“Text”
Text
linguistics
the spoken or written
evocation of an event
or series of events
(p.193)
English 306A; Harris
English 306A; Harris
Missing the typographical boat
Missing the typographical boat
In written
communication, the
text is almost all
there is.
(p.180)
English 306A; Harris
In written
communication, the
text is almost all
there is.
(p.180)
English 306A; Harris
1
Missing the communication-design
(RPW/RCD) boat
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Typeface
Weight
Space
Proximity
Shape
Size
Colour
Medium
….
Textual function = Weaving function
Randy Alle n H arri s
Department of English
U niversity of Waterloo
200U niversity Avenue
Waterloo ON Canada N2L 3G1
519.885.1211
, x5362
The elements and
dimensions of
language that serve
to weave a discourse
together.
26 November, 2001
James Peltz,
E ditor-in-Chief
State University of New York Press
90 State St., Suite 700
Albany, NY 12207
Dear Mr. Peltz:
I am editing acollection of essays which bring the rhetoric of science to bear on one of the
most profound, and certainly one of the most widely engaged, issuesin science studies,
incommensurability; SU NY Pressis the ideal house for it.
The collection brings the rhetoric of science to bear on one of the most profound, and
certainly one of the most widely engage
d, issues in contemporaryscience studies,
incommensurability. The topic has preoccupied not just philosophy of science over the last
three decades, but alsohistory and sociologyof science—all three of wh
ich have, roughly
over the same duration, been strongly influenced by rhetoric—as wellas entering many
strains of post-modern critical thought.
And incommensurability, since it implicates argumentation soheavily, is an issue that
rhetoric is exceptionally well placed to address. Indeed, rhetoric—in both the general
scholarly senseand the specific disciplinary sense—entered contemporarystudiesof
science largely because of the ramifications Kuhn and F eyerabend pursued upon their
coincident introductions of incommensurability.
The State University of New York Press, I hope you’ll agree, is the perfect house for this
project, because ofits major rhetoric lists, its important presence in philosophy, its
significant science and technology studies offerings, and its growing attention to the
scholarship of argumentation.
The book
The boo
k—Rhetoric and incommensurability pending abetter idea—gathers essays by the
leading figures in rhetoric of science addressing the implications of incommensurability. It
is a provocative an
d marketable meeting of scholars and subject. For most presses, I would
nowhave to launch into subroutine describing rhetoric of science, but since you’ve
English 306A; Harris
English 306A; Harris
Text—Perceived whole
Text—Perceived whole
The two weaving mechanisms
Weave
Material
The two weaving mechanisms
Texture
Pattern
English 306A; Harris
Cohesion
Coherence
English 306A; Harris
2
Text—Perceived whole
The two weaving mechanisms
Cohesion (elements)
Text—Perceived whole
The two weaving mechanisms
Cohesion (elements)
• achieved by formal
devices, usually lexicosyntactic
• semasiological
• achieved by formal
devices, usually lexicosyntactic
• semasiological
Coherence (dimensions)
Coherence (dimensions)
• achieved by conceptual
devices (‘ideas’)
• onomasiological
• achieved by conceptual
devices (‘ideas’)
• onomasiological
English 306A; Harris
Text—Perceived whole
The two weaving mechanisms
Cohesion (elements)
• achieved by formal
devices, usually lexicosyntactic
• semasiological
Coherence (dimensions)
• achieved by conceptual
devices (‘ideas’)
• onomasiological
English 306A; Harris
English 306A; Harris
A text
It is true (Ladies) your tongues are held your defensive
armour, but you never detract more from your honour than
when you give too much liberty to that slippery glib
member. That Ivory guard or garrison, which impales your
tongue, doth caution and instruct you, to put restraint upon
your Speech. In much talk you must of necessity commit
much error, as it leaves some tincture of vain-glory, which
proclaims the proud heart from whence it proceeded, or
some taste of scurrility, which displays the wanton heart
from whence it streamed.
English 306A; Harris
3
Iteration
Referential
Cohesion
Cohesion
It is true (Ladies) your tongues are held your defensive
armour, but you never detract more from your honour than
when you give too much liberty to that slippery glib
member. That Ivory guard or garrison, which impales your
tongue, doth caution and instruct you, to put restraint upon
your Speech. In much talk you must of necessity commit
much error, as it leaves some tincture of vain-glory, which
proclaims the proud heart from whence it proceeded, or
some taste of scurrility, which displays the wanton heart
from whence it streamed.
It is true (Ladies) your tongues are held your defensive
armour, but you never detract more from your honour than
when you give too much liberty to that slippery glib
member. That Ivory guard or garrison, which impales your
tongue, doth caution and instruct you, to put restraint upon
your Speech. In much talk you must of necessity commit
much error, as it leaves some tincture of vain-glory, which
proclaims the proud heart from whence it proceeded, or
some taste of scurrility, which displays the wanton heart
from whence it streamed.
English 306A; Harris
English 306A; Harris
Balance (symmetry, parallelism, isocolon)
Functional linking
It is true (Ladies) your tongues are held your defensive
armour, but you never detract more from your honour than
when you give too much liberty to that slippery glib
member. That Ivory guard or garrison, which impales your
tongue, doth caution and instruct you, to put restraint upon
your Speech. In much talk you must of necessity commit
much error, as it leaves some tincture of vain-glory, which
proclaims the proud heart from whence it proceeded, or
some taste of scurrility, which displays the wanton heart
from whence it streamed.
It is true (Ladies) your tongues are held your defensive
armour, but you never detract more from your honour than
when you give too much liberty to that slippery glib
member. That Ivory guard or garrison, which impales your
tongue, doth caution and instruct you, to put restraint upon
your Speech. In much talk you must of necessity commit
much error, as it leaves some tincture of vain-glory, which
proclaims the proud heart from whence it proceeded, or
some taste of scurrility, which displays the wanton heart
from whence it streamed.
English 306A; Harris
English 306A; Harris
Cohesion
Cohesion
4
Iteration
Iteration-Polyptoton
It is true (Ladies) your tongues are held your defensive
armour, but you never detract more from your honour than
when you give too much liberty to that slippery glib
member. That Ivory guard or garrison, which impales your
tongue, doth caution and instruct you, to put restraint upon
your Speech. In much talk you must of necessity commit
much error, as it leaves some tincture of vain-glory, which
proclaims the proud heart from whence it proceeded, or
some taste of scurrility, which displays the wanton heart
from whence it streamed.
It is true (Ladies) your tongues are held your defensive
armour, but you never detract more from your honour than
when you give too much liberty to that slippery glib
member. That Ivory guard or garrison, which impales your
tongue, doth caution and instruct you, to put restraint upon
your Speech. In much talk you must of necessity commit
much error, as it leaves some tincture of vain-glory, which
proclaims the proud heart from whence it proceeded, or
some taste of scurrility, which displays the wanton heart
from whence it streamed.
English 306A; Harris
English 306A; Harris
Cohesion
Cohesion
Cohesion / Coherence
Cohesion (& coherence)
Don’t trust McBean, because
he’s a shyster.
Coherence (low cohesion)
Don’t trust McBean. He’s a shyster.
English 306A; Harris
English 306A; Harris
5
Cohesion without coherence (?)
Cohesion / Coherence
Subordination
Don’t trust McBean, because
he’s a shyster.
A week has seven days.
Every day I feed my cat.
Cats have four legs. The
cat is on the mat. Mat
has three letters.
Evidence
Don’t trust McBean. He’s a shyster.
English 306A; Harris
English 306A; Harris
Cohesion / Coherence
Cohesion / Coherence
Subordinator
Subordination
Don’t trust McBean, because
he’s a shyster.
Evidence
Don’t trust McBean. He’s a shyster.
A word that puts one
clause into a specific
syntactic relationship with
another clause (i.e., a
subordinate relationship);
functional linking.
Subordination
Don’t trust McBean, because
he’s a shyster.
Evidence
Don’t trust McBean. He’s a shyster.
Shysters have low credibility. Trust requires credibility.
English 306A; Harris
English 306A; Harris
6
Text Linguistics
Cohesion / Coherence
Cohesion
Subordination
Don’t trust McBean, because
he’s a shyster.
Evidence
Don’t trust McBean. He’s a shyster.
Cohesion / Coherence
• Knowing the words
and/or structure
• Semasiological
Cohesion--formal, semasiological
Coherence
Coherence—conceptual, onomasiological
• Knowing the ideas,
the reasoning, the
meaning
• Onomasiological
Structural
Iteration (phrasal, lexical, morphological, phonetic),
balance (iteration of structure), functional linking
(coordination and subordination)
Referential
Topical; definite, indefinite
Relational
Paratactic (among nuclei)
Hypotactic (between nucleus and satellite[s])
Proformal
Anaphoric, cataphoric, elliptical
English 306A; Harris
English 306A; Harris
Referential coherence--Topical
Referential coherence--Topical
When the Star-Belly Sneetches had frankfurter roasts
When the
Or picnics or parties or marshmallow toasts,
Or picnics or parties or marshmallow toasts,
They never invited the Plain-Belly Sneetches.
They never invited
They left them out cold, in the dark of the beaches
They left them out cold, in the dark of the beaches
They kept them away. Never let them come near.
They kept them away. Never let them come near.
And that’s how they treated them year after year.
And that’s how they treated them year after year.
English 306A; Harris
had frankfurter roasts
.
English 306A; Harris
7
Referential coherence--Topical
When the
had frankfurter roasts
Or picnics or parties or marshmallow toasts,
They never invited
.
They left them out cold, in the dark of the beaches
Referential coherence
Proformal (not content words)
When the Star-Belly Sneetchesi hadj frankfurter roasts
Or Øi Øj picnics or Øi Øj parties or Ø i Øj marshmallow toasts,
Theyi never invited the Plain-Belly Sneetchesk.
Theyi left themk out cold, in the dark of the beaches
Theyi kept themk away. Ø i Never let themkcome near.
And that’s how theyi treated themk year after year.
They kept them away. Never let them come near.
And that’s how they treated them year after year.
English 306A; Harris
i
Referential coherence--Topical
Prominence
English 306A; Harris
k
Referential coherence
Phrasal
Star-Bellies—focus
SB’s actions—topic
and/or
Plain-Bellies—focus
PB’s treatment—topic
SB’s/PB’s perspectives
(actions vs. feelings)
English 306A; Harris
Identical
Partial
Proformal
Anaphoric
(Cataphoric)
Elliptical
English 306A; Harris
8
Referential coherence / Iterative cohesion
Phrasal (content words, not proforms)
Identical (full iteration)
Star-Belly Sneetches … blah
blah blah … Star-Belly
Sneetches
Plain-Belly Sneetches … blah
blah blah … Plain-Belly
Sneetches
Sylvester McMonkey McBean
… blah blah blah … Sylvester
McMonkey McBean
Referential coherence / Iterative cohesion
Phrasal (content words, not proforms)
Partial (reduction)
Star-Belly Sneetches … blah
blah blah … Star-Bellies …
Sylvester McMonkey McBean
… blah blah blah … McBean
Partial (paraphrase)
Star-Belly Sneetches … blah
blah blah … Sneetches with
stars
Plain-Belly Sneetches … blah
blah blah … Sneetches
without [stars on their bellies]
English 306A; Harris
English 306A; Harris
Referential coherence
Referential coherence
Proformal (not content words)
Star-Belly Sneetchesi
Anaphoric
Theyi never invited …
Proformal (not content words)
Cataphoric
Theyi … Star-Belly
Sneetchesi
Elliptical
Øi never let them …
English 306A; Harris
English 306A; Harris
9
Referential coherence
Proformal (not content words)
Referential coherence
Proformal (not content words)
Cataphoric
Cataphoric
And he laughed as he drove
In his car up the beach
“Theyi never will learn.
No. You can’t teach a sneetchi!”
Then I was deep within the
woods
When, suddenly, I spied themi.
I saw a pair of pale green
pantsi
With nobody inside themi!
English 306A; Harris
English 306A; Harris
Relational coherence
Relational coherence
So they clambered inside. Then the big machine roared.
And it klonked. And it bonked. And it jerked. And it berked.
And it bopped them about. But the thing really worked!
When the Plain-Belly Sneetches popped out, they had stars!
They actually did. They had stars upon thars.
Local conceptual relations--between two, or a few,
proximal clauses.
Restatement
So they clambered inside. Then the big machine roared.
And it klonked. And it bonked. And it jerked. And it berked.
And it bopped them about. But the thing really worked!
When the Plain-Belly Sneetches popped out, they had stars!
They actually did. They had stars upon thars.
Nucleus
Restatements
A satellite which reformulates (paraphrases) the
information given in the nucleus.
English 306A; Harris
English 306A; Harris
10
Relational coherence
Relational coherence
Concession
So they clambered inside. Then the big machine roared.
And it klonked. And it bonked. And it jerked. And it berked.
And it bopped them about. But the thing really worked!
When the Plain-Belly Sneetches popped out, they had stars!
They actually did. They had stars upon thars.
Concessions
Nucleus
A satellite which concedes potential incompatibilities with
the information presented in the nucleus.
Paratactic
Among elements of equal
importance to the text;
between nuclei
Hypotactic
Among elements in which one
(the nucleus) is more
important to the text, and the
other (the satellite) extends it
in some way.
English 306A; Harris
Relational coherence
Paratactic relations
Now, the Star-Belly Sneetches
Had bellies with stars.
The Plain-Belly Sneetches
Had none upon thars.
English 306A; Harris
Nuclei
Relational coherence
Paratactic relations
Off again! On again!
In again! Out again!
Nuclei
Nuclei
Sequence
Narrative elements
Contrast
Contrast
Plot development
(equality of characters!)
theme, character
English 306A; Harris
English 306A; Harris
11
Relational coherence
Hypotactic relations
Nucleus
Utterance that contributes to
the core of the text (the
story, the argument, the
instruction, …).
Satellite
Utterance that is peripheral
to text, and which depends
on a nucleus (that it extends,
explains, frames, …)
Hypotactic relations
Nucleus and satellite
Then ONE day, it seems,
… while the Plain-Belly
Sneetches
Were moping and doping
alone on the beaches,
Just sitting there wishing
their bellies had stars …
A stranger zipped up in
the strangest of cars.
English 306A; Harris
English 306A; Harris
Hypotactic relations
Hypotactic relations
Nucleus and satellite
Then ONE day, it seems,
… while the Plain-Belly
Sneetches
Were moping and doping
alone on the beaches,
Just sitting there wishing
their bellies had stars …
A stranger zipped up in
the strangest of cars.
English 306A; Harris
Nucleus and satellite
Then ONE day, it seems, … while the Plain-Belly Sneetches
Were moping and doping alone on the beaches,
Just sitting there wishing their bellies had stars …
A stranger zipped up in the strangest of cars.
Nucleus
Satellites
English 306A; Harris
12
Nucleus and satellite
Nucleus and satellite
Circumstance
Then ONE day, it seems, … while the Plain-Belly Sneetches
Were moping and doping alone on the beaches,
Just sitting there wishing their bellies had stars …
A stranger zipped up in the strangest of cars.
Nucleus
Satellites
Circumstance
Then ONE day, it seems, … while the Plain-Belly Sneetches
Were moping and doping alone on the beaches,
Just sitting there wishing their bellies had stars …
A stranger zipped up in the strangest of cars.
Nucleus
Circumstance
Satellites
Circumstance
A satellite which gives the framework in which the reader is
intended to interpret the situation described in the nucleus.
English 306A; Harris
English 306A; Harris
Multiple relations
Contrast
And I’ve heard of your troubles. I’ve heard you’re unhappy.
But I can fix that. I’m the Fix-it-up Chappie.
I’ve come here to help you. I have what you need.
And my prices are low. And I work at great speed.
And my work is one-hundred percent guaranteed.
And I’ve heard of your troubles. I’ve heard you’re unhappy.
But I can fix that. I’m the Fix-it-up Chappie.
I’ve come here to help you. I have what you need.
And my prices are low. And I work at great speed.
And my work is one-hundred percent guaranteed.
Nuclei
English 306A; Harris
English 306A; Harris
13
Solutionhood
And I’ve heard of your troubles. I’ve heard you’re unhappy.
But I can fix that. I’m the Fix-it-up Chappie.
I’ve come here to help you. I have what you need.
And my prices are low. And I work at great speed.
And my work is one-hundred percent guaranteed.
Nucleus
Problem(s)
The nucleus is a solution to the problem described in the
satelite.
Justification
And I’ve heard of your troubles. I’ve heard you’re unhappy.
But I can fix that. I’m the Fix-it-up Chappie.
I’ve come here to help you. I have what you need.
And my prices are low. And I work at great speed.
And my work is one-hundred percent guaranteed.
Nucleus
Justifications
A satellite which increases the reader’s readiness to accept
the writer’s right to present the information in the nucleus.
English 306A; Harris
English 306A; Harris
From the perspective of the Plain-Belly Sneetches
Motivation?! Hey, that’s persuasion, isn’t it?
Motivation
And I’ve heard of your troubles. I’ve heard you’re unhappy.
But I can fix that. I’m the Fix-it-up Chappie.
I’ve come here to help you. I have what you need.
And my prices are low. And I work at great speed.
And my work is one-hundred percent guaranteed.
Nucleus
Motivations
A satellite which motivates the hearer to perform the action
described in the nucleus (in this case, evoked by the
nucleus).
English 306A; Harris
Rhetorical interlude
And I’ve heard of your troubles. I’ve heard you’re unhappy.
But I can fix that. I’m the Fix-it-up Chappie.
I’ve come here to help you. I have what you need.
And my prices are low. And I work at great speed.
And my work is one-hundred percent guaranteed.
Reasons: premises feeding the argument
‘pay me (so you can jump into my
star-off machine)’.
English 306A; Harris
14
Motivation?! Hey, that’s persuasion, isn’t it?
Rhetorical interlude
And I’ve heard of your troubles. I’ve heard you’re unhappy.
But I can fix that. I’m the Fix-it-up Chappie.
I’ve come here to help you. I have what you need.
And my prices are low. And I work at great speed.
And my work is one-hundred percent guaranteed.
Ethos, pathos, logos, figuration, topoi,
invention, arrangement, style, delivery,
stasis, …
English 306A; Harris
Character?! Hey, that’s literary, isn’t it?
Literary interlude
And I’ve heard of your troubles. I’ve heard you’re unhappy.
But I can fix that. I’m the Fix-it-up Chappie.
I’ve come here to help you. I have what you need.
And my prices are low. And I work at great speed.
And my work is one-hundred percent guaranteed.
Opportunistic interloper, illustrating selfish
personal values, in contrast to the (selfishly
skewed) community values of the Sneetches.
Advances plot while advancing personal wealth;
thematically exposes superficiality of appearance
and fashion; character revealed through dialogue.
English 306A; Harris
Motivation?! Hey, that’s persuasion, isn’t it?
Rhetorical interlude: ethos
And I’ve heard of your troubles. I’ve heard you’re unhappy.
But I can fix that. I’m the Fix-it-up Chappie.
I’ve come here to help you. I have what you need.
And my prices are low. And I work at great speed.
And my work is one-hundred percent guaranteed.
Phronesis
(Good sense)
Arete
(Virtue)
Eunoia
(Goodwill)
English 306A; Harris
Text linguistics vs. other analyses
Text linguistics only cares what satellites and
nuclei are doing.
Rhetoric cares (from a suasive viewpoint)
about where, how and why (and what).
Literary analysis cares (from an
aesthetic viewpoint) about where,
how and why (and what).
English 306A; Harris
15
Text linguistics
Cohesion--formal, semasiological
Structural
Iteration (phrasal, lexical, morphological, phonetic), balance (iteration
of structure), functional linking (coordination and subordination)
Coherence—conceptual, onomasiological
Referential
Topical; definite, indefinite
Relational
Paratactic (among nuclei)
Hypotactic (between nucleus and satellite[s])
Proformal
Anaphoric, cataphoric, elliptical
English 306A; Harris
16