Inter-textual structure. (text units)

As the text is structurally complete it can be analyzed as to its inner structure. 1^st of all we should differentiate 2 types: the macro- and microtexts.

Microtexts are singled out according to different principles and that’s why a lot of them exist. If meaning is emphasized it’s called either the superphrasal unit or the content block. If structure is emphasized there are such terms as the complex syntactic entity or supra-sentential construction.

We can divide a text into superphrasal units. A SPU may consist of several independent sentences that develop 1 topic. A superphrasal unit is semantically and structurally complete. And to some extent it is independent from the context. Sometimes the SPU may coincide with the paragraph. But it is often the case that treir boundaries do not coincide. The SPU can end with the end of the paragraph. But it can also end and begin in the middle of the paragraph. At last the SPU can cover 2 or more paragraphs-it’s the most frequent case.

Semantic (topical) entity and lexico-grammatical coherency.

Theme-rheme relations construct topical entity, because each text centered around 1 topic. If it is a long text, there can be some change of topics, structure of the text can be more complicated. (macrotexts). But for microtexts topical entity is the main principle.

Means of cohesion can be lexical and grammatical.

Lexical:

· the lexical repetition One and the same word or phrase is used repeatedly in the text.

· reference It is ensured by pronouns. A boy=he. A boy came in. He was pale.

· substitution is ensured by other nominative parts of speech except pronoun. John is my friend. The boy is very cute.

· derivation (Well, the night was beautiful, and the great thing not to be a pig. Beauty and not being a pig! Nothing much else to it.(Galsworthy) The use of words with the same root but belonging to different parts of speech.

· conjunctions link sentences to 1 another.(then yet however besides moreover etc.)

Grammatical:

· articles

· ellipsis depend on the context and can always be reconstructed. When did U see him last?-Monday.

· key-words They help to achieve topical entity. (synonyms, antonyms, derivatives). Antonyms-characterization of smth through opposition. He is clever-he is not unintelligent.

Text and context

The notion of the text is connected with differentiation of types of context(micro- and macro-). A macro-context is the whole book or story. A micro-context is immediate environment.

2 other types are horizontal and vertical contexts. This division presupposes difference of development of the text.

à à à à horizontal (chain of events, that follow 1 another and the time of the action is not stopped. Ну entered the room. He looked at her. Then he said…etc.)

à

:

:

à vertical (interruption in narration. He entered the room(à) His face was pale, he was dressed in…(…..) Then he said(à)

The discourse is text in action. The term “text” mainly denotes the formal aspect. It’s a unit that consists of sentences and is characterized by its inner structure. The text can be represented schematically(Москальская).

 

chain-like arrangement fan-like arrangement

(logical narration, explanation)

hierarchical structure (long texts)

 

When the scheme is filled in by some content and this content describes some real situation, we deal with some discourse(written or spoken). Discourse is always situationally bound.

 

THE WORD AND ITS PROPERTIES

(from Arnold!!!)

 

The word may be described as the basic unit of language. Uniting meaning and form, it is composed of one or more morphemes, each consisting of one or more spoken sounds or their written representation. Morphemes are also meaningful units but they cannot be used independently, they are always parts of words whereas words can be used as a complete utterance (e. g. Listen!). The combinations of morphemes within words are subject to certain linking conditions. When a derivational affix is added a new word is formed, thus, listen and listener are different words. In fulfilling different grammatical functions words may take functional affixes: listen and listened are different forms of the same word. Different forms of the same word can be also built analytically with the help of auxiliaries. E.g.: The world should listen then as I am listening now (Shelley).

When used in sentences together with other words they are syntactically organised. Their freedom of entering into syntactic constructions is limited by many factors, rules and constraints (e. g.: They told me this story but not *They spoke me this story).

The definition of every basic notion is a very hard task: the definition of a word is one of the most difficult in linguistics because the simplest word has many different aspects.

It has a sound form because it is a certain arrangement of phonemes; it has its morphological structure, being also a certain arrangement of morphemes; when used in actual speech, it may occur in different word forms, different syntactic functions and signal various meanings.

Being the central element of any language system, the word is a sort of focus for the problems of phonology, lexicology, syntax, morphology and also for some other sciences that have to deal with language and speech, such as philosophy and psychology, and probably quite a few other branches of knowledge. All attempts to characterise the word are necessarily specific for each domain of science and are therefore considered one-sided by the representatives of all the other domains and criticised for incompleteness. The variants of definitions were so numerous that some authors (A. Rossetti, D.N. Shmelev) collecting them produced works of impressive scope and bulk.

A few examples will suffice to show that any definition is conditioned by the aims and interests of its author.

 

(from the lecture!!!)

Irina Arnold defines the word as the basic unit of a given language. She resulted from the association of a particular meaning with the particular group of sound, capable of a particular grammatical employment.

She stated that the word can be studied from several aspects: phonological, semantic and grammatical.

Irina Arnold also pointed out the main important characteristics of the word:

1. The word is the unity of form and meaning.

2. The word is the basic unit of a language.

3. The word is indivisible.

4. The word is composed of1 or more morphemes.

5. The word is internally (внутренне) stable.

6. The word is positionally mobile.

7. The word is separable.

8. The word can enter syntactic structures.

9. The word possesses semantic integrity (целостность).

 

The famous Russian scholar professor Смирницкий in his theory of the word focused on 2 major problems (related to the integrity of the word). They are: 1) separateness of the word (отдельность);