needed information.
Author and Audience • The analysis of any text will need to consider pertinent information about who wrote it, for what purpose, and for what kind of audience. • For example, a speech delivered to Parliament by the Prime Minister will have a different set of intentions and be received differently than when the same speech is delivered by an actor in a parody sketch.
Exercise: Discourse Consequences • Each group should take a different line, and add a second line to it (not necessarily in the same genre). • They should then fold the paper over so that only the second line is visible, and pass it on to the next group. When all the groups have contributed a line, open up the folded page and read it aloud to the whole group. • As a whole group, assess how far the six different texts follow the patterns for the various genres .
Starter Lines 1 Once upon a time there was a beautiful princess who lived in a castle high up on a mountainside. 2 Cricket is a game which involves as much psychological nerve as physical strength and dexterity. 3 This week you will need to have your wits about you, as Saturn’s influence could lead you to be off guard at a crucial moment. 4 Male, 42, home-owner, recently relocated to Bristol. 5 ‘Spacegrazer to Hyperpod, come in.’ Zhata feared the worst. The asteroid storm had passed just too close for comfort. 6 To make watercress soup, first sauté a finely chopped onion by melting a knob of butter in a saucepan over a medium heat.