Text linguistics studies the meaning and interpretation of written texts, examining how words produce meaning and how sentences are constructed. It includes internal functions like cohesion and coherence, as well as external functions like intertextuality and context. It also considers the purpose and audience of the text.
Text linguistics is an area of study within the field of linguistics that focuses on the meaning and interpretation of written texts. This type of linguistics examines the ways in which the written word produces meaning, both on a small and large scale. Text linguistics is generally used by academics and is related to literary criticism. It was born out of structuralism in the 1960s.
Texts have both internal and external functions, according to the principles of text linguistics. A part of the internal function can be called cohesion. This is how the actual words in the text are connected and flow together to create sentence-level meaning. Lyrics use devices such as conjunctions, ellipses, and substitutions to connect words so that they flow from one sentence to another. This helps the reader create meaning within the text.
Coherence is another internal element of text linguistics. This is how sentences are put together as a whole to create the meaning of the whole text. In other words, while cohesion may look at the individual elements of a sentence, coherence is about how each sentence, paragraph, and overall text is constructed so that the reader can understand it. Also see how the text is arranged over time.
An external function of text linguistics is intertextuality. This concept is the study of the interconnectedness of different texts. In some cases it may be necessary to have studied one text to understand another. For example, to understand a critical article, you may need to have read the text that the article is about. This way many different texts can be connected.
Texts can also be better understood by looking at the contexts in which they were written. This context can be historical and can include observing events that were happening in the world at the time of writing. Text linguistics can also consider social context, which includes the social aspects of a culture at the time the text was written. Studying these contexts can help readers understand the meaning of the texts more clearly.
Other aspects of text linguistics include the study of the purpose of the text, which would include the study of why the author composed the writing. This is related to audiences, another aspect of text linguistics. To understand the intention of the text, it is important to understand who wrote it and for whom it was written.
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