Forms of Linguistic Expression
Unit 5: Forms of Linguistic Expression
Communication
The concept of communication has two aspects:
- Content: The message itself.
- Expression: The form the message takes.
These are forms of expression:
Description
This is a picture drawn with words. In the description of a person, when it refers to physical features, it’s called prosopography, and when it refers to moral traits, it’s called etopeya. The description uses the adjective, whose function is to identify concrete and abstract qualities of the noun to which it refers. To describe, it is necessary to:
- Choose the main features, preferably the specific details.
- Rate or identify the traits chosen, using adjectives and comparisons to reproduce the desired image in the reader’s mind.
- Order adjectives to produce the greatest impact on the reader.
Narrative
A report of one or several events, ordering facts chronologically (as they happened) or climactically (to create a desired atmosphere, like suspense or terror). According to the narrative content, it can be:
- Subjective: When the narrator is one of the characters in the story.
- Objective: When the narrator is an observer of events.
- History: When the story concerns a past fact.
- Realistic: When the story refers to facts as presented in reality.
- Fantastic: When it relates to incredible facts that do not happen in reality.
- Science Fiction: When it refers to future events.
The narrative primarily uses verbs (what happens, action) and nouns (to whom it happens, person, and where it happens, place). It is necessary to:
- Observe the facts.
- Choose the most important and discard the secondary ones.
- Sort events to awaken the reader’s interest.
Argument
It is used to persuade readers. Reasoning is pursued by the acceptance or rejection of a thesis proposal. It consists of:
- Thesis: The conclusion of the argument.
- Supporting Data: The premises of the argument.
The argument primarily uses verbs (actions), nouns (people and places), and adjectives (characteristics of actions, people, and places). To argue, it is necessary to:
- Indicate the difference between what is proven and what remains to be tested, specifying the meaning of concepts to avoid fallacies.
- Differentiate between opinions and facts.
- Support the thesis with concrete examples.
- Consider the counterargument.
Persuasion is achieved if the issuer maintains dominance over the receiver, impacts the receiver emotionally, and presents logical-grammatical structures appropriate to the circumstances.
Exposition
This is the language that announces events and ideas. Its purpose is to inform about an object, event, or idea. Therefore, exposition is directed at the intellect and not the emotions, unlike literary description, narration, or argument. The expository text is the same as an informative text. Exposition has several specific forms:
- Technical Description: Its purpose is to describe an object and its component parts, sometimes including how these parts function. It resembles a definition because it shares the same exhibition techniques.
- Definition: To understand a concept is to be able to explain it properly without knowing all the objects to which it applies. To understand a concept, it’s necessary to know its meaning. Explaining the meaning of words is defining. Definitions can be denotative (the term’s extension, i.e., objects to which it can be applied, divided into definition by examples and demonstration) and connotative (the term’s intension, i.e., properties common to all objects within the extension, divided into synonymy and definition by genus and specific difference).
- Analysis: To understand the whole by breaking it down into its parts. It’s based on classification (distributing objects by similarities and differences according to a common denominator) and division (the gradual breakdown of a whole into parts).
- Summary: To reduce a text by reading it, selecting the main points, writing them together, and comparing the new text to the original to ensure it includes the essence without extraneous ideas and is much shorter.
- Bibliographic Review: A report about the contents and characteristics of a book or publication. There are two types: informative (informs about the content with a superficial reading) and critical (evaluates the content with a careful and analytical reading). The general procedure for creating reviews would be: create a bibliographic record, determine the relevant parts by reviewing the index, read the introduction, preface, and conclusions, read each chapter entirely, take short quotes if necessary.
- Report: An exposition that aims to convey accurate information about a specific topic.