Narrative and Descriptive Texts: Structure, Types, and Features

Narrative Texts

Narrative texts use a transmitter to tell real or fictional events. They are usually accompanied by dialogue and description. The structure typically includes:

• Initial situation
• Conflict
• Resolution or denouement

In a narrative text, we must analyze:

• Prevalence of the referential function
• Use of past tense or present, according to the narrator's point of view
• Use of verbs introduced in the dialogues
• Use of simple, compound, and juxtaposed sentences
• Use of adverbs or adverbial phrases

Classification of Adverbs

• Of place: here, there, far, inside, outside, close, behind, ahead, around
• Of time: today, yesterday, tomorrow, now, last night, yet, soon, after, then, still
• Of manner: well, badly, good, better, fairly, fast, slowly, and those ending in -ly
• Of quantity: much, little, too, enough, almost, nearly, as well, etc.
• Of affirmation: yes, even, further, etc.
• Of negation: no, never, neither, etc.
• Of doubt: perhaps, maybe, etc.

Adverbial Phrases

These units consist of a preposition and a noun, adjective, or adverb that work together as an adverb: in the dark, blindly, at all, perhaps, maybe, in front, meanwhile, etc.

• Using pronouns

Relative pronouns: which, whom, whose, where. Possessive pronouns: my, mine, your, yours, her, hers, their, theirs

Common errors in the use of personal atonic pronouns include leísmo, laísmo, and loísmo.

Descriptive Texts

Description involves representing objects, feelings, or landscapes linguistically. It serves several purposes:

• In literary arts
• For information
• For argumentation (publicity, humanistic)

Types of description can be classified taking into account:

• The point of view (objective or subjective)
• The position described
• Pictorial view (everything is static)
• Cinematic vision (subject is still, object is moving)
• Topographic
• The subject matter and nature
• Landscape (topography)
• Object
• Person (portrait - physical and moral, prosopography - physical, ethopoeia - moral)

Features of Descriptive Texts

• Expressive and poetic in narrative, where the author seeks beauty through language
• Use of nouns, adjectives, and verbs. Subordinate clauses are used for time, manner, and place.
• Denotative lexicon (words without double meaning in objective descriptions) or connotative lexicon (subjective descriptions)
• Literary descriptions often include:
  • Personification: Attributing human characteristics to animals and objects. Example: The stars needed to know my care and have given my pain.
  • Simile: A comparison of two objects or situations. Example: He is as tall as a tree.
  • Hyperbole: An exaggeration for expressive purposes. Example: I'm so hungry I could eat a horse.
  • Metaphor: The identification of two terms that have some similarity. Example: All the houses are eyes that glow and stalk.
  • Epithet: An adjective that does not add any additional information to the noun. Example: For you, the green grass, the cool breeze, the white lily, and the red rose.