Text Structure and Function

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JENELLE ANIRUTH 46296271 LIN3705 TEXT STRUCTURE AND FUNCTION SEMESTER 1 ASSIGNMENT 02 716955 1 Question 1 (a) A text is a stretch of language in which all parts are linked and serve a communicative function. A text is a unified, cohesive whole. An example of a text is a road sign outside a school depicting children crossing the street thus communicating to drivers to exercise caution. A text may be written or spoken. A non-text is stretch of language that is incoherent and not a unified whole. It may be syntactically and grammatically incorrect and does not allow for our pragmatic and semantic knowledge to decipher a connection between its parts. An example of a non-text is the sentence “Friday very happy that is was we were”. (b) Text A is a written text and text B is a spoken text. Text B represents a transcript of one side of a conversation. The tone is casual and familiar and the speaker uses words such as “honey” which indicates a close relationship between the two participants. Text A, we read is an excerpt taken from the Wikipedia website which is a type of online encyclopedia. The text is more complex and comprises longer sentences containing longer clauses. Text A addresses a large and non-specific audience that do not share the same time and space as the writer whereas the speaker in text B appears to be in the same vicinity as the interlocutor. This is evident in the final sentence where despite the other party not having said anything, the speaker is able to determine that they have left their keys behind. The speaker in text B refers to people that the interlocutor ought to know. Text A contains a greater number of polysyllabic 1 words than text B. This is typical of written texts as is the occurrence of a greater number of everyday words in spoken texts such as text B. Question 2 (a) Type Repetition Cohesive Element sleep

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