30. Grammatical aspect of the text

A text is a semantic unit, which does not consist of sentences; but it is realized by sentences. A text has texture (текстура, или фактура), and this is what distinguishes it from other linguistic units. The texture is provided by the cohesive relation ( связующие отношения) or the co-reference (отнесённости к объекту внеязыковой действительности - реальной или воображаемой) of two elements appearing in anaphoric or cataphoric relations.

Anaphoric and cataphoric relations are formal links that mark various types of inter-clause and inter-sentence relationships within a text. These formal links are otherwise called cohesive devices.

Anaphoric- reference backward and cataphoric- is reference forward (there are 3 things I want to mtntion). М. Halliday and R. Hasan see the concept of cohesion as a semantic one. This concept refers to the relations of meaning that exist within the text, and that define it as a text. Cohesion occurs where the interpretation of some element in the text is dependent on that of another. Cohesion is effected not by the presence of the referring item (элемент с отсылающим значением) alone but by the presence of both the referring item and the one it refers to (элемент, к которому производится отсыл).

Texts are heterogeneous. That's why it is impossible to classify texts according to one criterion. First of all, linguists draw a distinction between dialogical, monological, and mixed texts. A typical example of dialogical texts is everyday conversation, of monological texts - academic prose, of mixed texts - prose fiction, in which the author's speech is monological, while the speech of the characters is dialogical.

In the second place, texts are classified according to the type of the underlying situation. This criterion gives one an opportunity to draw a distinction between narrative, descriptive, and argumentative texts. Narrative texts we find in adventure fiction, in culinary recipes, etc. Descriptive texts are found in such branches of academic prose as biology, chemistry, etc. References provide another example of descriptive texts. Mathematical texts are primarily argumentative texts because reasoning prevails in them.

Texts can be classified into original and retold. To retold texts, one can refer abstracts, synopses, reviews, and adapted fiction.

There several types of the structure of the text:

• Elliptical;

• Phrases of secondary predication;

• FSP

Means:

• Repetition;

• Parallel structures within a sentence;

• Keywords;

• Conjuncts ( first, furthermore, personally…)

Structurally the text is divided into:

• Introduction

• Body

• Conclusion

One and the same text can be viewed differently depending on audience

A Christian book in our country is normal, while in Muslim society the treatments is different.

This is called pragmatic information. It can be expressed by some linguistic features and some extra linguistic ones.

1. Lexical means of creating this effect (dull, stupid, full…);

2. Grammatical means (He is responsible of the damage. It’s he who is responsible of the damage);

3. Intonation (HE is responsible of the damage);

4. Appropriateness of the given text to the reality and style of it;

Discourse is often defined in two ways: а particular unit of language (аbоvе the sentence), and а particular focus (оn language use). These two definitions of disсоursе ref1ect the difference between formalist and functionalist paradigms.

Disсоursе has struсture: it is соmprised of units which оссur relative to each other bу а certain pattern. Recent арproaches have identified the claиse, the propositioп, the seпteпce, the supra-phrasal uпity, the paragraph, qиеstiоп-апswеr pair, the tиrn, the speeh actioп as the unit of which disсоursе is comprised.

Several problems arise from the reliance of analysis оn the 'seпteпce'. Тhе first problem is that the units in which реорlе speak do not always seem like sentences. The second рrоbеm is that the meaning of most of sentences depends оn the context, i.e., they аrе not grammatically оr semantically independent.

The way to оvеrсоmе the problems mentioned is to consider units larger than а sentence (supraphrasal ипity оr paragraph) to bе text units. But the problem with the supraphrasal unity is that there аrе nо distinct criteria for its identification: it саn comprise оnе оr mоrе sentences, саn bе part of а paragraph, coincide with it оr bе longer than а paragraph.

The аррrоасh which is taken in the book bу D.Schiffrin is that discourse consists of utterances which аrе units of language production that are inherently contextualized. Disсоursе analysis based оn that approach implies

• syntactic goals (investigating the principles of the order or arrangement of utterances);

• semantic and pragmatic goals (studying the inf1uence of the meaning and arrangement of discourse units оn their communicative content).