Textual Properties: Suitability, Coherence, and Cohesion
Suitability
Suitability is the property of text that determines the variety and register to be used in every situation and context. A text is suitable when the sender chooses the most appropriate option for each situation. A suitable text meets the following requirements:
- It achieves the communicative purpose for which it was produced.
- The treatment is appropriate for the audience and context.
- The appropriate degree of specificity (high or low) is maintained throughout the text, using specific terminology when necessary.
Suitability demonstrates linguistic mastery and appropriate register variety.
Coherence
Coherence refers to the theme and structure of a text. It involves selecting, ordering, and presenting information in an organized way. Coherence is analyzed from the perspective of information processing, considering:
- Quantity of ideas: Distinguishing between important and unimportant information, selecting relevant content based on contextual factors such as the sender’s purpose, recipient, message type, and established routines.
- Quality of information: Ideas can be fully developed or partially explained.
- Structure of the content: This includes the superstructure (the writer’s knowledge of the text layout and its use) and macrostructure (the abstract representation of the text’s meaning). Macrostructure involves operations like selection, generalization, and integration to create a summary or abstract.
Cohesion
Cohesion is the property that enables the receiver to interpret the text in a way that aligns with the sender’s intended meaning. It ensures that sentences are well-constructed and contributes to the overall understanding of the text. Cohesion is closely related to grammar and involves analyzing linguistic units. The main cohesive relationships are reference and connection.
Cohesion Based on Reference
- Coreference: A direct link between two elements of a text, indicating that they refer to the same object.
- Anaphora: Related elements have the same reference or meaning.
- Pro-forms: Alternatives that replace elements in the text (e.g., pronouns and determiners).
- Repetition: Repeating something that has already appeared in the text.
- Ellipsis: Omitting linguistic elements or fragments of information.
- Lexical Substitution:
- Synonym: Replacing a word with another word that has the same meaning.
- Hyponym: Replacing a word with a more specific term.
- Hypernym: Replacing a word with a more general term.
- Nominalization: Replacing a verb or clause with a noun phrase.
- Metaphor: A figurative expression that adds a poetic or symbolic dimension.
- Morphological Agreement: Agreement in gender, number, person, tense, mood, and aspect.
Cohesion Based on Connection
- Connectors: Words or phrases that reveal the relationship between parts of the text, reducing ambiguity. Their use depends on the type of text and the sender’s intention.
- Verbal Inflection: The use of verb tenses contributes to text organization and reflects the author’s attitude.