Discourse analysis: text linguistics and stylistics

Text linguistics is a branch of linguistics concerned with the description and analysis of extended texts (either spoken or written) in communicative contexts. Sometimes spelled as one word, textlinguistics (after the German Textlinguistik).In some ways, notes David Crystal, text linguistics "overlaps considerably with .discourse analysis, and some linguistssee very little difference between them" (Dictionary of Linguistics and Phonetics, 2008).

Examples and Observations:

• "In recent years, the study of texts has become a defining feature of a branch of linguistics referred to (especially in Europe) as textlinguistics, and 'text' here has central theoretical status. Texts are seen as language units which have a definable communicative function, characterized by such principles as cohesion, coherence and informativeness, which can be used to provide a formal definition of what constitutes their textuality or texture. On the basis of these principles, texts are classified into text types, or genres, such as road signs, news reports, poems, conversations, etc. . . . Some linguists make a distinction between the notions of 'text,' viewed as a physical product, and 'discourse,' viewed as a dynamic process of expression and interpretation, whose function and mode of operation can be investigated using psycholinguistic and sociolinguistic, as well as linguistic, techniques."
  (David Crystal, Dictionary of Linguistics and Phonetics, 6th ed. Blackwell, 2008)
   

• Seven Principles of Textuality
  "[The] seven principles of textuality--cohesion, coherence, intentionality, acceptability, informativity, situationality, and intertextuality--demonstrate how richly every text is connected to your knowledge of world and society, even a telephone directory. Since the appearance of the Introduction to Text Linguistics [by Robert de Beaugrande and Wolfgang Dressler] in 1981, which used these principles as its framework, we need to emphasize that they designate the major modes of connectednessand not (as some studies assumed) the linguistic features of text-artifacts nor the borderline between 'texts' versus 'non-texts' (c.f. II.106ff, 110). The principles apply wherever an artifact is 'textualized,' even if someone judges the results 'incoherent,' 'unintentional,' 'unacceptable,' and so on. Such judgements indicate that the text is not appropriate (suitable to the occasion), or efficient (easy to handle), or effective (helpful for the goal) (I.21); but it is still a text. Usually, disturbances or irregularities are discounted or at worst construed as signals of spontaneity, stress, overload, ignorance, and so on, and not as a loss or a denial of textuality."
  (Robert De Beaugrande, "Getting Started." New Foundations for a Science of Text and Discourse: Cognition, Communication, and the Freedom of Access to Knowledge and Society. Ablex, 1997)
   
• Definitions of Text
  "With the ever-increasing popularity of discourse analysis and text-linguistics in recent years, a number of linguists have tried to establish what has been referred to generally as functional varieties and more precisely as registers (Halliday 1994), genres (Swales 1990) and text-types (Biber and Finegan 1986) in the English language. . . .
  
  "Crucial to the establishment of any functional variety is the definition of text and the criteria that have been used to delimit one functional variety from another. Some text-linguists (Swales 1990; Bhatia 1993; Biber 1995) do not specifically define 'text/a text' but their criteria for text analysis imply that they are following a formal/structural approach, namely, that a text is a unit larger than asentence (clause)--in fact it is a combination of a number of sentences (clauses) or a number of elements of structure, each made of one or more sentences (clauses). In such cases the criteria for distinguishing between two texts are the presence and/or absence of elements of structure or types of sentences, clauses, words, and even morphemes such as -ed, -ing, -en in the two texts. Whether texts are analysed in terms of some elements of structure or a number of sentences (clauses) that can then be broken down into smaller units--a top-down analysis--or in terms of smaller units such as morphemes and words that can be put together to build the larger unit of text--a bottom-up analysis--we are still dealing with a formal/structural theory and approach to text analysis."
  (Mohsen Ghadessy, "Textual Features and Contextual Factors for Register Identification." Text and Context in Functional Linguistics, ed. by Mohsen Ghadessy. John Benjamins, 1999)
• Discourse Grammar
  "An area of investigation within text linguistics, discourse grammar involves the analysis and presentation of grammatical regularities that overlap sentences in texts. In contrast to the pragmatically oriented direction of text linguistics, discourse grammar departs from a grammatical concept of text that is analogous to 'sentence.' The object of investigation is primarily the phenomenon of cohesion, thus the syntactic-morphological connecting of texts by textphoric, recurrence, and connective."
  (Hadumod Bussmann, Routledge Dictionary of Language and Linguistics. Translated and edited by Gregory P. Trauth and Kerstin Kazzazi. Routledge, 1996)

stylistic

Stylistics is a method of textual interpretation in which primacy of place is assigned to language. (Simpson 2004: 2.).Stylistics, sometimes called linguo-stylistics, is a branch of general linguistics that deals with : a) the investigation of the inventory of special language media which by their ontological features secure the desirable effect of the utterance and b) Certain types of texts (discourse) which due to the choice and arrangement of language means are distinguished by the pragmatic aspect of the communication.

                Stylistics must take into consideration the "output of the act of communication“, but stylistics must also investigate the ontological, i.e. natural, inherent, and functional peculiarities of the means of communication which may ensure the effect sought. • "A current definition of style and stylistics is that structures, sequences, and patterns which extend, or may extend, beyond the boundaries of individual sentences define style. and that the study of them is stylistics.“ (Archibald A. Hill)

Stylistics is the description and analysis of the variability of linguistic forms in actual language use. The concepts of ‘style’ and ‘stylistic variation’ in language rest on the general assumption that within the language system, the same content can be encoded in more than one linguistic form. Operating at all linguistic levels (e.g. lexicology, syntax, text linguistics, and intonation), stylisticians analyze both the style of specific texts and stylistic variation across texts.

 "Style is a quality of language which communicates precisely emotions or thoughts, or a system of emotions or thoughts, peculiar to the author.“ (J. Middleton Murray) . "a true idiosyncrasy of style is the result of an author's success in compelling language to conform to his mode of experience.“ (J. Middleton Murray) • "Style is a contextually restricted linguistic variation." (Enkvist). • "Style is a selection of non-distinctive features of language." (L. Bloomfield) "Style is simply synonymous with form or expression and hence a superfluous term." (Benedetto Croce) "Style is essentially a citational process, a body of formulae, a memory (almost in the cybernetic sense of the word).