Unit 31

TEXTO Y CONTEXTO. TIPOS DE TEXTO. REGISTRO.

1. TEXT AND CONTEXT

1.1. Textual Features [Halliday & Hassan]
 Texture
 Ties
1.2. Textuality [Beaugrande & Dressler]
 Cohesion
 Coherence
 Intentionality & Acceptability
 Informativity
 Situationality
 Intertextuality
1.3. Context: Context of Situation
2. TIPES OF TEXT: CLASSIFICATION AND DESCRIPTION
2.1. Narrative
2.2. Descriptive
2.3. Argumentative
2.4. Expository
2.5. Dialogical
3. REGISTER
4. EDUCATIONAL IMPLICATIONS
5. CONCLUSION
6. BIBLIOGRAPHY

1
 Unit 31

As I’m sure that something similar would happen to you, I have some
anecdotes when teaching context in English, I mean, when I had to explain
what certain kind of discourse or behaviour is not adequate to certain situation.
For instance, why a client in a restaurant cannot ask for water to the waiter like:
Bring me a glass of water! Or why among friends you should not say: Do you
mind if I take your pen, please?
Well, for that reason topic 31 is so important, as it explains text and context,
the types of texts and register. Afterwards, I will give you the educational
implications and the bibliography used for this topic.
So, let’s examine the terms text and context.

1. TEXT AND CONTEXT

According to Halliday & Hasan, “the word ‘text’ is used in linguistics to refer
to any passage, spoken or written, of whatever length, that does form a unified
whole”, “spoken or written, prose or verse, dialogue or monologue, and also
anything from a single proverb to a whole play, from a momentary cry for help
to an all-day discussion on committee”.
A text is not a grammatical unit but of language in use; in other words, a text is
best regarded as a semantic unit and not a unit of form.

1.1. ]Textual features]

It must be born in mind that a text does not consist or sentences; it is realized by
sentences. In fact, the property of ‘being a text’ is given by textual features such
as texture and ties.

Texture expresses in itself the property of ‘being a text’ and this is what
distinguishes a text from something that is not a text, then, functions as a unity
with respect to its environment. The resources that English has for creating
texture contribute to is total unity and they are called ‘ties’.

2
 Unit 31

Halliday and Hasan ‘ties’ is the term used to refer to a single instance or
cohesive relation (anaphora, cataphora, reference). The concept of a tie makes it
possible to analyse a text in terms of its cohesive properties and give a
systematic account of patterns of texture. Reference, substitution, ellipsis,
conjunction, and lexical cohesion.

1.2. [Textuality]
But written texts are conform of rules that most successful writers
unconsciously follow and native readers unconsciously expect to find. It is
relevant, then, to address the term textuality which is involved in rules
governing written discourse.

According to Beaugrande & Dressler there are seven standards of textuality;

cohesion, coherence, intentionality and acceptability, informativity,
situationality and finally, intertextuality.

Cohesion and coherence are text-centred notions, designating operations

directed at the text materials. Cohesion is related to the function of syntax and
therefore, it concerns the ways in which the components of the surface text.

Coherence is “the outcome of actualizing in order to make sense”. It concerns

the ways in which the components of the textual world are mutually accessible
and relevant. 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). (deeply studied in
topic 29)

The remaining standards of textuality are user-centred, 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’s why
we shall examine the attitudes of intentionality and acceptability together.

3
 Unit 31

Intentionality, subsumes the intentions of text producers, that is, their attitude.
This standard deals with the pragmatic perspective of discourse, that is, GRICE
the conversational maxims of co-operation: quantity, quality, relation and
manner on saving ‘be informative, be truthful, be relevant and be brief’.
Acceptability, 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 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. 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 of
texts (poetic, scientific, literary, etc).

Situationality deals with the factors that make a text “relevant to a current or
recoverable situation of occurrence”.

Intertextuality concerns the factors which make the use of one text dependent
upon knowledge of one 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 above seven standards of textuality are called constitutive principles
(Searle 1965), in that they define and create textual communications as well as
set the rules for communicating.

1.3. [Context]
On the other hand, context means literally ‘accompanying text’ and it is defined
as ‘the state of affairs of a communicative situation in which communicative
events take place’ (van Dijk, 1981). A context must a linguistically relevant set

4
 Unit 31

of characteristics for the formulation, conditions and rules for the adequate use
of utterances.

[The context of situation]

But 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. The concept of ‘context of situation’ was formulated
by Malinowski in 1923’ and further on, Hymes (1969) categorized the speech
situation in terms of eight components: form and content of text, setting
participants, ends (intent and effect), key, medium. Genre and intentional
norms.
The context of situation is related to the material, social and ideological
environment where those words are uttered. The linguistic patterns make it
possible to identify what features of the environment are relevant to linguistic
behaviour and so form part of context of situation (here again we prepare the
ground for the concept of register).
Now, let’s have a look to the text types, classification, descriptions and their rules, as a
foreign leaner should first know how each text type works in order to reproduce it.

2. TEXT TYPES: CLASSIFICATION AND DESCRIPTION.

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.
Purpose, in terms of communicative functions, the discourse is intended to
inform, express an attitude, persuade and create a debate. Type or mode, the

5
 Unit 31

classification distinguishes among descriptive, narrative, expository,

argumentative and instrumental modes.
Analytic interpretation of texts in all genres should become part of every literary
student’s basic competence (B.O.E. 2002).

2.1. Narration. (studied more deeply in topic 32)

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, fantasy, and historical
fiction.
A main feature of narrative texts is the telling of a story of actions that have
their inherent chronological order, usually aimed at presenting facts. This story
telling involves the participation explanation of each element of elements such
as characters and characterization, setting, plot, conflict, and theme.
Regarding characters, they may be classified as main characters if they are the
protagonists, or supporting characters if they are secondary to the development
of the plot. Characterization which refers to way the author portrays
stereotypes, the setting, we may say it refers to the environment, the context,
and the circumstances of the story, real or imaginery situations. Plot involves
the action around which the story is developed, the conflict is directly related to
it, as it is usually drawn from complication, through conflict, to a solution,
stated or open-ended. The theme is concerned with an interesting and attractive
issue which will be the starting point to develop the story, thus love, injustice,
or a murder.

2.2. Description. (studied in topic 33)

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

6
 Unit 31

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. Tend to be structured in terms of space,
rather then time. The descriptive process is to be compared to the painting
process because of the details the reader may perceive through most of the
sense.
Types of descriptions regarding the description of people and animals
(prosopographic), the description of landscapes (topographic), and the
description of objects. There are other types of description concerning the mode
of discourse, thus scientific, literary, static and dynamic. The scientific
description is concerned with the notions of objectivity and rigour. The literary
description is concerned with the writer’s subjectivity, where his or her point of
view is emphasized, regarding practical and sensorial things, such as the five
sense: hearing smelling, tasting, touching, and seeing,.
Static description, the writer describes in a precise way the object which is
placed statically at a certain distance. It is depicted by means of photographic
techniques, giving details on shape, size, colour, material, among other aspects.
Dynamic description is featured by movement. By means of a cinematographic
technique through which he makes the reader discover the object a the same
time as him.
Descriptive texts are usually aimed at precision and clarity. The choice of words
may range from metaphors, similes or comparisons in order to give as many
details as possible in terms of colour, height, length, beauty, or material type.
The vocabulary used can therefore be expected to be exact and price, the overall
style neutral, unemotional and sometimes technical and dry to the point of
boredom.

2.3. Argumentation (topic 34)

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.

7
 Unit 31

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.
In any argumentative text, the language used by the author will, to a greater or
lesser degree, reflect his personal views on the subject-matter. It is generally less
neutral than the style employed in other non-fictional texts and may, in some
cases, make use of devices such as irony or sarcasm, as well as rather emotional
terminology and phrases that express a clear opinion (e.g. From my point of view,
I think, I absolutely agree)

2.4. Exposition. (topic 35)

Are usually writhen in attempts at analyzing, explaining, describing and
presenting events, facts and processes that may be quite complicated. They may
be used to persuade as well. By logical coherence, but aspects of time and space
may also be quite important, depending on the subject-matter. An expository
essay should be fairly detailed and precise in order to convey accurate and
objective information.
The organization of the structure of the expository text is dependent upon the
form or genre, and, therefore it may include a letter, a brochure, a map, essays,
speeches, lab procedures, journal entries, government documents, newspaper
and magazine articles, and directions, among others. Moreover, the language
used in expositions is virtually always neutral, objective and analytical. You
would no expect to find emotionally loaded terms or subjective comments in an
expository text.
Expository texts explain something by definition, sequence, categorization,
comparison-contrast, enumeration, process, problem-solution, description or
cause-effect. The expository text uses facts and details, opinions and examples
to do the same.
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. These texts

8
 Unit 31

assume that the reader knows very well what he want 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.
The style in instructive text is simple, straight-forward and aimed at utmost
precision. However, sometimes the reader may find a sheet of instructions that
has been translated from Korean into Japanese, which in turn, has been
translated from English into Spanish, in which case the language tends to make
no sense (Has this ever happened to you?).

2.5. Dialogue. (topic 36)

Dialogic texts are basically oral; they are realized as an exchange or a series
of verbal exchanges between two or more speakers who are generally present.
Each of these exchanges is produced by a different speaker.
As happens with other types of texts, conversation may include different
texts which can be adapted to the same textual structure. These may be divided
into spontaneous conversations (tête-a-tête, telephonic conversations, …) and
non-spontaneous conversations subject to prior planning. They are usually
about a fixed topic, maintained throughout the conversation, and progress
though an also fixed system of turn-taking.
Topics in these verbal interactions are limited by context ( as in job
interviews, exams or medical visits) and are usually lead by one of the speakers,
who will fix the topic, make the questions or assign the turns to speak (the
interviewer, the teacher or the doctor in the situations above mentioned).
Spontaneous conversations are more interesting as subject of linguistic
study than non-spontaneous ones. Not only are they the basic form of
communicative interaction and social regulation but also present much less
general restrictions: they are not usually planned in advance, subjects may vary
throughout the conversation and they may take place in various contexts and
have various functions.

9
 Unit 31

Despite this lack of restrictions, spontaneous conversations do not take place in

a complete arbitrary way. On the contrary, as other texts, they are governed by
a series of features and possess an internal structure. The structure of
conversation is much more complex than that of sentences taken singly, or even
cohesive but monologic texts and is given by four main conversational features
or: speech acts, sequencing, turn-taking and implicature.
But...why is also important the knowledge of the register?

3. REGISTER
Register is the variety of language according to the use, that is to say, what an
individual is speaking at the time, depending on what he is doing and the
activity in which the language is functioning.As stated above, the concept of
register is closely related to that of situational reference, that is, referring to
exophoric / situational and also endophoric / textual reference. Register is
analysed in term of field, mode and tenor.
Field refers to the subject-matter, for instance, general, specialized, technical…
Personal tenor deals with the relationship between participants, the formality
degree.
Functional tenor refers to the language function (referential, emotive, phatic…)
Mode deals with the channel used, written or spoken, spontaneous or non-
spontaneous.
For example in a news programme the field is general, the personal tenor is
quite formal, the functional tenor is referential as be informated is the target
and the mode is audio-visual and non-spontaneous.

4. CLASSROOM IMPLICATIONS
Well, as stated the title of the topic I have just explained what text and context
is, the five main different text types (narration, description, exposition,
argumentation and instruction) and the register.
But how all these things affect to teaching English? Certainly, in a relevant way.

10
 Unit 31

By focusing on the text as a unit, we will show our students real language and
we will place emphasis in communication. Students will practice and learn
communicative strategies and the use of cohesive devices.
We should show our students the important role of context and how to
adequate to it. They should be aware of the different registers that relate to
different social situations. Our students should recognise different registers and
be aware of the relevance of using the appropiate to the situation.

5. CONCLUSION
This is a very important topic due to the fact that we as teachers not only teach
vocabulary adn grammar, but also how to use accurately the English language
depending on different situations. All text relations, register and text types help
us showing our students how the language works.

6. BIBLIOGRAPHY.
The bibliography used for developing this topic was:
Maria Josep Cuenca: Teories gramaticals i ensenyament de llengües.
Halliday et al.: Language, Context and Text.
Halliday and Hasan: Cohesion in English.

11