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Basic Approach To Text Analysis

The document discusses different types of texts and literary techniques and figures of speech that are commonly assessed on the SAT exam. It defines narrative, expository, descriptive, argumentative, and conversational/dialogic texts and provides examples of each. It also lists and explains 25 common literary techniques and figures of speech, such as alliteration, metaphor, irony, symbolism, and motif.

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María Regal Carballo
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394 views

Basic Approach To Text Analysis

The document discusses different types of texts and literary techniques and figures of speech that are commonly assessed on the SAT exam. It defines narrative, expository, descriptive, argumentative, and conversational/dialogic texts and provides examples of each. It also lists and explains 25 common literary techniques and figures of speech, such as alliteration, metaphor, irony, symbolism, and motif.

Uploaded by

María Regal Carballo
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
Available Formats
Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Basic approach to text analysis

The text is a complex linguistic unit. It can be perceived as a chain of linguistic


signs with a beginning and end, and a meaningful development between them.
In order that we can talk about text, we assume that there exists a textual
component called texture, consisting of the following properties:
Cohesion the elements give textual cohesion includes those, which contribute
to make sentence grammatically correct. We can also distinguish: reference
(endophoric- anaphora and cataphora and exophoric), substitution (nominal,
verbal and clausal), ellipsis ( nominal, verbal or clausal) conjunction ( different
connections among the sentences) and lexical cohesion (the selection of
vocabulary).
Coherence a definite resource is the repetition of conceptual components in
the text discourse, know as isotopy. Moreover, all the linguistic resources that
we have previously mentioned are an important contribution from cohesion to
coherence.
Progressivity: Introducing new information theme/rheme ; giving /new
information we should include here thematization.
Intentionality: achieved through repetition and ellipsis pronominalization,
nominalization, modality, passivization, initial inversion thematization disjuncts
and discourse makers.
Closure the sense of textual completeness achieved through the repetition of a
structure- isotaxy phonological repetition- isophony lexical repetition
isosemy - pragmatic presupposition, use of key words..
Meaning implicit information and explicit information. The context may be
verbal and non- verbal . verbal context includes INTERTEXTUAL context and
INTRATEXTUAL . Non verbal context is subdivided into the context of situation :
mode field and tenor and the context of culture : the institutional and ideological
background. The outer information, closely related to the context, is given by
means of some parameters: lexical implication, conventional presupposition,
social implication, pragmatic presupposition the connotation and the formality
signs and paralinguistics kinesics and poxemics.

Literary Techniques and Figures of Speech


On the SAT, reading passages (both long and short) include questions about
the authors use of literary techniques and figures of speechtools authors
use to convey meaning or to lend depth and richness to their writing.
The following list contains 25 common literary techniques and figures of
speech likely to be covered on the SAT Critical Reading:
Alliteration: The repetition of similar sounds, usually consonants, at the
beginning of words. For example, Robert Frosts poem Out, out contains the
alliterative phrase sweet-scented stuff.
Allusion: A reference within a literary work to a historical, literary, or
biblical character, place, or event. For example, the title of William Faulkners
novel The Sound and the Fury alludes to a line from Shakespeares Macbeth.
Assonance: The repetition of vowel sounds in a sequence of nearby
words. For example, the line The monster spoke in a low mellow tone (from
Alfred, Lord Tennysons poem The Lotos-Eaters) contains assonance in its
repetition of the o sound.
Caricature: A description or characterization that exaggerates or distorts
a characters prominent features, usually for purposes of mockery. For example,
a cartoon of a gaunt Abraham Lincoln with a giant top hat, a very scraggly
beard, and sunken eyes could be considered a caricature.
Clich: An expression, such as turn over a new leaf, that has been
used and reused so many times that it has lost its expressive power.
Epiphany: A sudden, powerful, and often spiritual or life changing
realization that a character experiences in an otherwise ordinary moment. For
example, the main character in James Joyces A Portrait of the Artist as a
Young Man has an epiphany during a walk by the sea.
Foreshadowing: An authors deliberate use of hints or suggestions to
give a preview of events or themes that do not develop until later in the
narrative. Images such as a storm brewing or a crow landing on a fence post
often foreshadow ominous developments in a story.
Hyperbole: An excessive overstatement or conscious exaggeration of
fact. Ive told you that a million times already is a hyperbolic statement.
Idiom: A common expression that has acquired a meaning that differs
from its literal meaning, such as Its raining cats and dogs or That cost me an
arm and a leg.
Imagery: Language that brings to mind sensory impressions. For
example, in the Odyssey, Homer creates a powerful image with his description
of rosy-fingered dawn.
Irony: Broadly speaking, irony is a device that emphasizes the contrast
between the way things are expected to be and the way they actually are. A
historical example of irony might be the fact that people in medieval Europe
believed bathing would harm them when in fact not bathing led to the unsanitary
conditions that caused the bubonic plague.
Metaphor: The comparison of one thing to another that does not use the
terms like or as. A metaphor from Shakespeares Macbeth:Life is but a
walking shadow.
Motif: A recurring structure, contrast, or other device that develops a
literary works major themes (see below). For example, shadows and darkness
are a motif in Charles Dickenss A Tale of Two Cities, a novel that contains
many gloomy scenes and settings.

Onomatopoeia: The use of words like pop, hiss, or boing, in which the
spoken sound resembles the actual sound.
Oxymoron: The association of two terms that seem to contradict each
other, such as same difference or wise fool.
Paradox: A statement that seems contradictory on the surface but often
expresses a deeper truth. One example is the line All men destroy the things
they love from Oscar Wildes The Ballad of Reading Gaol.
Personification: The use of human characteristics to describe animals,
things, or ideas. Carl Sandburgs poem Chicago describes the city as Stormy,
husky, brawling / City of the Big Shoulders.
Pun: A play on words that uses the similarity in sound between two
words with distinctly different meanings. For example, the title of Oscar Wildes
play The Importance of Being Earnest is a pun on the word earnest, which
means serious or sober, and the name Ernest.
Rhetorical question: A question asked not to elicit an actual response
but to make an impact or call attention to something. Will the world ever see
the end of war? is an example of a rhetorical question.
Sarcasm: A form of verbal irony (see above) in which it is obvious from
context and tone that the speaker means the opposite of what he or she says.
Saying That was graceful when someone trips and falls is an example of
sarcasm.
Simile: A comparison of two things through the use of the
words likeor as. The title of Robert Burnss poem My Love Is Like a Red, Red
Rose is a simile.
Symbol: An object, character, figure, place, or color used to represent an
abstract idea or concept. For example, the two roads in Robert Frosts poem
The Road Not Taken symbolize the choice between two paths in life.
Theme: A fundamental, universal idea explored in a literary work. The
struggle to achieve the American Dream, for example, is a common theme in
20th-century American literature.
Thesis: The central argument that an author makes in a work. For
example, the thesis of Upton Sinclairs The Jungle is that Chicago meat packing
plants subject poor immigrants to horrible and unjust working conditions, and
that the government must do something to address the problem.
Tone: The general atmosphere created in a story, or the authors or
narrators attitude toward the story or the subject. For example, the tone of the
Declaration of Independence is determined and confident.
TYPES OF TEXTS: SPEAKERS
SPEAKERS RECOGNIZE TEXTS AS BELONGING TO A PARTICULAR TYPE
WHICH SARE A NUMBER OF TEXTUAL AND CONTEXTUAL
CHARACTERISTICS ( REGISTER , FORMAL CONVENTIONS, TYPE OF
CONJUNCTIVES, THEMATIC PROGRESSION)
THUS, WE CAN DEFINE TYPES OF TEXT AS EACH OF THESE
STRUCTURES. WE CAN DISTINGUISH FIVE TIPES OF TEXT:
NARRATIVE, EXPOSITORY, DESCRIPTIVE, ARGUMENTATIVE,
CONVERSATIONAL OR DIALOGIC

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