Text linguistics

1
Text linguistics
2
Text

• the spoken or written evocation of an event or
  series of events
• (p.193)

3
Missing the typographical boat

• In written communication, the text is almost all
  there is.
• (p.180)

4
Missing the typographical boat

• In written communication, the text is almost all
  there is.
• (p.180)

Wrong
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Missing the communication-design (RPW/RCD) boat

• Typeface
• Weight
• Space
• Proximity
• Shape
• Size
• Colour
• Medium
• .

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Textual function Weaving function
The elements and dimensions of language that
serve to weave a discourse together.
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TextPerceived wholeThe two weaving mechanisms
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TextPerceived wholeThe two weaving mechanisms
Texture
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TextPerceived wholeThe two weaving mechanisms

• Cohesion (elements)
• achieved by formal devices, usually
  lexico-syntactic
• semasiological
• Coherence (dimensions)
• achieved by conceptual devices (ideas)
• onomasiological

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TextPerceived wholeThe two weaving mechanisms
Form

• Cohesion (elements)
• achieved by formal devices, usually
  lexico-syntactic
• semasiological
• Coherence (dimensions)
• achieved by conceptual devices (ideas)
• onomasiological

Content
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TextPerceived wholeThe two weaving mechanisms
Semasiology

• Cohesion (elements)
• achieved by formal devices, usually
  lexico-syntactic
• semasiological
• Coherence (dimensions)
• achieved by conceptual devices (ideas)
• onomasiological

Onomasiology
12
A text

• It is true (Ladies) your tongues are held your
  defensive armour, but you never detract more from
  your honour than when you give too much liberty
  to that slippery glib member. That Ivory guard
  or garrison, which impales your tongue, doth
  caution and instruct you, to put restraint upon
  your Speech. In much talk you must of necessity
  commit much error, as it leaves some tincture of
  vain-glory, which proclaims the proud heart from
  whence it proceeded, or some taste of scurrility,
  which displays the wanton heart from whence it
  streamed.

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IterationCohesion

• It is true (Ladies) your tongues are held your
  defensive armour, but you never detract more from
  your honour than when you give too much liberty
  to that slippery glib member. That Ivory guard
  or garrison, which impales your tongue, doth
  caution and instruct you, to put restraint upon
  your Speech. In much talk you must of necessity
  commit much error, as it leaves some tincture of
  vain-glory, which proclaims the proud heart from
  whence it proceeded, or some taste of scurrility,
  which displays the wanton heart from whence it
  streamed.

14
ReferentialCohesion

• It is true (Ladies) your tongues are held your
  defensive armour, but you never detract more from
  your honour than when you give too much liberty
  to that slippery glib member. That Ivory guard
  or garrison, which impales your tongue, doth
  caution and instruct you, to put restraint upon
  your Speech. In much talk you must of necessity
  commit much error, as it leaves some tincture of
  vain-glory, which proclaims the proud heart from
  whence it proceeded, or some taste of scurrility,
  which displays the wanton heart from whence it
  streamed.

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Balance (symmetry, parallelism, isocolon)Cohesion

• It is true (Ladies) your tongues are held your
  defensive armour, but you never detract more from
  your honour than when you give too much liberty
  to that slippery glib member. That Ivory guard
  or garrison, which impales your tongue, doth
  caution and instruct you, to put restraint upon
  your Speech. In much talk you must of necessity
  commit much error, as it leaves some tincture of
  vain-glory, which proclaims the proud heart from
  whence it proceeded, or some taste of scurrility,
  which displays the wanton heart from whence it
  streamed.

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Functional linkingCohesion

• It is true (Ladies) your tongues are held your
  defensive armour, but you never detract more from
  your honour than when you give too much liberty
  to that slippery glib member. That Ivory guard
  or garrison, which impales your tongue, doth
  caution and instruct you, to put restraint upon
  your Speech. In much talk you must of necessity
  commit much error, as it leaves some tincture of
  vain-glory, which proclaims the proud heart from
  whence it proceeded, or some taste of scurrility,
  which displays the wanton heart from whence it
  streamed.

17
IterationCohesion

• It is true (Ladies) your tongues are held your
  defensive armour, but you never detract more from
  your honour than when you give too much liberty
  to that slippery glib member. That Ivory guard
  or garrison, which impales your tongue, doth
  caution and instruct you, to put restraint upon
  your Speech. In much talk you must of necessity
  commit much error, as it leaves some tincture of
  vain-glory, which proclaims the proud heart from
  whence it proceeded, or some taste of scurrility,
  which displays the wanton heart from whence it
  streamed.

18
Iteration-PolyptotonCohesion

• It is true (Ladies) your tongues are held your
  defensive armour, but you never detract more from
  your honour than when you give too much liberty
  to that slippery glib member. That Ivory guard
  or garrison, which impales your tongue, doth
  caution and instruct you, to put restraint upon
  your Speech. In much talk you must of necessity
  commit much error, as it leaves some tincture of
  vain-glory, which proclaims the proud heart from
  whence it proceeded, or some taste of scurrility,
  which displays the wanton heart from whence it
  streamed.

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(No Transcript)
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Cohesion / Coherence

• Cohesion ( coherence)
• Dont trust McBean, because hes a shyster.
• Coherence (low cohesion)
• Dont trust McBean. Hes a shyster.

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Cohesion without coherence (?)

• A week has seven days. Every day I feed my cat.
  Cats have four legs. The cat is on the mat. Mat
  has three letters.

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Cohesion / Coherence

• Subordination
• Dont trust McBean, because hes a shyster.
• Evidence
• Dont trust McBean. Hes a shyster.

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Cohesion / Coherence
SubordinatorA word that puts one clause into a
specific syntactic relationship with another
clause (i.e., a subordinate relationship)
functional linking.

• Subordination
• Dont trust McBean, because hes a shyster.
• Evidence
• Dont trust McBean. Hes a shyster.

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Cohesion / Coherence

• Subordination
• Dont trust McBean, because hes a shyster.
• Evidence
• Dont trust McBean. Hes a shyster.

Shysters have low credibility. Trust requires
credibility.
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Cohesion / Coherence

• Cohesion
• Knowing the words and/or structure
• Semasiological

• Subordination
• Dont trust McBean, because hes a shyster.
• Evidence
• Dont trust McBean. Hes a shyster.

• Coherence
• Knowing the ideas, the reasoning, the meaning
• Onomasiological

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Text LinguisticsCohesion / Coherence

• Cohesion--formal, semasiological
• Structural
• Iteration (phrasal, lexical, morphological,
  phonetic), balance (iteration of structure),
  functional linking (coordination and
  subordination)
• Coherenceconceptual, onomasiological
• Referential
• Topical definite, indefinite
• Relational
• Paratactic (among nuclei)
• Hypotactic (between nucleus and satellites)
• Proformal
• Anaphoric, cataphoric, elliptical

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Referential coherence--Topical

• When the Star-Belly Sneetches had frankfurter
  roasts
• Or picnics or parties or marshmallow toasts,
• They never invited the Plain-Belly Sneetches.
• They left them out cold, in the dark of the
  beaches
• They kept them away. Never let them come near.
• And thats how they treated them year after year.

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Referential coherence--Topical

• When the had frankfurter roasts
• Or picnics or parties or marshmallow toasts,
• They never invited .
• They left them out cold, in the dark of the
  beaches
• They kept them away. Never let them come near.
• And thats how they treated them year after year.

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Referential coherence--Topical

• When the had frankfurter roasts
• Or picnics or parties or marshmallow toasts,
• They never invited .
• They left them out cold, in the dark of the
  beaches
• They kept them away. Never let them come near.
• And thats how they treated them year after year.

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Referential coherence Proformal (not content
words)

• When the Star-Belly Sneetchesi hadj frankfurter
  roasts
• Or Øi Øj picnics or Øi Øj parties or Øi Øj
  marshmallow toasts,
• Theyi never invited the Plain-Belly Sneetchesk.
• Theyi left themk out cold, in the dark of the
  beaches
• Theyi kept themk away. Øi Never let themkcome
  near.
• And thats how theyi treated themk year after
  year.

i
k
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Referential coherence--Topical

• Prominence
• Star-Belliesfocus
• SBs actionstopic
• and/or
• Plain-Belliesfocus
• PBs treatmenttopic
• SBs/PBs perspectives
• (actions vs. feelings)

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Referential coherence

• Phrasal
• Identical
• Partial
• Proformal
• Anaphoric
• (Cataphoric)
• Elliptical

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Referential coherence / Iterative
cohesionPhrasal (content words, not proforms)

• Identical (full iteration)
• Star-Belly Sneetches blah blah blah
  Star-Belly Sneetches
• Plain-Belly Sneetches blah blah blah
  Plain-Belly Sneetches
• Sylvester McMonkey McBean blah blah blah
  Sylvester McMonkey McBean

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Referential coherence / Iterative cohesion
Phrasal (content words, not proforms)

• Partial (reduction)
• Star-Belly Sneetches blah blah blah
  Star-Bellies
• Sylvester McMonkey McBean blah blah blah
  McBean
• Partial (paraphrase)
• Star-Belly Sneetches blah blah blah Sneetches
  with stars
• Plain-Belly Sneetches blah blah blah
  Sneetches without stars on their bellies

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Referential coherence Proformal (not content
words)

• Star-Belly Sneetchesi
• Anaphoric
• Theyi never invited
• Elliptical
• Øi never let them

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Referential coherenceProformal (not content
words)

• Cataphoric
• Theyi Star-Belly Sneetchesi

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Referential coherence Proformal (not content
words)

• Cataphoric
• And he laughed as he drove
• In his car up the beach
• Theyi never will learn.
• No. You cant teach a sneetchi!

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Referential coherenceProformal (not content
words)

• Cataphoric
• Then I was deep within the woods
• When, suddenly, I spied themi.
• I saw a pair of pale green pantsi
• With nobody inside themi!

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Relational coherence

• So they clambered inside. Then the big machine
  roared.
• And it klonked. And it bonked. And it jerked. And
  it berked.
• And it bopped them about. But the thing really
  worked!
• When the Plain-Belly Sneetches popped out, they
  had stars!
• They actually did. They had stars upon thars.

Local conceptual relations--between two, or a
few, proximal clauses.
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Relational coherenceRestatement

• So they clambered inside. Then the big machine
  roared.
• And it klonked. And it bonked. And it jerked. And
  it berked.
• And it bopped them about. But the thing really
  worked!
• When the Plain-Belly Sneetches popped out, they
  had stars!
• They actually did. They had stars upon thars.

Nucleus
Restatements
A satellite which reformulates (paraphrases) the
information given in the nucleus.
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Relational coherenceConcession

• So they clambered inside. Then the big machine
  roared.
• And it klonked. And it bonked. And it jerked. And
  it berked.
• And it bopped them about. But the thing really
  worked!
• When the Plain-Belly Sneetches popped out, they
  had stars!
• They actually did. They had stars upon thars.

Concessions
Nucleus
A satellite which concedes potential
incompatibilities with the information presented
in the nucleus.
42
Relational coherence
Paratactic Among elements of equal importance to
the text between nuclei Hypotactic Among
elements in which one (the nucleus) is more
important to the text, and the other (the
satellite) extends it in some way.
43
Relational coherenceParatactic relations
Now, the Star-Belly Sneetches Had bellies with
stars. The Plain-Belly Sneetches Had none upon
thars. Contrast theme, character
Nuclei
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Relational coherenceParatactic relations
Nuclei
Off again! On again! In again! Out
again! Sequence Narrative elements
Contrast Plot development(equality of
characters!)
Nuclei
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Relational coherenceHypotactic relations

• Nucleus
• Utterance that contributes to the core of the
  text (the story, the argument, the instruction,
  ).
• Satellite
• Utterance that is peripheral to text, and which
  depends on a nucleus (that it extends, explains,
  frames, )

46
Hypotactic relations Nucleus and satellite

• Then ONE day, it seems, while the Plain-Belly
  Sneetches
• Were moping and doping alone on the beaches,
• Just sitting there wishing their bellies had
  stars
• A stranger zipped up in the strangest of cars.

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Hypotactic relations Nucleus and satellite

• Then ONE day, it seems, while the Plain-Belly
  Sneetches
• Were moping and doping alone on the beaches,
• Just sitting there wishing their bellies had
  stars
• A stranger zipped up in the strangest of cars.

48
Hypotactic relations Nucleus and satellite

• Then ONE day, it seems, while the Plain-Belly
  Sneetches
• Were moping and doping alone on the beaches,
• Just sitting there wishing their bellies had
  stars
• A stranger zipped up in the strangest of cars.

Satellites
Nucleus
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Nucleus and satellite Circumstance

• Then ONE day, it seems, while the Plain-Belly
  Sneetches
• Were moping and doping alone on the beaches,
• Just sitting there wishing their bellies had
  stars
• A stranger zipped up in the strangest of cars.

Satellites
Nucleus
Circumstance
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Nucleus and satellite Circumstance

• Then ONE day, it seems, while the Plain-Belly
  Sneetches
• Were moping and doping alone on the beaches,
• Just sitting there wishing their bellies had
  stars
• A stranger zipped up in the strangest of cars.

Satellites
Nucleus
Circumstance
A satellite which gives the framework in which
the reader isintended to interpret the situation
described in the nucleus.
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Multiple relations

• And Ive heard of your troubles. Ive heard
  youre unhappy.
• But I can fix that. Im the Fix-it-up Chappie.
• Ive come here to help you. I have what you need.
• And my prices are low. And I work at great
  speed.
• And my work is one-hundred percent guaranteed.

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Contrast
And Ive heard of your troubles. Ive heard
youre unhappy. But I can fix that. Im the
Fix-it-up Chappie. Ive come here to help you. I
have what you need. And my prices are low. And I
work at great speed. And my work is one-hundred
percent guaranteed.
Nuclei
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Solutionhood

• And Ive heard of your troubles. Ive heard
  youre unhappy.
• But I can fix that. Im the Fix-it-up Chappie.
• Ive come here to help you. I have what you need.
• And my prices are low. And I work at great
  speed.
• And my work is one-hundred percent guaranteed.

Problem(s)
Nucleus
The nucleus is a solution to the problem
described in the satelite.
54
Justification
And Ive heard of your troubles. Ive heard
youre unhappy. But I can fix that. Im the
Fix-it-up Chappie. Ive come here to help you. I
have what you need. And my prices are low. And I
work at great speed. And my work is one-hundred
percent guaranteed.
Justifications
Nucleus
A satellite which increases the readers
readiness to accept the writers right to present
the information in the nucleus.
55
From the perspective of the Plain-Belly
SneetchesMotivation

• And Ive heard of your troubles. Ive heard
  youre unhappy.
• But I can fix that. Im the Fix-it-up Chappie.
• Ive come here to help you. I have what you need.
• And my prices are low. And I work at great
  speed.
• And my work is one-hundred percent guaranteed.

Motivations
Nucleus
A satellite which motivates the hearer to perform
the action described in the nucleus (in this
case, evoked by the nucleus).
56
Motivation?! Hey, thats persuasion, isnt
it?Rhetorical interlude

• And Ive heard of your troubles. Ive heard
  youre unhappy.
• But I can fix that. Im the Fix-it-up Chappie.
• Ive come here to help you. I have what you need.
• And my prices are low. And I work at great speed.
• And my work is one-hundred percent guaranteed.

Reasons premises feeding the argument pay me
(so you can jump into my star-off machine).
57
Motivation?! Hey, thats persuasion, isnt
it?Rhetorical interlude

• And Ive heard of your troubles. Ive heard
  youre unhappy.
• But I can fix that. Im the Fix-it-up Chappie.
• Ive come here to help you. I have what you need.
• And my prices are low. And I work at great speed.
• And my work is one-hundred percent guaranteed.

Ethos, pathos, logos, figuration, topoi,
invention, arrangement, style, delivery,
stasis,
58
Motivation?! Hey, thats persuasion, isnt
it?Rhetorical interlude ethos

• And Ive heard of your troubles. Ive heard
  youre unhappy.
• But I can fix that. Im the Fix-it-up Chappie.
• Ive come here to help you. I have what you need.
• And my prices are low. And I work at great speed.
• And my work is one-hundred percent guaranteed.

Eunoia(Goodwill)
Phronesis(Good sense)
Arete(Virtue)
59
Character?! Hey, thats literary, isnt
it?Literary interlude

• And Ive heard of your troubles. Ive heard
  youre unhappy.
• But I can fix that. Im the Fix-it-up Chappie.
• Ive come here to help you. I have what you need.
• And my prices are low. And I work at great speed.
• And my work is one-hundred percent guaranteed.

Opportunistic interloper, illustrating selfish
personal values, in contrast to the (selfishly
skewed) community values of the Sneetches.
Advances plot while advancing personal wealth
thematically exposes superficiality of appearance
and fashion character revealed through dialogue.
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Text linguistics vs. other analyses

• Text linguistics only cares what satellites and
  nuclei are doing.
• Rhetoric cares (from a suasive viewpoint) about
  where, how and why (and what).
• Literary analysis cares (from anaesthetic
  viewpoint) about where, how and why (and what).

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Text linguistics

• Cohesion--formal, semasiological
• Structural
• Iteration (phrasal, lexical, morphological,
  phonetic), balance (iteration of structure),
  functional linking (coordination and
  subordination)
• Coherenceconceptual, onomasiological
• Referential
• Topical definite, indefinite
• Relational
• Paratactic (among nuclei)
• Hypotactic (between nucleus and satellites)
• Proformal
• Anaphoric, cataphoric, elliptical