UNIDAD 1

How can we define “text”?

Following Brown and Yule, a text is the
verbal record of a communicative
event. If we paraphrase this definition, we
have to focus on key words. The first one is
the phrase verbal record, i.e., any piece of
language that we usually produce when
communicating something. Another key
phrase is communicative event, i.e., any
situation in which the participants interact.
Another important definition of text was put
forward by W. Grabe and R. Kaplan. They
consider that a text occurs when the
discourse segment has a topic and can
be identified as possible, feasible,
appropriate and performed in some
communicative situation.
Another definition of text was proposed by
Dirven and Verspoor: the linguistic
expressions used in communication by
people and the interpretation that a
hearer or reader makes of them. If we
analyze this definition in detail, we can focus
on
linguistic expressions which mean verbal
data as well as written words.
Used in communication that refers to a
real-life context
By people who are the interlocutors
Interpretation means not only what is
said but also what is implied, that is, our
understanding and interpretation basis.

LR. de Beaugrande and W. Dressler define text as a discourse segment in which lexico-
grammatical elements are used to signal intentionality, acceptability, informativity,
situationality and intertextuality to meet the demands of efficiency, effectiveness
and appropriateness.
We can see that the verbal material (words in the oral or written mode) fulfils the intentions of the speaker or the
communicative goal. We need to bear in mind that in any text, every element is goal-oriented. The
producer, either writer or speaker, has the intention to use some words to produce and effect on the
audience. Also, it also depends on the receiver´s attitude (our responsive attitude when we listen or read
something) that the lexico-grammatical elements in question should constitute a coherent body of elements. In
this scenario, the organization of new and given information is important which helps us to have a balance
between factual and interpretative information as well as to notice if the text is redundant, repetitive or make
sense. The pragmatic aspects efficiency, effectiveness and appropriateness facilitate the process of
interpretation. If a text has these three characteristics, the process of interpretation is facilitated. In connection
with this, we as audience, we focus on how the author´s intention is expressed, whether it is explicit or
implicit and exactly where the text goes. Here, the concept of context is crucial and it is represented in the
definition by means the term situationality. It refers to the what is going on in a particular communicative
setting (people, place, time, purpose of communication, the social domain at work, etc). If we take into account
situationality, we ask ourselves who produced the text, when, where, why as well as who received it,
where, when and why. According to De Beaugrande and Dressler, a text meets the demands of efficiency,
effectiveness and appropriateness. These demands have to do with our expectations as to what we find in a text.
The three notions are closely connected to one another
Efficiency is the quality of producing a text that gives the necessary amount of information to communicate
something clearly and with relevance.
Effectiveness is the quality of producing a text that communicate a message in a clear, relevant, reasonable
way.
Appropriateness is the quality of being correct, acceptable and suitable for a particular situation and
purpose (social domain). The social domain comprises factors related to the use of language in social life such
as age, personality, social role, level of knowledge, provenance, etc.
 Textual Cohesion
Following the notion of cohesion, there is a link of grammatical as well as lexical items that
holds a text together and gives it meaning. In this sense, we can find different devices which help
us both to notice how the information is organized and to interpret the message from the
beginning up to the end.
Regarding the level of language, the words of speech (adverbs, adjectives, noun, verbs, so on) are
lexical items which carry the essential information of the message involved. But, It is necessary
to consider how that information is organized within the text.
In this aspect, we need to take into account the following elements

1. Connectors or transitional devices that indicate addition, concession, sequence, contrast, result,
reason, cause (e.g., however, in addition, moreover, furthermore, on the other hand, therefore,
since, although, etc.)
2. Reference, either anaphoric or cataphoric, which helps us to notice what the text refers to
(referent)
3. Processes like proform, substitution or ellipsis which help us to notice if there is redundant
information implied in the text as well as to see if we can recover some part of the information or
replace it by a single item in order to avoid repetition.
.

HOW TO DEAL WITH AMBIGUITY?

IN REFERENCE: there are some cases in which Ellipsis

we try to avoid repetition but, at the same time,
ambiguity can arise. Something is
“ambiguous” when it is possible for us to give
it more than one meaning and we can´t decide
between one meaning and another. Pronouns
can cause many problems in some
situations. When a reader finds an
ambiguous situation, they look back in the text
to the nearest noun group to try to find who or
what the reference refers to.
PROCESS
Substitution “SO” and “NOT”
We often use “so” instead of repeating the
whole + clause after verbs related to
thinking (assume, believe, guess, hope,
suppose, think). Also, after be afraid,
appear, seem and say.
With negative clauses, we use + verb + not
(I guess not, I suspect not, I hope not). We
usually use -verb + so (I don´t think so) with
verbs such as believe, expect, imagine and
think.
In some cases, there is an omission of elements
that are recoverable from the linguistic
context or the situation. It is a way of simplifying
grammatical structure through omission. It is
common in a wide range of contexts. Examples:
*Laura has never been in US, but her sister has.
*I though I could come tonight but in fact I couldn´t
*My friend didn´t like the movie, but Mike did.
*Gary thinks he´s right, but he isn´t
*I have never cooked sushi but I´d love to
*The students cheated on the exam, even though I
told them not to.
We often leave out a repeated phrase or
adjective, and just repeat the auxiliary or
modal verb, or the verb.
If the verb we don´t want to repeat is in the
present or simple past, we substitute the verb
with do / does / did.
We can also leave out a repeated verb phrase
after the infinitive with to.
 Is it important to take into account the type of text to understand the message?

Genres refer to a specific way of using language that can be acceptable in a given situation and
culture.

Text types have different styles, structures, and vocabulary which are prepatterned, that is,
they are already created and established as accepted ways of using language for communication in
social life. The text types are also considered as solutions to our communicative needs.

From a repertoire of genres available, the writers choose one type and then, a text can be written
according to structure and style. The main text types are: narrative, descriptive, directing, and
argumentative. In order to distinguish the text type, we can focus on some paratextual devices
as well as the choice of words that also help us to notice the intention of the writer, the topic of
discussion as well as the purpose of communication.
 UNIDAD 2
INFERENCE corresponds to the area of pragmatics and social practices where readership resorts
to different factors that help to the process of understanding. Apart from the knowledge of
grammar, lexicon, phonology and so on, readers can also make inference, presuppose, predict,
guess in order to understand the message conveyed. Here, the audience´s knowledge of the world,
of current affairs, personal experiences, among others are crucial for the process of interpretation.

PRESUPPOSITION & IMPLICATURE

As we have already seen in IN THE PROCESS OF TEXT UNDERSTANDING
the previous class, inference

helps us in the process of Presupposition is defined in terms of assumptions that

understanding by resorting to
our knowledge of the world,
experience, background and
so on. Within Inference, we
can also find aspects which
are important to take into
account such as
presupposition and
implicature that play an
active role with respect to
what is asserted by a text
and to its context. This leads
us to learn that, in order to
understand a text, we must
understand more than what
is encoded in the text itself,
and draw inferences.
the speaker makes about what the hearer is likely to accept
without challenge. A pragmatic conception of
presupposition has been preferred to the semantic one.
According to this conception, presuppositions are the
assumptions
shared by speaker and hearer, which form the
background of their ongoing discourse (Stalnaker ).
The term implicature is used by Grice to account for what
a speaker can imply, suggest, or mean, as distinct, from
what the speaker literally says. Implicatures are considered
contributions or additions to the content of the speech act.
The implicature counts merely as a suggestion, which makes
a certain update of the representation of the context
available to the participants.
THE DISTINCTION BETWEEN
PRESUPPOSITION AND IMPLICATURE

Presuppositions occurs when a speaker makes a
certain assumption when conveying information to the
audience regarding background knowledge. We project
the representation of context for our familiarity with the
text. Presuppositions do not contribute to the
content of assertions, as do implicatures, nor
suggest supplementary information, as do
implicatures. In Implicatures, the speaker implies
meaning without using direct language.
In implicatures, the speaker implies meaning
without using direct language. For example
"Toby is driving to his mother´s house tonight" . It
is implied that he is driving a car, rather than a
tractor, etc.
We have two types:
*Conversational is when the speaker makes
inferences through words and context.
Example: "I put aside some of my paycheck to
save for a new car". Here, the use of the word
"some" indicates that the speaker also used part
of his or her paycheck for other things".
*Conventional implicature occurs when the
speaker uses words such as "still"
"although" " but" " therefore" "even" to
establish a relevant relationship between
two clauses. Example "Sandy is tired, but she is
motivated" which means that being tired generally
affects motivation, but not for Sandy.
As we discussed it previously, in the case of
Take a look at the following
implicature, there is a kind of degree of background
cases:
knowledge dependence in inferring the speaker
CONVERSATION 1
meaning: Normally, the person who sends or
Carmen: Did you get the milk
produces the message needs less than the and eggs?
person who receives the message. Here, we can Dave: I got the milk
take advantage to several lexical items which would (so, the question for analysis
indicate levels of certainty or definiteness of "did Dave get the eggs? "
inference. implies that Dave did not buy
the eggs)
These implicatures are based on the quantity CONVERSATION 2
Tom: Did you manage to fix that
of information offered by the speaker.
leak?
In conversation 1, Carmen asks two questions "did
Dave: I tried to
you buy eggs" and "did you buy milk?. The same
(so, the question for analysis
case occurs in conversation 3, Jenny mentions two "Did Dave fix that leak?" means
things: invitation to Mat and invitation to Chris. that Dave did not fix the leak)
CONVERSATION 3
When only one thing is mentioned in the Jenny: I hear you´ve invited Mat
response, we normally assume that the and Chris.
speaker is still adhering to the cooperative Ed: I didn´t invite Mat
principle in which some of the maxims are used (so, the question for analysis "
Did Ed invite only Chris?"
( be brief, be clear, be relevant, etc).
means that Ed actually invited
only one person: Chris )
In the case of conversation 2, the word "try" is used
CONVERSATION 4
to denote an intermediate step of managing to fix Steve: what happened to your
the leak, and so, David did not make it to the final flowers?
step. In the conversation 4, the use of the Jane: a dog got into the garden
indefinite pronoun leads us to think that if the (so, the question for analysis
dog had belonged to Jane, she would have referred "did the dog belong to Jane?"
to it as "my dog". In a general sense, when the we assume that the dog didn´t
speaker uses the expression "a/an x" we draw belong to Jane)
the implicature "not the speaker´s x"

Words like “some”, “all”, maybe”, “possibly”, Look at these examples:

“late” etc. can be vague in meaning. However, In
conversations, such words may give rise to
levels of implicature.
Scale of quantity: some, most, all
Scale of frequency: sometimes, often, always
Scale of coldness: cool, cold, freezing
Scale of likelihood: possbily, probably,
certain
CONVERSATION 5
Joseph: who used all the printer
paper?
Edward: I used some of it
(the situation makes us think
that Edward, in fact, may have
used all the printer paper)

 Regarding presupposition
Take a look at the different sentences:
1. Abraham Lincoln is the current president of
the USA
2. The Eiffel Tower in in Paris
3. A car is an automobile
The declarative sentences lead us to say
“true or false” based on our knowledge of the
world. Particularly, in C, you answer “true” if
you based on your knowledge of what car and
automobile mean. However, we also have
imperatives and interrogative such as:
4- Where has Daniel looked for the keys?
5- Don´t sit on Annie´s sofa
These two examples are obvious, they are
levelled as presuppositions which consist
on inferences that are closely connected to
the word or grammatical structures used in
the sentences. In 4, we presuppose that
Daniel has looked for the keys. Similarly, in 5,
we presuppose that Anni has a sofa.
If we analyze these:
1. Did Mike smash the television?
2. When did Mike smash the television?
3. I was eating popcorn when Mike smashed
the television
4. Why did Mike smash the television?
5. I don´t understand why Mike smashed the
television
6. I wonder if Mike smashed the television
7. I wonder how Mike smashed the television
We can say that G, H, I, J, L seem to
presuppose that Mike smashed the TV, while
F and K leave an open question. Words like
when, why, how, can trigger suppositions.
In order to understand implicature
and presupposition carefully, it is
important to take into account the
cooperative principle proposed
by Grice. Such term relates to the
fact that all speakers, regardless of
their cultural background,
cooperate with each other when
making their contributions. Here,
the speakers have a scale of
values at their disposal, they will
choose the one that is truthful
(maxim of quality) and optionally
informative (maxim of quantity) And
normally they draw the implicature
“not any of the higher values on the
scale.” Such implicatures do not
require an extra knowledge to
extract the meaning. So, 4 maxims
play an important role in this sense.
They are:
1. Relevance: whatever you say
is relevant to the conversation
2. Quality: Don´t say what you
believe to be false. Don´t say
that for which you lack
evidence
3. Quantity: Your contributions
should be sufficiently
informative for the purpose of
the conversation. Don´t make
contributions more informative
than necessary.
4. Clarity: Don´t make your
contribution ambigious or
difficult to understand.