“Text Linguistics”

Text Linguistics investigates and describes the

compositional strategies of texts.

It is an application of discourse analysis, applied

to texts and text types.

It originates in the field of pragamatics, following

that field in including context in linguistic study.
 “Text Linguistics”

The classification of texts into typologies requires

the presumption of common features across
different individual texts.

Our textual constellation of text-types will follow

the sociolinguistic functions as desribed in the
Buehler-Jakobsen model.
 “Text Linguistics”
Jakobson's model of the functions of language
distinguishes six elements, or

factors of communication
necessary for communication to occur:

(1) context
(2) addresser (sender)
(3) addressee (receiver)
(4) contact
(5) common code
(6) message
 “Text Linguistics”

Each factor is the focal point of a relation, or

function,
that operates between the
message and the factor.
Jakobson’s six language functions
FACTOR FUNCTION
addresser emotive/
addresse expressive
e conative/directiv
context e
contact referential/inform
ative
code
phatic
message
metalinguistic
poetic/aesthetic
 TEXT TYPES ACCORDING
TO
FUNCTIONS OF LANGUAGE
MAIN FUNCTIONS OF LANGUAGE (purposes
of using language) (following Buhler)
1) EXPRESSIVE
2) INFORMATIVE
3) VOCATIVE
4) AESTHETIC,
5) PHATIC
6) METALINGUA
L
Newmark, Peter, 1988, A Textbook of
Translation, chapter 4 (language functions, text
categories and text types)
 Language functions and text types

1. EMOTIVE/EXPRESSIVE FUNCTION
The core of the expressive function is the mind of
the writer/speaker. Language is used by the
writer/speaker to express his/her feelings. Focus
on the w/s. Personal, expression of feelings,
attitudes, opinions.

E.g. of expressive texts: autobiography, personal

correspondence, political speeches.
 Language functions and text types
2. REFERENTIAL/INFORMATIVE FUNCTION
The core of the informative function of language
is the external situation, the facts of a topic, the
reality outside language, included reported ideas
or theories.
Informative texts provide information about any
topic of knowledge. They identify and
characterise phenomena. Style: Impersonal,
objective, formal, non-emotive (but it depends on
the genre)
E.g. textbook, technical report, scientific paper,
thesis, minutes or agenda of a meeting,
newspaper article (fields: scientific,
technological, commercial, various areas of
knowledge)
 Language functions and text types
3. CONATIVE/VOCATIVE (DIRECTIVE) FUNCTION
The core of the vocative function is the
the addressee. Language is used to call upon the
reader/hearer,
readership to act, think or feel, to react in the way
intended by the text. The writer wants to produce a
certain effect on the addressee.
The aim is to convince the readers, persuade them.
E.g. instructions, advertisements, propaganda,
requests, theses, also popular fiction (purpose is to sell
the book/entertain the reader), contracts.
FEATURES: relationship addresser/addressee
realised in forms of address: pronouns, infinitives,
imperatives, etc., must be written in a comprehensible
language.
 Language functions and text types

“Few texts are purely expressive, informative, or

vocative: most include all 3 functions, with an
emphasis on one of the three.”
(Newmark 1988: 42)

A text can hardly be purely informative, i.e. objective

(there is always some kind of expression of personal
views, and vocative function)

An expressive text will usually carry some information

as well.
Jakobson’s six language functions
FACTOR FUNCTION
addresser emotive/
addresse expressive
e conative/directiv
context e
contact referential/inform
ative
code
phatic
message
metalinguistic
poetic/aesthetic
 “Text Linguistics”
PHATIC / INTERACTIONAL FUNCTION
Language used to establish or maintain contact
between the addresser and the addressee.
Use of ‘phaticisms’ or standard phrases (spoken
code, e.g. Hey, you… May I have your
attention? How are you? Have a good weekend!
See you tomorrow. Did you have a good
Christmas? Isn’t it hot today?)
(written code: of course, naturally, it is important
to note that…)
 “Text Linguistics”
METALINGUISTIC FUNCTION
Language is used to explain itself
(questions or explanations of terminology or
phaseology - what do you mean by cleft
structure?, ‘literally’, ‘so-called’, 'sometimes
known as’, etc.)

More generally "metacode" (or "metasemiotic") to

apply it to non-linguistic messages.

Any normed and norming system is a code, not

only the language system
 “Text Linguistics”
METALINGUISTIC FUNCTION (three types)

1) the dialect (the language system)

"How do you spell 'surreptitiously'?"

2) the sociolect (the particular usage of a dialect

specific to a differentiated social practice with its
own discourse organized through genres)
"A Sonnet has 14 lines"

3) idiolect (a given author's individual usage of a

language and a sociolect)
"Baudelaire liked antitheses"
 “Text Linguistics”

POETIC/AESTHETIC FUNCTION
Language is used in a creative way (rhymes,
similes, metaphors)

'the focus on the message for its own sake'

[(Jakobson, 1960, p. 356)]
Jakobson’s six language functions
FACTOR FUNCTION
addresser emotive/
addresse expressive
e conative/vocativ
context e
contact referential/inform
ative
code
phatic
message
metalinguistic
poetic/aesthetic
 “Text Linguistics”

Primary Functions
Informative, Expressive, Directive
The What of the message: the semantic content
as conveyed by the rules of the given language.

Secondary Functions
Poetic, Metalinguistic, Phatic
The How of the message: the relations between
the speakers, and between them and the code.
 “Text Linguistics”
One or more – or even all – of the functions of
language may be absent in short units (such as
isolated sign). Lengthy units
an can activate all of them.

Where more than one function is present, establish:

(1) a simple hierarchy, by identifying the dominant

function and not ranking the other functions, or

(2) a complex hierarchy, by specifying the degree of

presence of some or all of the functions.
 “Text Linguistics”

"The dominant function answers the question,

'With what intention was this message
transmitted?' and [...] the secondary functions
are
there to support it."
The intention can be hidden, the function that is
dominant in terms of overt degree of presence
may not be dominant in terms of intention.
There may be an opposition between actual and
overt functions (Arcand and Bourbeau, 1995).
 “Text Linguistics”

There can be direct and indirect manifestations of

intention, which correlate to the opposition between
actual and overt functions.

The directive function is manifested directly in "Go

answer the door" and indirectly in "The doorbell
rang" (which is equivalent to "Go answer the
door"), where the overt function is informative.
(Arcand and Bourbeau, 1995)
 “Text Linguistics”

Translators need to attempt to retain the dominant

function of the text.

Informative: render the meaning

Vocative: convince readers
Phatic: establish and maintain
communication,
contact, etc.
 “Text Linguistics”

For Jakobson, what characterizes poetry and

distinguishes it from other genres (literary and
textual in general) is not so much the presence
the poetic function asofits dominance. p. 357)
 “Text Linguistics”

Identifying the functional configuration

Specifying the secondary dominant function

to create a typology.

Jakobson recognizes that epic poetry – focused

on the third person, as opposed to lyric poetry
(first-person) or poetry of the second person –
"strongly involves the referential function of
language" (Jakobson, 1960, p. 357).
 “Text Linguistics”
Epic Poetry Lyric Poetry
Dominant Function: Dominant Function:
Poetic Poetic
Secondary Secondary
Function: Function: Emotive
Informative
Third-Person Narration First- (or Second-)
Person Narration
 “Text Linguistics”

Certain works and certain genres appear to be

based on emphasizing and/or deemphasizing (or
even neutralizing) one or more functions.

For example, in literature, the "destruction" of the

Balzacian universe by Robbe-Grillet and Kafka
are attempts to neutralize the referential function.
 “Text Linguistics”
Two kinds of correlations can be shown to exist
between two functions.

The correlation is said to be converse, or direct, if (1)

an intensification of one of the two functions is
accompanied by an intensification of the other and (2)
a decline in one function causes a decline in the
other.
The correlation is said to be inverse if an
intensification of one of the two functions is
accompanied by a decline in the other, and vice
versa.
 “Text Linguistics”

converse correlation

For example, when the poetic function is suddenly

accentuated, the result and/or effect may be to keep
the addressee's attention at a time when it was
beginning to wander (the phatic function).
 “Text Linguistics”

Generally speaking, when one function is accentuated,

it tends to diminish the importance of all the others,

and the opposite happens when the function is

deemphasized.

Some functions are generally paired in an even more

definite inverse relation.
 “Text Linguistics”

the relation between

the poetic and the referential
functions
an inverse correlation

The more the message "talks" about itself and

refers to itself (the poetic function), the less it
talks about the context and refers to it (the
referential function) and vice versa.
 “I went to the country with a friend”
vs.

Spontaneous me, Nature,

The loving day, the sun, the friend I am
mounting happy with,
The arm of my friend hanging idly over my
shoulder,
The hill-side whiten’d with blossoms of the
mountain ash,
The same, late in autumn—the hues of red,
yellow, drab, purple, and light and dark
green...
 “Text Linguistics”
"Ambiguity is an intrinsic, inalienable character of
any self-focused message [...] The supremacy of
poetic function over referential function does not
obliterate the reference but makes it ambiguous.

The double-sensed message finds

correspondence in a split addresser, in a
split addressee, and besides in a split
reference...[as with] the Majorca
storytellers: 'Axio era y no era' ('It was
and it was not')."
(Jakobson, 1960)
 “Text Linguistics”
Cry of Pain Educational Message
Dominant Function: Dominant Function:
Expressive Directive
Secondary Secondary Function:
Function: Directive Expressive (empty)
(empty) to intended for the
may be "addressed" addressee, and
associated
a receiver, italmost
is generally entails an
completely with the attenuation of the
addresser emotive function
 “Text Linguistics”
It can be difficult to draw the line
between interaction and
merging of functions.
Are functions actually distinct from one another?
How much is interaction and how much is
commingling?

"Any information – the referential function –

changes the receiver's knowledge stock; we
can thus say that it acts on the receiver: that is
the conative function. Moreover, a lot of so-
called information leads to a behaviour as its
final result.
 “Text Linguistics”

The sign 'falling rock' is meant not just to convey

information, but most of all to elicit a certain
attitude in the driver"

This interaction involves

an opposition between actual vs. overt function

(Klinkenberg, 1996)
 “Text Linguistics”

Road Sign: “Falling Rock”

Actual Function: Directive (to drive with caution)

Overt Function: Referential (there is danger here)

Which is dominant and which is secondary?

 “Text Linguistics”
Advertising Message

(1) attract attention (the phatic function)

(2) appeal to reason (the referential function)

or emotion (the emotive function)

(3) get people to act (the conative function)

The third objective is clearly the most important,

and the others are subordinate.
“Text Li ngui stics”
 “Text Linguistics”

Three possible sequences (the referential function) are

open to the addressee (the conative function):

(1) not drinking, then driving

(2) drinking, then not driving
(3) drinking, then driving

The possible sequencings are given a moral value: the

first two scenarios fall under good behaviour, and the
third comes under bad behaviour.
 “Text Linguistics”
The advertising message clearly takes aim at the
third scenario with an image showing the
possible consequences – the addressee's death
very striking way (the
– inexpressive
a and poetic
functions).

This is the worst possible death: yours (the

directive function).

This is not a referential third-person death, but an

directive/expressive second-person death.
 “Text Linguistics”

This death is presented as being highly avoidable,

since it is reserved for the "bloody idiots" with
whom no addressee would want to be associated
(directive function).

The word "bloody" indicates the level of idiocy

within the class of idiots (referential function),
and
it demonstrates the intensity of the addresser's
emotion (expressive function).
 “Text Linguistics”

Perhaps the addresser is highly concerned about

what could happen to us (directive function),

or perhaps his utterance merely expresses a

coldly objective truth (referential function)

along with an unsympathetic "too-bad-for-you"

attitude (expressive function).
 “Text Linguistics”
In addition to the standard meaning, indicating
intensity (expressive function), possible concern
(expressive function) and familiarity (directive
function), "bloody" happens to be a polysemic
word, and thereby draws attention to itself
(poetic function).

It alludes to blood – the blood we will shed, but

also the blood that shows our blood alcohol level.
Speakers of English no longer make the
connection to blood when they say "bloody" as an
interjection. By re-actualizing the original content,
the slogan draws our attention to an otherwise
innocuous, transparent word.
 “Text Linguistics”

Text-types can also be described in reference to

Austin's general categories.

The advertisement above has

illocutionary force - to persuade that drunk driving

is reprehensible and dangerous – and

perlocutionary force - it aims to cause one not to

drink and drive.
 “Text Linguistics”

However, Searle's Speech Act categories can not

easily be applied if we maintain they are exclusive

“If you drink, then drive, you're a bloody idiot.”

Assertive?
Directive?
Expressive
?
 “Text Linguistics”
Even phatic elements can be informative or
expressive:

“Darling,...” vs. “Ms. Lenti”

The former obviously expresses
emotional content absent in the latter
although both call for the listener's
attention.
“About that,... I'll keep quiet.”
A pause here can convey various
kinds of information depending on
context, such as the reasons behind
one's keeping quiet.
 “Text Linguistics”

Which functions of language are activated in the

following text?

"This text you gave me to correct is a bunch of

rubbish! Listen to this, you've got several verbs
with no subject, you state the obvious ('a day
lasts
24 hours'!), then – are you still following me? –
you use obscure metaphors ('work is the drop
hammer of life') and stupid malapropisms ('You
are the suntan of my life').”
Jakobson’s six language functions
FACTOR FUNCTION
addresser emotive/
addresse expressive
e conative/directiv
context e
contact referential/inform
ative
code
phatic
message
metalinguistic
poetic/aesthetic