Theoretical Grammar

LECTURE 10: THE TEXT, TEXTLINGUISTICS


1. Text as a syntactic unit.

Text is the unit of the highest (supersyntactic) level. It can be defined as a sequence of sentences connected logically and semantically which convey a complete message. The text is a language unit and it manifests itself in speech as discourse. Textlinguistics is concerned with the analysis of formal and structural features of the text. Textual basic integrative properties can be described with the help of the notions of coherence (цілісність), cohesion (формальна складність) and deixis.

2. 
   The notion of coherence.
   

Coherence is a semantic or topical unity of the spoken or written text – that is, the sentences within the text are usually connected by the same general topic. Generally speaking, a coherent text is the text that ‘sticks together’ as a whole unit. Coherence is usually achieved by means of the theme and rheme progression. There exist various types of the theme and rheme progression, e.g.
a ) T1 R1 Once there lived an old man.



T2 R2 The old man lived in a hut.



T3 R3 The hut was near a wood.
b ) T1 R1 Michael is a student.
T1 R2 He lives in Boston.
T1 R3 He has a cheap car.

c) T The general topic is Ukraine. Subtopics are its

climate, industry, population, etc.
T 1 R1 T2 R2 T3 R3
Naturally, in the process of text development different types of theme and rheme progression are combined.


3. The notion of cohesion. Text connecting devices.


Cohesion is a succession of spoken or written sentences. Sometimes the sentences may even not coincide topically. The connection we want to draw between various parts of the text may be achieved by textual and lexical cohesion. Textual cohesion may be achieved by formal markers which express conjunctive relations and serve as text connectors. Text connectors may be of four different types:

1. 
   additive – and, furthermore, similarly, in addition, etc.
   
2. 
   adversative – but, however, on the other hand, in fact, anyway, after all, nevertheless, etc.
   
3. 
   causal – so, consequently, for this reason, thus, etc.
   
4. 
   temporal – then, after that, finally, at last, in the long run, etc.
   

The full list of text connectors is very long. Some of them do not possess direct equivalents in the Ukrainian language. At the same time it is impossible to speak and write English naturally without knowing for sure when and how to use text connectors of the English language.