UNIT 31

TEXT AND CONTEXT. TYPES OF TEXT.

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OUTLINE

1. INTRODUCTION

1.1. Aims of the Unit

1.2. Legislation

1.3. Connections with Other Units in the Set

1.4. Interdisciplinary Connections

1.5. Didactic Approach

1.6. Notes on Bibliography

2. TEXT

2.1. Cohesion

2.2. Types of cohesion in textual structure

2.2.1. Reference

2.2.2. Substitution

2.2.3. Ellipsis

2.2.4. Lexical relationships

2.2.5. Conjunctive relations

2.3. Texture within the sentence

2.4. The texture of discourse

3. TEXT AND CONTEXT

4. TEXT TYPOLOGY

5. CRITERIA FOR THE CLASSIFICATION OF TEXT TYPES

6. THE REGISTER

7. EDUCATIONAL IMPLICATIONS IN LANGUAGE TEACHING

7.1. New Directions in Language Teaching

7.2. Implications in Language Teaching

8. CONCLUSION

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 “There is nothing in discourse that is not to be found in a sentence.”

(Roland Barthes)

1. INTRODUCTION

A ‘text’ refers to any communication, spoken, written or visual, which

forms a unified whole. For a passage of language to be a text, it must have

‘texture’ and function as a unity with respect to its environment. This unity is

achieved thanks to cohesion, texture within the sentence, and texture of

discourse.

The term ‘text’ encompasses a broad range of texts which make different

demands on the readers. Yet, what goes beyond question it that all learning

areas use texts and English is unique for it deals with three particular kinds of

texts: literature, mass media and everyday texts. Besides, the study of text

types implies dealing with the five macro-skills of the language. Thus, students

must gradually face a wide array of texts to practice along the different stages of

their learning process.

1.1 Aims of the Unit

Types of Text. Criteria for the Classification of Text Types. The Register”. We

will begin by discussing the notion of text and its characteristics. Then, we will

offer an analysis of ‘text and context’ and we will examine the text typology.

After that, we will deal with the criteria for the classification of text types and

the term ‘register’. As a last point to this unit, we will present the main

educational implications in language teaching regarding text, context and

register. We will bring this topic to an end with a suitable conclusion.

1.2 Legislation

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 According to LOMCE 8/2013 and Decrees 231/2007 and 416/2008, the

content of this topic highlights mainly textual aspects. It is said in the law that

students have to be able to understand and produce texts, so the content of this

unit would be of great help in order to help students with the processes of

reading and writing. In that sense, it would also be connected to the four content

blocks mentioned in the Royal Decree 1105/2014.

The content of this unit also promotes the communicative competence in

our students as it is established in Order ECD/65/2015.

1.3 Connections to Other Units in the Set

Bearing in mind the content of this unit, this unit is closely related to Unit

29 ‘Analysis and Articulation of Discourse. Cohesion & Coherence. Anaphora &

Cataphora. Connectives. Deixis’ or units that deal with other text types such as

Units 32, 33, 34, 35 and 36. Narrative, Descriptive, Argumentative, Expository

and Dialogic Texts, respectively.

1.4 Interdisciplinary Connections

We can establish connections with other areas in the curriculum. For the

purpose of this unit, we could link it with Spanish language and establish a

connection between the different text types in English and in Spanish to see to

what characteristics they share and which ones make them different.

1.5 Didactic Approach

At classroom level, this unit connects with the fact that as teachers we

have to go beyond units larger than words and sentences and set as a teaching

objective that our students work with texts and acknowledge the different types

of text in the target language, as well as what criteria we use in order to make a

text fall into one category or another.

Also, the notion of register as what kind of language to use when and

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where is also dealt with. It is important that students acquire the notion that

different situations and places require a different kind of language.

Regarding the content in this unit, taking into account the

recommendations in Tools for Language Teaching and The Common European

Framework of Reference for Languages: Learning, teaching, assessment, the

teaching of this content should be aimed at developing the students’

communicative competence, leaving behind the mere teaching of this content

from a grammatical standpoint, as it has been recommended by the Council of

Europe and its Language policy division.

1.6 Notes on Bibliography

The reference books used to elaborate this unit are Adam, J. M. (1987),

Types of Elementary Sequences, Pratiques, 56; Biber, D. and Conrad, S.

(2009), Register, Genre and Style, Cambridge: CUP; Halliday, M.A.K. (1985), An

Introduction to Functional Grammar, London, Edward Arnold; Halliday, M. A. K.

and Hasan, R. (1976), Cohesion in English, London, Longman; Halliday, M. A.

K., McIntosh, A. and Strevens, P. (1964), The Linguistic Sciences and Language

Teaching, London, Longman; and Malinowski, B. (1960), The Meaning of

Meaning, Bloomington, Indiana University Press.

The background for educational implications is based on the work by

Richards, C. (2006), Communicative Language Teaching Today, Cambridge,

CUP. Likewise, publications by the B.O.E. and the Council of Europe (2001),

Common European Framework of Reference for Languages, teaching,

assessment, Strasbourg, Council of Europe Publishing have served to consider

the new directions on language teaching.

The legal documents used as a reference are LOMCE 8/2013, of 9

December 2013, Organic Law on the Improvement of the Quality of Education;

curricula for Secondary and Bachillerato stages, respectively, in the Autonomous

Community of Andalucia; Royal Decree 1105/2014, of 26 December 2014,

regulating the curricula in the Spanish territory for Secondary Education; and

Order ECD/65/2015, of 21 January 2015, where the relationships among

contents, assessment criteria and key competences are established.

2. TEXT

Text is a term used in linguistics to refer to any passage, spoken or

written, of whatever length, that does form a unified whole. As a general rule,

we know whether any specimen of our own language constitutes a text or not,

although there may be instances about which we are uncertain.

A text is a unit in use, not a grammatical unit, and it is not defined by its

size. It is, by constituency, the composition of larger units out of smaller ones.

Besides, a text is best regarded as a semantic unit, that is, a unit of meaning,

not of form. A text does not consist of sentences; it is realized by sentences.

Hence, the structural integration among the parts of a text differs from those of

a sentence or clause. Furthermore, text is language that is functional; it is a

form of exchange related to interaction among speakers. Unity is an attitude of

a text, and structure is a source of textual unity. This unity, as mentioned above,

is given by three factors that are about to be dealt with.

2.1. Cohesion

The first component of texture is cohesion, that is, the relations of

meaning that exist within the text, and that define it as a text. It occurs where

the interpretation of an element in the discourse depends on that of another.

The one presupposes the other since it cannot be effectively decoded except

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by recourse to it.

The potential for cohesion lies in the systematic resources that are built

into the language itself but in any given instance it depends both on the

selection of some option from within these resources and also on the presence

of some other element which resolves the presupposition that this sets up.

To account for discourse we need to consider contextual factors (e.g.

situation) but also the formal links between sentences, those making cohesion

possible. Following Halliday and Hasan (1976), the devices through which

cohesion is achieved in English are about to be dealt with: reference,

substitution, ellipsis, lexical relationships, and conjunctive relations.

2.2. Types of cohesion in textual structure

Firstly, referring expressions are words whose meaning can only be

discovered by referring to other words in the text (endophoric reference) or to

elements in the context that are clear to both sender and receiver (exophoric

reference). They aim at fostering unity within the text and economy, that is, to

save from constant repetitions. Reference devices can be personal pronouns

(e.g. ‘Patrick works as a fireman. He is really happy with his job’);

demonstratives (e.g. ‘These are our children: May and James’); and

comparatives (e.g. ‘I have accepted too many invitations already. Other

invitations will have to be declined’).

In an extended piece of discourse, a common procedure, known as

anaphora, is for the identity of someone or something to be given once at the

beginning, and thereafter be referred to as ‘she’, etc. This makes a kind of chain

in which each expression is linked to another. On the other hand, when the

chain is followed in the opposite direction cataphora results, and this is a

favourite opening device of authors to create suspense (e.g. ‘I asked her to sing

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and so Alice sang’).

Secondly, substitution consists in the replacement of one item in the

text by another. It is a linguistic relationship in which the substitute is used to

avoid the repetition of a particular item and which has the same structural

function as that for which it substitutes. Substitution can be nominal: one(s),

same (e.g. ‘Do you want the blankets? Yes, I’ll take one’); verbal: do (e.g. ‘Did

you fail? Yes, I did’); and clausal: so, not (e.g. ‘Is Peter coming? I hope so’.)

Thirdly, ellipsis is the omission of an item in a text; a part of a

subsequent sentence which has been previously stated is omitted. It can be

nominal (e.g. ‘The cookies are quite small. Take two’); verbal (e.g. ‘Has he seen

it? He may have’); and clausal (e.g. ‘Are you coming back today? This

evening’).

As for lexical relationships, one lexical item enters into a structural

relationship with another. A set of words tend to turn up together in texts

because they relate to the same idea and because texts tend to be cohesive

(e.g. The flowers were lovely. He liked the tulip best).

Another type of cohesive device is conjunctive relations. These can be

additive (e.g. and); adversative (e.g. yet); causal (e.g. hence); temporal (e.g.

next), etc.

2.3. Texture within the sentence

The second factor that contributes to the creation of unity within the text

is texture within the sentence, that is, the structural counterpart of cohesion

and whose main components are the theme systems and the information

systems.

Theme systems are those concerned with the organization of the clause

as a message. In English, the SVO rule can be broken in some statements. In

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this sense, theme is the first information in a clause, the framework of the

message; and rheme is the rest of it, it tells something about the theme. When

the theme is the subject of the sentence, it is known as an unmarked theme

(e.g. The Titanic sank in April of 1912), and when it is not the subject, it is

known as a marked theme (e.g. In April of 1912, the ship Titanic sank)

(Halliday, 1985: 64).

It seems well-known that English has a quite fixed word order, normally

summarised as Subject + Verb + Object + Adverbial. Yet, this kernel sentence

structure may be altered to bring elements to the front of the sentence. This

movement is called fronting and it is a powerful resource to highlight adverbials

or objects and to be able to choose the themes of their sentences.

Only the basic elements of the kernel structure can become topic

themes: the process (main verb), the participants (subject and object) and the

circumstantial factors (adverbials). But, sentences can sometimes have more

than one theme. In English, three possible themes are found: textual theme

(discourse markers and conjunctions) + interpersonal theme (vocatives) + topic

theme (SVOA elements).

Theme and rheme are used to highlight a piece of information in the

sentence, but also to organise the information in the text. In fact, the rheme in

one sentence becomes the theme in a following sentence. This phenomenon is

called communicative dynamism. Besides, there is also a thematic organization

of the paragraph. In English the first sentence of a paragraph is the theme of

that paragraph (topic sentence), whereas the following sentences have a

rhematic value (supporting sentences), and develop what the idea of the theme.

The theme-rheme dichotomy is also important for the learner both as an

addresser, to be aware of the concept of communicative dynamism as a way of

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organising the text, and as an addressee, to help in skimming both at sentence

and text levels.

On the other hand, the information systems are those concerned with the

organization of the text into units of information. In spoken English, this is

expressed by the intonation patterns. In written English, it is expressed by

punctuation, most of which is a kind of compromise between information

structure (punctuation according to the intonation) and sentence structure

(punctuation according to the grammar).

Each information unit is structured in terms of two elements: a new

element, included in every information unit, which presents information not

recoverable from other sources; and a given element, which is optional and

which presents information recoverable from some source of the environment.

2.4. The texture of discourse

The final component of texture is the structure of discourse, the larger

structure that is a property of the forms of discourse. The ‘macrostructure’ of the

text combines with intrasentence structure and intersentence cohesion to

provide a passage of language with texture.

3. TEXT AND CONTEXT

Moving on, the notions of text and context are now going to be analysed.

When determining whether any language constitutes a text or not, there are two

kinds of evidence: the external and the internal, the linguistic and the situational.

The anthropologist B. Malinowski (1960) coined the term context of situation to

refer to the environment of the text. However, it was also necessary to provide

information about the total cultural background, which is why four elements

were added to the context of situation: the participants, the action of the

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participants, the surrounding objects and the events.

A more abstract interpretation has been offered by Halliday, McIntosh

and Strevens (1964), who proposed the three headings ‘Field’ (what is

happening together with the purpose activity of the speaker), ‘Mode’ (function of

the text in the event) and ‘Tenor’ (social relations among the participants

involved) to describe how the situation determines the kinds of meaning that are

expressed. In a foreign language lesson in a secondary school, field, mode and

tenor would be the language study, the language for instruction and discussion

and the participants and their role in the institution, respectively.

4. TEXT TYPOLOGY

The study of text leads inevitably to the classification of text types. We

can define the concept of ‘type of text’ as the separate textual structures which

share a number of textual and contextual characteristics in common. Thus,

according to the ‘type of text’, texts can be descriptive (texts giving a mental

picture of a scene, person, etc.); narrative (text arranging events in a particular

sequential order); argumentative (promoting the acceptance or rejection of

ideas); literary (text whose world stands in an alternative relationship to the

version of the real world); poetic (subclass of literary texts that aims at

motivating insights into expression); scientific (clarification of the society’s

knowledge of facts with evidence from observation and documentation); and

didactic (it distributes established knowledge to a non-specialized audience).

5. CRITERIA FOR THE CLASSIFICATION OF TEXT TYPES

In the classification of text types, J.M. Adams (1987) rejects the idea of

‘type of text’. Instead, he proposed the term ‘sequence’ for he considers a text is

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a unity which consists of sequences inserted one in another, one of them

dominating the text. In this sense, Adams distinguished seven types of textual

sequences: narrative, descriptive, expositive, argumentative, instructive,

conversational and poetic.

6. THE REGISTER

As for the notion of REGISTER, it refers to the linguistic features which

are typically associated with a configuration of situational features. The more

specifically we can characterize the context of situation, that is, the more

information we give about all three categories of field, mode, and tenor, the

more specifically we predict the properties of a text in that situation. A register

can be defined as a variety of language according to use. It refers to what an

individual is speaking at the time, depending on what he is doing and the nature

of the activity in which the language is functioning (Biber and Conrad, 2009: 22).

Registers can be classified into closed registers (whose which range of

possible meanings is fixed, e.g. the International Language of Air); and more

open registers (those whose range of possible meanings is much less

constrained, e.g. the language of recipes).

Finally, regarding the difference between register and dialects, the former

is a variety of what you are speaking, depending on what you are doing and on

your social activity, while the latter is a variety of language according to the

user, what you speak depending on who you are and where you come from.

7. EDUCATIONAL IMPLICATIONS IN LANGUAGE TEACHING

From a practical perspective in education, bringing learners together into

contact with language in context has traditionally proved difficult for foreign
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language teachers. Still, new technologies offer the possibility of setting more

appropriate conditions to deal with the present-day approaches to language

teaching and can also enhance students’ motivation.

The current perspective on this matter determines success lies in the

way the language becomes real to the user, and this is to be achieved by

intervening in authentic communicative events. Within the educational context,

this is possible thanks to the guidelines of, among others, the European Council

and the Spanish Education System.

Lately, writing in foreign language teaching has been given a prominent

role since there is no doubt wiring a language comprehensibly is harder than

speaking it. However, foreign language teaching still lacks effective methods to

teach it since only a minority of speakers acquire a degree of finesse in this

skill. To improve this situation, there is a recent tendency which points out the

need for integrating the all-four language skills since it is believed to lead to the

effectiveness of communication.

8. CONCLUSION

To conclude, given the fact that texts can be written, visual or spoken, to

interpret some text types there is a need to integrate different language modes

such as reading and writing. In this sense, new text types tend to make different

demands on students.

Lately, there has been an increasing interest in the way sentences work

in sequence to produce coherent stretches of language. Thus, ‘text linguistics’,

that is, the study of the linguistic principles governing the structure of all texts,

acquires a prominent role. Therefore, texts types are a quintessential part to be

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studied in depth in any learning area and, as far as foreign language learning is

concerned, this is to be implemented in any language teaching course.

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