Textual Analysis: Deixis, Context, and Communicative Acts

Textual Analysis

A text is a unit of information generated within a specific context, influenced by both verbal and nonverbal elements. These contextual circumstances initiate the communication process.

Pragmatic, Textual, and Linguistic Aspects

Pragmatic aspects: Analyze data from the context, including the type of transmitter and receiver, as well as the subject's intention.

Textual aspects: Analyze data about the organization of the text (text type, genre, information progression) and the relationship between its parts (reference and connection).

Linguistic aspects: Examine the use of language in different areas (phonetic, morphosyntactic).

Textual Properties

• Adaptation: The relationship of the text with the communicative context (whether the register of the language used is appropriate to the situation).
• Coherence: Accounts for the logical structure of the text, ensuring it avoids contradictions and repetitions.
• Cohesion: Represents the proper relationship between the parts of the text and the use of linguistic elements.

Communicative Act

A communicative act is a deliberate and complex process between a speaker (sender) and a listener (receiver) who establish contact with a communicative purpose in a specific space-time context. The text is the result of this interaction.

Topic

The topic is the subject of the text or conversation. It selects lexical resources that belong to a specific lexical field and can be treated in a general or specialized manner.

Intention

The intention is the aim of the communicative act. It can be subjective or objective, determined by the sender's level of involvement.

Channel

The channel is the means for transmitting the message. It can be oral or written, each activating different ways of communicating.

Deixis

Deixis is a communicative phenomenon related to the oral channel. It's the set of linguistic markers in a text that reveal the three basic elements of the communicative act: people (I-you), time (now-before-after), and space (here-there).

Types of Deixis

• Person Deixis of Statement: Refers to the places in the text where the "I" (emitter) and "you" (receiver) are identified.
• Social Deixis: Highlights the relationship between partners, expressing the degree of formality, social distance, etc. (through personal pronouns, vocative forms, and protocol).
• Space Deixis: Places markers in the text related to spatial objectives, indicating proximity/distance in reference to the people involved in the statement.

Context

• Physical Context: Consists of the environmental elements present during communication.
• Usage Context: The place where communication occurs, considering the formality of the situation (private sphere/public sphere).
• Sociocultural Context: Shared knowledge between partners in a verbal exchange, relevant for producing and interpreting statements.