Key terms

1
Key terms

• Text
• Semiotics
• Semantic
• Syntax
• Pragmatics
• Transcoding
• Specialized text
• Non-specialized text

2
What is a text?
3

• A text is a sequence of paragraphs that
  represents an extended unit of speech.

4
Channel

• Oral texts

• Written texts

Intent of the Communicator
Various types of texts (procedural, expository,
persuasive, narrative, descriptive)
5
Intent of the communicator

• Genre of texts
• Narrative
• Procedural
• Expository (Informative)
• Persuasive (Hortatory)
• Descriptive

6
When are they used?

• procedural text gives instructions on how to do
  something.
• expository text is used to explain something
• hortatory text (persuasive) is used to encourage
  or to get someone to do something. As a matter of
  fact, it is argumentation
• descriptive text lists the characteristics of
  something.
• narrative text account of events (novel,
  newspaper article, biography)

7
TEXT FORMS

• Text forms evolve and change
• Authentic text forms are often mixed
• According to modern studies, there may be even
  more text types. Nonetheless, practical
  suggestions tend to classify texts in 3 main
  types

8
Text Types (Sabatini)Group 1

• scientific texts
• technical texts
• legal, normative, regulative texts
  (treatises,essays, technical textbooks and
  essays laws and decrees regulations,
  administrative acts)

9
Text Types (Sabatini)Group 2

• expository and didactic texts
• popularising informative texts (e.g. textbooks on
  social, historical,political topics, popularising
  texts of various topics,newspaper and magazine
  articles)

10
Text Types (Sabatini)Group 3

• literary texts, both poetry and fiction.

11

• A text is a sequence of paragraphs that
  represents an extended unit of speech.

12

• Semantic
• Syntactic
• Phonological
• Prosodic
• Transcoding
• Semiotics
• Specialized texts
• Non-specialized texts

13
Specialized texts

• How do we identify them?
• External parameters (elements of the
  communication process)
• Internal parameters (formal structure knowledge
  structure linguistic structure)

14
External Parameters

• A specialized text must be written by a
  specialist
• Those who want to translate specialized texts
  should get familiar with their specialized
  context, and should know the domain conventions
  and lexical/structural peculiarities

15
Internal Parameters

• Formal structure
• Knowledge structure
• Linguistic structure
• Morphological level
• Lexical level
• Syntactic level
• Textual level
• Specialized texts are precise, more concise, and
  more systematic.
• Precision is a relevant feature. Only experts can
  control it.

16
Procedural texts

• Procedural texts can
• explain how something works or how to use
  instruction manuals
• instruct how to do a particular activity.

17
Procedural texts

• Structure elementary.
• Format according to the type of procedural text.
  
• Language focuses on people in general
• Verb tense present
• use of action verbs
• use of linking words related to time, first,
  then, when.

18
Persuasive (or Hortatory ) texts

• The persuasive text represents the attempt of the
  writer to have the addressee do something or act
  in a certain way. It wants to be convincing so
  that the addressee is made to share the writers
  opinion.

19
Features of Persuasive Texts

• Emotive language to get a sympathetic reaction.
• Imperatives telling the reader what to do.
• Short sentences dramatic effect.
• Logical connectives e.g. therefore,
  because.
• Alliteration
• Address reader directly.
• Personal and informal tone.
• Use of contrasts to emphasise particular points.
• Use of facts to shock the reader.

20
Example

• In all the discussion over the removal of lead
  from petrol (and the atmosphere) there doesnt
  seem to have been any mention of the difference
  between driving in the city and the country.
• While I realize my leaded petrol car is polluting
  the air wherever I drive, I feel that when you
  travel through the country, where you only see
  another car every five to ten minutes, the
  problem is not as severe as when traffic is
  concentrated on city roads.

21
Example

• Those who want to penalize older, leaded petrol
  vehicles and their owners dont seem to
  appreciate that, in the country, there is no
  public transport to fall back upon and ones own
  vehicle is the only way to get about.
• I feel that the country people, who often have to
  travel huge distances to the nearest town and who
  already spend a great deal of money on petrol,
  should be treated differently to the people who
  live in the city.

22
STRUCTURE ANALYSIS

• Thesis paragraph 1
• Argument 1 paragraph 2
• Argument 2 paragraph 3
• Recommendation paragraph 4

23
LANGUAGE FEATURES ANALYSIS

• Focusing on the writer using the first personal
  pronoun I
• Using abstract noun discussion
• Using action verb treat
• Using thinking verb think, seem
• Using passive voice should be treated
  differently
• Using simple present tense there doesnt seem,
  there is no public transport.., etc

24
Text genre variation

• Text genre can be modified linguistic changes
  mirror the communicators intentions.

25
FROM PERSUASIVE TO ANALYTICAL EXPOSITION
1. No sooner had the British occupation
authorities gained control of Iraq than they set
out to issue all manner of declarations and
orders to secure their domination over the
countrys economic resources in an attempt to
recoup their losses. After they had established
their position in Iraq, the British occupation
authorities set out to issue all kinds of rules
and regulations to secure their domination over
the countrys economic resources in an attempt to
recoup their losses.
26
2.

• The British occupation sapped the labours of
  povertystricken peasants, who constituted the
  majority of the working people, and burdened
  these desperate people with all kinds of taxes.
• The labours of povertystricken peasants, who
  constituted the majority of the working people,
  were sapped and they were burdened with various
  types of taxes.

27
3.

• The British occupying power subsequently seized
  the countrys agricultural resources and
  mercilessly plundered these assets to such a
  great extent that taxes increased to three times
  the rate in the period prior to the occupation.
• Subsequently, the countrys agricultural
  resources were seized and mercilessly plundered
  to such a great extent that taxes increased to
  three times the rate in the period prior to the
  occupation.

28
The expository text (or explanatory text)
structures

• Description, enumerative or listing
• Sequence
• Comparison and contrast
• Cause and effect
• Problem and solution

29
STRUCTURES

• Description, enumerative or listing
• includes listing connected information, outlining
  a series of steps, or placing ideas in a
  hierarchy

30
Structures

• Sequence
• when a series of events leads up to a conclusion,
  which means that these events are not a mere
  succession, rather they are organized

31
Structures

• Comparison and contrast
• when you describe how two or more events,
  places, characters, or other ideas are similar
  and/or different in several ways

32
Structures

• Cause and effect
• reasons why an event occurred, or several
  effects from one cause

33
Structures

• Problem and solution
• this technique is used to identify the problem,
  give possible solutions with possible results,
  and present the solution that was chosen

34
Narrative texts

• Narrative texts aim at entertaining, though they
  can also teach or inform, or even influence
  attitudes and social opinions (e.g. soap operas
  dealing with topical issues). The stories set up
  one or more problems, which must eventually be
  resolved.

35
Narrative texts 2

• Features
• Characters with defined personalities/identities.
  
• Dialogues (almost always, but not necessarily).
• Descriptive language to create images in the
  reader's mind and enhance the story.

36
Narrative texts 3.

• Structure
• The focus of the text is on a series of actions
• Introduction
• Complication
• Resolution

37
Narrative texts 4.

• Language
• Action verbs
• Frequent use of past tense
• Specific nouns
• Active nouns (nominalizations)
• Careful use of adjectives and adverbs use of
  connectives
• Use of rhetorical devices (metaphor,simile,
  personification, onomatopoeia)