Falaleeva_Evelina,_Khalyp_Olessya_Text_as_an_object_of_reserach

1. Text as an object of research. The problem of text in the hierarchy of language levels.

Falaleeva Evelina, Khalyp Olessya
FL 23-111-21(3)

2. Text as an Object of Linguistic Research

➢Text linguistics is a branch of linguistics
that studies text as a special unit of
language and speech, its structure,
formation, functioning, and meaning.
➢Text can be studied from different
perspectives: semantic, grammatical,
pragmatic, communicative, and cognitive.
➢According to I. R. Galperin, text is a
complete speech product consisting of
sentences and larger units connected
through lexical, grammatical, and stylistic
relationships.
➢A text can exist in both written and oral
forms and serves a particular
communicative purpose.
Main characteristics of a
text:
• Coherence and cohesion;
• Completeness and unity;
• Informativeness;
• Intentionality (author's
communicative purpose);
• Addressivity (orientation
towards the reader or
listener);
• Situationality (connection
with the communicative
situation).

3. Main Categories of Textuality

Cohesion – grammatical and lexical connections between sentences.
Coherence – logical and semantic unity of the text.
Intentionality – the author′s purpose in creating the text.
Acceptability – the reader's or listener's recognition of the text as
meaningful and relevant.
Informativity – the amount of new or unexpected information.
Situationality – the relationship between the text and the situation in which it is used.
Intertextuality – connections between a text and other existing texts.
Intertextuality makes texts open to interpretation and allows authors to refer to
other literary works, historical events, cultural ideas, and familiar expressions.

4. The Problem of Text in the Hierarchy of Language Levels

Language is traditionally described as a hierarchical
system in which smaller linguistic units form larger
ones.
Each higher level is formed through the combination of
elements from lower levels.
However, the position of text in this hierarchy remains
debatable.
The main problem: Is text simply the highest level of the
language system, or is it an independent
communicative unit that goes beyond grammatical
structure?
TEXT
SENTENCES
PHRASES
WORDS
MORPHEMES
SOUNDS

5. There are two approaches to understanding linguistic organization:

Hierarchical approach
Sequential approach
Language consists of
interconnected levels and
structures.
Language is processed as a linear
sequence of elements.
Words form phrases, and phrases
form sentences.
The order of words plays an
important role in understanding
sentences.
Linguistic elements have
relationships based on a part–whole
structure.
Human cognition relies heavily on
memory and the ability to recognize
patterns and sequences.
"The students are reading an interesting book."
• Hierarchical: words form phrases and grammatical structures.
• Sequential: words are processed one after another in a particular order.

6. Research in cognitive neuroscience and psycholinguistics highlights the importance of sequential structure in language use.

Cognitive neuroscience: Similar brain regions are involved in
processing language and learning sequences.
Psycholinguistics: Word order and the distance between
words can influence sentence comprehension.
Language acquisition: Children learn linguistic
patterns through repeated exposure to language.
Text cannot be understood only as a collection of grammatical structures. It is also
a communicative and cognitive unit in which linguistic elements interact
sequentially and meaningfully. The relationship between hierarchical organization
and sequential processing remains an important issue in modern linguistics.

7. References

1. Galperin, I. R. (1981). Text as an Object of Linguistic Research.
2. Beaugrande, R.-A. de, & Dressler, W. (1981). Introduction to Text Linguistics.
3. https://www.gramota.net/en/article/phil20120106/fulltext
4. Chomsky, N. (1957). Syntactic Structures.
5.de Saussure, F. (1916). Course in General Linguistics.
6. http://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC3479729/