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O.N. Grishina

Text Analysis

Guide for 5^th Year Students

Moscow 2000

Text Analysis Guide (for 5^th Year Students)

© 2000 by O.N. Grishina. All rights reserved.

Preface

Until quite recently linguists treated language as a fixed code - a more or less rigid system of interrelated elements. These elements were traditionally classified as phonological (the level of sounds), morphological (the level of word parts), lexical (the level of words) and syntactic (the level of sentences).

About forty years ago the focus of linguists' attention shifted to the problem of verbal communication. The obvious fact that we do not communicate in sounds, words or even sentences brought about a new wave of research. The notion of TEXT came to the forefront of linguistic analysis.

Text was defined as a string of utterances (sentences, phrases) arranged according to some definite rules - semantic, syntactic and pragmatic. Another term widely used to define a similar notion was DISCOURSE. For many Western scholars these terms are interchangeable. They use them more or less indiscriminately applying to both, written and spoken texts. In the Russian school of thought (namely, in the theory of text worked out by Professor Iliah R. Galperin) the notion of text is confined to a written speech performance which communicates specific types of information and has the categories of cohesion, modality, continuum, completeness and others.

This textbook offers a collection of texts from various spheres of communication: Chapter 1: ESSAYS (Journalistic Style), Chapter 2: SHORT STORIES (Belles-lettres Style) and Chapter 3: Popular SCIENTIFIC (ACADEMIC) ARTICLES (Scientific Prose Style).

Each type of text is studied in the corresponding chapter along the lines of 1) comprehension and vocabulary, 2) analysis, 3) discussion and

4) writing. The greatest emphasis is given to the analysis part, which focuses on the semantic, compositional, logical, emotional, pragmatic and other aspects of the text. This part gives short surveys of relevant theoretical issues and refers the students to their prior experience in the theory of the language. It also offers questions that help to apply theory to practical analysis. Each section contains seven texts: the initial texts are intended for thorough study; the main points of analysis are then summed up in the list of Guidelines. Texts given after the Guidelines can be studied independently.

The textbook is supplemented by an Appendix (texts for oral Russian-English translation), a Glossary of Literary and Stylistic Terms and a list of References.

This manual has grown out of graduate courses in Text Analysis that I have been teaching in Moscow State Linguistic University for many years. My first debt of gratitude is therefore to my students – for their insight, enthusiasm and support. A special thank-you goes to my friends and colleagues who helped in the preparation of this manual: to professor K.M.Iriskhanova who talked me into the project, to professor E.G.Belyayevskaya and associate professor N.A.Zmiyevskaya who provided valuable suggestions and comments, to Helen McEvansoneya who reviewed parts of the manuscript, and to all faculty members who share the task of teaching Text Analysis.

Contents

Preface

Chapter 1: Essay

Text # 1

Comprehension and Vocabulary

Analysis:

Focus on Composition

Focus on Coherence

Logical Focus

Discussion

Text #2

Emotional Focus

Pragmatic Focus

Discussion

Writing

Guidelines for Analysing an Essay

Text #3

Text #4

Text #5

Text #6

Text #7

Chapter 2: Short Story

Text #1

Comprehension and Vocabulary

Analysis:

Focus on Composition

Focus on Discourse Types (Description, Narration, Commentary,

Dialogue)

Discussion

Text #2

Comprehension and Vocabulary

Analysis:

Focus on Characterisation

Focus on the Narrator

Discussion

Text #3

Comprehension and Vocabulary

Analysis:

Emotional Focus

Discussion

Writing

Text #4

Comprehension and Vocabulary

Analysis:

Focus on Discourse Types (Interior Monologue)

Guidelines for Analysing a Short Story

Text #5

Text #6

Text #7

Chapter 3: Popular Scientific (Academic) Article

Text #1

Comprehension and Vocabulary

Analysis

Focus on Composition

Focus on Exposition

Focus on Objectivity

Discussion

Writing

Guidelines for Analysing a Popular Scientific (Academic) Article

Text #2

Text #3

Text #4

Text #5

Text #6

Text #7

Appendix: Texts for Translation

Glossary of Stylistic Devices and Literary Terms

References

Chapter 1: Essay

An Essay is a short literary composition, which clearly expresses the author's personal opinion about a definite subject of general interest with the aim of shaping the reader's opinion.

From this definition it is easy to infer that the basic distinctive features of the essay are -brevity; - the clarity of the message; - subjectivity; - appeal to a wide audience; - strong impact (logical and emotional).

There are several types of essays:

• narrative essays (e.g. autobiographies, memoirs, character sketches);

• descriptive essays (e.g. travelling notes, feature portraits);

• critical essays (e.g. book reviews, film reviews);

• interpretative essays (e.g. offering interpretations of a proverb, saying, quotation);

• argumentative essays (e.g. supporting a disputable point, as "Too Much Knowledge is a Dangerous Thing");

• analytical essays, and so on.

All essays belong to expository prose, which is designed to "expose", i.e. to set forth facts, ideas and opinions in an orderly fashion.

Text #1