Text Structure and Communication Principles

Text: Characteristics and Properties

Defining Text and Communication

A text is a meaningful unit of communication, whether oral or written, produced with a specific intent in certain circumstances. It functions as a complete and coherent message between participants.

Factors of the Communicative Situation

Several factors must be considered within a communicative situation:

• Relationship Between Participants

  This is determined by social and cultural mechanisms governing interactions, such as gender and socio-cultural level. Communicative competence refers to the issuer's ability to select appropriate registers for each speech act. The issuer must choose a suitable register (formal or informal).

• Communicative Intention

  This factor determines the text's adequacy. The issuer might intend to objectively refer to reality, express feelings, or elicit a specific reaction from the receiver. This relates to various speaker's language functions, such as representative, expressive, or phatic.

• Environment and Context

  This encompasses the set of circumstances surrounding the text's creation. These circumstances become contextual cues that determine the type and mode of expression employed.

Textual Coherence

Coherence gives a text a global sense. It is essential to connect the parts that comprise it, ensuring the elements of the text are arranged so that the receiver can understand them.

Principles of Coherence

Coherence is based on universal norms of expression, including:

• Logical thinking
• Clarity
• Semantic compatibility
• Lexical variety

Cohesive Devices in Text

Cohesion resources enable connections between the parts of a text, thereby contributing to its overall coherence.

Recurrence and Repetition

Recurrence involves the repetition of an element within a text to maintain thematic consistency. The most significant form is lexical repetition, where words are repeated to reinforce key ideas, often found in poetic texts.

Substitution and Ellipsis

Substitution is a cohesive device used to avoid the repetition of an element by replacing it with another. It can be categorized in two main ways:

• Lexical Substitution

  This involves replacing terms to avoid excessive repetition:

  • Synonymic replacement: Using synonyms to vary vocabulary.
  • Hypernyms or hyponyms: Using broader or narrower terms.
  • Generic or 'wildcard' words: Words with a wide, general meaning.
  • Repeating terms from the same semantic field.
  • Paraphrasis: Explaining a previously stated idea in different words.

• Grammatical Substitution

  This involves three types of functions:

  • Anaphoric: Refers to elements that have already appeared in the text.
  • Cataphoric: Refers to elements that have not yet appeared in the text.
  • Deictic: Refers to extralinguistic elements, often outside the text's immediate context.