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“Text Linguistics”

Text Linguistics investigates and describes the compositional strategies of texts.

It is an application of discourse analysis, applied to texts and text types.

It originates in the field of pragamatics, following that field in including context in linguistic study.


The classification of texts into typologies requires the presumption of common features across

different individual texts.

Our textual constellation of text-types will follow the sociolinguistic functions as desribed in the

Buehler-Jakobsen model.

“Text Linguistics”Jakobson's model of the functions of language

distinguishes six elements, or

factors of communication necessary for communication to occur:

(1) context (2) addresser (sender) (3) addressee (receiver) (4) contact (5) common code (6) message


Each factor is the focal point of a relation, or function,

that operates between the message and the factor.

Jakobson’s six language functions

FACTOR

addresser

addressee

context

contact

code

message

FUNCTION

emotive/ expressive

conative/directive

referential/informative

phatic

metalinguistic

poetic/aesthetic

TEXT TYPES ACCORDING TO FUNCTIONS OF LANGUAGE

MAIN FUNCTIONS OF LANGUAGE (purposes of using language) (following Buhler)1) EXPRESSIVE2) INFORMATIVE3) VOCATIVE4) AESTHETIC, 5) PHATIC 6) METALINGUAL

Newmark, Peter, 1988, A Textbook of Translation, chapter 4 (language functions, text categories and text types)

Language functions and text types

1. EMOTIVE/EXPRESSIVE FUNCTIONThe core of the expressive function is the mind of the writer/speaker. Language is used by the writer/speaker to express his/her feelings. Focus on the w/s. Personal, expression of feelings, attitudes, opinions.

E.g. of expressive texts: autobiography, personal correspondence, political speeches.


2. REFERENTIAL/INFORMATIVE FUNCTIONThe core of the informative function of language is the external situation, the facts of a topic, the reality outside language, included reported ideas or theories. Informative texts provide information about any topic of knowledge. They identify and characterise phenomena. Style: Impersonal, objective, formal, non-emotive (but it depends on the genre)E.g. textbook, technical report, scientific paper, thesis, minutes or agenda of a meeting, newspaper article (fields: scientific, technological, commercial, various areas of knowledge)


3. CONATIVE/VOCATIVE (DIRECTIVE) FUNCTION The core of the vocative function is the reader/hearer, the addressee. Language is used to call upon the readership to act, think or feel, to react in the way intended by the text. The writer wants to produce a certain effect on the addressee. The aim is to convince the readers, persuade them.E.g. instructions, advertisements, propaganda, requests, theses, also popular fiction (purpose is to sell the book/entertain the reader), contracts.FEATURES: relationship addresser/addressee realised in forms of address: pronouns, infinitives, imperatives, etc., must be written in a comprehensible language.


“Few texts are purely expressive, informative, or vocative: most include all 3 functions, with an

emphasis on one of the three.” (Newmark 1988: 42)

A text can hardly be purely informative, i.e. objective (there is always some kind of expression of personal

views, and vocative function)

An expressive text will usually carry some information as well.


FACTOR

addresser

addressee

context

contact

code

message

FUNCTION

emotive/ expressive

conative/directive


phatic

metalinguistic

poetic/aesthetic


PHATIC / INTERACTIONAL FUNCTION Language used to establish or maintain contact between the addresser and the addressee. Use of ‘phaticisms’ or standard phrases (spoken code, e.g. Hey, you… May I have your attention? How are you? Have a good weekend! See you tomorrow. Did you have a good Christmas? Isn’t it hot today?) (written code: of course, naturally, it is important to note that…)

“Text Linguistics”METALINGUISTIC FUNCTION Language is used to explain itself (questions or explanations of terminology or phaseology - what do you mean by cleft structure?, ‘literally’, ‘so-called’, 'sometimes known as’, etc.)

More generally "metacode" (or "metasemiotic") to apply it to non-linguistic messages.

Any normed and norming system is a code, not only the language system

“Text Linguistics”METALINGUISTIC FUNCTION (three types)

1) the dialect (the language system)"How do you spell 'surreptitiously'?" 2) the sociolect (the particular usage of a dialect specific to a differentiated social practice with its own discourse organized through genres)"A Sonnet has 14 lines"

3) idiolect (a given author's individual usage of a language and a sociolect) "Baudelaire liked antitheses"


POETIC/AESTHETIC FUNCTION Language is used in a creative way (rhymes, similes, metaphors)

'the focus on the message for its own sake' [(Jakobson, 1960, p. 356)]


FACTOR

addresser

addressee

context

contact

code

message

FUNCTION

emotive/ expressive

conative/vocative


phatic

metalinguistic

poetic/aesthetic


Primary FunctionsInformative, Expressive, DirectiveThe What of the message: the semantic content as conveyed by the rules of the given language.

Secondary FunctionsPoetic, Metalinguistic, PhaticThe How of the message: the relations between the speakers, and between them and the code.


One or more – or even all – of the functions of language may be absent in short units (such as an

isolated sign). Lengthy units can activate all of them.

Where more than one function is present, establish:

(1) a simple hierarchy, by identifying the dominant function and not ranking the other functions, or

(2) a complex hierarchy, by specifying the degree of presence of some or all of the functions.


"The dominant function answers the question, 'With what intention was this message

transmitted?' and [...] the secondary functions are there to support it."

The intention can be hidden, the function that is dominant in terms of overt degree of presence

may not be dominant in terms of intention. There may be an opposition between actual and overt

functions (Arcand and Bourbeau, 1995).


There can be direct and indirect manifestations of intention, which correlate to the opposition between

actual and overt functions.

The directive function is manifested directly in "Go answer the door" and indirectly in "The doorbell

rang" (which is equivalent to "Go answer the door"), where the overt function is informative.

(Arcand and Bourbeau, 1995)


Translators need to attempt to retain the dominant function of the text.

Informative: render the meaning Vocative: convince readers

Phatic: establish and maintain communication, contact, etc.


For Jakobson, what characterizes poetry and distinguishes it from other genres (literary and

textual in general) is not so much the presence of the poetic function as its dominance. p. 357)


Identifying the functional configuration

Specifying the secondary dominant functionto create a typology.

Jakobson recognizes that epic poetry – focused on the third person, as opposed to lyric poetry (first-person) or poetry of the second person –

"strongly involves the referential function of language" (Jakobson, 1960, p. 357).


Epic Poetry

Dominant Function: Poetic

Secondary Function: Informative

Third-Person Narration

Lyric Poetry

Dominant Function: Poetic

Secondary Function: Emotive

First- (or Second-) Person Narration


Certain works and certain genres appear to be based on emphasizing and/or deemphasizing (or

even neutralizing) one or more functions.

For example, in literature, the "destruction" of the Balzacian universe by Robbe-Grillet and Kafka

are attempts to neutralize the referential function.


Two kinds of correlations can be shown to exist between two functions.

The correlation is said to be converse, or direct, if (1) an intensification of one of the two functions is accompanied by an intensification of the other and (2) a decline in one function causes a decline in the other. The correlation is said to be inverse if an intensification of one of the two functions is accompanied by a decline in the other, and vice versa.


converse correlation

For example, when the poetic function is suddenly accentuated, the result and/or effect may be to keep

the addressee's attention at a time when it was beginning to wander (the phatic function).


Generally speaking, when one function is accentuated, it tends to diminish the importance of all the others,

and the opposite happens when the function is deemphasized.

Some functions are generally paired in an even more definite inverse relation.


the relation between the poetic and the referential functions

an inverse correlation

The more the message "talks" about itself and refers to itself (the poetic function), the less it talks about the context and refers to it (the referential

function) and vice versa.

“I went to the country with a friend”vs.

Spontaneous me, Nature, The loving day, the mounting sun, the friend I am happy with, The arm of my friend hanging idly over my shoulder, The hill-side whiten’d with blossoms of the mountain ash, The same, late in autumn—the hues of red, yellow, drab, purple, and light and dark green...


"Ambiguity is an intrinsic, inalienable character of any self-focused message [...] The supremacy of poetic function over referential function does not obliterate the reference but makes it ambiguous.

The double-sensed message finds correspondence in a split addresser, in a split

addressee, and besides in a split reference...[as with] the Majorca storytellers: 'Axio era y no era'

('It was and it was not')."(Jakobson, 1960)


Cry of Pain

Dominant Function: Expressive

Secondary Function: Directive (empty)

may be "addressed" to a receiver, it is associated almost completely with the addresser

Educational Message

Dominant Function: Directive

Secondary Function: Expressive (empty)

intended for the addressee, and generally entails an attenuation of the emotive function

“Text Linguistics”It can be difficult to draw the line between

interaction and merging of functions.

Are functions actually distinct from one another?How much is interaction and how much is

commingling?

"Any information – the referential function – changes the receiver's knowledge stock; we can thus say that it acts on the receiver: that is the conative function. Moreover, a lot of so-called

information leads to a behaviour as its final result.


The sign 'falling rock' is meant not just to convey information, but most of all to elicit a certain

attitude in the driver"

This interaction involves an opposition between actual vs. overt function

(Klinkenberg, 1996)


Road Sign: “Falling Rock”

Actual Function: Directive (to drive with caution)

Overt Function: Referential (there is danger here)

Which is dominant and which is secondary?


Advertising Message

(1) attract attention (the phatic function)

(2) appeal to reason (the referential function) or emotion (the emotive function)

(3) get people to act (the conative function)

The third objective is clearly the most important, and the others are subordinate.


Three possible sequences (the referential function) are open to the addressee (the conative function):

(1) not drinking, then driving (2) drinking, then not driving

(3) drinking, then driving

The possible sequencings are given a moral value: the first two scenarios fall under good behaviour, and the

third comes under bad behaviour.


The advertising message clearly takes aim at the third scenario with an image showing the possible

consequences – the addressee's death – in a very striking way (the expressive and poetic

functions).

This is the worst possible death: yours (the directive function).

This is not a referential third-person death, but an directive/expressive second-person death.


This death is presented as being highly avoidable, since it is reserved for the "bloody idiots" with

whom no addressee would want to be associated (directive function).

The word "bloody" indicates the level of idiocy within the class of idiots (referential function), and

it demonstrates the intensity of the addresser's emotion (expressive function).


Perhaps the addresser is highly concerned about what could happen to us (directive function),

or perhaps his utterance merely expresses a coldly objective truth (referential function)

along with an unsympathetic "too-bad-for-you" attitude (expressive function).

“Text Linguistics”In addition to the standard meaning, indicating

intensity (expressive function), possible concern (expressive function) and familiarity (directive function), "bloody" happens to be a polysemic

word, and thereby draws attention to itself (poetic function).

It alludes to blood – the blood we will shed, but also the blood that shows our blood alcohol level.

Speakers of English no longer make the connection to blood when they say "bloody" as an interjection. By re-actualizing the original content,

the slogan draws our attention to an otherwise innocuous, transparent word.


Text-types can also be described in reference to Austin's general categories.

The advertisement above has

illocutionary force - to persuade that drunk driving is reprehensible and dangerous – and

perlocutionary force - it aims to cause one not to drink and drive.


However, Searle's Speech Act categories can not easily be applied if we maintain they are exclusive

“If you drink, then drive, you're a bloody idiot.”

Assertive?Directive?

Expressive?

“Text Linguistics”Even phatic elements can be informative or

expressive:

“Darling,...” vs. “Ms. Lenti”The former obviously expresses emotional

content absent in the latter although both call for the listener's attention.

“About that,... I'll keep quiet.”A pause here can convey various kinds of

information depending on context, such as the reasons behind one's keeping quiet.


Which functions of language are activated in the following text?

"This text you gave me to correct is a bunch of rubbish! Listen to this, you've got several verbs

with no subject, you state the obvious ('a day lasts 24 hours'!), then – are you still following me? – you use obscure metaphors ('work is the drop hammer of life') and stupid malapropisms ('You

are the suntan of my life').”


FACTOR

addresser

addressee

context

contact

code

message

FUNCTION

emotive/ expressive

conative/directive


phatic

metalinguistic

poetic/aesthetic

“text linguistics” - il · pdf fileemotive/ expressive conative/directive ... 3)...

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