UNIT 31

TEXT AND CONTEXT. TEXT TYPOLOGY. CRITERIA

FOR THE CLASSIFICATION OF TEXT TYPES.
REGISTER

0. INTRODUCTION

1. TEXT AND CONTEXT

1.1. Text
1.1.1. The Seven Standards of Textuality
1.2. Context: Context of Situation and context of culture

2. TEXT TYPOLOGY. CRITERIA FOR CLASSIFICATION

2.1. Criteria
2.2. Text Typology
2.2.1. Narration
2.2.2. Description
2.2.3. Exposition
2.2.4. Argumentation
2.2.5. Instruction

3. REGISTER

4. CONCLUSION

5. BIBLIOGRAPHY

6. APPENDIXES

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0. INTRODUCTION

In the last decades, Linguistics has experienced a number of changes including an

attempt to analyse the global meaning of sentences in a specific communication setting. Up
to that point linguistics considered the sentence as the biggest unit of study, but, in actual
fact, we do not normally communicate using isolated sentences; generally, when speaking
or writing, we combine sentences to constitute a complete message. On the other hand,
even though a sentence does not always constitute a complete message, it has complete
meaning.
Therefore, the first sentence of The Portrait of a Lady has meaning of its own, whereas the
whole book forms a complete message. This is also the case of a single sentence or word
which may also constitute a complete message as in 'for sale' or 'stop'. In this sense, it can
be inferred that the notion of text in Linguistics refers to a complete message or unified
whole, whatever its length may be.
Linguistics has developed in the last decades a branch called Text Linguistics, which aims to
examine how sentences work to produce coherent texts and discourses. Many are the fields
devoted to the study of texts -Linguistics, Stylistics, Literary studies...-. Nevertheless, the
most relevant contribution is made by Sociology, Semantics and Pragmatics, which shape
the text into a coherent pragmatic structure.
Therefore, this study will argue for the importance of text as a semantic and pragmatic unit,
for in this regard text is not only a structure that produces meaning, but also the intention
of the speakers. As such, the context is also crucial to fully understand the message.
Similarly, Text Linguistics has contributed, to a large extent, to the taxonomic classifications
of text typologies, which will also be the focus of our study. Finally, with all this in mind this
unit concludes with a discussion on register.
This unit is foregrounded on a number of relevant and influential figures in the field of Text
Linguistics, namely Halliday and Hasan, Language, Context and Text: Aspects of Language in
a Social-Semiotic Perspective (1985), van Dijk, Text and Context: Explorations in the
Semantics and Pragmatics of Discourse (1984), Cook, Discourse (1989) and Beaugrande and
Dressler, Introduction to Text Linguistics (1988) to name but a few.

1. TEXT AND CONTEXT

In general terms, language does not occur in solitary words or sentences in grammatical
terms, but in sequences of sentences, that is, utterances in terms of meaning and use in
connected discourse. Sequences of utterances are semantically interrelated and interchange
in order to establish relations of social interaction either in spoken or written language.
Thus, it can be affirmed that a sentence may be defined in grammatical terms, whereas a
text is under the influence of semantics and pragmatics, that is, text is defined in terms of
meaning and use.
On the one hand, pragmatics is the branch of linguistics dealing with language use and the
contexts in which it is used, including such matters as deixis, turn taking in conversation,
text organization, presupposition, ...
On the other hand, semantics is concerned with meaning and explores the relationship
between syntactic structures and the logical relationship between them in a text by means

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of coherence and cohesion, having as a result the whole text under the shape of a
pragmatic coherent discourse, that is, in a communicative context.
In this section, we will focus our attention on the analysis of text and context and how these
two relate to each other. Following Halliday and Hasan (1975), the terms context and text
put together like this serve as a reminder that these are aspects of the same process. There
is text and there is other text that accompanies it: text that is 'with', namely the con-text.
This notion of what is 'with the text', however, goes beyond what is said and written: it
includes other non-verbal goings-on -the total environment in which a text unfolds-. Thus, it
serves to make a bridge between the text and the situation in which texts actually occur.
Within our general topic, we shall concentrate on the special area of what in linguistics is
referred to as a text; but always with emphasis on the situation, as the context in which text
unfolds and in which they are to be interpreted. Then, what do we mean by text, and what
do we mean by context?

1.1. Text

Halliday raised the question of what text is and he defined it by saying that it is language
that is functional. By functional, he continues, "We simply mean language that is doing some
job in some context, as opposed to isolated words or sentences." Therefore, any instance of
living language that is playing some part in a context of situation, we shall call a text. It may
either be spoken or written, or indeed in any other medium of expression that we may like
to think of.
The important thing about the nature of a text is that, although when we write it down it
looks as though it is made of words and sentences, it is really made of meanings. A text is
essentially a semantic unit. It is not something that can be defined as being just another kind
of sentence, only bigger.
Thus, we cannot simply treat a theory of text as an extension of grammatical theory, and set
up formal systems for deciding what a text is. It is by no means easy to move from the
formal definition of a sentence to the interpretation of particular sentences of living
language; and this problem is considerably greater in the case of the text. Because of its
nature as a semantic entity, a text, more than other linguistic units, has to be considered
from two perspectives at once, both as product and as process. The text is a product in the
sense that it is an output, something that can be recorded and studied, having a certain
construction that can be represented in systematic terms. It is a process in the sense of a
continuous process of semantic choice, a movement through the network of meaning
potential, with each set of choices constituting the environment for a further set.
A text is a product of its environment, a product of a continuous process of choices in
meaning that we can represent as multiple paths or passes through the networks that
constitute the linguistic system.
The text, as we have said, is an instance of the process and product of social meaning in a
particular context of situation. This context of situation, the context in which the text
unfolds, is encapsulated in the text through a systematic relationship between the social
environment on the one hand, and the functional organisation of language on the other.
But how can we characterize a text in its relation to its context of situation? And how do we
get from the situation to the text? The description is in terms of a simple conceptual

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framework of three headings, the field, the tenor, and the mode, as we shall explore later
on.
Thinking of text as language that is functional, what could one say about its most
outstanding characteristics? The attribute that comes to mind most readily is that of unity.
Clearly, we cannot know all the books, poems, etc., either in their original form or
otherwise; but clearly, also, we know what a text is in the sense of being able to discriminate
between a text and a non-text, a complete text and an incomplete one. In short, the
suggestion is that the basis for these judgements lies in the notion of unity.
The unity in any text -whether written as Chambers' definition implies, i.e., the actual words
of a book, p o e m . , or spoken as face-to-face interaction requires- is of two major types:
unity of structure and unity of texture.
Structure is a familiar term, but what does it mean in the expression 'the structure of text'?
Probably the easiest way to explain it is to give a paraphrase, for example, that it refers to
the overall structure, the global structure of the message form. Thus, the source of textual
unity is structure, which is closely related to the context of situation.
1
The second source of textual unity is texture , which like structure, can be shown to be
ultimately related to the context of situation. Texture is a matter of meaning relations,
which is manifested by certain kinds of semantic relations between its individual messages.
Also, to say that a passage possesses texture is not to make any claim about the specific
structural status of that passage. The relationship appears to operate only in one direction:
whatever is (part of) a text must possess texture; it may or may not be a complete (element
of a) text, but some semantic and lexico-grammatical patterns (cohesion) are essential to
the creation of texture in general. Finally, the property of texture is related to the listener's
perception of coherence, but it operates with cohesion. Therefore, texture is created within
text when there are properties of coherence and cohesion, outside of the apparent
grammatical structure of the text.
Cohesion is the semantic concept which refers to the relations of meaning that exist within
the text. The concept of cohesion in text is related to semantic ties or "relations of meanings
that exist within the text, and that define it as a text". Within text, if a previously mentioned
item is referred to again and is dependent upon another element, it is considered a tie.
Without semantic ties, sentences or utterances would seem to lack any type of relationship
to each other and might not be considered text. Halliday and Hasan refer to this intertextual
link as "the presupposing" and "the presupposed". Using the authors' example, "Wash and
core six cooking apples. Put them into a fireproof dish.": The word "them" presupposes
"apples" and provides a semantic tie between the two sentences, thus creating cohesion.
Cohesion creates interdependency in text. What is more, cohesion accounts for a number of
formal links called cohesive devices, which according to Halliday and Hasan are: reference,
ellipsis, substitution, conjunction and lexical organization.
It is also important to note that theme systems can also create a texture in the fabric of
texts; they guide our point of view as we perceive and interpret the flow of information in
the discourse. Theme systems help us follow the thread of discourse and in so doing provide
cohesion within language. We can talk about texture within the sentence and texture of
discourse.

1
What makes any length of text meaningful and coherent has been termed texture. Texture is the basis for unity
and semantic interdependence within text and a text without texture would just be a group of isolated sentences
with no relationship to one another.

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The components of texture within the sentence are the theme systems and the information
systems. Theme systems are concerned with the organization of the clause as a message. It
comprises theme and rheme as well as a wide range of thematic variation that is associated
with this structure in one way or another (e.g.: Theme: John's aunt, Rheme: left him this
duck press). Information systems, however, are concerned with the organization of the text
into units of information, expressed in English by means of the intonation patterns, a
feature which only affects spoken English. In written English, punctuation can be used to
show information structure. Each information unit is structured in terms of two elements: a
new element, expressing what the speaker is presenting as information that is not
recoverable to the hearer from other sources and a given element, expressing what the
speaker is presenting
as information that is recoverable to the hearer from some source or other of the
environment.
As well as texture within the sentence, we should refer to the texture of discourse, i.e., the
larger structure that is a property of the forms of discourse themselves: the structure that is
inherent in such concepts such as narrative, prayer, folk-ballad... the macrostructure of the
text combines with intrasentence structure and intersentence cohesion to provide a
passage of language with texture, that is, the property of being a text.

1.1.1. The Seven Standards of Textuality (a different approach)

According to de Beaugrande and Dressler (1988) a text will be defined as a communicative

occurrence which meets seven standards of textuality. If any of these standards is not
considered to have been satisfied, the text will not be communicative. They use the notion
of textuality instead of texture, which involves the rules governing written and oral
discourse. These seven standards of textuality comprise the following: cohesion, coherence,
intentionality and acceptability, informativity, situationality and finally, intertextuality.
Cohesion and coherence are text-centred notions, designating operations directed at the
text materials. On the one hand, cohesion is related to the function of syntax and therefore,
it concerns the ways in which the components of the surface text (the actual words we hear
or see: phrase, clause, sentence) are mutually connected within a sequence. It also deals
with cohesive devices (anaphora, cataphora, ellipsis, etc) and signalling relations (tense and
aspect, modality, updating, junction, conjunction, disjunction and subordination).
Coherence is "the outcome of actualizing meanings in order to make sense." It concerns the
ways in which the components of the textual world are mutually accessible and relevant.
These components are the concepts and relations which underlie the surface text: a set of
relations subsumed under causality (cause, enablement, reason, purpose time) and global
patterns (frames, schemas, plans, and scripts). They are responsible for making a text be
"senseless' or non-sensical". In other words, if cohesion gives meaning to a text, coherence
enhances the continuity of sense within the text (meaning vs. sense).

The remaining standards of textuality are user-centred, concerning the activity of textual
communication by the producers and receivers of texts. A language configuration must be
'intended' to be a text and 'accepted' as such in order to be used in communicative
interaction, that is why the attitudes of intentionality and acceptability are examined
together. They both involve some tolerance towards disturbances of cohesion or coherence,

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as long as the purposeful nature of the communication is upheld. Hence, the production and
reception of texts function as discourse actions relevant to some plan or goal. Intentionality,
on the one hand, subsumes the intentions of text producers, that is, their attitude. In the
most immediate sense of the term, the producer 'intends' the language configuration under
production to a cohesive and coherent text instrumental in fulfilling the writer intentions.
This standard deals with the pragmatic perspective of discourse, that is, the conversational
maxims of co-operation: quantity, quality, relation and manner on saying 'be informative, be
truthful, be relevant and be brief' (first, quality envisages messages to be truthful; quantity,
by means of which messages should be as informative as is required, but not more
informative; relation, for messages to be relevant; and manner, where messages should be
clear, brief and orderly). Acceptability, on the other hand, concerns the receiver attitude.
Here a set of occurrences should constitute a cohesive and coherent text having some use
or relevance for the receiver in an appropriate context of communication. Informativity
concerns the extent to which the occurrences of the text are expected vs. unexpected or
known vs. unknown or uncertain. Usually, this notion is applied to content, but occurrences
in any language system might be informative. The emphasis on content, that is, content
words (verbs, nouns, adjectives, adverbs), arises from the dominant role of coherence in
textuality, while language systems like phonemes or syntax seem to have focused less
attention. Content words activate more extensive and diverse cognitive materials and can
elicit more pronounced emotions or mental images than can function words (articles,
prepositions and conjunctions). Hence, we expect different types of texts (poetic, scientific,
literary, etc).
Situationality concerns the factors which make a text "relevant to a current or recoverable
situation of occurrence." The effects of a situational setting are very rare when there is no
mediation and, therefore, the extent to which one feeds one's own beliefs and goals into
one's model of the current communicative situation. Yet, the accessible evidence in the
situation is fed into the model along with our prior knowledge and expectations about how
reality is organized but then, we guide the situation through situation monitoring and
situation management, which can vary depending on the views of the individual participants
(i.e. in dramatic texts, as a subclass of literary texts, there exist the prerogative of presenting
alternative organizations for objects and events in live presentations (prologue, unusual
frequency of events, actions with no reason, etc).
Intertextuality concerns the factors which make the use of one text dependent upon
knowledge of one or more previously encountered texts, that is, the ways in which the
production and reception of a given text depends upon the participants knowledge of other
texts. The usual mediation is achieved by means of the development and use of text types,
being classes of texts expected to have certain traits for certain purposes: descriptive,
narrative, argumentative, literary and poetic, scientific and didactic. Usually, they are
defined along functional lines (descriptive: to enrich knowledge spaces; narrative: to arrange
actions and events; argumentative: to promote the acceptance of certain beliefs; and so on).

1.2. Context: Context of Situation and Context of Culture

The situation in which linguistic interaction takes place gives the participants a great deal of
information about the meanings that are being exchanged, and the meanings that are likely

6
to be exchanged. The text is an instance of the process and product of social meaning in a
particular context of situation, as mentioned above.
The term 'situation', meaning the '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.

It could be argued, in fact, that there was a theory of context before there was a theory of
text, such as the case of the work of the anthropologist Bronislaw Malinowski (1923, 1935),
and in particular his theory of the context of situation. Therefore, in an article written in
1923, he coined the term context of situation. By context of situation, he meant the
environment of the text. He saw that in any adequate description, it was necessary to
provide information not only about what was happening at the time but also about the total
cultural background. And all this played a part in the interpretation of the meaning.
Therefore, Malinowski introduced the two notions that he called the context of situation
and the context of culture; and both of these, he considered, were necessary for the
adequate understanding of the text.
Then, at London University, Firth was interested in the cultural background of language, and
he took over Malinowski's notion of the context of situation and built it into his own
linguistic theory. In Firth's view, all linguistics was the study of meaning and all meaning was
function in a context (Firth, 1935). In one sense, however, Firth found that Malinowski's
conception of the context of situation was not quite adequate for the purposes of a
linguistic theory, because it was not yet general enough. Malinowski had been concerned
with the study of specific texts, and therefore his notion of the context of situation was
designed to elucidate and expound the meaning of particular instances of language use.
Firth needed a concept of the context that could be built into a general linguistic theory.
Hence, he 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. Firth's headings were as
follows: the participants in the situation; the action of the participants; other relevant
features of the situation (the surrounding objects and events) and the effects of the verbal
actions. Since that time, there have been a number of other outlines or schemata of this
kind, the best-known of which is probably that of Dell Hymes, which is quite similar to thatof
Firth.

Halliday has put forward another description of the context of situation, which undermines
the previous ones. The description is in terms of a simple conceptual framework of three
headings, the field, the tenor and the mode.

These concepts serve to interpret the social context of a text, the environment in which
meanings are being exchanged:
- The field of discourse refers to what is happening, to the nature of the social action that is
taking place: what is it that the participants are engaged in, in which the language figures as
some essential component?
- The tenor of discourse refers to who is taking part, to the nature of the participants, their
statuses and roles: what kinds of role relationship obtain among the participants, including
permanent and temporary relationships of one kind or another, both the types of speech

7
role that they are taking on in the dialogue and the whole cluster off socially significant
relationships in which they are involved?
- The mode of discourse refers to what part the language is playing, what it is that the
participants are expecting the language to do for them in that situation: the symbolic
organisation of the text, the status that it has, and its function in the context, including the
channel and also the rhetorical mode, what is being achieved by the text in terms of such
categories as persuasive, expository, didactic, and the like.
The context of situation, however, is only the immediate environment. There is also a
broader background against which the text has to be interpreted: its context of culture. Any
actual context of situation, the particular configuration of field, tenor, and mode that has
brought a text into being, is not just a random jumble of features but a totality -a package,
so to speak, of things that typically go together in the culture. People do these things on
these occasions and attach these meanings and values to them; this is what a culture is.
Context of Culture is very important because it is not the immediate sights that is important
but the whole cultural history behind the text. Knowing where, when the text is set will help
to understand the text more.

2. TEXT TYPOLOGY: CRITERIA FOR CLASSIFICATION

2.1. Criteria

Text typology is concerned with the identification of the criteria leading to the classification
(typology) of texts (or text types, text classes, styles, genres). Depending on the criteria
adopted, there are several possibilities of classifying texts. Using some of the most obvious
criteria, texts can be classified as spoken or written, dialogical or monological, spontaneous
(unprepared) or ritual (prepared), informal or formal, individual (personal) and
interindividual (interpersonal), private or public (official, institutional), subjective or
objective, interactional (contact-oriented) and transactional (message-oriented), etc.
However, all text types identified on the basis of a single criterion, in contrast with those
based on several criteria (simplex vs. complex styles; secondary vs. primary styles), often
include instances which may reveal a more complicated patterning of features than those
suggested by these dichotomies; for example, news bulletin scripts read by newscasters,
dictation of a letter to a secretary, ritualized exchanges (greetings, politeness formulae)
characterizing conversations, interactional features contained in otherwise transactional
encounters (lectures), etc.
Some linguists maintain that it is possible to approach texts as either theoretical linguistic
constructs (text typology), or as concrete 'psychological realities' (text classification). The
latter approach is based on the intuition possessed by every language user which is acquired
through his/her practical experience with the production of texts and which represents a
component of his/her communicative (stylistic) competence. One of the most important
criteria is based on the study of the ways that dominating communicative functions of texts
determine the choice of expressive means of language; e.g., in appeals, warnings, public
notices the conative function dominates, in congratulations or expressions of sympathy it is
the phatic function, in research reports the representational function, in advertising the
persuasive function, etc.

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Literary works are not created merely in an individual author's mind. A literary work can be
said to have a 'personality' of its own, which is interwoven with the ruling social and cultural
circumstances. However, a literary text is influenced not only by the social and political
circumstances of its time. It is also engaged in a dialogue with other texts to which it relates,
critically or affirmatively. This process is called intertextuality.
Moreover, literary works do not occur in isolation, but as members of groups, as a novel
among novels, a poem among poems, or a drama among dramas. Historically and
structurally, they are connected to other works of the same genre, as well as other genres.
The relationship between text types and genres is not straightforward since genres reflect
differences in external format and text types may be defined on the basis of cognitive
categories. For all genres, intertextuality is a basic feature. If each literary work relates to
other works and other forms, it is also influenced in subtle ways by the form or medium in
which it is presented. A literary text is capable of changing its manner of access and
presentation.
For 2,400 years there have been two traditions of classifying texts; the first one, deriving
from Aristotle's Rhetoric, where the term rhetoric refers to the uses of language. More
specific, it refers to modes of discourse realized through text types, thus narration,
description, directive, exposition and argumentation. Within the second tradition, rhetoric
refers to communicative function as rhetorical strategies.
According to Trimble (1985) we may classify texts in two ways. Firstly, according to purpose,
and secondly, according to type or mode.
According to purpose, in terms of communicative functions, the discourse is intended to
inform, express an attitude, persuade and create a debate. According to type or mode, the
classification distinguishes among descriptive, narrative, expository, argumentative, and
instrumental modes. Here the focus is on functional categories or rhetorical strategies
regarding abstract meaning. However, genre refers to completed texts, communicative
functions and text types, being properties of a text, cut across genres, thus informative texts
(newspaper reports, TV news, and textbooks); argumentative texts (debates, political
speeches, and articles). We could say that genres are formed by sets of conventions, and
many works cross into multiple genres by way of borrowing and recombining these
conventions.

2.2.1. Narration
The purpose of a narrative text is to entertain, to tell a story, or to provide an aesthetic
literary experience. Narrative text is based on life experiences and is person-oriented using
dialogue and familiar language. Narrative text is organized using story grammar. The genres
that fit the narrative text structure are folktales (wonder tales, fables, legends, myths, tall
tales, and realistic tales); contemporary fiction; mysteries, science fiction, realistic fiction,
fantasy, and historical fiction.
A main feature of narrative texts is the telling of a story of events or actions that have their
inherent chronological order, usually aimed at presenting facts. This story telling involves
the participation of elements such as characters and characterization, setting, plot, conflict,
and theme. Besides, we find other two relevant narrative features which deal with the order
of events, and the narrator's point of view. Telling a story does not mean, necessarily, that
we are dealing with fiction. Then, instances of narrative texts are novels, short stories
(including myths, folk tales, and legends), poetry, plays, drama and non-fiction. Also, news

9
story, a biography or a report are text forms that generally adhere to the narrative text
types.

2.2.2. Description
The purpose of a descriptive text is to describe and present the attributes and features of
people, animals, items and places, or to provide a detailed, neutral presentation of a literary
situation. Descriptive texts are usually based on material objects, people or places, rather
than with abstract ideas or a chronological sequence of events. In opposition to narrative
texts, descriptive texts tend to be structured in terms of space, rather than time (Halliday
and Hasan). The genres that may fit into the descriptive text structure are brochures,
descriptions of animals, or descriptions of scientific and technical concepts. Yet, the
descriptive process is to be compared to the painting process because of the details the
reader may perceive through most of the senses.

2.2.3. Exposition
Expository texts are usually written in attempts at analyzing, explaining, describing and
presenting events, facts and processes that may be quite complicated. Besides, they may be
used to persuade as well. Their structure would be determined mainly by logical coherence,
but aspects of time and space may also be quite important, depending on the subject-
matter. It is thus not always easy to differentiate between expository texts and narrative or
descriptive texts, especially as expository texts sometimes include elements of narration or
description. An expository essay should be fairly detailed and precise in order to convey
accurate and objective information.

2.2.4. Argumentation
Argumentative texts are intended to convince, or only to persuade, the reader of a certain
point of view, or to understand the author's reason for holding certain views on a matter
under discussion.
This subject-matter may often be a controversial issue, but that is not a necessary
requirement of argumentative texts. Argumentative texts include demonstration brochures,
government speeches, debates, face-to-face discussions, thesis and the research field.

2.2.5. Instruction
Instructive texts exist for the sole purpose of telling their reader what to do in a clearly
specified situation, usually referring to future activities. While an argumentative text may
very well try to persuade the reader to engage in a certain course of action, the author of an
instructive text assumes that the reader knows very well what he wants to do, but he needs
to be told how to do it.
A typical example of an instructive text might be a recipe in a cookery-book or the user's
manual giving instructions for a high-tech product. The author's style and choice of words
are generally fairly objective and unemotional although decisions the author makes about
structure and word choice contribute to the effect of the literary production on the reader,
as assembly and operation instructions.

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3. REGISTER

According to Halliday, register is a semantic concept that can be defined as a configuration

of meanings that are typically associated with a particular situational configuration of field,
mode and tenor. But since it is a configuration of meanings, a register must also, of course,
include the expressions, the lexico-grammatical and phonological features, that typically
accompany or realise these meanings. And sometimes we find that a particular register also
has indexical features, indices in the form of particular words, particular grammatical signals,
or even sometimes phonological signals that have the function of indicating to the
participants that this is the register in question, as in 'Once upon a time', which is an
indexical feature that serves to signal the fact that we are now embarking on a traditional
tale.
The category of register will vary, from something that is closed and limited to something
that is relatively free and open-ended. That is to say, there are certain registers in which the
total number of possible meanings is fixed and finite and may be quite small; whereas in
others, the range of the discourse is much less constrained:
-Closed registers: it is a kind of register in which there is no scope for individuality, or for
creativity. The range of possible meanings is fixed. For example, consider the International
Language of the Air, which air crew has to learn in order to act as pilots. They have to
communicate with ground control, they have to use a fixed language in which to do so, and
they have to keep the total messages within a certain range.
-More open registers: coming to somewhat more open varieties, we can recognise the
language of minor documents like tickets, and of official forms. Then in English-speaking
countries we have a special register for verses on greeting cards, which are sent to people
on their birthdays. Rather more open than these are the registers of headlines, and of
recipes; still more open ended, the registers of technical instruction, and of legal documents.
Then there are the various transactional registers, like those of buying and selling at an
auction, in a shop,; and the register of communication between doctor and patient. There
are styles of meaning associated with these registers, which simply have to be learnt:
technical language. Another register to which a lot of attention is now being paid is the
language of the classroom.
-Most open ended kind registers: the forms of discourse that we use in everyday
interaction with other people. These are the most open-ended kind of register, the registers
of informal narrative and spontaneous conversation. Yet even these are never totally open-
ended.

Registers and dialects are two sorts of variety of a language. A dialect can be defined as a
variety of language according to the user. That is, the dialect is what you speak habitually,
depending in principle on who you are; and that means where you come from, either
geographically in the case of regional dialects, or socially in the case of social dialects.
A register we can define as a variety according to use. In other words, the register is what
you are speaking at the time, depending on what you are doing and the nature of the
activity in which the language is functioning.

4. CONCLUSION

This paper has been an attempt to examine in detail the notion of text and context, which
prove to come along together, as Halliday and Hasan state. Similarly, an in-depth analysis of

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text typology has been offered, together with the concept of register. All in all, these are
essential elements of Text Linguistics, the branch which studies the biggest semantic unit.
But, above all, this unit leads us straightforwardly to the different text-types: narrative,
description, argumentative, expository...

5. BIBLIOGRAPHY

Beaugrande, R. and Dressler, W. Introduction to Text Linguistics. London: Longman, 1988.

Brown, G. and G. Yule. Discourse Analysis. Cambridge University Press, 1983. Cook, Guy.
Discourse. Oxford University Press, 1989.
Halliday, M.A.K. Explorations in the Functions of Language. London: Edward Arnold, 1975.
Halliday, M.A. K. and R. Hasan. Cohesion in English. London: Longman, 1976. van Dijk, T.
Text and Context: Explorations in the Semantics and Pragmatics of Discourse. London:
Longman, 1984.
WEB PAGES:
http://paginaspersonales.deusto.es/abaitua/konzeptu/nlp/trosborg97.htm
http://beaugrande.bizland.com/introduction to text linguistics.htm

APPENDIXES
Text types cutting across registers and genres
Genre distinctions do not adequately represent the underlying text functions of English.
Genres and texts types must be distinguished.
Texts within particular genres can differ greatly in their linguistic characteristics (texts in
newspaper articles can range from narrative and colloquial to informational and
elaborated). On the other hand, different genres can be similar linguistically (newspaper and
magazine articles).
Linguistically distinct texts within a genre may represent different text types, while
linguistically similar texts from different genres may represent a single text type (Biber
1989:6).
The relationship between text types and genres is not straightforward.
• Genres reflect differences in external format and situations of use, and are defined on the
basis of systematic non-linguistic criteria.
• Text types may be defined on the basis of cognitive categories or linguistic criteria.
Biber captures the salient linguistic differences among texts in English.

For 2,400 years there have been two traditions of classifying texts:
deriving from Aristotle's Rhetoric. Rhetoric often refers to the uses of language. More
specific, it refers to modes of discourse realized through text types (narration, description,
exposition, argumentation, etc.)
the classification of texts by type (Kinneavy 1980:3-4)
For others, it refers to communicative funcions as rhetorical strategies (Trimble 1985)

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 Whereas genre refers to
completed texts,
1) Classification according communicative functions and text
types, being properties of a text,
to purpose cut across
In terms of genres.
communicative • informative texts: o
functions, is the newspaper reports
discourse intended to
• inform o TV news
• express an attitude o textbooks • argumentative
texts: o debates o political
• persuade
• create a debate speeches o newspaper articles

2) Classification according to type or mode

• descriptive
• narrative
• expository
• argumentative
• instrumental
(Kinneavy 1980, Faigley & Meyer 1983)
The focus is on functional categories or rhetorical strategies, which is not normative but
abstract knowledge Longacre (1976, 1982), Smith (1985) and Biber (1989) refer to text types
as "underlying shared communicative functions". Trosborg reserves these functions to a
classification of speech acts according to a typology by Kinneavy, restricting text types to
modes of discourse.
Other authors (but not Trosborg) take function as
• "the kind of reality referred to" (Cassirer 1944, Urban 1939)
• the level of social formality of a given discourse (Kenyon
1952)
• nonmorphological classes of words in grammar (Fries 1952)

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While communicative purpose is the aim of a text, rhetorical purpose is made up of
strategies which constitute the mode of discourse realized through text types.
Text types are "a conceptual framework which enables us to classify texts in terms of
communicative intentions serving an overall rhetorical purpose" (Hatim and Mason
1990:140).

GLOSSARY

TEXT: Text, according to the Oxford English Dictionary, is the "wording of anything written
or printed; the structure formed by the words in their order; the very words, phrases, and
sentences as written." Such a definition allows for text to be considered as both the written
words in general, and, more holistically, as the combination of such written words to form a
structure that produces meaning. Thus, the definition of text moves between text and
textuality, moving from a singular word or symbol to a symbolic structure woven by the
threads of language. Here, the history of the word text itself becomes crucial; text,
stemming from tex-ere (to weave), is the "tissue of a literary work. . . .literally that which is
woven, web, texture." As a texture, text is the weaving of words, ideas, and meaning, and it
is also, most importantly, a texture spun by language, which in theory has become
destabilized, a tangle of meaning and symbol. Therefore, text, as textuality, has become a
site of theoretical criticism and argument as the identity of the true spinners of text has
been called in to question. That is to say, theoretical movements have begun to examine
where meaning lies within text, and who contributes to the final pattern. The pattern and
threads of text have unravelled, leaving literary and linguistic theorists to weave together
the structures of language and meaning, and to determine the limits and pathways created
by text.
TEXT TYPE is a specific linguistic pattern in which formal/structural characteristics have been
conventionalized in a specific culture for certain well-defined and standardized uses of
language so that a speaker/hearer or writer/ reader can judge the correct use of linguistic
features, the adequate use of the formula with regard to topic, situation, addressee,
register...
CONTEXT is the social and physical world which interacts with text to create discourse.
PRAGMATICS is the branch of linguistics dealing with language in use and the contexts in
which it is used, including such matters as deixis, turn taking in conversation, text
organization, presupposition, ...
REGISTER: used in Linguistics to refer to a variety of a language or a level of usage, as
determined by degree of formality and choice of vocabulary, pronunciation, and syntax,
according to the communicative purpose, social context, and standing of the user.
SEMANTICS: the branch of linguistics and logic concerned with meaning. The two main
areas are logical semantics, concerned with matters such as sense and reference and
presupposition and implication, and lexical semantics, concerned with the analysis of word
meanings and relations between them, such as synonymy and antonymy.

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