Introduction to text linguistics

МИНИСТЕРСТВО ОБРАЗОВАНИЯ И НАУКИ РФ

ФЕДЕРАЛЬНОЕ ГОСУДАРСТВЕННОЕ АВТОНОМНОЕ ОБРАЗОВАТЕЛЬНОЕ УЧРЕЖДЕНИЕ 
ВЫСШЕГО ОБРАЗОВАНИЯ 
«НАЦИОНАЛЬНЫЙ ИССЛЕДОВАТЕЛЬСКИЙ ТЕХНОЛОГИЧЕСКИЙ УНИВЕРСИТЕТ «МИСиС»

ИНСТИТУТ БАЗОВОГО ОБРАЗОВАНИЯ 
 
Кафедра иностранных языков и коммуникативных технологий

Москва 2018

Е.В. Ильченко
С.В. Гринев-Гриневич

INTRODUCTION TO TEXT LINGUISTICS

Учебное пособие

Рекомендовано редакционно-издательским 
советом университета

№ 3101

УДК 811.111 
 
И45

Р е ц е н з е н т 
канд. филол. наук, доц. Т.А. Булановская (РГУП)

Ильченко Е.В.
И45  
Introduction to text linguistics : учеб. пособие / Е.В. Ильченко, С.В. Гринев-Гриневич. – М. : Изд. Дом НИТУ «МИСиС», 
2018. – 96 с.
ISBN 978-5-906953-21-6

В пособии изложены основные положения раздела языкознания, изучающего единицы самого верхнего уровня системы языка – текста.
Предназначено для использования в качестве раздела курсов по введению 
в языкознание, общему языкознанию, стилистике и теории перевода, а также 
адресовано журналистам, референтам и другим специалистам различных областей знания, занятыми подготовкой тестов.

УДК 811.111

 Е.В. Ильченко,  
С.В. Гринев-Гриневич, 
2018
ISBN 978-5-906953-21-6
 НИТУ «МИСиС», 2018

CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION .....................................................................................5
References ..................................................................................................6
1.  TEXT LINGUISTICS AND ITS PLACE IN THE MODERN 
LANGUAGE STUDIES ........................................................................7
1.1. Background, origins and sources  ..................................................7
1.2. Concept of Text as the main subject of research ............................8
1.3. Text as a Language unit limits .....................................................14
1.4. Text Linguistics main topics and units.........................................14
1.5. Text Linguistics and its place among related sciences .................15
Discussion and tasks ...........................................................................16
References ...........................................................................................17
2.  MAIN COMPONENTS OF A SPEECH ACT  
DETERMINING TEXT PROPERTIES ..............................................19
2.1. Act of communication and its main components  ........................19
2.2. Peculiarities of participants in communication ............................19
2.3. Intentionality ................................................................................23
2.4. Referent ........................................................................................24
2.5. Conditions of Communication, Communicative situation ..........25
Discussion and tasks ...........................................................................26
References ...........................................................................................26
3. TEXT COMPOSITION .......................................................................27
3.1. The concept of Text Composition and its levels ..........................27
3.2. Peculiarities of content structure..................................................27
3.3. Peculiarities of linguistic structure ..............................................35
3.4. Types of Cohesion........................................................................37
3.5. Text architectonics. Surface Structure and Deep Structure. ........39
Discussion and tasks ...........................................................................40
References ...........................................................................................41
4. TEXT CREATION PROBLEMS: THEORY AND PRACTICE .........42
4.1. Modern approaches to text creation  ............................................42
4.2. Main stages of text creation  ........................................................42
4.3. Forming the intention and creating the detailed plan of the text ....43
4.4. Introduction, its functions and their implementation  ..................45
4.5. The Body of the Text ...................................................................46

4.6. Conclusion  ..................................................................................47
4.7. Text appraisal ...............................................................................48
Discussion and tasks ...........................................................................49
References ...........................................................................................49
5. INTERTEXTUALITY AND HYPERTEXT THEORY .......................50
5.1. Intertextuality and its role as a Text Category .............................50
5.2. Hypertext as a peculiar kind of Text ............................................51
5.3. Concept of Text linearity .............................................................53
5.4. Hypertextuality of traditional texts ..............................................54
5.5. Hypertext in the age of computers ...............................................56
5.6. The Original Text and types of Secondary Texts .........................57
5.7. Modern approaches to defining Hypertextuality .........................59
Discussion and tasks ...........................................................................60
References ...........................................................................................60
6. ASPECTS OF ORAL TEXT ................................................................62
6.1. Specifics of oral text creation.......................................................62
6.2. Oral text structure ........................................................................63
6.3. Oral text preparation ....................................................................65
6.4. Presentation (Thesis defense speech/Viva vice) ..........................66
Discussion and tasks ...........................................................................70
References ...........................................................................................70
A List of Selected Bibliography ...............................................................71
Supplement 1 ...........................................................................................78
Supplement 2 ...........................................................................................78

INTRODUCTION

One of the basic elements of any culture is the ability to express one’s 
thoughts properly. A well-constructed speech reflects a person’s ability 
to think logically, whereas development of written speech contributes to 
thinking process perfection. So any developed country secondary school 
curriculum includes teaching writing skills, the ability to create different 
kinds of texts. This acquires a special importance in a course of specialist 
training as “every specialist must command a skill of creating written tests 
of different registers and genres within the framework of their professional 
competence. These skills are an important part of student training and 
a result of the whole process of creating a well-qualified specialist. In other 
words, every professional must acquire a certain minimum of knowledge, 
expertise and skills creating academic texts on professional topics” [1, P. 3].
University education in many spheres has come to include training 
students in public speech/academic writing skills, and several manuals 
on text theory have been published lately for language students. Yet this 
branch of Linguistics has not yet been granted the full-fledged obligatory 
status in language studies, unlike Syntax, to name but one.
At the same time Text Studies are becoming increasingly important 
both in this country and abroad. They are a part of both traditional 
(Rhetorics, Stylistics) and comparatively modern (Information Science, 
Communicative Linguistics) sciences but first and foremost, within a new 
branch of Linguistics, based on the concept of Text as a separate language 
unit.
The interest in Text Studies is stimulated bу both development of 
Linguistic Theory and including Text in the hierarchy of linguistic units, 
as well as practical needs of forming effective text composition skills and 
formulating the general principles of Text structure. Another stimulus is 
provided by the ever-growing and all-pervading use of computers that 
requires automated text creation and processing. 
This book is an attempt at systematic summary of the Text Linguistics 
main concepts and rules that should be taken into consideration when 
creating any kinds of texts with the exception of Belle-lettres ones. It also 
includes examples of main text types that illustrate the application of these 
concepts and rules in Part 2.

The book summarizes Russian and foreign sources for the purpose of 
introducing students to Text Linguistics. 

References

1. Основы научной речи: Учеб. пособие для студ. нефилол. высш. 
учеб. заведений / Н.А. Буре, М.В. Быстрых, С.А. Вишнякова и др.; 
Под ред. В.В. Химика, Л.Б. Волковой. – СПб.: Филологический 
факультет СпбГУ; М.: Издательский центр «Академия», 2003. 272 с.

1. TEXT LINGUISTICS AND ITS PLACE  
IN THE MODERN LANGUAGE STUDIES

1.1. Background, origins and sources  
of Text Linguistics

As a separate branch of Linguistics Text Linguistics appeared in mid70s of the XX century. In the course of language levels study (phonetics- 
morphology-lexicology-syntax) linguists realized in a general way that in the 
language units hierarchy the top level was missing: Phoneme – Morpheme – 
Word – Phrase – Clause – Sentence – Supraphrasal unit (SPU) – ? It has 
been quite some time since linguists started to consider larger-than-asentence units that are called “paragraphs” in a written text. A.A. Potebnya 
noted that in the middle of the XIX century, and in 1930s L.V. Scherba and 
A.M. Peshkovski stressed the need for their study. In mid-1960s these units 
known as Supraphrasal (SPU) came under profound comprehensive analysis 
as a result of syntactic language level in-depth study. 
It had been asserted by that time that Syntax whose subject under 
consideration is lexical units linear succession should not limit itself to the 
study of clause and sentence, but should also explore smaller-than-clause 
units that are called phrases. The part of Syntax dealing with such units 
was named minor syntax. This development is usually associated with the 
name of V.V. Vinogradov [1], member of the Academy of Sciences. It was 
only logical to suppose that there also exist units larger than sentence, and 
both graphic and phonetic evidence provided objective criteria to single 
out a new level of units that was named Suprasyntax or Hypersyntax. 
Those were under intensive study in 1960s–1970s.
Today the majority of linguists are sure that Text, that used to be 
considered only as a unit of Speech (parole1), should also be seen as a 
Language (langue2) unit. Some even insist that it is Text and not Word that 
is the basic Language Unit. That may be taking things a little too far, but 
Text really is historically a unit of philological studies, as that is where 
Philology originated, being initially aimed at study and interpretation of 
ancient texts.

1 Term by F. de Saussure.

2 Term by F. de Saussure.

Text was traditionally the subject of Eloquence (Rhetoric) that helped 
to determine peculiarities of structure and language means in a speech 
(namely, oratory) aimed at achieving a certain goal by the orator. Text 
interpretation has been the subject of Textology, Hermeneutics, Literary 
Criticism (mostly concerned with Belle-lettres texts), Linguo-stylistics 
which became the basis for Text Theory, as well as Editorial-andpublishing Theory, dealing with improving coherence and consistence of 
Text to enhance its comprehension effectiveness.
A comparatively new direction of research is Documentation Science 
which looks for a way of efficient information processing. All of 
them, as well as Semiotics, Translation Theory, Pragmalinguistics and 
Psycholinguistics contributed to laying the foundation of Text Linguistics. 
They all continue to share their findings, ideas and research methods 
insuring mutual cross-pollination.

1.2. Concept of Text as the main subject of research

The Text Linguistics subject of research is obviously Text in the 
peculiar meaning of the term. To study texts we must first find the 
properties that distinguish Text from other entities.
At the beginning of the XX century the founder of modern Linguistics 
Ferdinand de Saussure introduced the distinction between Language and 
Speech (langue and parole). The distinction was based on the fact that 
langue encompasses the abstract, systematic rules and conventions of 
a signifying system; whereas parole refers to the concrete instances of 
the use of langue, individual and personal, and is divided into oral and 
written forms. The difference between them used to be very pronounced, 
but today we use this term to describe both, as long as they comply with 
certain rules. This work mostly deals with written texts.
As any text is individual and is as diverse and varied as the number of 
people who share a language and the number of utterances and attempts 
to use that language, de Saussure himself, as well as other prominent 
linguists like L. Bloomfield, R. Jacobson and V.A. Zvegintsev excluded it 
from the sphere of Language theory studies. 
Still we have a feeling that every text follows certain rules, that it is 
not a chaotic aggregate of sentences, but there is a system and a plan at its 
foundation. This becomes especially obvious when we compare different 

types of texts created according to certain principles, sometimes summarized 
in writing: classical drama, rhetoric, some poetic pieces like sonnet, etc. in 
Belle-lettres, or report, contract, business letter or scientific article in other 
Functional Styles. This makes it possible to contemplate Text as an abstract 
notion, as a web of notions that separate Text from a Non-text1.
This is not much different from Syntax which uses individual sentences 
and phrases to study the cohesion of their parts, peculiarities of their 
construction, analyze basic patterns and set up rules of their construction. 
Any number of individual sentences and phrases may be created on the 
basis on any one model which does not prevent Syntax from being a 
branch of Language, not Speech study.
To distinguish Text as a fact of speech and as a language unit, some 
researchers tried to introduce the term “text model” for the latter [2]. In 
1973 a well-known Austrian linguist W. Dressler introduced the term 
“Texteme” for a potential text as opposed to actual created text [3].
In 1982 this term was considered as an abstract invariant actualizing 
in speech as concrete texts, as we can get variantions, allotexts of the 
basic text by compressing or translating it [4]. Later terms “primary” and 
“secondary” text were introduced, as well as “pre-text” and “post-text” [5] 
within the framework of the Hypertext theory2.
Another important problem is relations between Text and Discourse, the 
latter understood as Text as a process, Speech with a result-oriented social 
activity, as a consciousness component of interacting people [6]. Some 
linguists consider them synonyms; others see Text as a result of Discourse, 
which, in turn, is understood as a process leading to Text creation. One group 
of researchers sees Text, first and foremost, as determined by an identifiable 
aim, which makes it a basis for classification. Others see it as an abstract 
notion, Discourse being its manifestation. Finally, some linguists simply 
consider Text to be written speech, and Discourse oral one [7].
When analyzing text, researchers think in terms of Text structure and 
its categories. Paradigmatic properties are defined as common formal and 
content-related components of Text clusters that give grounds for uniting 
them into certain groups [8]. 

1 Term by Beaugrande and Dressler.

2 Hypertext and Intertextuality are dealt with in Chapter 5 and secondary Text in 
Chapter 6.

Categories are often defined as supraparadigmatiс property of Text that 
makes it possible for every addressee to interpret it in a peculiar individual 
way. This property is manifested in the fact that “categories appear in all 
kinds of genre, functional stylistic and individual paradigmatics” [9]. 
The first question researcher ask themselves when studying any 
linguistic units is how to single it out and distinguish it from others. For 
some units, Word, for example, the uniform definition has not been found 
yet. It presupposes defining peculiar features of this unit, who serve as 
the basis for defining them and whose combination distinguishes this unit 
from others. Let’s consider the following examples.
1. Anne is a student. Yesterday we went to the cinema. The weather is 
fine today. In summer I am planning to visit my parents [12].
May this be considered Text? Even a layman can see this is not a 
text but a succession of unconnected sentences that do not form a unit. 
So being bound in some way is an important property of Text, sometimes 
represented by repetition of certain words from the previous sentence in 
the next one. Thus the important characteristic of Text is Cohesion, which 
is sometimes called Integrity.
Cohesion is the best-studied property of Text, as it has been studied 
by Text Linguistics from the very beginning, with the aim of finding Text 
Structure formal properties to capture the difference between Text and 
Nontext. Later Integrity came to include other notions as well. Today 
it includes formal structural text setup enhanced by the idea of fact 
unification, events, etc to form a closed entity [10], the ability to retain 
the subject under discussion while looking at its different aspects, moving 
smoothly from one subject to another [11].
The latter refers to implicit Cohesion, more typical for Belle-lettre 
Texts, unlike scientific and official ones that mostly include explicit 
links which provide logical and accurate presentation of material and 
unequivocal interpretation of the subject. Implicit Cohesion, on the other 
hand, allows multiple interpretations sought by the author to stimulate 
addressee’s active participation in creating Text meanings.
Since the means of Cohesion are so varied it was found necessary to 
create their classifications. Among the most popular is the classification 
based on language expression where Lexical, Lexico-grammatical and 
Grammatical means are traditionally singled out. Lexical ones include 

personal Reference (substitution by personal pronouns, e.g. Mr Jones – he), 
and different kinds of Repetition (Anaphoric, Periphrastic, Synonymic, 
Contextual and full ones, of course). Among Lexico-grammatical ones 
Parenthetical words and phrases, Conjunctions and Conjunctive adverbs 
can be named, whereas Grammatical are mostly Syntactical, like Inversion 
and Parallel Construction, not to mention Verb Tenses and Aspects.
In case sentence parts have similar lexical semantics, syntactic link is 
enhanced by lexical one.
Let’s write another example to fit these requirements.
2. Anne is a student. Many students go in for sport. Going in for sport is 
good for your health. My health is good. So is my academic progress [12]. 
Formal lexical Cohesion of this paragraph is obvious, but we are hard 
put to call it Text either. Although every previous sentence is formally 
connected to the following one, creating a formal link by repeating the 
final element of the previous sentence in the beginning of the next one, 
there is no common topic of the utterance. It is clear that the second 
important property of Text is Coherence, also sometimes called Topicality, 
Co-reference and even “aboutness”. Text as a connected and united group 
of sentences must be dedicated to a certain topic, which is called Referent 
or Topic of communication, something all the sentences of the text refer 
to. It does not correlate directly with any language units in the text and 
emerges as a result of the comprehension process in the course of analyticsyntactic activity of an addressee.
Before we proceed with Coherence, let’s look at another kind of formal 
Cohesion, which rests upon grammatical dependencies. Absence of verbal 
tense, number and person unity in a text makes it quite difficult to 
understand it.
3. Anne is a student. At school you will like such subjects as Literature, 
History and Foreign Languages. That is why they always got good grades 
for them. When I have got good grades for the subjects I like, it will be 
very easy and interesting to study. After school you should go to study 
Humanities at the University.
As you see, grammatical Cohesion is as important as lexical.
But we should not forget that the addresser always sets a goal of 
transferring a certain kind of information to the addressee. As interferences 
are inevitable they try their best to ensure that the addressee achieves as 
adequate understanding of the author’s message as it is humanly possible. 
This message appears in the addressee’s mind as simultaneous, not quite 

apprehensible dynamic representation of some subject matter as the topic 
of communication may be defined as Coherence [13, P. 81].
Coherence is more important for Text than Cohesion, as in case 
Cohesion is formal in character, in absence of Coherence the unit still has 
to be described as a Nontext.
If the addressee does not get a coherent idea of the Communication 
Aim, it is considered to be Communication Failure, and the blame is laid 
solely at the author’s door, as the author failed to create a text effectively 
and efficiently enough. The addressee may have been not ready to perceive 
this message (lack of experience, ignorance of the subject, bad command 
of the language), but it is up to the author to organize information in a 
proper way, taking these factors into consideration.
Let’s try and introduce topicality in our example.
4. Anne is a student. Obviously she does not study anywhere, so she 
has a lot of time. Why is she always short of time? It takes her a lot of time 
to get to the University. 
Again this is a Nontext, as all sentences have a different Modality. 
Modality in a broad meaning of the term is manifestation of Text author’s 
attitude towards reality (Objective Modality) and author’s assessment of 
the information in the message (Subjective Modality).
Modality in a certain way reflects “complex relationship among the 
four elements of communication: addresser, addressee, message content 
and reality” [14]. 
Any message possesses a certain Modality – in contains a statement, 
uncertainty, negation, etc. Inside Text Modality may vary, but not 
excessively so. In our example the sentences should form a unit, no 
part should contradict another. Thus common Modality – including 
grammatical unity – unity of Tense, Person and Number is another 
essential property of Text being an important ingredient of Coherence.
Look at another example.
5. Anne is a student. That is why she always got good grades in them. 
After finishing school she went to study Humanities at the University. 
And when you get good grades in the subjects you like, it is quite easy 
and interesting to study. At school she liked Foreign Languages, History 
and Literature. 
This example illustrated the importance of logical order in Text 
Cohesion. Structure is an inherent property of any complex matter, it reflects