TOPIC 36-DIALOGIC TEXTS: STRUCTURE AND MAIN FEAUTURES

OUTLINE
TITLE PAGE

0. INTRODUCTION

1. DEFINITION AND CHARACTERISTICS OF A TEXT

1.1 Definition, functions and purposes of written texts 1
1.2 cognitive processes involved in written communication 2
1.3 Structure of texts: Rhetorical Structure Theory 2
1.4 Rules governing written texts 3

2. THE FUNTION OF CONTEXT IN WRITTEN TEXTS 4

3. DIALOGIC TEXTS
3.1. Main elements
3.2 Main features 5
3.2.1 Main types 5
3.2. Language features 7
7

7. CONCLUSION 8

8. BIBLIOGRAPHY 8

0
0. INTRODUCTION

The aim of this essay is to define dialogic texts, their structure and main features. A dialogic text is a type
of discourse concerned with a text, oral or written, which is established as a communicative occurrence,
which has to meet seven standards of textuality: cohesion, coherence, intentionality and acceptability,
informativity, situationality and intertextuality. If any of these standards are not satisfied, the text is
considered not to have fulfilled its function and not to be communicative. So, the purpose of dialogic texts
is to establish an oral or written interaction between one or more participants so as to exchange information
in a successful way. For the aim of this essay I will focus on written dialogical texts.

In general, a text makes use of graphic symbols, which relate to the sounds we make when we speak. These
symbols have to be arranged, according to certain conventions, to form words, and words to form sentences.
These sentences then have to be ordered and linked together forming a coherent whole called text. This unity
is enabled by cohesion and coherence. We can make a correct use of cohesion and coherence when we master
what Canale and Swain called discourse competence, this competence allows us to use the rules that
determine the ways in which forms and meaning are combined to achieve a meaningful unity of texts.

Discourse competence is a subcomponent of communicative competence, a key element in the teaching-

learning process, that is, to make yourself understood in socially appropriate ways, what implies meaning over
form. So, our role as teachers is to transmit the practical and functional aspect of our subject. In order to reach
this objective, we will take into account the 4 blocks of contents and the communicative approach as it is
highlighted by the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages, which forms the basis of
modern language teaching in Europe and is the framework upon which the current Spanish Educational Law
is based (LOE 2/2006 on 3rd May BOE 106 on 4th May).

In order to develop this essay I will divide it in 5 sections. The first part looks at written texts as a means for
interactive communication, defining their functions and purposes and offering a brief overview of the
cognitive processes involved in reading and writing and the elements and rules of written texts.. The second
section deals with the importance of the context in the understanding of texts. The third section focuses on the
structure and main features of dialogic texts. The essay ends with a conclusion and a bibliography of the
books and websites used to draft it.

1. DEFINITION AND CHARACTERISTICS OF A TEXT

1.1 DEFINITION, FUNCTIONS AND PURPOSES OF WRITTEN TEXTS

Written communication is represented by texts. Following Halliday & Hasan , a text refers to any passage,
spoken or written, of whatever length, that does form a unified whole. For the purpose of this essay I will only
concrete on written texts.

We can distinguish two functions in writing:

1. The intrapersonal function by which the writer and the reader are the same person. For example,
we may write the shopping list before going to the market, or we study by writing summaries.
2. The interpersonal function by which we write to another person. Within this interpersonal purpose
in writing, three specific functions can be established:
− Communicative function: we transmit information, opinions, personal feelings…; for example, when we
read and write letters, invitations or advertisements.
− Artistic function: when we use writing for entertainment, for example poems or jokes.
− Certifying function: when we use written texts as an evidence of a fact; for instance, wills or contracts.

1
The way a text is read varies according to the purpose of the reading:
- When we read to get a global knowledge is called extensive reading.
- When we are interested in getting detailed information from the text is called intensive reading
- When we only want to obtain the main idea of a text is called skimming reading.

1.2. COGNITIVE PROCESSES INVOLVED IN WRITTEN TEXTS

According to the Schema Theory, readers must be engaged in a process of relating the incoming information
to the information already stored in memory. Thus, readers develop a coherent interpretation of text through
the interactive process of combining the information in the text with the information they already have.
Readers' mental stores, or 'schemata', are divided into two types:

− 'Content schemata' or knowledge of the context: This includes experiences, beliefs and cultural conventions.
− 'Formal schemata' or knowledge of the language.

This process together with the use of cognitive strategies will allow the identification of the genre, formal
structure and topic. These strategies include:
− Memory strategies since we retain names and terms to be recalled when they appear later in the text.
− Determining the main ideas and the specific details.
− Differentiating between relevant and non relevant information.
− Appreciating the writer’s intentions.

Likewise, writers engage into several cognitive processes. They can be summarized as follow:
− Planning: This refers to a graphic or mental outline of the text. It includes analyzing the receivers of the
message, to take decisions about the genre, style, tenor and content of the writing and generating and
organizing ideas.
− Structuring and drafting: It is the process of transforming the ideas to real linguistic forms by elaborating the
sentences, selecting the lexis, and defining the text elements. It also includes connecting the different
sentences, punctuating the text, ordering the different ideas or establishing the various links among the parts
of the written discourse.
− Revising or editing: The text is evaluated and compared to the original purpose, and corrected in those
aspects that do not suit the writer’s intentions.

As we have seen, in written communication, similarly to speech, the encoding and decoding of a message
involve cognitive processes which are formed by knowledge, skills and strategies which interact and work
together to get a successful communication.

1.3.STRUCTURE OF TEXTS: RHETORICAL STRUCTURE THEORY

RST was originally developed as part of studies of computer-based text generation at Information Sciences
Institute (part of University of Southern California) in 1983 by Bill Mann and Sandy Thompson. The theory
describes the structure of a text by means of relations that hold between its parts, how they can be arranged
and how parts can be connected to form a whole text.

The relationship between the parts of the texts is essential to make the text function as a single unit. Rethorical
Structure Theory demonstrates that texts are organized hierarchically. Text spans, that is, the groups into
which the text is arranged, are represented in this theory by “schemas”. These schemas represent the
organizational information about text. Each Schema has a central part, called the nucleus, formed by topic
sentences and key ideas and supplementary parts, called satellites that are clauses providing additional
information. Satellites are related to the nucleus by relations. Some examples of these relations are: evidence:
[They're having a party again next door. ] [I couldn't find a parking space];
Nucleus satellite
motivation: [Take Bufferin. ] [The buffering component prevents excess stomach acid] or reason: [I'm going
to the supermarket. [We are out of milk. ]

2
Sometimes we can also find a multi-nuclei relation so both segments contribute equally such as in: [The priest
was in a very bad temper], [but the lama was quite happy].

1.4 RULES GOVERNING TEXTS: THE SEVEN STANDARDS OF TEXTUALITY.

Written text conforms to rules that writers unconsciously follow and native readers unconsciously expect to
find. It is relevant, then, to address the term textuality in written and oral texts as it is involved in rules
governing written discourse. In their Introduction to Textlinguistics (1981) de Beaugrande and Dressler maintain
that a text is established as a communicative occurrence which has to meet seven standards of textuality. If
any of these standards are not satisfied, the text is considered not to have fulfilled its function and not to be
communicative.

They enlist seven standards of textuality: cohesion, coherence, intentionality, acceptability, informativity,
situationality and intertextuality. They call them after Searle “constitutive principles of textual
communication”, because they define and create textual communication.

Cohesion and coherence are text-centred notions.

 Coherence- the relationships which links the meanings of utterances in a discourse or of the sentence in
a text. The said links may be based on the speakers’ shared knowledge. Coherence is normally achieved when
the sentences follow each other in a logical order and hold together with transitions.
 Cohesion- how sequences of ideas relate to each other to make a meaningful text by means of reference,
ellipsis, conjunction and lexical organization. According to Halliday:
o reference relates to an element introduced at one place in the text that can be taken as a reference point
for something that follows, such as the definite article (the) and personal pronouns (he, she, we, they).
Reference can be divided into:
a) anaphora: the referent has been previously stated. John wrote the essay in the library but Peter did it at
home, both did and it are examples of anaphora
b) cataphora: the referent is later in the discourse : if you need one, there’s a towel in the top drawer.
c) exophoric: the meaning is determined by reference outside the discourse (pronoun such as ``I'' or ``you'')
o Ellipsis: omission of parts of a word or sentence like in short answers (Yes, I can; No, I don’t).
o Conjunction- a part of speech that connects two words, phrases or clauses together. According to
Halliday, the most general categories are those of opposition, clarification, addition, temporal and causal-
conditional.
o The continuity in a text is established by means of lexical organization through the choice of words.

The remaining standards of textuality are user-centred, concerning the activity of textual communication by
the producers and receivers of texts:

 Intentionality and acceptability are regarded as a ‘pair’ of principles. In any text there is a producer who
has the intention to produce a piece of information to a receptor. The receptor, needs to accept the proffered
text as a communicative text. Knowledge of pragmatic principles therefore makes this aspect of textuality
‘work’ or not.
 Informativity refers to the extent to which the message of the text is known or unkown for the reader.
 Situationality refers to the extralinguistic setting in which a text takes place.
 Intertextuality is related to the ways in which the production and reception of a given text depends upon
the participants knowledge of other texts.

Apart from these constitutive principles, there are also three regulative principles that control textual
communication:
 Efficiency – producing, understanding, and transmitting a text with the least effort.
 Effectiveness – establishing the greatest likelihood of success and making the desired impact on the
receiver.

3
 Appropriateness – the produced text has to be adjusted to the situation and the participants
2. THE FUNCTION OF THE CONTEXT IN WRITTEN TEXTS

A text is part of a context. According to Malinowsky and Firth, context is made of the verbal/linguistic
context (co-text) and non-verbal context, which is divided into context of culture and context of situation.

2.1 Co-text

The term "cotext" refers to the text that surrounds a passage, that is, the words or sentences coming before and
after it, so it is related to the discourse. It is made of:

- The discursive co-text: It is related to the cohesion and coherence that we find in the text.
- The orthographic co-text: the type of fonts, capital letters…
- Grammatical co-text : the grammatical rules followed in the text to favour the comprehension

2.2 The context of situation and the context of culture

The context of situation is related to the register of the text. The situation in which linguistic interaction takes
place gives the participants a great deal of information about the meanings that are being exchanged. The
term ‘context of situation’ in which a text is embedded, refers to all those extra-linguistic factors which have
some bearing on the text itself. These external factors affect the linguistic choices that the speaker or the
writer makes on the basis of the nature of the audience, the medium, the purpose of the communication and so
on. We will look at the context of situation according to Malinowski, Firth, Hymes and Halliday.

a)Malinowski
The concept of ‘context of situation’ was formulated by Malinowski in 19232. Much of Malinowski´s
research was undertaken in a group of islands of the South Pacific known as the Trobriand Islands, whose
inhabitants lived mainly by fishing and gardening. Their language is referred to as Kiriwinian. Malinowsky
found himself at an early stage able to converse freely in this language. He then came to the problem of how
to interpret and expound his ideas on the culture to English-speaking readers. He had many texts in Kiriwinian
and the culture he was studying was as different as it was possible to be from the culture that is familiar to
Westerners.
In presenting the texts, Malinowsky adopted various methods. He gave a free translation, which was
intelligible, but conveyed nothing of the language or the culture; and a literal translation, which mimicked the
original, but was unintelligible to an English reader. His principal technique, however, was to provide a rather
extended commentary. It was the kind of commentary that placed the text in its living environment.
Malinowsky needed a term that expressed the total environment, included the verbal environment, but also the
situation in which the text was uttered. So, in an article written in 1923, he coined the term context of
situation, by which he meant the environment of the text.

b)Firth
At London University he had as a colleague the linguist J.R. Firth, who took over Malinowski´s notion of the
context of situation to build it into his own linguistic theory. Firth set up a framework for the description of
the context of situation that could be used for the study of texts as part of a general linguistic theory:
1.The participants in the situation: what Firth referred to as persons and personalities, corresponding to the
statuses and roles of the participants;
2.The action of the participants: what they are doing, including both their verbal and non-verbal actions
3.Other relevant features of the situation: the surrounding objects and events
4.The effects of the verbal action: what changes happened by what the participants in the situation had said.

4
c) Hymes
Dell Hymes (1967) proposed a set of concepts for describing the context of situation, which were in many
ways similar to those of Firth:

1.the form and content of the message

2.the setting
3.the participants
4.the intent and effect of communication
5.the key
6.the medium
7.the genre
8.the norms of interaction

d) Halliday
According to Halliday, all use of language has a context. He analyses the structure of the context of situation
into a conceptual framework of three headings: the field, the tenor, and the mode.
1.The field of discourse refers to what is happening. For example, apologising, children at play, etc.
2.The tenor of discourse refers to who is taking part, their statuses and roles, what kind of role relationships
are held among participants.
3.The mode of discourse refers to what is being achieved by the text in terms of such categories as persuasive,
expository, didactic, and the like.

2.3. CONTEXT OF CULTURE

Much of the work of learning a foreign language consists on learning to make the right predictions, that is, to
use the context in a predictable way.

The concept of situation developed above is only the immediate environment. There is also a wider background
against which the text has to be interpreted: its context of culture, we mean by it the set of things that typically
go together in the culture.

According to Halliday & Hassan (1985), in describing the context of situation, it is helpful to have some
indication of the cultural background. These two contexts together make up the non-verbal environment of a
text.

Part of the environment of a text is a set of previous texts, texts that are taken for granted as shared among those
taking part in communication. For example, in school every lesson is built on the assumption of earlier lessons
in which topics have been explored, concepts agreed upon and defined.
It also includes other aspects of the meaning: types of logical sequencing that are recognised as valid, even
interpersonal features such as whether a question is intended to be answered or is being used as a step in the
development of an argument.

3. DIALOGIC TEXTS

A dialogic text can be defined as a type of discourse concerned with a text which is established as a
communicative occurrence that has to meet the seven standards of textuality. Dialogic written texts share the
form and characteristics of oral dialogues where there is a chain of interventions between 2 or more speakers in
the alternative functions of speaker and receiver.

5
3.6.3.2.Main types

The main dialogical texts we can find are:

- Interview: a meeting in which someone makes questions to another person to obtain some
information.
- Conversations: an interaction between at least 2 people.
- A theatrical play: a story told by the linguistic interaction of the characters.

Dialogic texts are normally interrelated with other types and we can follow 4 ways to interrelate the dialogue to
the discourse:

- Direct speech. Reproduction of the exact words said by each speaker. It is usually enclosed
in quotation marks and followed by verbs of saying (say, tell, answer, reply…) John got up and said:” I want
my book now“
- Free Direct Speech. When we omit the verbs of saying : John got up: I want my book now
- Indirect speech. This style reports what another person has said, we usually do not use the speaker’s
exact words. It doesn't use quotation marks to enclose what the person said and some lexical and verbal changes
need to be made: John got up and said that he wanted his book then
- Free indirect speech. What is said appears as a reference inside the discourse without any mark or
introductory verb of saying. It also needs some lexical and verbal changes. John got up: he wanted his book
then

3.6.3.3 Main elements

Regarding elements in the communication process of dialogic texts, we will follow the Russian linguist Roman
Jakobson and his model on language theory which explains how all acts of communication, be they written or
oral, are based on six constituent elements:

1. A context where the act of communication takes place

2. a sender (or addresser)
3. a receiver (or addressee)
4. a message which the sender transmits and which the receiver interprets.
5. A code in which the message is formulated
6. a channel through which the sender and the receiver are connected by which the message is sent. In
acoustic communication it consists of air, in written communication of paper or other writing materials.

As it has been previousle stated, dialogic texts reflect oral communication and for this reason, I will also
include another element to the previous ones: the purposes. The starting point for these purposes are
encouraged by elements working at the level of
a) formality (formal vs. informal language)
b) theme or topic, which determines the participant role in the exchange (i.e. father vs. son, lawyer vs.
witness, customer vs. assistant, etc).

Related to the purpose is the notion of “speech acts”. It is, Each sentence is designed to serve a specific
function. It may be to inform listeners, warn them, order them to do something, question them about a fact,
etc. Austin and later his student John R. Searle in their theory of speech acts studied how each sentence
conveyed any specific function. They say that every time speakers utter a sentence, they are attempting to
accomplish something with the words. Speakers are performing a speech act (Austin called it an
illocutionary act).

6
In speech act theory it is assumed that the minimal unit of communication is not a word or a sentence, but
the performance of an act such as asking a question, giving a command, thanking, and so on. Austin
criticizes the view that the main purpose of sentences would be to state facts or to describe some state of
affairs as either true or false. According to him, there are 2 types of utterances:
Constative utterances- They are utterances which are used to make true or false statements.
Constatives mostly (though not necessarily) have the form of declarative sentences. Examples of
Constatives: Snow is white. (true) Snow is red. (false)
Performative utterances- often take the form of declarative sentences with which the speaker
performs the action denoted by some performative verb (e.g. promise, declare etc.). Austin claims that
“they do not ‘describe’ or ‘report’ or constate anything at all and the uttering of the sentence is a part of the
doing of an action. Example : I apologize for my behaviour ; I name this ship Lord Sailor
Performatives do not have truth conditions but felicity conditions, they are conditions necessary to the
success of a speech act. Only certain people are qualified to declare war, baptize or celebrate a marriage,
and external circumstances must be suitable: Will you shut the door? requires that the door be open, that
the speaker has a reason for the request and that the hearer is able to comply with it.

According to Austin, each speech act can be analyzed into three parts: locutions or propositions; illocutions
or intentions and perlocutions or the listener interpretations. He proposed speech act categories:

1) Representatives: Asserts a proposition to be true

2) Directives: Attempts to influence the listener to do something, such as a demand or command, by
means of not only clear imperatives, but also of embedded imperatives
3) Commisives: Commitments of self to some future course of action, such as a vow, promise or swear
4) Expressives: Expressions attitudes and emotions.
5) Declaratives: Statements of fact that presume to alter a state of affairs, i.e. I declare you man and wife.

3.6.3.4. structure.

The structure of dialogic texts is defined as a sequence of ordered verbal interactions where the minimum
structure is based on a binary exchange of addresser and addressee on a specific topic.

The development of a dialogic text is presented into three phases: opening, body and ending.

1. Openings are considered as the starting point of a conversation since they state the main topic of the
encounter between two or more participants. They can be greetings (Hello), questions (How are you?) or
exclamations (What an awful day!) among others.
1. The body structure deals with the development of the conversation . This is a continuous process
which consists of a series of turn-taking exchanges that serve to frame the topic, and to see if the receiver is interested
or
not.
2. The ending of a conversation is drawn from the feeling of both participants to have successfully
fulfilled their purpose although sometimes we find an unsuccessful ending. (Well, it’s been nice to talk to you. I
must go, Goodbye!, see you soon).

3.3.5.5. Language features.

Dialogic texts follow the language features of oral conversations:

- Extensive use of answer-questions

- The pronouns “I” and “you” are the most used.
- Phatic expressions to maintain the conversation going on
- Present tense is very used

7
5.CONCLUSION

In this essay we have examined dialogic texts as a means of communication. The analysis of the formal
structure, elements and rules of a written text and the importance of the co-text, the context of culture and the
context of situation have shown us how context and texture define a text.

LOE also emphasizes in reading, writing and differentiating different types of texts as it is stayed in Foreign
Language Area Objectives number 3 and 4 where it is said that students will 3. Read and understand different
types of texts, related to the students´ experiences and interests, extracting specific and global information
and use the reading as a resource for pleasure and personal enrichment.
4.Write varied texts with different purposes, about different topics using the adequate resources of cohesion
and coherence.

There is a need to create classrooms conditions in which we could practice these aims using as much real life
materials as possible. So, we will practice using different types of texts taken from newspapers, menus,
writing emails, filling in forms, watching news…)

According to the Educational Guidelines proposed by the Council of Europe, students are intended to carry
out several communicative tasks with specific communicative goals within specific contexts. Following this,
present-day approaches deal with a communicative competence model in which first, there is an emphasis on
significance over form, and secondly, motivation and involvement are enhanced by means of new
technologies. Nowadays new technologies provide a new direction to language teaching as they set more
appropriate context for students to experience the target culture and practice both in oral and written form,
using different types of texts and registers, always taking into account motivation, that is the cornerstone of
learning.

6.BIBLIOGRAPHY

 Council of Europe (2001): A Common European Framework of Reference for Languages

(Learning, teaching, assessment). Cambridge University Press
 Crystal D. The Cambridge Encyclopedia of Language, 1997 (CUP)
 Yule, George, The Study of Language, Cambridge University Press, 1985
 Miekel Bal, Narratology: Introduction to the Theory of narrative, University of Toronto Press,
2007

Web pages:
www.wikipedia.com
www.britannica.com
http://www.coe.int