Linguistic Competence and Textual Cohesion Principles

Linguistic Definitions and Discourse Competence

Text: A linguistic configuration consisting of a set of linguistic elements organized by rules of construction. Speech: The broadcast of a concrete text on a given occasion.

• Discourse Competence: The ability to use code in certain situations.
• Constructional Competence: Knowledge of the code, components, and the rules system that constitutes the tongue.
• Social Communication Competence: Includes both constructional and discursive elements.

Theories of Language and Enunciation

Key theorists include Saussure (focusing on the tongue/language) and Chomsky (focusing on competence). Van Dijk describes the text as the maximum unit of sentence description.

Text and its Enunciation

1. Step 1: Prayer-text.
2. Step 2: Form-use.
3. Step 3: Product-speech.

Enunciation is the production of discourse. It is not merely individual, nor just the production of discourse; it is an action (performance) of the ideas one wants to express.

Cohesion and Coherence in Textual Analysis

Cohesion and Coherence are linked but not identical. Textual Competence involves the ability to build well-formed texts or to accept them.

• Cohesion: Refers to the grammatical and formal aspects of the transition from one sentence to another in a text.
• Coherence: Refers to the mental aspect and the conceptually denoted facts. It results from the interaction between the text and world knowledge among partners. It works through communication between the subject interpretant (reader) and the issuer, activated by signals from the text and participants.

Coherence and cohesion phenomena are established by recurrence (subjects or actions appearing in the text), progression, and connection.

Textual Competence and Dialogical Modes

Textual Competence: The transmitter and receiver are capable of producing sentences with continuity or coherent sense, recognizing the sequence of sentences that have continued sense to constitute well-formed texts.

• Dialogical: Oral communication.
• Monologal: Oral and written communication.

Requirements for Textual Coherence

Rules of Recurrence

These are resource elements that maintain referents within the discourse:

• Repetition: A lexeme or syntagma repeated in the text.
• Lexical Substitution: Changing a lexeme at the same level (synonymy, e.g., convicts/prisoner) or a different level (hyperonymy, e.g., animal/cat).
• Conference Phrase: A complex expression (e.g., Raul/the president).
• Ellipsis: The omission of elements.

Rules of Progression

To avoid a paradoxical situation, one must say something new and introduce new references or information concerning the cognitive anchor (returning to the known before introducing the new).

• Theme: What is already known.
• Rheme: New information provided.
• Textual Progression: The constant supply of new information.

Ways of Progression

• Ongoing Issue Progression.
• Chain Progression: Step-by-step development.
• Derived Progression: (e.g., chicken-egg).
• Hypertheme: (e.g., technical service: train-mail-letter).

Relationship Types and Connectors

• Container-Contained (Part-Whole): e.g., turn on the TV, eat and sleep.
• Action-Instrument: e.g., bringing out a nail with a hammer.
• Possession: e.g., Juan is poor; he has no money.

Connection and Connectors

Connectors can be causal, consecutive, adversative, concessive, comparative, or organizers.

Textual Indicators

• Intratextual Anaphora: (e.g., "this one").
• Progression Indicators: (e.g., first, then).
• Reformulation Indicators: (e.g., in other words, that is).
• Cognitive Anchor Indicators: (e.g., as we said, as mentioned).
• Frame: How things fit into a framework (e.g., "Before turning off the TV, I brush my teeth").