Understanding Text: Properties and Structure

Posted on Feb 28, 2025 in Social Anthropology

Text: The total unit of oral or written communication issued by an issuer in certain circumstances. Properties:

  • It is an act in which the sender expresses an intention.
  • It occurs in a situation that should be appropriate; otherwise, it is meaningless.
  • It has a structure that connects its entirety and gives it coherence and unity.

Appropriateness: The property that involves the selection of the most suitable language for a communication situation, among all the possibilities.

Coherence: The property of the text that allows for interpretation as an information unit with global significance.

Structure: The organization of information through which the theme is expressed.

Cohesion: The property whereby units of text are connected.

Grammatical Processes:

  1. Deixis: The mechanism by which the text refers to extra-linguistic elements of the situation.
  2. Anaphora: The relationship between an antecedent and an element that appears after, replacing it.
  3. Cataphora: The relationship between one element and one that appears later.
  4. Ellipsis: The elimination of a word or words in a text or sentence without losing the sense of it.

Discourse Markers: These are links that serve to bring together elements of a discourse. According to their functions and content, they are distinguished as:

  1. Markers of organization and structure of information: They serve to signal the organization of the text (e.g., Finally, in relation to…, by the way, that is).
  2. Markers of logical relation: Express the logical-semantic relations (e.g., but, for example, so…).
  3. Conversational Markers: Used in conversation and note the degree of certainty (e.g., well, okay…).

Text Types:

  • Description:
    • Use: Oral (conversation), Written (novel, poetry, dictionaries)
    • Communicative Intent: To report how landscapes, objects, etc., are.
  • Narrative:
    • Use: Oral and written stories, novels.
    • Communicative Intent: To relate facts and actions.
  • Exposition:
    • Use: Political and religious speeches, brochures, conferences.
    • Communicative Intent: To help understand an idea or concept.
  • Argumentation:
    • Use: Advertising, essays, discussions.
    • Communicative Intent: To express opinions.

The sentence is structured around a Noun Phrase (NP) and a Verb Phrase (VP), whose nuclei are a noun and a verb, respectively.

Differences Between Oral and Written Language

Oral Language:

  • Contextual:
    1. Auditory channel.
    2. Spontaneous.
    3. Immediate in time and space.
    4. Uses nonverbal codes.
  • Textual:
    1. Dialectical variants.
    2. Simple syntax.
    3. Imprecise lexicon.
    4. Significance of intonation.

Written Language:

  • Contextual:
    1. Visual channel.
    2. Produced.
    3. Difference in time and space.
    4. Reduced use of nonverbal codes.
  • Textual:
    1. Precise lexicon.
    2. More elaborate syntax.
    3. Structuring of ideas.
    4. Neutralization of dialectical variants.

Spoken Language Features:

  1. The communicative act is performed with physical presence.
  2. The situation makes explicit that many files are shared.
  3. Arises spontaneously.
  4. The transience of the spoken word makes it more informal than writing.

Classes of Dictionaries: Words must fulfill some prerequisites for entry.

  • Use: To be entered into the dictionary, they should be used.
  • Ideological: Words are ordered by the relation of meaning.