Discourse and text types: communicative referential aspects

Discourse type

Communicative intention

Ways of implementation of the communicative intention in texts

Referential type of text and temporal deixis

1. Legal discourse (discourse of international and domestic law);

2. Administrative discourse (memos, official reports and letters, certificates, patents, diplomas, application forms, document sheets etc.);

3. Business discourse (business contracts, business correspondence, etc.);

4. Military discourse (statutes, orders, etc., with the exception of military technical texts).

1. To bind the addressee to a certain kind of behaviour by making an agreement, by promising, guaranteeing, warning, threatening, permitting, prohibiting, etc. and thus to change behaviour of the addressee.

1. By reference to real facts.

By the use of binding (performative) lexical units (illocutionary verbs, nouns, etc.) and other binding linguistic (syntactical and morphological constructions) and extralinguistic means (signatures, stamps, seals, letter-heads, etc.).

1. Artefact types of texts that

change the real world.

Temporal deixis: present, future.

5. Scientific discourse (texts of academic articles, diplomas, dissertations, monographs, etc.; texts of technical instructions, manuals, descriptions, etc.).

5. To inform the addressee of the validity of the academic research by reference to its results, to make the addressee act in a proper way by instructing on the design of machines, devices, equipment, etc.

5. By reference to real facts and argumentation, by the use of scientific and technical terminology, morphological and syntactical features of the academic writing (specific text formats, tables, schemes, pictures, photographs, formulas, etc.), by the use of precision lexicon (numerals, proper and brand names, etc.).

5. Artefact types of texts that

first reflect and then change the real world.

Temporal deixis: past, present, future.

6. Discourse of the mass media.

1. Discourse of the news items (news items in the print press, news in the electronic media: the radio, the TV, the Internet , weather forecasts, etc.);

2. Discourse of the print press and the electronic media: the radio, the TV, the Internet (articles and essays in newspapers and magazines containing commentaries, assessments, judgements and arguments), essays, advertisements and announcements; sports commentaries; talk shows and interviews on the radio, TV and the Internet).

6.1. To inform the addressee of a certain course of events (e.g., local, regional, national, international news, weather, etc.).

6.2. To persuade the addressee to change his/her views and act in a certain way (to follow/deny a certain doctrine, support certain political forces, sport clubs, purchase certain goods and services, etc.).

6.1. By reference to real facts and argumentation, by the use of precision lexicon (numerals, proper names, etc.).

6.2. By reference to real facts and argumentation, by the use of precision lexicon (numerals, names), by the extensive use of tropes and figures of speech (stylistics devices and expressive means except fictional artistic images), typical of fictional texts, by audio, visual and graphic means of communication.

6.1. Artefact types of texts that reflect the real world.

Temporal deixis: past, present, future.

6.2. Grey zone (located between artefact and mentafact) types of texts that

first reflect and then change the real world.

Temporal deixis: past, present, future.

7. Political discourse

(political debates,

speeches, hearings, etc.).

7. To persuade the addressee to take certain actions to solve a political or societal problem/

7. By reference to real facts and argumentation, by the use of precision lexicon (numerals, names), by the extensive use of tropes and figures of speech (stylistics devices and expressive means except fictional artistic images), typical of fictional texts, by audio, visual and graphic means of communication.

7. Grey zone (located between artefact and mentafact) types of texts that

first reflect and then change the real world.

Temporal deixis: past, present, future.

8. Fictional (belles-lettres)

discourse.

8.1 Discourse of prose

(including classical and

other genres of prose such

as fantasy, detective

fiction, etc.);

8.2. Discourse of drama;

3. Discourse of poetry.

8. To persuade the addressee to change his/her mind and believe the author thus changing his/her cultural, aesthetic and ideological benchmarks in the way the author has planned.

8. By reference to fictional, imaginary worlds created by the author’s artistic “ego” through the artistic images, by the extensive use of tropes and figures of speech (stylistics devices and expressive means) typical of fictional texts, by audio, visual and graphic means of communication.

8. Mentafact types of texts that reflect the unreal (fictional) worlds.

Temporal deixis: past, present, future.

9. Colloquial discourse.

9.1. Colloquial standard

discourse (the literary

register of speech);

9.2. Colloquial substandard

discourse (slang, jargon,

dialects, etc.).

9.1. To implement practically any communicative intention with the aim the achieve the perlocutionary effect as it is planned by the oral speech act participants aiming to be understandable to the general ˈpublic.

9.2. To implement practically any communicative intention with the aim the achieve the perlocutionary effect as it is planned by the oral speech act participants aiming to be understandable to a particular professional, social or age group with the aim to identify these participants as “insiders” or “outsiders”.

9.1. By reference to real, unreal, imaginary worlds with the use of tropes and figures of speech (stylistic devices and expressive means), characteristic of literary standard of language.

9.2. By reference to real, unreal, imaginary worlds with the use of tropes and figures of speech (stylistic devices and expressive means), characteristic of substandard language and colloquial informal standards of language including

substandard linguistic registers (in cases of slang, jargon, regional variants of languages, etc.)

9. Colloquial discourse is build up on oral texts in the form of a dialogue or monologue. They may include structures of non-fictional and fictional discourse the usage of which highly depends upon the role and status of the speech act participants. Thus colloquial discourse is on the one hand outside the pattern of artefact, mentafact or grey zone texts, but on the other hand may have certain features of all of them.

Temporal deixis: past, present, future.