Text Linguistics

Objectives of the course

Intro to the major concepts and modern trends in text linguistics. Discussing the major properties of the texts such as the processes with which speakers modify their utterances to fit the communication frames and various social contexts. Presenting the major directions of text analysis such as the model of R. Hasan and M. Halliday.

Prerequisites

In order to successfully participate in in-class discussions and to follow the lectures, the student should take the introductory linguistic courses.

Assessment methods

Attending lectures, a term paper, oral examination, active participation in in-class discussions.

Course contents

The course is devoted to the study of texts and their specific properties with the focus on the Halliday's theory of language and the Hasan's genre model. Concepts such as genre in the literary theory and linguistics and in the frame of modern methodological approaches related to it; the communication role of language, context with special focus on situation and cultural context; discourse; text, contextual and communicative semantics, and text structures; cohesion; rhetorical structure and rhetorical units, etc. The course is primarily interested in the study of semantical structure of text and the role of relation between the rhetorical units and the semantic structure. Main source of data to work on is a tegged corpus.

Material discussed in lectures also forms the main part of recitations, where more time and care is devoted to the main issues. Emphasis is given to practical knowledge and actual analysis of language data.

Recommended reading

• de Beaugrande, R., Dressler, W. U., 1981: Einführung in die Textlinguistik. Tübingen.
• Halliday, M. A. K., Hassan, R., 1989: Language, Context and Text: Aspects of Language in a social–semiotic Perspective. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
• Halliday, M. A. K., 1985: An Introdution to Functional Grammar. London: Edward Arnold.
• Bizjak, Aleksandra, 2005: Pridiga kot žanr. Ljubljana: Založba ZRC, ZRC SAZU.