We explain what a text is and the meaning of this term. Also, the types of text that exist and what their properties are.
What is a text?
A text is understood to be an ordered composition of signs inscribed in a writing system, whose reading allows to recover a specific meaning referred to by the issuer. The wordtext It comes from the Latintextus, which means "woven" or "intertwined", so that at the very origin of the idea of the text is its ability to contain ideas in a thread or a sequence of characters.
So that a text becomes a quantity of sentences spun together and arranged on the basis of a argument (explanatory, narrative, descriptive, etc.), using a concrete system of signs, which we will calllanguage, and within said system a specific code that we will calltongue.
Thus, all text It contains a series of encrypted messages that the reader must be able to retrieve, and which can be of a different nature, according to the expressive tasks of the person who wrote it: these are the instructions for use of a washing machine, but also a poem of love, the news from the newspaper or a graffiti protest on a wall in the street.
Types of texts
Texts are traditionally classified based on the communicative intention pursued by the issuer, thus being able to speak of:
- Informative texts. Those in which the reader is given a series of content or information specific together with the conceptual or contextual tools to understand them, that is, something concrete is explained to them. For example: a technical report, an encyclopedia page.
- Narrative texts. Those in which a narration, be it real or imaginary. For example: a story, a novel, a travel chronicle.
- Descriptive texts. Those in which a quantity of detail is provided regarding a specific object or event, aspiring to exhaust its properties in some sense. For example: a file for a work of art in a museum, an advertisement for the sale of an appliance.
- Argumentative texts. Those who seek to convince the reader of any opinion, point of view or consideration, regarding any subject, offering arguments and reasons. For example: a opinion piece, a propaganda encouraging energy saving, a speech at a political rally.
- Commutative texts. Those that give precise instructions to the reader, and that are written using imperative verbs. For example: a cookery recipe, a traffic sign, a no smoking sign.
- Poetic or playful texts. Those whose meaning is in the contemplation of the beauty or ingenuity with which they were written, that is, appealing to the playful or aesthetic sense of the reader. For example: a poem, a literary work, a riddle.
Text properties
All text necessarily has the following properties:
- Cohesion. A cohesive text is one whose parts are logically linked to each other, that is, from the reading From one part you can go to the next in an orderly, rational way. The lack of cohesion makes the texts jump from one thing to another, without rhyme or reason.
- Coherence. The texts must be coherent, which means to focus on a topic or topic on which they are going to refer, whatever it may be. A text should progress little by little towards the composition of a global, general idea, through the exposition of smaller or simpler ideas. But at the end of reading a coherent text, one can explain "what it is about."
- Meaning. Every text has a meaning to be recovered by the reader, even in the most banal or inefficient. But writing is never without meaning, as it would have nothing to communicate and reading would be impossible.
- Progressiveness. A text offers its content progressively, that is, little by little, a prayer at once. That is why to know everything he says we must read it all, because as we progress in reading we decipher more and more of the content of his message, and if we settle for the first part, we will not know everything.
- Intentionality. All text is written with some communicative intention, that is, with some purpose in mind, whether it be to serve as a reminder, to tell another person to do something, or simply to entertain. Be that as it may, this intention will configure the text and make the issuer use one or other resources in its composition.
- Adequacy. All text must adapt to a series of codes and precepts that are common with its receiver, so that it can understand it and decipher its content. This happens due to the way the language is used, also due to the conventions of the genre, etc.