The Seven Standards Of Textuality 

:
“A TEXT will be defined as a COMMUNICATIVE OCCURRENCE which meets
seven standards of TEXTUALITY. Text linguistics takes into account the form of a
text, but also its setting, i. e. the way in which it is situated in an interactional,
communicative context. Both the author of a (written or spoken) text as well as its
addressee are taken into consideration in their respective (social and/or institutional)
roles in the specific communicative context.

1- Cohesion :

The glue that hold the paragraphs together. It concerns the way ideas flow from one
sentence to another smoothly and how they are connected in few words. It also shows
that the end of each sentence is related to the beginning of the next one. Thus, It is all
about the connection of ideas at the sentence level.

2- Coherence :

We talk about how clear and logical are, i.e how well the parts of a paragraph fit
together and the arguments are logical. It helps the reader to understand every
sentence and relationship of a sentence to other sentences and the main idea. It
concerns the connection of ideas at the idea level.

 Any paragraph should be cohesive and coherent so that it can flow smoothly
and make sense.
 Since the paragraph is not cohesive, the ideas are hard to follow. Likewise,
when a paragraph is hard to understand of it is confusing, we say it is not
coherent.
 Coherence and cohesion are both text-centered unlike the rest of standards are
user-centered notions.

3- Intentionality :

It is the user-centered and concerns how the writer realises their communicative goals,
aims they want to convey through a text.

4- Acceptability :

It concerns the text receiver’s attitude towards the text and decides whether the text os
accessible , relevant or clear. However, It depends on the listener or the reader’s
acceptance of the text or ideas.
 5- Informativity :

Refers to the information contained in the text and the kind of knowledge that the
reader deduce from the text. Through this standard the writer wants to convey a
message and the reader grasps the idea, so it is dependent on both the writer and the
reader.

6- Situationality :

Refers to the context in which the text occurs and the factors which make the text to a
certain situation which means the ideas should be appropriate with the topic and not
out of it.

7- Intertextuality :

It concerns the factors which make the use of a text dependentupon the knowledge
of one or more previously encountered texts. It is to reinforce our paragraph by
including other examples from other texts and add another text to a text we are
dealing with.

EXAMPLE :

Welcome ! Ewlcoem !

You’ll try not to get Dirty you’all to all try

me all dirty, right ? get, me right ? not

BUBBLE.1. BUBBLE.2.

 If the first bubble is placed on a beach for example it will be labeled as a text
since it makes sense that people should be aware and not to leave anything
behind them.
 Yet, if we place this bubble randomly without precising the place, it will be
considered as a non-text because it doesn’t express anything.
 If we observe the second bubble, we will notice that the surface of its text is
too messy in addition to grammatical errors. However, the first bubble is
well-organised and understandable. ( this is a cohesive text i.e. the surface is
fine and the sentences flow smoothly from one to another.)
 Whereas, cohesion is not enough for a text to be communicative , it needs
coherence too. When seeing this bubble on a beach, the visitors will easily get
 that not the beach who’s talking but rather the local authorities want people to
be responsible and make the connection between the concepts while decoding
the message.
 The bubble makes sense on the beach, yet it would make non-sense if it was
placed on the door of john’s office. i.e. there is interrelation between the
concept and the situation.
 The local authorities decided to realise their intention in an original way , by
placing a speech bubble on the beach.( the way an addresser expresses their
intention .)
 As long as the addressee understands the intention of the writer easily, the text
will be accepted as clear and relevant.
 The authorities wanted to inform people that they can go to the beach, but at
the same time they want the beaches to be kept spotless.