Fundamentals of Text Structure and Grammar

Expository Text Structure

Deductive Structure

General to Private: Starts with a general statement and moves to specific details.

Text Qualities

Sound (Tone)

The text should follow the intended audience (a friend, an officer, etc.) and adjust the language to the situation (family, business, official).

Consistency

Text information must be clear, logical, well-organized, and contain no contradictions.

Cohesion

Different ideas and words should be properly linked so the whole text is perceived as a unit.

Sentence and Word Components

Sentence (Oración)

A unit that connects two phrases through a relationship of predication. Must have subject-verb agreement.

Statement (Proposición)

Stands between pauses, has full meaning, and is independent.

Lexeme or Root

The part of the word that does not change.

Morpheme

The smallest unit of meaning. It is the variable part of the word. It is added to the lexeme to complete its meaning and form new words.

Verbal Grammatical Aspect (Appearance)

The property of verbs and verb clauses that indicates whether the action expressed has ended or not at the time of reference indicated in the sentence.

Curriculum Vitae (CV)

A compilation of all academic records and experience of a person throughout their life (as indicated by the Latin vitae), regardless of the job chosen in the selection process. The structure often includes:

• Personal data
• Academic background
• Experience
• Languages
• Computer skills
• Other data

All information is typically presented in chronological order of acquisition. It is a type of expository text.

Syntactic Functions (SE)

Syntactic Function with Pronouns

No Reflective or Reciprocal

• Variant of "le". Indirect Object (CI). Example: I told him.

Reflexive/Reciprocal

• Direct Object (CD): Example: Peter stared (himself). / They kissed each other.
• Indirect Object (CI): Example: Peter won two tasks for himself. /

Syntactic Function Without Pronouns

Impersonal

It cancels the subject. Example: Tonight was not any old run over.

Passive Reflection

It cancels the Direct Object (CD). Example: The stairs have been swept away too quickly.

Pseudoreflexive

Anticausative

• Causative Process: The heat wilts the flowers. (Two-process structure)
• Process Only: The flowers have withered. (Former CD becomes the Subject. Main Subject is canceled.)

Antipassive

• Initial State: Peter laments his bad luck. (His bad luck is the CD)
• Antipassive State: Peter laments his bad luck. (The old CD becomes the Circumstantial Complement of Cause/Reason (CREG).)

Emphatic or Aspectual

Does not alter the syntactic functions, but its meaning varies somewhat.

• Pedro smoked a cigar. (Simple action)
• Pedro smoked a cigar. (Emphatic/Aspectual nuance)
• Peter knows the lesson.
• Peter knows the lesson.
• Peter went to Madrid.
• Pedro went to Madrid.

Inherent

The verb always has to combine with a pronoun that agrees with its subject.

• I learn that: Inherent.
• Peter laments, not inherent (Peter regrets that.)
• He reassured: Not inherent (His words reassured people). (The verb can be conjugated without the pronoun.)