Text Properties and Sentence Structures in Communication

Posted on Jan 8, 2025 in English Studies

Text in Communication Theory

In communication theory, a text is equivalent to a message. Texts can be oral or written, long or short, formal or informal. They simply fulfill their function: to communicate a complete message.

Textual Properties

  • Coherence: Communicates a unified and understandable message.
  • Concision: Gives the necessary information.
  • Clarity: Orderly and gradual exposure of the contents.
  • Precision: Specific terms and appropriate expressions are used to convey the overall sense.

Cohesion

Cohesion is the property whereby the portions of a text relate properly with syntactical and grammatical accuracy, using pronouns, punctuation, prepositions, conjunctions, and so on.

Appropriateness

Appropriateness is the property whereby the message is tailored to the communication situation through the various registers of the language. Its factors are:

  • The channel through which the message passes.
  • The relationship between the partners.
  • The issue in question.
  • The purpose: A chat to pass the time, a conference, answering questions, etc.

Language Registers

  • Formal register: The most careful register, expressing a high level of linguistic formality. Its features are lexical range and accuracy, grammatical correctness, and careful wording.
  • Standard register: Corresponds to the average use of language. Its use in contexts of trust is called the colloquial register.
  • Vulgar register: The most careless use of the linguistic norm. Its characteristics are poor pronunciation, misuse of grammatical constructions, poverty of vocabulary, and use of filler words and swearing.

Sentence Structures

Transitive and Intransitive Sentences

  • Transitive sentence: Subject (SV) / Verb (V) + Direct Object (CD): Luck is guiding our affairs.
  • Intransitive sentence: SV / V + Indirect Object (DC): With start enriching the offal.
  • Sancho ate after the battle – intransitive structure.
  • Sancho ate bread after the battle – transitive structure.

Noun Phrase

The verb’s action falls squarely on the noun phrase. In this, [they] saw thirty or forty windmills. When it comes to a personified person or thing, it is preceded by the preposition “to”: [They] finally found the culprits.

Verify that it does not agree in number with the verb: [They] saw thirty mills – [They] discovered thirty mills.

[They] saw thirty mills – [They] discovered the culprit – [They] found him.

Indirect Object (IO)

[He] said to his squire – He said.

Reflexive and Reciprocal Sentences

  • Reflexive Direct: I wash myself. I: CD.
  • Reflexive Indirect: I wash my hands. I: IO; hands: CD.
  • Reciprocal Direct: They look at each other. Each other: CD.
  • Reciprocal Indirect: They look at each other’s hands. Each other: IO; hands: CD.

Bless

  • Regular participle: blessed.
  • Irregular participle: blest.

Mariano José de Larra

Born in Madrid in 1809. At 19, he began publishing pamphlets (The Satirical Goblin of the Day, The Anonymous Coward) and working in magazines under the pseudonym Figaro. He committed suicide in 1837 at age 28, dissatisfied with his life and the break with Dolores Armijo.

Artwork

Customs articles, political articles, and literary criticism articles.

Gustavo Adolfo Bécquer

The Legends of Bécquer

Bécquer’s Legends are 28 short stories in poetic prose that recreate romantic themes, with the mysterious and supernatural, exotic, fantastic, and so on. The best known are The Moonlight, The Hill of the Spirits, The Organist Maese Pérez, Green Eyes, etc.

Another Work by Bécquer

Letters from My Cell contains nine letters in which personal impressions and descriptions of landscapes and customs are reflected.