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63
SECTION IV
DEALING WITH TEXTS
UNIT 1. TYPES OF DISCOURSE
(THE FUNCTION OF A TEXT AND HOW IT DETERMINES THE WAY WE READ IT)
According to James Kinneavy (in A Theory of Discourse), there are two basic types of discourse (i.e., text).
A. the type (or mode) of discourse whose main function is to EXPRESS the feelings, ideas, emotions,
beliefs, wishes, intentions, etc. of the WRITER or SPEAKER
Examples: diaries, personal journals, prayers, manifestos, contracts, constitutions, religious credos, myths
B. the type (or mode) of discourse whose primary function is to COMMUNICATE something TO A
READER or LISTENER.
In COMMUNICATIVE discourse, according to Kinneavy, the emphasis can be on one of three different
aspects of the communicative process:
REFERENTIAL
Emphasis on:
Subject Matter,
Information:
The information
is presented, described,
Defined, diagnosed,
LITERARY
Emphasis on:
Form of Presentation The
PERSUASIVE
Emphasis on:
The effect on the
Reader that the
subject-matter is
meant to have.
Proved, or related in
an informative manner
Examples:
Textbooks
scientific articles
Examples: Examples:
novels advertisements
poems sermons
dramas political speeches
Jokes
It is important to remember that texts are seldom purely Referential, Literary, or Persuasive. Most texts have
some of the characteristics of more than one of these categories, but they belong primarily in one of them. The
determining factor is probably the writer's intention: i.e., the primary function that he intended his text to serve.
The types overlap because, for example, the writer may have intended his text to be primarily persuasive, but
he may well have found it necessary to include a lot of referential material, informing the reader about the sub-
ject and even supplying scientific facts to sound more convincing. He may also have found it effective to
employ certain literary techniques in order to be especially persuasive (e.g., he may have used jokes, rhymed
verse, or figures of speech to make the text livelier and to have a stronger effect on his readers).
However, each of these three types of discourse (determined by the writer's primary purpose) has its own
interior logic, its own traditional organizational patterns, and its own stylistic peculiarities (e.g., the level of the
language — its formality or informality).
If the reader can recognize the determining features of the type of text he has in front of him (e.g., if he
recognizes the traditional form of a scientific report, with its sections devoted to the writer's hypothesis, the
report on the experiment, the results of the experiment, and the writer's conclusions) then he knows something
useful about HOW TO READ IT.
Questions: