THE textuality is the set of characteristics capable of guaranteeing that something is perceived as text. She provides us with the parameters needed to carry out a good textual production. Through the influence of two factors – semantic and pragmatic – textuality is divided into several elements, which act together in the elaboration of the text, which is its final product. Thus, text and textuality are related to the production of discourses.
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What is textuality?
Textuality is the set of characteristics responsible for demarcating the production of language as text, that is, it is which allows something to be perceived as text. If the text is not just a juxtaposition of sentences, is because it has these characteristics that, together, allow the unity of textual meaning.
Every text is a communicative act, as it is only produced as a result of an initial motivation, a desire to say or express something. For the text to work properly, it needs to have these characteristics, thus allowing the communicative act to be established effectively.
textuality factors
The textuality factors are responsible for influencing production and text interpretation. They fall into two categories:
- the factors semantics;
- the pragmatic factors.
Each one of them starts from different but complementary perspectives.
At first, in the beginning of the text studies, researches focused only on aspects inherent to the language. With the development of linguistics, it was understood that the comprehension of a text was not explained only by its structural aspects., but also contextual, thus consolidating two textuality factors.
- semantic factors: are those who favor the study of textual structure, language, that is, their concentration is on the text itself. Within this category, two elements of textuality are presented: coherence and cohesion. The first focuses on the constructed meanings and the non-contradiction between ideas, and the second, on the text's bindings, on the relationships established between the parts, to unify the meaning.
- pragmatic factors: refer to extratextual aspects, that is, to elements that are outside the language, but which, however, influence both the production and reception or understanding of the text. These factors continue to be studied and new elements are discovered, so that new categories, not always so well known, appear in the study of textuality. The main and most recognized are five:
- intentionality;
- acceptability;
- informativeness;
- situationality;
- intertextuality.
Textuality elements
The textuality elements are a set of aspects that build the texts and influence their meaning, both in terms of production and understanding. There are a number of elements already accepted and recognized in the studies of the text, however it is important to emphasize that researches continue being carried out, proposing the insertion of new elements.
As stated, the elements come from the textuality factors, which are divided into semantic and pragmatic. Thus, each element prioritizes one or another perspective, but with a common final objective: the guarantee of textuality.
With regard to the semantic factor elements, the following stand out:
- coherence: element responsible for ensuring fluency, clarity and non-contradiction of ideas, focuses on the text in its semantic aspect;
- cohesion: element responsible for ensuring the connection between the ideas of the text, highlighting the established relationships and serving to associate, retake and connect the parts of the text.
Regarding the elements of pragmatic factor, there is a greater number of elements, some considered the main ones, because they are more recognized and consecrated, and others that are new proposals to expand the studies. Below is a list of the first five elements of the pragmatic factor.
- Intentionality: it refers to the way or the way in which the author constructs the text to achieve a certain intention. In this sense, the advertising texts, in which language and text are shaped to convince the consumer.
- Acceptability: it refers to the reception of the text, the understanding of the interlocutor about the message.
- Situationality: it refers to the context in which the text is inserted, whether in production or reading. This element interferes with the use of language, the choice and politeness of words, the tone of voice, etc. Thanks to usage situations, a text can make sense in one context and not in another.
- Informativeness: it refers to the data that the text presents, whether it is new or known information. For the text to have fluency, it is important that it balance the two types of information. If the text only contains known information, it may be redundant; if you only present new information, it can be incomprehensible.
- Intertextuality: it refers to the discursive relationships between different texts. Even if there isn't one intertextuality explicit in the text, it needs to consider information prior to its production, thus, every text carries other texts in its composition.
In addition to these, new elements have been added to the study of textuality.
- Contextualizers: refer to contextual information that is necessary to understand the texts, such as date and place.
- Consistency: it refers to the development of ideas, demanding a more solid and less contradictory construction from the text.
- Focusing: it refers to the concentration of the text in a part of knowledge or not, in this way, it understands that the comprehension of the text also involves the areas of knowledge to which it resorts.
See too: How to make a text cohesive?
Difference between text and textuality
Although text and textuality are in the same circle of studies and are related, the concept and application of each one are different.. The concept of textuality, as analyzed above, refers to the characteristics present in a textual production and which are responsible for characterizing it as text.
The text, on the other hand, is the final product, that is, the textual production itself, built on the basis of textuality elements. The text is a unit of meaning, a communicative act performed through a language production, which can be only verbal or can have the use of other languages.
Difference between textuality and discursiveness
The notions of textuality and discursiveness can be confused, after all, both understand the text as a product that is also contextual. In other words, the two concepts encompass the extralinguistic elements that influence textual production.
However, despite this common trait, discursive studies focus on language as a social act, a concrete action in the world, a “living language”. This notion goes beyond the study of textual structure, relevant to textuality.
The discourse focuses on the analysis of social, identity, political and cultural that are constructed, fought, reconstructed or created from language. In this way, every discourse has a social value, which does not depend on whether it fulfills certain culturally established standards or not.
By Talliandre Matos
Writing Teacher