Understanding Expository Text: Definition, Types, and Structure
Expository Text: Definition and Characteristics
The expository text aims to inform and expand knowledge on a specific topic. Its primary intention is didactic: to facilitate understanding of an idea or concept and to broaden the reader’s knowledge. An expository text should present information in an orderly, clear, and objective manner, emphasizing the referential function. The author assumes the reader has some prior knowledge of the subject matter.
Examples of expository texts include specialized
Read MoreUnderstanding Relevance Theory: Visual Metaphors & Communication
Relevance Theory and Communication
1) Steps and Comprehension According to Relevance Theory
Relevance Theory is a pragmatic theory within cognitive pragmatics. Its main objective is to identify the underlying mechanisms in human psychology that explain how humans communicate. Comprehension, according to Relevance Theory, involves answering three key questions to identify the speaker’s meanings:
- What was the intended explicit context?
- What was the intended implicit context?
- What was the intended context
Pragmatics: Illocutionary Acts, Implicature, and Politeness
Direct vs. Indirect Illocutions
The direct illocution of an utterance is indicated by a literal reading of its grammatical form and vocabulary. The indirect illocution is any further illocution or meaning the utterance may have beyond the literal interpretation.
Searle’s Five Categories of Illocutionary Acts
Searle categorized illocutionary acts into five types:
- Assertives: Speech acts that commit a speaker to the truth of the expressed proposition (e.g., stating, asserting).
- Directives: Speech acts
Key Elements for Analyzing Text Structure and Meaning
Understanding Text Analysis Elements
Authorial Voice and Subjectivity in Texts
Identifying the author’s stance is crucial. Look for:
- Expertise: Is the author knowledgeable (e.g., a journalist, specialist)? This is often shown through data, references, and thoughtful reflections.
- First-Person Perspective: The use of first-person verbs (e.g., “I think”), pronouns (e.g., “my”), and determiners indicates a personal viewpoint.
- Subjectivity Markers: Opinion pieces explicitly show the author’s attitude through:
Waiting for Godot: Absurdity, Time, and Meaning in Beckett’s Play
Samuel Beckett’s Waiting for Godot: An Analysis
Samuel Beckett (1906 – 1989) was an Irish Protestant writer from a middle-class background and assistant to James Joyce. He was educated at Trinity College (Dublin), where he learned French, Italian, and English. He experienced panic attacks from the age of 20 and suffered a mental breakdown in the 1930s. He lived through the Second World War and escaped to Vichy during the French Resistance. From 1954 onwards, he enjoyed the most fruitful stage of
Read MoreMastering Communication: Cooperation, Courtesy, and Literary Language
General Features of Literary Language
The features that generally characterize the language of literature or literary use of language are:
· Plurisignification. Linguistic signs, along with its intellectual meaning, convey multiple emotional meanings.
· Connotation. Faced with the denotative value that words take on other types of literary text and language, the effect constantly creates estrangement associated values. The author selects the terms for its suggestive power and not just the denotative
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