Key concepts of text

Question 1

Cohesion vs. Coherence

Answer 1

• Cohesion (linguistic orderliness) - grammatical order
• Coherence (meaningfulness) - understanding the meaning
• Both of these assigned by the reader
• We look for both of these things when we’re reading text

EXAMPLES
1. “I have a brother. He lives in Canada” – two sentences make sense together

2. “I have a brother. Tom lives in Canada.” – not natural speech; is Tom my brother or someone else?; still understandable but missing cohesion
3. “I have a brother. He is a cheeseburger.” –cohesive because of “brother” and “he” but doesn’t make sense; linked but no coherence/meaning
4. “I have a brother. She is a cheeseburger.” – Not cohesive and also not meaningful

Question 2

Intertextuality

How many different forms are there?

Answer 2

The “horizontal” relations between texts; How other text is present in some text

• Issue - we use other text as a reference to write our own text
• Appears in forms; can label forms as horizontal; doesn’t give order of superior/inferior text; it’s all overlapping
• Starting point is a quote from Bazerman “almost every word and phrase we use we have heard or seen before.”
• Intertextuality is a strategy to create interesting content
• There are 5 forms of intertextuality

Question 3

5 forms of intertextuality

Answer 3

1. The text may draw on prior texts as a source of meaning to be used at its face value

• The title of the article “The weak link” invokes the common saying that “a chain in only as strong as its weakest link”
• Here, we know “weak link” as a metaphor; we automatically interpret meaning based on prior knowledge

2. Text may explicitly use other statements as background, support, and contrast

• Using quotes to back up our arguments
• Common in news reporting

3. Text may rely on beliefs, issues, ideas, statements generally circulated and likely familiar to the readers

• “Everyone knows that…”
• “Most people believe that…”
• “It’s well known that…”

4. By using recognizable kinds of language, phrasing, and genres, a text (“intentionally”) evokes a particular social world

• To create authenticity, you need to speak in the correct context/appropriate manner
• “Thee, thou, thine”
• “Yo, gangsta, axed”

5. Text (“unintentionally”) relies on the available language of the period, and is part of the cultural world of the times

• “Thy name is more hateful than thy face”
• We don’t find this much in sociology; more hip hop songs than Shakespeare

Question 4

Transtextuality

Answer 4

The stratified relations between texts

3 types:

• Paratext
• Hypertext
• Metatextuality

Question 5

Paratext

Answer 5

• Not content from the book itself, but about the book
• Text that forms a part of the mediation between text, author, publisher, and reader
• EX: Title, author’s name, foreword, context, index, references, appendix

Question 6

Hypertext

Answer 6

• Text drawing on another text without being its commentary
• Most texts are hypertexts in some way
• Hypertext is a native text of www, which uses hyperlinks (inline links)
• Sources; data; previous research
• • Hypertext is the whole article (including hyperlinks); if there are hyperlinks, it is hypertext
• • Hyperlinks lead to hypotext
• • Hypotext is the article behind the link
• Reality tv - like hypertext because it draws on authentic actions but it’s above reality because it’s based on reality but not reality

Question 7

Hypertext vs. Hyperlinks vs. Hypotext

Answer 7

** Hypertext is the whole article (including hyperlinks); if there are hyperlinks, it is hypertext

** Hyperlinks lead to hypotext

** Hypotext is the article behind the link

Question 8

Metatextuality

Answer 8

• When we comment on another text
• A commentary (critical relation of a text to another text (with or without direct citation))
• EX: “I’ve never read Parsons because his books are extremely boring” – This is a commentary on other text; it is meta

Question 9

Cotext vs. Context vs. Multimodality

Answer 9

Cotext (co-text)

• The textual environment of some chunk of text (which belongs to the same sign system)
• Verbal text that accompanies the main text (EX: a title is cotext and paratext)
• Easier to analyze than cotext. You can search for keywords that might occur in some parts of the book

Context

• The environment of a text which belongs to a different (or no) sign system
• Non-verbal environment like color (Crips and Bloods), location (significant part of a city), etc.
• More difficult to analyze than cotext – might look for which words appear in which newspapers the most

Multimodality

• A text consisting of elements of several sign systems
• EX: using tobacco to spell out the word “STOP” – image wouldn’t make sense without the word
• Difficult to analyze when there are multiple sign systems mixed together. Something written, some pictures, some moving pictures, and some sound all at the same time

Question 10

Discourse

Answer 10

• Text in social context (graffiti)
• Language in action (using language for other purposes than information)
• The organization of statements in a particular area of human activity (protests in person, on walls, demonstrations)
• Texts are produced by discourse, not vice versa.
• • By saying something we don’t produce discourse; we reproduce it
• • Discourse governs our text production
• A text is a specific and unique realization of discourse
• • Not what I want to say but searching for a way to be a part of academic discourse
• • Something that will testify membership in the academic community
• • Disciplined to show your academic status through academic discourse

Question 11

3 types of Semiotics

Answer 11

1. Semantics – Study of relations (meanings) between signs and the things to which they refer
2. Syntactics – A study of relations among signs in formal structures
3. Pragmatics – A study of signs and their effects on people who use them