Defining Description: Types and Linguistic Characteristics

The Concept and Intent of Description

Description is the act of representing something or someone through language, referring to its qualities and its parts. The intent of the description may be varied: to inform, explain, argue, or entertain, among others.

Classification of Descriptive Texts

Description Based on the Issuer's Viewpoint

When creating a description, the issuer (or sender) may adopt different perspectives:

• Objective or Scientific Description. This reflects reality as it is. It uses precise, denotative language. Examples include descriptions found in scientific treatises or product prospectuses.
• Subjective or Literary Description. This type has an aesthetic purpose, dominated by the poetic function of language. In it, the sender expresses their views and emotions about the subject being described.

This viewpoint may be static (if approached from a unique, fixed position) or dynamic (if the issuer's position varies during the description).

Description Based on the Subject Matter

Description may refer to any element: an object, a place, a feeling, or a person. Descriptions of people are often more complex and are classified as follows:

• Prosopography. This involves the physical description of a person.
• Etopeya (Ethopoeia). This refers to the character, habits, and moral traits of a person.
• Portrait. A combination of prosopography and etopeya. The description is complete, focusing equally on physical traits and moral characteristics.
• Self-portrait. This is a description created by the issuer about themselves.
• Caricature. This involves the exaggeration or ridicule of a person's traits to create a distorted, usually negative, image.
• Esperpento. A deliberate, distorted exaggeration of a person's traits, far removed from reality, often used for satirical intent.

Linguistic Features of Description

Lexical Characteristics

Among the lexical features, the most prominent are:

• Prevalence of noun phrases that include the use of adjectives (adjacent). Adjectives specify details in objective descriptions and convey subjective impressions in literary descriptions.
• Use of state verbs. Example: “Then Macondo was a village of twenty houses.”
• Presence of adverbial phrases. Circumstantial complements of time, place, and manner abound.

Morphological Characteristics

Description is characterized by the use of verbs in the indicative mood. The most common verb tenses are the present and the imperfect indicative, with a predominance of the third grammatical person.

Syntactic Characteristics

There is a prevalence of simple sentences. The sentences in description are usually simple, declarative, and often attributive (using copulative verbs).

Textual Characteristics

An important feature in descriptive text, especially in literary works, is the frequent use of literary figures such as metaphor, metonymy, hyperbole, simile, and personification.