Appunti di inglese 2B per esonero

TEXT TYPES

Narrative (past events)

Descriptive (permanent conditions, truths)

Argumentative (texts expressing attitudes/opinions)

Persuasive (adverts, slogans)

Instructive (package leaftlets, recipes, user's guides)

Expository/informative (biographies, textbooks, encyclopedias)

1. NARRATIVE TEXTS

- real-world events and time.

- may be fictional (fairy tales, novels) or non-fictional (newspaper reports).

- They are characterized by a sequencing of events expressed by dynamic verbs, typically in the past simple/progressive/perfect, and by adverbials such as "and then", "first", "second", "third".

Example: First we packed our bags and then we called a taxi. After that we... etc.

2. DESCRIPTIVE TEXTS

- They are concerned with the location of people and things in space.

- a description may be more technical-objective or more impressionistic-subjective.

- State or positional verbs plus adverbial expressions are employed in descriptions

Examples: 1) The operation...

1) The panel is located on the right-hand side at the rear.

2) New Orleans lies on the Mississippi.

3. ARGUMENTATIVE TEXTS

- They depart from the assumption that the receiver's beliefs must be changed.

- They often start with the negation of a statement which attributes a quality or characteristic activity to something or someone.

- They also include advertising texts, which try to persuade their readers that a product is somehow better, at least implicitly, than others.

4. PERSUASIVE TEXTS

- They are full of all the convincing techniques a writer can employ.

- They present a situation, and take a stand – either in its favour, or against it – to prove to readers whether it is beneficial or harmful for them.

- They are intended to persuade readers to do certain things, or not to do certain things. It is the exclusive aim of the writer to persuade or tempt readers and force them to do certain things or take actions.

ARGUMENTATIVE vs PERSUASIVE texts

- An argumentative text intends to make readers see

Both sides of the coin. It is up to them to select any of the two. In other words, an argumentative essay presents both arguments; both for and against a thing and leaves the readers to decide.

A persuasive text intends to make readers do certain things. Therefore, it tends to present arguments only about one aspect of the issue.

INSTRUCTIVE/DIRECTIVE TEXTS

-They are concerned with concrete future activity.

-Central to these texts are imperatives (Hand me the paper), certain modal verbs (must, should) or forms which substitute for them, such as polite questions (Would you hand me the paper?) or suggestive remarks (I wonder what the paper says about the weather)

EXPOSITORY/INFORMATIVE TEXTS

• They identify and characterize phenomena.
• They include text forms such as definitions, explications, summaries and many types of essay.
• They may be:
1. subjective (essay)
2. objective (summary, explication, definition)
3. analytical (starting from a concept and then characterizing its parts;

• Narrative, descriptive and directive texts tend to have grammatical forms associated with them which may be expanded to form sequences of a textual nature. They are all centred around real-world events and things.
• In contrast, expository and argumentative texts are cognitively oriented, as they are concerned with explanation and persuasion, which are both mental processes.

Final considerations

Few texts are pure realizations of a single type:

• Advertisements may be both argumentative-persuasive (this is good because...) and directive (So buy now!).
• Expository texts can be neutral or contain

evaluative elements (reviews, references, letters to the editor).

Laws are both directive and expository because they regulate some aspects of society, directing the behaviour of its members, but also inform on these aspects.

Text types vs text forms

Text types are general semantic-functional concepts and are not to be confused with text forms (advertisements, editorials, sermons, shopping lists, poems, telephone books, novels, etc.)

Text and texture

TEXTURE-> what makes a text meaningful and coherent, the sense that a text is a whole entity

NO TEXTURE= NO TEXT: group of isolated sentences with no relationship to another

COHERENCE and COHESION

Coherence = contextual meaning at the paragraph level

Cohesion = semantic links within the text that combine to create meaning, relations of meaning that exist within a text and that define it as a text

LEXICAL COHESION: lexical items (vocabulary) woven together through a text. (Use of semantic fields, words that evoke a general frame)REITERATION (=

repetition of the same word or through the use of a synonym, antonym, meronym and hyponym);

COLLOCATION: the company that words keep; no semantic relationship between words, e.g. blonde hair/*yellow hair, lead a seminar/lead a lecture, make friends/get friends, heavy rain/*strong rain.

GRAMMATICAL COHESION: grammatical items (which cannot be interpreted semantically on its own as me, him…) woven together across sentence boundaries. (Important aspects of grammatical cohesion is that not only tie the text together, but also make the order of sentences look logical and help the text to move forward)

CONJUNCTION = cohesive tie between clauses and sections that aim to demonstrate a meaningful pattern between them

ADDITIVE (to add or to give an alternative) and, also, too, furthermore, either, neither...

ADVERSATIVE (things contradict or require concessions) but, yet, though, rather, in fact...

CAUSAL (one thing causes another) so, then, because, for this reason...

TEMPORAL (time links

between events)then, next, after that, … SUBSTITUTION & ELLIPSIS-substitution and ellipsis are used “when a speaker or writer wishes to avoid the repetition of a lexical item and so uses grammatical resources of the language to replace the item” (substitution= replacement of an item with another, ellipsis= omission of an item)-We ordered some sandwiches and soft drinks. Not a healthy choice, but so is waking up at 3am. (substitution)-I can’t really tell it was a happy day or sad. (ellipsis)REFERENCE is about telling the reader that he can only make complete sense of the word he is looking at if he looks elsewhere in the text!Referencing•anaphoric: points “backwards” to something that has gone before•cataphoric: points “forwards”PRONOUNShe/him, she/her, mine, yours...DEMONSTRATIVES OR DEICTICSthis, these, that, those, here, there, then, the...ADJECTIVESsame, different, better, more...ADVERBSso, such, similarly,otherwise…
INFORMAL LANGUAGE-Colloquial language and terms
Informal writing is similar to a spoken conversation. It may therefore include slang, figures of speech, broken syntax, or asides.
A personal tone as if you were speaking directly to your audience (readers).
Informal writing is often very conversational in style. The writer often uses the first person (I and we) and will also address the reader directly using the second person (you and your).
A simple structure and approach in conversation, both sentences and paragraphs tend to be shorter in informal writing. This is especially true in writing for the internet. Writers may also use incomplete sentences or ellipses.
Contractions and abbreviations within the text
Just as in speech, words may be shortened or abbreviated in informal writing. You will therefore see contractions (for example, I'm, doesn't, couldn't, it's) and abbreviations (TV, photos).
Empathy and emotion
In informal writing, a

A writer will often show more empathy towards the reader. They may, for example, explain a more complex thought more clearly. This is linked to the more personal style in informal writing, which is more suited to conveying emotions.

FORMAL LANGUAGE

• A more complex structure: Formal writing often uses longer sentences. In formal writing, you will also see a more structured approach generally, with points clearly introduced, explained, and concluded. Formal pieces of writing are often carefully planned, revised, and reviewed several times to ensure that they are as clear as possible and make all the necessary points.
• An objective approach: In formal writing, the writer uses a more objective approach. Main points are usually stated and then supported with arguments. Formal writing is less likely to be emotional in style. It therefore avoids emotive punctuation such as exclamation points or ellipsis.
• Use of full words rather than contractions: As a general rule, no contractions should be used to

Simplify words in formal writing. Abbreviations should generally be spelled out in full when first used. There are a few exceptions to this rule, for example, when the acronym is better known than the full name (BBC, ITV or NATO for example) or where it has become part of the language (for example, AIDS).

WH-questions for text analysis:

• WHAT? (Text features, what happens in a text)
• WHO? (Writers, readers, narrators, characters, who the participants are and how they relate to each other will be a significant factor in the language choices that they made)
• WHERE? (Context, physical setting for a conversation or text is also an important determinant of language choices and meanings)
• WHEN? (Time of text occurrence, language changes constantly, so older texts can reveal a lot about the values of a previous era)
• HOW? (Ways of understanding/reading, how the language choices in a text work, how they connect with each other and build into a pattern that can be read)

rd or phrase and find out how it is used in different contexts)§ Corpora are used in linguistic research to analyze language patterns, study languagevariation, and investigate language change over time)§ Examples of corpora include the British National Corpus, the Corpus of ContemporaryAmerican English, and the Corpus of Historical American English)§ Corpus linguistics is a research methodology that involves the analysis of corpora todraw conclusions about language usage and structure)§ Corpus linguistics can be used in various fields, such as lexicography, translationstudies, and language teaching)§ Corpus linguistics provides a data-driven approach to language analysis, allowingresearchers to examine language in a systematic and objective manner)§ Corpus linguistics can also be combined with other research methods, such asinterviews, surveys, and experiments, to provide a more comprehensive understandingof language)§ The use of corpora in research has revolutionized the field of linguistics, providinginsights into language that were not possible before)§ However, there are also limitations to using corpora, such as the representativeness ofthe texts included in the corpus and the potential biases in the data)§ Overall, corpora are a valuable tool in linguistic research, allowing researchers toexplore language in a systematic and empirical way.