Linguistic Analysis: Text, Context, and Deixis

Properties of Texts

The Text and Context

A text is a linguistic unit of analysis whose meaning is interpreted by taking into account the communicative intention of the issuer, the place and time of communication, and other relevant factors.

Context refers to the set of non-linguistic knowledge necessary for interpreting the text. Contextual elements include:

• Situation: space and time.
• Sender's communicative intent.
• Social relationship between the sender and recipient.
• Knowledge shared among participants.
• The channel (oral or written).
• The set of rules governing communication.

Shifters (Deixis)

Shifters are grammatical elements that allow reference to people, space, and communication time. They include different parts of speech: pronouns, adverbs, determiners, and verbal morphemes meaning person, and whose interpretation depends on the communicative context. They can be categorized as:

• Personal Shifters: Refer to people involved in the communicative act.
  • Personal pronouns (e.g., I, you, me).
  • Possessives (e.g., my, your, yours).
  • Verbal morphemes indicating person (e.g., I write, you write).
• Spatial Shifters: Indicate the space in which the communicative act takes place.
  • Adverbs or adverbial phrases of place (e.g., here, there, close, in front).
  • Demonstratives (e.g., this, these, that).
• Temporal Shifters: Indicate the time when the communicative act takes place.
  • Adverbs and adverbial phrases of time (e.g., now, after, yet, soon).
  • Verbal morphemes of time (e.g., wrote, write, will write).
  • Some nominal and prepositional phrases (e.g., this morning, after a while).

Textual Styles

Objective Style Texts

These texts are characterized by:

• Absence of first and second person indexicals.
• Use of noun phrases referring to reality as subjects.
• Employment of third-person verbal forms.
• Use of impersonal constructions, passive reflexives, or passive voice without an explicit agent.

Subjective Style Texts

These texts are characterized by:

• Presence of indexicals (first and second person) to represent the issuer and the recipient.
• The issuer chooses to enroll themselves in the text, indicating the degree of involvement in what they say or the type of relationship they wish to establish with the recipient.

Modality and Modality Markers

Modality is the attitude taken by the issuer toward the content of their statements.

Modality markers are linguistic elements that serve to express the speaker's attitude toward the content of a statement. These markers include:

Linguistic Markers

• Verbal Modes: Indicative, subjunctive, and imperative.
• Sentence Modalities: Declarative, interrogative, exclamatory, etc.
• Verbal Periphrasis of Modal Character: (e.g., having to, ought to, must).
• Verbs with Modal Meaning: (e.g., know, want, wish).
• Evaluative Elements:
  • Adjectives (e.g., safe, fantastic, horrible).
  • Adverbs and adverbial phrases (e.g., fortunately, certainly).
• Prepositional Phrases: (e.g., in my opinion).
• Derivatives with Appreciative Suffixes: (e.g., thump, sweetie).
• Altering the usual word order in the sentence.

Nonverbal Markers (Oral Communication)

In oral communication, nonverbal elements such as gestures, stress, and intonation also function as modality markers.