TOPIC 39.

TEXT ANALYSIS STRATEGIES

1. INTRODUCTION
In everyday popular use it might be said that the term text is restricted to written language, while discourse is restricted
to spoken language. However, modern linguistics has introduced a concept of text that includes every type of utterance; therefore,
a text might be a magazine article, a television, just to give a few examples.
De Beaugrande and Dressler (1981) define text as a communicative event that must satisfy the following seven criteria:
coherence, cohesion, intentionality, acceptability, informativity, situationality, and intertextuality.
1. Cohesion has to do with the relationship between text and syntax.
2. Coherence has to do with the meaning of the text.
3. Intentionality relates to the attitude and purpose of the addresser.
4. Acceptability concerns the preparation of the addressee to assess the relevance of a given text.
5. Informativity refers to the quantity and quality of new or expected information.
6. Situationality refers to the situation in which the text is produced, playing a crucial role in the production and reception
of the message.
7. Intertextuality refers to two main facts: a text is always related to other discourses and is always linked and grouped
in particular varieties.
Once a text meets the seven criteria mentioned above, and depending on the speaker’s purposefulness, i.e, what they want
to convey through the text, linguists elaborated a classification of texts whose features, structure, subject matter and purpose
are vital for their production: narrative, expository, dialogic, argumentative and descriptive.

2. TEXTUAL ANALYSIS STRATEGIES

Early text analysis concentrated on the development of various paradigms for the study of how sentences interconnect.
They drew attention to the various linguistic devices that could be used to ensure that a text includes the concept of textual
cohesion. This includes the use of articles, lexical repetition, linking words and personal pronouns to refer back to entities in order
to establish a particular logical relationship of, say, contrast, concession or addition between two or more sentences in a text.
2.1. PERSPECTIVES ON TEXTUAL ANALYSIS
It seems necessary to establish the differences that exist between the analysis of a written and an oral text. Intonation,
emphasis and other rhetorical strategies used in the oral text or discourse cannot be detected in the written text.
Traditionally, written texts have been analysed taking into consideration different aspects. These aspects have been
understood through questions about different parts of the text. We should be able to recognise which type of question we should

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ask. Understanding questions will test how well we have understood the main concerns of the text. We will ask them to identify
and explore the key ideas or underlying themes in the text and to examine and comment on the most outstanding characteristics.
First, we should discover the general characteristics and so we should ask ourselves:

• What the text is about, at least superficially;

• The writer’s viewpoint -is s/he speaking as himself or through a persona?

• The writer’s attitude to his subject.

Then, we should analyse the text with questions that ask you to consider how the writer put their ideas across, how
structure and style are deployed to achieve literary effects:

• Identify tone and mood in the text and how they are created,

• Discuss the techniques and devices used by the writer, including imagery, word choice, contrast and sound;

• Examine and comment on the syntax, grammatical structure and techniques.

Later on, evaluation questions ask you to consider how effectively and the extent to which the writer has conveyed
their ideas and achieved their purpose. In this section, you will reveal more explicitly your personal engagement with the text,
implicit in your earlier answers:

• The extent to which you agree with the writer’s ideas;

• Whether the ideas in the text have universal significance;

• Which particular aspects of the text you find especially effective;

• Whether the conclusion is satisfactory and appropriate.

We should also consider important other aspects of textual analysis in order to deepen in the meaning of the text:

• We should consider the mood and the atmosphere. Mood refers to the feelings expressed by the writer and those invoked in
the reader.

• Tone is another aspect that should be considered. Tone is a word usually associated with speech. Tone of voice will
sometimes indicate that the speaker means quite the opposite of the words he is saying. Having done something stupid, you
might be told, “That was very clever!” In writing, we can also determine the tone by thinking of the tone of voice we would
use if saying the words aloud. Taking tone into account will help us to determine whether the writer really means what he
has written and to understand his attitude.

• Purpose: to shock the reader into a reaction. He verbally thrusts the disabled beggar in our faces, defying us to withhold our
pity.

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• Syntax and structure. Syntax is the grammatical arrangement of words within their sentences, used by writers to create a
particular effect. Writers create a singular text using structures that change the expressions of a text.

2.2. DISCOURSE ANALYSIS STRATEGIES

The terms discourse and discourse analysis are used to mean different things by different researchers, however, all
the definitions all into three main categories: anything beyond the sentence; language use; a broader range of social practice that
includes non-linguistic and non-specific instances of language.
When a discipline is hard to delimit, as in the case with discourse analysis, a great deal can be learnt about its field of
concern by observing what practitioners do. If we look at what discourse analysts do, we will find they explore matters as different
as: turn-taking in phone conversations; the language of humour; the structure of narrative; the use of linguistic politeness; legal
discourse used in trials and a long et cetera.
Discourse is always produced by somebody whose identity, as well as the identity of the interpreter, is significant for
the proper understanding of the message. Discourse always happens in either physical or linguistic context and within a
meaningful fixed time, only discourse may convey messages thanks to language which is its framework.
Apart from obvious differences between speech and writing like the fact that writing includes some medium which keeps
record of the conveyed message while speech involves only air; there are certain dissimilarities that are less apparent. Speech
develops in time in that the speaker says with speed that is suitable for him, even if it may not be appropriate for the listener and
though a request for repetition is possible, it is difficult to imagine a conversation in which every sentence is to be rephrased.
Discourse analysts carefully scrutinize universal circumstances of the occurrence of communicative products,
particularly within state institutions. Numerous attempts to minimize misunderstandings between bureaucrats and citizens were
made, resulting in user-friendly design of documents. The world of politics and feature of its peculiar communicative products are
also of concern to discourse analysts. Having carefully investigated that area of human activity scholar depicted it is as
characterized by frequent occurrence of face-saving acts and euphemisms.
Links in discourse studies are divided into two groups: formal – which refer to facts that are present in the analysed
text, and contextual – referring to the outside world, the knowledge which is not included in the communicative product itself.
Since it is difficult to describe the processing of contextual links without referring to particular psychological inquiries, therefore,
this section is devoted to representation of formal links.
Five types of cohesive devices are distinguished, some of which might be subdivided.
- Substitution: in order to avoid repeating the same word several times in one paragraph it is replaced, most often by
one, do or so. So, and do in its all forms might also substitute whole phrases or clauses (e.g., “Tom has created the
best web directory. I told you so long time ago”)
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 - Ellipsis: it is very similar to substitution; however, it replaces a phrase by a gap, in other words, it is omission of noun,
verb, or a clause on the assumption that it is understood from the linguistic context.
- Reference: the use of words which do not have meanings of their own, such as pronouns and articles. To infer their
meaning the reader has to refer them to something else that appears in the text. (Tom: “How do you like my new Vito?”
– Mary: “It is a nice van, which I’m also thinking of buying.”).
- Conjunction: specifies the relationship between clauses, or sentences. Most frequent relations of sentences are: addition
(and, moreover), temporally (afterward, next) and causality (because, since).
- Lexical cohesion: denotes links between words which carry meaning: verbs, nouns, adjectives. Two types of lexical
cohesion are differentiated, namely: reiteration and collocation. Reiteration adopts various forms, particularly synonymy,
repetition, hyponymy or antonymy.

3. CONCLUSION AND TEACHING IMPLICATIONS

Students are exposed to texts since a very early stage in their academic lives. In English Language Teaching (ELT),
the legal framework that develops the content teachers need to teach at Secondary and Bachillerato levels namely, Royal Decree
217/2022, of 29 March, Royal Decree 243/2022, of 5 April, at national level, and Decree 65/2022, of 20 July and Decree 64/2022,
of 20 July at regional level, contain a specific competence, number two, which encourages students to produce texts, therefore
a specific competence dealing with the topic at hand.
The ability to analyse effectively using standard written English is particularly challenging even in higher education.
Students at these academic levels are used to dealing with texts but not to analysing texts, however, it is particularly crucial at
this stage that teachers take advantage of the students’ higher level of cognitive development to encourage students to introduce
some strategies in order to comprehend textual devices better.

4. BIBLIOGRAPHY
- Alba-Juez, Laura. Perspectives on Discourse Analysis: Theory and Practice. Cambridge Scholars Publishing. 2009
- Alba-Juez, Laura. Pragmatics: Cognition, Context and Culture. McGraw Hill. 2016
- Chacón, Rubén Manuel. Sociolingusitics. UNED. 2015
- De Beaugrande, Robert-Alain, and Wolfgang, U. Dressler. Introduction to text linguistic. London:longman. 1981.