TEXT LINGUISTICS.

- In the mid-1960s, some schools emerged that

they defend the linguistic aspect of the text, surpass the sentence-based grammar and consider the
language as an activity aimed at doing, that is, the component is highlighted
pragmatics of the language.
This perspective not only focuses on language as a system of signs with its structures
abstracts and their combination rules, but also adds the study of the use of the
language according to the situation, intention. Likewise, it argues that languages are parts
members of the sociocultural reality of human groups and the diversity in use
of a language is a symptom of richness and flexibility.

Within this new current, it is also noted that the faculty of language does not
it is exercised through isolated and closed speech statements but through a discourse or text
in which the successive statements are articulated into a whole with a global meaning that
conditions its structure.

A text is not a sum of sentences, but the great unit of language, with its rules.
of training and its specific purpose.
The linguistics of texts arises from the need to clarify a series of phenomena.
syntactic ones that could not be explained unless the verbal context is taken into account, that's all
What surrounds a word linguistically studies its contextual meaning. Along with
Linguistics of the text, there are other disciplines that are concerned with describing and analyzing
linguistic and extralinguistic factors that come into play when we make use of the
language. For example, sociolinguistics, psycholinguistics, the ethnography of the
communication,…these disciplines have in common the understanding of language as a
unit imbued with sociocultural meanings and personal intentions, that is,
all verbal acts use language with the intention of achieving different
objectives.
Some of these objectives
son: informar,enseñar,convencer,motivar,argumentar,vender ,expresar
feelings, draw attention to one's own language, beautify one's own
language, establish (phatic function). Therefore, speech performs fundamental actions for the
social life.
The linguistics of the text studies the organization of language, beyond the arbitrary limit.
from the sentence, in larger linguistic units, such as conversation, investigate the use of
language in the context of social interaction.
The theory that studies communication must investigate language in its functioning.
real-no simulated arbitrarily-in the communicative context.

A text is a structure superior to the simple sentences that meet the conditions.
of connection and coherence, it establishes a difference between
macrostructures, microstructures, and superstructures, macrostructures are
global textual structures of the semantic nature. Macrostructure of a text is
an abstract representation of the global structure of its meaning. While the
The sequence of sentences must meet the condition of linear coherence; the text must
also meet the condition of overall coherence of its meaning. While the
The sequence of sentences must meet the condition of linear coherence, the text must
It must also meet the condition of global coherence. Each macrostructure must comply.
the conditions of connection and semantic coherence at the microstructural levels for
that a macro level can also be a micro level in another text. The existence of the
macrostructures allow us to summarize the content of a text; it can be another that
maintain macrostructural relationships with the original.
While semantic macrostructures explain the overall meaning of a
text, superstructures are global textual structures that characterize the type of
A narrative structure is a superstructure, regardless of the content.
(macrostructure) of the narration. If the macrostructure is the content of the text, the
superstructure is its form. Superstructures are necessary to adapt the content
from text to communicative context.
What macrostructures and superstructures have in common is that they are not defined in
relation to sentences or sequences of isolated sentences from a text, but in relation to the text
as a whole. That is why we talk about global structures, in contrast to the
local structures or microstructures at the sentence level. If we say of a text that it
it is about a narration, we are characterizing the text globally, not the sentences
that comprise it. The superstructures allow the text to be conceived as a scheme.

The linguistics of the text and pragmatics necessarily coincide in their conception of the
game of communicative action: language is never produced in isolation, but in
relationship with non-linguistic factors, within the framework of interactive processes of the
communication.
The task of the linguistics of the text consists of developing an explicit theory that accounts for
from the production and reception of linguistic texts within the framework of processes
communicative. Therefore, just as it recovers rhetoric, it integrates the
contributions that pragmatics, anthropology, and sociology offer in this field.
The notion of context encompasses both cognitive context - the accumulated experience and
structured in memory - like cultural context - the shared worldviews
by the participants in an interaction - and the social context - the institutional aspects and
interactive tools that allow us to identify the assumptions and inferences in which we are
They base the production and the discursive comprehension.

For discourse analysis, the notions of cohesion and are also central.
Cohesion refers to the text, while coherence is the characteristic.
fundamental that allows interpreting the discourse.
Communicative interaction can be considered a specific type of text in which
coherence is built through conversational cooperation between the
participants. The analysis of textual coherence is carried out through the study of the
conversational inference understood, in the words of Gumperz, as 'the set of processes
through which the participants in a conversation come to interpret from a
situated manner, contextualized, the communicative intentions of the other participants and
"From here, they build their answers." This inference is based on the conventions.
contextualizers that are a set of linguistic and non-linguistic clues or indications
that serve to manifest that the speakers agree to maintain the
interaction in certain terms. The contextualizing conventions can
intonation, rhythm, tone of voice, pauses, gestures, noises
agreement or strangeness, the changes of language or register, etc., and allow for
Over the course of the conversation, its own structure and coherence will be negotiated.
The interest of this type of analysis for educational tasks is multiple. We will only point out
Three aspects as an example: Firstly, it allows for the formation of individuals.
competently orally through work on oral discourse, proposing situations
various communicative instances in which verbal and non-verbal skills must be put into play
specific verbals, starting from the reflection on the different elements that
they intervene in its production. Secondly, it allows us to become aware of the existence
of the 'hidden' curriculum within the pedagogical discourse, highlighting the
importance of self-analysis for teaching in order to understand the models that
consciously or unconsciously, it is proposed through one's own behavior
communicative. And thirdly, it helps to understand the complex relationship that exists between the
oral and written use of a language when analyzing the different mechanisms that are used for the
construction, production expression of discursive or textual coherence (aspects
grammatical, prosodic, lexical, etc.). It is evident that for an appropriate treatment of everything
The process of learning written text requires us to better understand its characteristics.
specific to spontaneous oral discourse, as this would allow us to see the aspects that are
specific to each type of text, whether oral or written.
According to Dubois, a text is a set of linguistic statements subject to analysis.
so much, the text is a sample of linguistic behavior that can be written or
spoken, asserts that a text is the fundamental communicative linguistic unit, a product of
human verbal activity, which has a social character. It is characterized by its semantic closure
and communicative, and for its coherence. Its structuring is articulated in two sets of
rules. those of textual level, and those of grammar and are expressed in properties that to
we explain further.

Acceptability is the property by which the text is suitable for a context.

determined.
The adaptation implies that the text fits linguistic diversity. A text meets the
adaptation when choosing the appropriate diatopic, diastratic, and diaphasic variety. For what purpose
A text should be appropriate, the writer must know the linguistic varieties well.
Intentionality is the property by which the text is organized according to its
end, that is, linguistic units are chosen and articulated according to the purpose. For example, if I want to
to request something by letter, the intent is to obtain what I ask for, and for that I must use
courtesy formulas.
The informativeness of the text consists in that the text must add something new, a new
information.
The communicative situationality refers to the non-linguistic environment, to the situation in the
what the text develops.
Intertextualities refer to the relationship of some texts with others. Texts are not products.
spontaneous, they are framed in genres and constructed from other texts.
Coherence: it is the property by which the text can be understood as a
unit whose parts are related to each other, and also to the context and the situation in
the one that produces the text.
Cohesion congruence, that is, it is the conformity of what is expressed with the norms.
linguistic and with knowledge of the world.
Another important concept for coherence is presupposition, which is a set of
knowledge, experiences, traditions, real or textual shared by a culture, The
Presuppositions are of two types:

Based on knowledge of the world.

Based on the knowledge expressed in the text above.

We must distinguish between literal, conventional, denotative meaning, and the meaning that is
intentional and depends on the circumstances in which every act is circumscribed
communication.

Internal coherence provides the text with a global unity of meaning.

Textual linguistics

The text, despite being made up of sentences, is organized in such a way that
we could say that it has a special grammar, with its own rules. In our
These days, a movement is developing that is known by the name of linguistics.
textual, which conceives text as the highest unit of linguistic analysis.

(Taken from: Álvaro Díaz, Approximation to the written text. University of Antioquia
1995).

The notions taken up from this linguistic approach are related to the
properties of written discourse such as coherence, cohesion, appropriateness,
macrostructure and textual superstructure, especially. The coherence referred to the
logical-semantic property of discourses; the coherence a set of relationships that
allow to link ideas; adequacy is a pragmatic concept that designates the
degree of adaptation of the speech to its communicative situation; the macrostructure has
what to see with the global content of the text and the superstructure with its organization
schematic, these last two play a very important role in the
understanding and production of discourse.

(see recommended bibliography for further exploration of the topic)

Text linguistics is a relatively new science, which is based on the

accumulated knowledge from linguistics, whose object of study is thetext.
Other names for text grammar are textual linguistics.
In addition, it is closely related to thediscourse analysis, for what it is used
frequently as a synonym. However, although it is a related discipline
maintains a different approach.
What are its textual properties?

Like all texts, when we develop an argumentation

we have to take into account the textual properties of appropriateness,
coherence and cohesion

Adaptation: it is very important to know the communicative context and the type
of argumentation, as it is not the same to design an advertising announcement
for television to write an opinion piece on a topic
determined, like a class assignment. Although the objective in both cases
it is the same, to convince, the recipients and the communicative situation are
completely different.

Coherence: as we have seen in the texts analyzed in units

previous, the ideas presented and the arguments to defend them or
rejections must be in accordance with a logical order, without there being
contradictions that may lead to ambiguities or confusion.

Cohesion: in the argumentative text is where it becomes most necessary the

use of connectors and textual organizers, since they are proposed
and defend ideas, often opposing, or are used
different types of arguments, necessary to achieve the objective
communicative of convincing.