Variant – 3 What problems is text semantics concerned with?

What problems does general text theory deal with?



Text general theory. Within the framework of text linguistics there distinguished different trends and aspects. But the linguists differently treat this issue. P. Hartman outlines two directions: general theory and concrete text analysis. According to I.R. Galperin there is general theory and text grammar. O.I. Moskalskaya differentiates text semantics and text grammar. Z.Y. Turaeva suggests six directions: 1) general theory; 2) text typology; 3) text units and their functions; 4) text categories; 5) text integrity; 6) cohesion of the text.
Before turning to these problems it will be expedient to specify the object and the subject of text linguistics. The object of text linguistics is a text as a complex communicative unit, as a sequence of verbal signs, as “language-in- action”. The subject of text linguistics depends on the aim of investigation. It might be the semantic, structural, grammatical, stylistic, communicative, pragmatic, cognitive and other aspects of the text.
Previously we have discussed some tasks of text linguistics, its historical background, views of the scholars who contributed to the development of this science. Much attention has been paid to the problem of text definition and the main text characteristics. In this connection there arises another crucial problem – the problem of text delimitation. What is text delimitation? It means establishing the borderlines of the text, its length. Needless to say that it is impossible to study a text if we don’t know its boundaries. It should be noted that in a practical sense text boundaries are easy to establish by a visual observation of the material segmentation in the written form of the text (syntactical unit, paragraph, chapter) or an auditory observation (time, interval, pause) in the oral variety of the text (Колшанский, 1984).
From the theoretical viewpoint, however, the problems of text delimitation are rather debatable for the reason that not all the parameters for setting the boundaries of the text have been revealed. Many scholars maintain the idea that text delimitation is based on the thematic principle according to which micro - and macrotexts as monothematic and multithematic units are distinguished (Гальперин, 1981; Колшанский, 1984; Москальская, 1981). Thus, Moskalskaya considers that microtext is presented by a complex syntactical unit, and macrotext – by a work of literature. Complex syntactical units or supra-phrasal units are defined as a sequence of two or more sentences presenting a structural and semantic unity backed up by a rhythmic and melodic unity. In other words, it is a span of the text in which coherence, interdependence of the elements, and one definite idea are observed (Galperin, 1977:196). In some cases complex syntactical units can coincide with the whole text if the latter is of a small format (certificate, advertisement, cable).