Text Structure and Textual Competence

Text Structure

Sequence of sentences, but not any sequence of sentences is a text.

Considered a text, if it is coherent and if it complies with certain norms which are typical of a text.

Texts must have:

• Cohesion: formal, grammatical relations between sentences in a text.
• Coherence: interaction between the text and the real world. It relates to the mental and conceptual aspects of the given information.
• Recurrence (repetition), progression (sequence) and connectivity (connectors).

Textual Competence

Capacity to construct well-formed texts. Capacity to interpret well-formed texts or accept messages. This competence can be evidenced in different situations: monologs/dialogs, oral/written discourse, face to face/distance interactions, simultaneous/differed messages.

Textualization Rules

Well-made texts are characterized by a specific organization of sentences and idea. Text architecture is governed by two key concepts:

• Cohesion: formal aspects covering the relations between sentences in the text.
• Coherence: mental relations established between interlocutors given by the sense contained in the text. Cohesion and Coherence determined by:

• Recurrence: the repetition items with reference to concepts already given in the text. It may include synonyms or superordinates.
• Progression: the sequence of themes, topics covered or given in a text.
• Connectivity: links between words and sentences that would enable understanding.

Recurrence Rules

Presence of elements which re-occur or reappear in the text in order to create a coherent and cohesive text.

1. Repetition: an element reappears with the same form in different places in the text.
2. Anaphoric Procedures: mechanisms to keep referents without necessarily repeating them.

• Pronominalization: pronouns establish co-reference, they refer to a given antecedent.
• Anaphoric Reference: a reference unit which refers to another unit that was introduced earlier on in the text/speech.
• Cataphoric Reference: a reference unit which refers to another unit that is introduced later on in the text/speech.

Determination: an unknown element is determined and specified later in the text.Nominalization: the use of nouns which are created from adjectives or verbs.Referential Verbs: those verbs which anaphorically refer to mentioned predicates.Lexical Substitution: the substitution of one element for another, usually synonyms, hypernyms or hyponyms. It implies the use of linguistic elements.Co-reference: the use two linguistic expressions to refer to an element previously mentioned. Co-reference is valid in a certain discourse only. The knowledge of the world will facilitate understanding.Elision: the elimination of subjects when it has been mentioned more than once. This is very frequent in Spanish, but very restricted in English. Only present in compound predicates.

Progression Rules

The constant addition of information in a text. Sentences in well-made texts repeat certain information (recurrence), but also add new information (progression). Two key concepts must be studied. Theme and Rheme represent the way in which information is distributed in a sentence.

1. Theme: the starting-point of the utterance, that which is known or at least obvious in the given situation.
2. Rheme: what the speaker says about, or in regard to the starting point of the utterance. New information which is added, coming immediately after the conjugated verb.

Theme: 'something' that can be gathered from the previous context.

Rheme: something new, something unknown from the previous context.

Halliday’s model: Theme: On a clear day, Rheme: You can see forever.

Berry’s model: Add. Theme: On a clear day, Basic Theme: you, Rheme: can see forever.