Text and

discourse as a
subject of
linguistic study
Lecture 7

1
Theory of Text Theory of
Yuri Lotman Discourse
Robert-Alain de Beaugrande P. Hartmann
Werlich E. E. Scheglov
Turaeva Z. Algirdas Julius Greimas
Chernyavskaya V.E. M.M. Bakhtin

XX c. 50 ies-60 ies
Teun van Dijk [deik]
Wolfgang U. Dressler
Ėmile Benveniste

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Yuri Mikhailovich Lotman

«Analysis of the Poetic Text»

«The Structure of the Artistic

Text»

«Внутри мыслящих миров:

Человек. Текст.»

(28 Feb 1922-28 Oct 1993)

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Émile Benveniste
(27 May 1902, Aleppo, Syria – 3 Oct 1976, Paris)

a French Jewish structural linguist,

semiotician, an apprentice of Antoine
Meillet and his successor

Developed a theory of utterance

(French ‘discourse’) which was further
elaborated by Michel Foucault

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 Michel Foucault
(French: [miʃɛl fuko]; born Paul-Michel Foucault)
(15 Oct 1926 – 25 June 1984)

M. Foucault: discourse is a multitude of utterances

belonging to the same formation (1996). Utterance ,
according to the philosopher, is not verbal, not
liguistically shaped sequence of signs, but a segment
of human knowledge and a part of discourse
practice. Discourse embraces all possibilities for
creating certain utterances or actions (Foucault’s
‘discourse practice’ (non)-verbal)).
Discourse is maximally widely understood:
extralinguistic factors are of primary importance in
distinguishing the nature of discourse, the linguistic
factors being secondary.
a French philosopher, Extralinguistic factors: communicational situation,
social theorist, historian of cultural-ideological environment where the
ideas, and literary critic communication takes place.
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 The problem of distinguishing
discourse and text
Discourse is defined through text:
Text in relation to discourse can be viewed as its
fragment, as the basic unit of discourse (Звегинцев
1976; Степанов 1995)
Discourse as a whole text or a complex of texts
somehow united (Арутюнова 1990; Серио 1999);
Text can also be viewed as a certain result of discourse
functioning (Бенвенист 1974; Борисова 2001),
Text can be viewed as being equal to discourse
(Николаева 1978).
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Robert-Alain de Beaugrande
(1946 – 2008)

A professor of English Linguistics

at the University of Vienna (1991-
1997)

A text linguist and discourse

analyst, one of the leading
figures of the Continental
tradition in the discipline.

A major figure in the consolidation

of critical discourse analysis.
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ROBERT ALAIN de Beaugrande:
A language is a theory of cognitive knowledge and social experience (what
language users know and live),
Discourse is its practice (how they talk about it), both sides interfacing
the linguistic, cognitive, and social domains.
A text is a communicative event that contributes to a discourse as a set of
mutually relevant texts, usually a conversation;
A text is a communicative unit produced by a discursive event and
recorded in some prosodic or visual medium. Any relevant sub-unit,
such as a Phrase, Clause, or Paragraph, can be called a Stretch of Text to
remind us where it belongs. A Text is not just a series of units but rather
a tri-modal system that integrates the sub-systems of Lexicogrammar,
Prosody, and Visuality. A text can deploy not just language, but tone of
voice, gesture, facial expression, imagery, photographs, cinema, or some
combination of such resources.

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 Text and discourse
Latin ‘textus’ derived Discursus – derived
from ‘texo’ ‘to weave, from discurro ‘to run
to build’ in different
directions, to spread
 Used figuratively to about, to fall apart’
mean ‘style, Used figuratively to
syllable, connection, mean ‘to tell’
coherent statement’

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 Text and discourse
 Discourse – is speech, with concrete
 Text is predominantly orderly, visible, detectable, understandable
formally regulated people, participating in dialogue
 Is static, the reader follows the  Is predominantly oral (is followed by
author’s flow of thought without notions like ‘speaker’, ‘hearer’, ‘to
the possibility to intrude tell’, ‘conversation’).
 Text is stated in a written form  Can be written as well – newspaper
discussion, news in mass media
 Is predominantly spontaneous;
like speech discourse is dynamic.
Utterance provokes a chain of
questions, answers, comments.

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The seven principles of textuality
Robert de Beaugrande

1. COHESION - the connections among linguistic forms like words or

word-endings
2. COHERENCE - those among the ‘meanings’ or ‘concepts’
3. INTENTIONALITY - covers what speakers intend
4. ACCEPTABILITY - what hearers engage to do;
5. INFORMATIVITY concerns how new or unexpected the content is;
6. SITUATIONALITY concerns ongoing circumstances of the
interaction;
7. INTERTEXTUALITY covers relations with other texts, particularly
ones from the same or a similar ‘text type’.

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1. Cohesion is the grammatical and lexical relationship
within a text or sentence; i.e. the links that hold a text together and
give it meaning. It is related to the broader concept of coherence.

Two main types of cohesion:

grammatical, referring to the
structural content, and lexical,
referring to the language content
of the piece.
 M.A.K. Halliday & Ruqaiya
Hasan five categories of
cohesive devices creating
coherence:
1) reference, 2) ellipsis,
3) substitution, 4) lexical Michael Alexander Kirkwood
cohesion and 5) conjunction. Halliday (often M.A.K. Halliday)
(born 13 April 1925)
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 1) Referential devices that
create cohesion (M.A.K. Halliday, R. Hasan)
Anaphoric reference occurs when
the writer refers back to someone
or something that has been
previously identified, to avoid
repetition.
Cataphoric is a reference forward
as opposed to backward in the
discourse. Something is
introduced in the abstract before
it is identified.
Ruqaiya Hasan,
a professor of linguistics
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 REFERENCE

EXOPHORA indicates
ENDOPHORA
situation references

ANAPHORA CATAPHORA

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Anaphoric reference (Collins
Cobuild)

Pronouns: personal, possessive, demonstratives

Adjectives: previous, above, former, latter, equal,
corresponding
Adverbs: here, there, then, thus
Nouns: accusation, advice, excuse, gossip, lie, reply,
report, story, summary, verdict, warning
Determiners: such, same

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Cataphoric reference

Demonstratives: this, these

Adjectives: following, next, such
Adverbs: below

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 The way cohesion works
Exophoric is reference to something extralinguistic, i.e. not in the
same text, and contrasts with endophora

Our planet (ER) may be home to 30 mln (ER) different kinds of

animals and plants, each individual locked in its own lifelong (ER)

fight for survival. Everywhere you (ER) look on land or in the ocean,

there are extraordinary examples of the lengths living things go

(A / ER)

to, to stay alive (ER). (BBC, ‘Life’ I.I. 00.23 – 00.40 , narrator D. Attenborough)
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2) Ellipsis
happens when, after a more specific mention, words
are omitted when the phrase needs to be repeated.

A conversational example:
(A) What are you doing tonight?
(B) Nothing special (i.e. I am doing nothing special
tonight)

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 3) Substitution
A word is not omitted, as in ellipsis, but is substituted
for another, more general word.

E.g. "Which dress would you put on?" – "I would put
on the red one" where "one" is used instead of
repeating “dress" This works in a similar way to
pronouns, which replace the noun.

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The three types of
substitution
Nominal : one, ones, same
E.g: I’ll take this one.

Verbal : do
E.g: He writes poems, he really
does

Clausal : so, not

Eg: It’s going to rain. I think so.
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4) Lexical cohesion is a linguistic device which helps
to create unity of text and discourse.

In contrast to grammatical cohesion, lexical cohesion

“[…] is the cohesive effect achieved by the selection of
vocabulary.” (Halliday 1994). Thus, a speaker or writer’s
either conscious or unconscious selection of certain
lexical items that are in some way connected to each
other creates lexical cohesion.
Lexical cohesion includes:
1) repetition,
2) synonymy a) antonymy, b) hyponymy
3) collocation

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5) Conjunction and
transitions
Conjunction sets up a relationship between two
clauses. The most basic but least cohesive is the
conjunction and.

Transitions are conjunctions that add cohesion to

text and include then, however, in fact, and
consequently.

Conjunctions can also be implicit and deduced from

correctly interpreting the text.
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Grammatical cohesion
The logical and structural rules that govern the
composition of clauses, phrases, and words in any
given natural language. The term refers also to the
study of such rules, and this field includes morphology
and syntax, often complemented by phonetics,
phonology, semantics, and pragmatics.
NB! Grammatical and lexical cohesion overlap
The conjunction is the border line between the two types

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2. Coherence of the text
- is what makes a text semantically meaningful.
 is achieved through syntactical features:
a) the use of deictic, anaphoric and cataphoric
elements or a logical tense structure,
b) presuppositions and implications connected to
general world knowledge.
The purely linguistic elements that make a text
coherent are subsumed under the term cohesion.
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In short,

Cohesion is formal integrity

 Coherence is meaning

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Coherence concerns the ways in which concepts and
relations, which underlie the surface text, are linked,
relevant and used, to achieve efficient communication.
Relations are the links between concepts within a text,
with each link identified with the concept that it
connects to.
Types of relations of coherence:
Causality
Enablement
Reason
Purpose

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Causality
Hush-a-by baby
On the tree top,
When the wind blows
The cradle will rock.
When the bough breaks,
The cradle will fall,
And down will fall baby The wind causes the cradle
Cradle and all. to rock, the broken in the
wind bough causes the
cradle to fall
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Enablement
Jack and Jill went up the hill
To fetch a pail of water.
Jack fell down and broke his
crown,
And Jill came tumbling after

(Jack and Jill’s going up the hill

makes possible their falling
down)
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 Reason
Little Jack Horner
Sat in the corner,
Eating a Christmas pie;
He put in his thumb,
And pulled out a plum,
And said 'What a good boy am I!’

(“I’m a good boy because I‘ve

pulled out a plum out of the
pie”)

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Purpose
“Pussy cat, pussy cat, where
have you been?"
"I've been up to London to
visit the Queen."
"Pussy cat, pussy cat, what
did you there?"
"I frightened a little mouse
under her chair“

(visiting the queen was the

purpose of cat’s going to
London)
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3. Intentionality
concerns the text producer’s attitude and intentions as
the text producer uses cohesion and coherence to attain
a goal specified in a plan.

Without cohesion and coherence, intended goals may not

be achieved due to a breakdown of communication.

However, depending on the conditions and situations in

which the text is used, the goal may still be attained
even when cohesion and coherence are not upheld.

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4. Acceptability
concerns the text receiver’s attitude that the text should
constitute useful or relevant details or information
such that it is worth accepting.
Text type,
the desirability of goals
the political and sociocultural setting
cohesion and coherence are important in influencing the
acceptability of a text.

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5. Informativity concerns the extent
to which the contents of a text are already known or
expected as compared to unknown or unexpected.
No matter how expected or predictable content
may be, a text will always be informative.
 The level of informativity should not exceed a
point such that the text becomes too complicated
and communication is endangered.
The level of informativity should also not be so low
that it results in boredom and the rejection of the
text.
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6. Situationality concerns the factors which
make a text relevant to a situation of occurrence.

7. Intertextuality concerns the factors

which make the utilization of one text dependent upon
knowledge of one or more previously encountered text.
Texts such as parodies, rebuttals (спростування напр.,
звинувачення), forums and classes in school, the text
producer has to refer to prior texts while the text
receivers have to have knowledge of the prior texts for
communication to be efficient or even occur.

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Intertextuality Goldilocks
zone
Habitable zones
A habitable zone is the
region around a star where
? orbiting planets similar to
the Earth can support
liquid water.
It is neither too hot, nor
too cold
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… then Goldilocks
did another very bad
thing! She ate some
porridge from father Goldilocks zone
bear’s big bowl.
‘Ooh!’ she said. ‘I
don’t like this. It’s
hot.’ then Goldilocks
ate some porridge
from mother’s bowl.
no
‘Oooh!’ she said. ‘I
don’t like this. It’s
cold!’ Then she ate
some porridge from
baby bear’s bowl. Not too hot,
‘Mmm!’ she said. ‘I not too cold, just
right
like this. It’s not hot 36
 The way it works
КАФЕШКА
Ты Гордая такая - взлёт (CAUSE)
Твёрдая такая - лёд (CAUSE)
Холодная такая (REASON)
Ты Громкая такая – гром (REASON)
Жёсткая такая - облом (CAUSE)
Не подходи ко мне
Но за столиком в любимой кафешке
Разреши поцеловать тебя в щёчку
Я раскрою сразу все свои фишки
Болевые точки
Но подъеду я к тебе близко-близко
Поверну своей рукой твою ручку
И раскрою сразу все свои фишки
Подарю все штучки
Ты Очень тонкая струна
Очень странная страна
Свободная страна такая
Ты Весь такой вот на разрыв
Весь такой вот АХ – обрыв
Не подходи ко мне
Но за столиком в любимой кафешке
Разрешу поцеловать себя в щёчку
И раскрою сразу все свои фишки
Болевые точки
Но подъедешь ты ко мне близко-близко
Повернёшь своей рукой мою ручку
Я раскрою сразу все свои фишки
Подарю все штучки
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That’s all for now!

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