Understanding Language Functions and Text Types

Language Functions

• Expressive Function (f. expresiva): Aims to raise awareness of the sender's subjectivity: opinions, judgments, moods.
• Conative Function (f. contiva): Aims to ensure that the receiver does something the sender demands.
• Referential Function (f. referencial): Aims to expose or explain facts objectively.

Classes of Sentences

• Enunciatives: Report of something.
• Interrogative: Formula a question.
• Exclamatives: Express emotion or a feeling.
• Dubitatives: Manifest doubt.
• Mandatory: Express a commandment or a prohibition.
• Desideratives: Manifest a desire.

Literary Genres

• Arts: Works not intended to be read aloud.
• Narrative: Prose set in a fictional context. Presents a character who must face and solve a conflict. This character and conflict are the product of the author's imagination.
• Poetry: Texts where the subject expresses their feelings and ideas, featuring basic rhythm and figures of speech.

Lexical Concepts

Loans

Words borrowed from another language. Examples: hopefully (hopefully), lejia (bleach), calzoncillos (underpants), rally (rally).

Text Types

Explanatory Texts

Intended to introduce a topic or idea clearly or objectively.

Argumentative Texts

Aim to defend or refute an idea. The most common structure includes a presentation of the topic, arguments, and conclusions.

Figurative Language and Reference

• Synonyms: Words that have the same or similar meaning.
• Ellipsis: The removal of any element already known or understood.
• Anaphora: A phenomenon whereby a word refers to a preceding item in the text.

Dramatic Forms

• Tragedy: The end is elevated or sad. Its characters tend to be gods or noble people who must fight the inevitable.
• Comedy: Characterized by an optimistic tone, with humorous or ironic elements, and a happy ending that resolves conflicts. The characters are ordinary people.
• Drama: A real-life situation that is complex and difficult but ultimately resolved by the protagonist. This synthesizes elements of comedy and tragedy.

Narrative Forms

• Novel: A relatively long narrative where an action develops, possibly presenting parallel subplots. A narrator tells a fictional story involving characters in a specific time and space.
• Short Story: A brief narrative characterized by intensity, focusing only on aspects of the subject.
• Tale (Story): Oral transmission of a folk tale combining fantastic and real elements, targeting an audience.
• Fable: A brief composition in verse or prose where the main characters are animals or inanimate beings acting as individuals.
• Legend: A folk story with a basic historical question magnified by imagination.

Homonyms

Words that are spelled the same but have different meanings.