Narrative, Descriptive & Argumentative Texts: Structure & Characteristics
TX 32: Narrative Texts
Structure & Characteristics
1. Introduction
This section explores narrative texts, examining their structure and characteristics. We will delve into two key aspects:
- Structure and characteristics of narrative texts.
- Characteristics and types of narratives.
2. Narrative Texts: Characteristics & Types
2.1 Definition
Narration is a fundamental means of expression integrated into everyday life. It appears in various contexts, from casual conversations to formal reports and news dissemination.
A narrative text linguistically represents a story, either real or imagined. Two basic elements comprise all narrative texts: a teller (narrator) and a tale (story). The addressee has limited interaction with the narrator, relying on their authority.
Narratives typically concern past events, but they can also address the present (sports broadcasts), future (forecasts), and hypothetical (sci-fi).
2.2 Context & Co-text
Narratives are influenced by both context and co-text. Context, from a discursive perspective, can be:
- Situational: The author’s relationship with the place.
- Interpersonal: The author’s relationship with the reader.
- Emotional: The author’s relationship with themself.
Co-text refers to the relationship of an utterance or passage with the surrounding words and sentences.
2.3 Main Features of Narrative Texts
- Constructedness: Narrative texts exhibit planning.
- Prefabrication: Common elements and typicality exist in characters and actions.
- Trajectory: Narratives follow a development with a beginning, middle, and end.
- Teller: A narrator always tells the story.
- Displacement: Narratives refer to events removed in space or time from the addressee.
Narrative texts often employ figures of speech:
- Simile: Beautiful as a rose.
- Metaphor: She is a jewel.
- Hyperbole: He was big as a house.
- Personification: The thunder growled.
- Irony: There’s nothing as fun as a math class.
- Allusion: He was a real Romeo.
2.4 Main Types of Narrative Texts
- Fiction in Prose:
- Fable: Short story with a moral lesson, often featuring animals acting like humans (e.g., Aesop’s The Hare & the Tortoise).
- Novel: Long narrative (e.g., Stoker’s Dracula).
- Short Story: Shorter equivalent of novels (e.g., Joyce’s Dubliners).
- Fiction in Verse:
- Epic: Narrative poem about heroic deeds (e.g., Milton’s Paradise Lost).
- Ballad: Short narrative folk song.
- Romance: Literary form treating chivalry (e.g., Sir Gawain & the Green Knight).
- Fabliaux: Medieval comic tale about sex or trickery.
- Non-Fiction:
- Autobiography & Biography: Narrative of a person’s life.
- Historical Book: Describes historical events.
- News Story: Account of current relevant events.
3. Structure of Narrative Texts
According to Labov, narrative texts have two interrelated structures:
- Event structure: Based on the plot.
- Evaluation structure: Results from specific evaluation strategies.
Chronological order is crucial. Two key concepts are:
- Scope: Time-span covered by narrated events.
- Scale: Space assigned to the narrative of events on the page.
4. Elements of Narrative Texts
4.1 Narrator
The narrator tells the story. Three types of narrators exist:
- First-person: Narrator participates in events (e.g., Gulliver in Gulliver’s Travels).
- Second-person: Uncommon, often paired with present tense (e.g., ‘Choose Your Own Adventure’ books).
- Third-person: Often omniscient, all-knowing, but without a distinct personality (e.g., Jane Austen’s novels).
Narrators can also be classified by their level of knowledge:
- Omniscient: Knows all about events and characters.
- Deficient: Has less information than other characters or the reader.
- Equiscient: Has similar knowledge to other characters.
4.2 Characters
Characters can be central (protagonists), secondary (helpers or marginal), antagonists (villains), or beneficiaries/victims. Modern narratives often feature anti-heroes. Characters can also be flat (one trait) or round (complex).
4.3 Setting
The setting provides information about the time and place. Spatio-temporal references don’t need to be detailed or realistic, but they must be coherent.
4.4 Discourse
- Direct speech: Reproduces characters’ actual words.
- Indirect speech: Provides a version of what the speaker said.
- Free indirect discourse: Represents characters’ mental reactions.
7. Bibliography
- Adam, J. (2005). La linguistique textuelle. Introduction à l’analyse textuelle des discours. Armand Colin.
- Toolan, M. (2001). Narrative: A Critical Linguistic Introduction. Routledge.
- Hawthorn, J. (1985). Narrative: From Malory to Motion Pictures. Edward Arnold.
TX 33: Descriptive Texts
Structure & Characteristics
1. Introduction
This section defines descriptive texts and explores their structure and characteristics.
2. Definition of Descriptive Texts
Describing translates perceptions into words, representing the real or imaginary world linguistically. This includes humans, human creations, and the natural world. Description expresses our perception of the world through senses and mind, encompassing memory, association, imagination, and interpretation.
3. Structure of Descriptive Texts
Four main operations are common to descriptive texts: anchorage, aspectualization, relationship, and thematization.
3.1 Anchorage
Anchorage is the starting point, often the title or topic. It provides unity and activates prior knowledge, which is then compared, revised, and updated.
3.2 Aspectualization
Aspectualization describes an object by fragmenting it into constituents. It includes enumerating parts and properties.
3.3 Relationship
Relationship links the object to the external world through the situational frame (contiguous features, time, place) or association (comparisons, metaphors).
3.4 Thematization
Thematization ensures progression by chaining descriptive sequences. Any element can become a new theme or title.
4. Types of Descriptive Texts
4.1 Way of Describing
Two essential elements are the object and the observer. Depending on which predominates, descriptions can be objective or impressionistic:
- Objective: Depicts the object as is, without personal feelings. It informs objectively, starting with a general picture and then analyzing parts.
- Impressionistic: Focuses on the observer’s feelings, aiming to evoke emotion. Feelings can be conveyed directly (‘I was afraid’) or indirectly (describing the frightening object).
4.2 Object of Description
- Objects: Descriptions include size, weight, material, age, color, purpose, and origins.
- Characters: Can be flat (one trait) or round (complex).
- Processes: Typical in scientific fields, emphasizing neutrality, objectivity, and order. Passive voice is common.
- Places: Found in personal writing, guidebooks, and geography texts. Strong spatial sense and place adverbs are common.
5. Characteristics of Descriptive Texts
5.1 Grammatical Structure
Descriptive texts often use ‘subject + to be + complement.’ Stative verbs (‘to be,’ ‘to seem’) in the present tense are common. ‘To have’ is used when listing parts. Adjectives, relative clauses, and appositions are frequent. Adverbs of manner describe actions, while adverbs of place have a referential function.
5.2 Cohesion & Coherence
Cohesion and coherence are achieved through reference (often endophoric) and lexical cohesion. Anaphoric elements include personal and possessive pronouns, demonstratives, and relative pronouns.
8. Bibliography
- Adam, J. M. (1992). Les textes: types et prototypes. Nathan.
- Thomas, S. & Leonard, J. (1974). Writing Prose: Techniques and Purposes. Oxford University Press.
- Brown, G. & Yule, G. (1983). Discourse Analysis. Cambridge University Press.
TX 34: Argumentative Text
Structure & Characteristics
1. Introduction
This section explores argumentative texts, examining their structure and characteristics.
2. Argumentative Texts
2.1 Definition & General Features
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