UNIT 32: NARRATIVE TEXT. STRUCTURE AND CHARACTERISTICS.

INTRODUCTION
Once upon a time, there was a kingdom where everything seemed to be happy and peaceful. The place was beautiful,
full of hills and nature where the sound of the birds was the melody of every day. But one day, this peace was
disrupted by the kidnapping of the king’s son. The king then, went to town to find a brave and courageous volunteer
to save his son from the dragon’s hands. Suddenly, a soft and warm voice rang out from the crowd. A young lady with
light eyes and golden hair volunteered for such a task. The young lady started on her way and went straight to the
fortress where the dragon had kidnapped the prince. She spoke to the dragon and asked it to please let the prince go,
because everyone was very upset in the village. The dragon did not hesitate for a second, he listened to the lady who
instead of fighting against it decided to ask for things. Thus, the prince was released. Upon arriving in town, the
prince asked the young lady a question: will you marry me? The lady laughed and said: of course not! I do not know
you and I am very happy alone. The prince accepted it, the town was happy again and the young lady continued
saving people.

If you have enjoyed this story and you have understand the climax and the resolution, it is because I have created a
narrative text and if you have been able to create in your mind the image of the landscape where the action takes
place it is because I have created a descriptive text. For this reason, I will explain the peculiarities of each of these
types of text through an expository text which is this essay.

But before starting this topic, I would like to tell you about the structure I am going to follow.

First and foremost, I will give you some knowledge about the bibliography I have asked in order to create this essay,
further to this, I will justify this topic in the curriculum of La Rioja; thirdly, I will give you an introduction of the topic
before analysing the contents of the topic to finish with a conclusion relating the topic to its practical application to
our language classes.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

As I have just said, I will start with the bibliography, the sources I have asked to create this essay are:

- Anderson, M. & Anderson, K. Text types in English. Australia. Macmillan Education. 2003.

- www.britannica.com

- The Oxford English Dictionary

JUSTIFICATION

Once the bibliography is done, I will tell you about the justification of this topic. According to our current legislation
based on LOMLOE 2020, the teaching of a foreign language must be based on the basic knowledge of
communication, plurilingualism and interculturality. This topic contributes to these three knowledges which must be
essential part of a language learning process. In this way the methodology used for the teaching of a foreign
language must be based on the communicative approach to make our students not only knowing about language but
knowing how to use it in context. Apart from that, our current legislation highlights the importance of the
development of the competence on linguistic communication putting emphasis on the acquisition of strategies to
make our students face all kind of texts. Through them, they practise the four skills: reading, writing, speaking and
listening.

Once the bibliography and the justification are done, we are ready to start.

TEXT AND CONTEXT

Halliday and Hasan (1976) define text as any passage, spoken or written, of whatever length, that form a unified
code. A text is defined by its meaning, not its form. It can be spoken or written, in prose or verse, and range from a

1
single proverb to a full play. While a text is often longer than a sentence, it is best understood as a unit of meaning. It
is made up of sentences and features that give it the properties we recognize as a text.

On the one hand, texture refers to what makes something a text—it’s the quality that gives a piece of language its
identity as a cohesive whole. This means that a text is more than just a collection of sentences; it has a distinct
structure and meaning that works together, creating unity. The texture also connects the text to its environment,
meaning it interacts with the context around it (such as the audience, situation, or purpose)
On the other hand, ties are the resources that language uses to create texture, helping to make a text feel like a
unified whole. Halliday and Hasan (1976) define ties as specific ways words or phrases connect to each other, like
using pronouns (e.g., "he" for "John") or repeating ideas in different forms. These ties help us analyze how a text
sticks together and creates meaning. By looking at the types of ties—like reference, substitution, ellipsis, conjunction,
and lexical cohesion—we can understand how a text is connected and organized.

De Beaugrande and Dressler (1981) expand on Halliday and Hasan's idea by saying that a text is not just a collection
of words, but a natural way of using language to communicate in a particular context. The "surface text" refers to the
actual words or expressions used, some of which make knowledge clear, while other knowledge is implied but still
important. A text becomes meaningful through "textuality," which is created by the interaction of seven factors.
These factors are divided into two types: those focused on the text itself and those focused on how the participants
(like the writer and reader) interact with it.

On the one hand, text-oriented standards are composed of two standards of textuality, which are cohesion and
coherence.
The former (Cohesion) refers to how sentences in a text are connected through grammar and vocabulary, helping
readers see them as part of a whole. It’s about how the words in a text work together in order to make sense. This
includes things like using pronouns (anaphora), referring to things that come later (cataphora), or leaving out
information that’s understood (ellipsis). It also involves using things like tense, mood, conjunctions, and other
grammar tools to show how parts of the text are related.
The latter (Coherence) is about how the parts of a text are connected and make sense together. The "textual world"
includes the ideas and relationships behind the words we read or hear, like causes, reasons, time, and purpose.
These connections help a text feel logical or meaningful. Cohesion is what gives a text its basic meaning, while
coherence makes sure the ideas flow smoothly and connect in a clear way, helping the text make sense as a whole.
Together, they create the difference between just having meaning and having a clear, understandable sense.
So a text is organised for different purposes, divided into many different units and different types or sizes. For
instance, prose text might be divided into sections, chapters, paragraphs, and sentences; and verses might be divided
into cantos, stanzas, and lines.

On the other hand, participant-oriented standards are made up of five standards of textuality, which are
intentionality, acceptability, informativity, situationality and intertextuality.

As for intentionality, it includes the intentions of texts producers, that is, their attitude. The producer intends to
produce cohesive and coherent texts which are decisive in fulfilling the writer intentions.
Regarding acceptability, it concerns the receiver attitude. The reader or listener needs to be patient and sometimes
fill in missing information to make sense of the message, because the speaker or writer might not express everything
perfectly. By doing this, the reader or listener understands that there’s a meaningful communication happening.
Informativity concerns the selection of contributions to conversation. This idea focuses on the meaning of words,
especially content words like verbs, nouns, adjectives, and adverbs. These words are important because they carry
the main meaning and can trigger stronger emotions or mental pictures compared to function words like "the," "in,"
or "and." Because of this, different types of texts—like poetry, science, or stories—use content words in different
ways to create different effects.
In relation to situationality, it concerns the factors that make a text fit the situation it's used in. For example, if you
see a road sign that says "game preserve area," you would likely understand it as a place for hunting, even though
"preserve" usually means "to protect." This shows that understanding a text depends on what we already know and
expect from the situation. How we interpret things can also vary based on our individual experiences or views.
2
Finally, intertextuality concerns the ways in which the production and reception of a given text depends upon the
participants’ knowledge of other texts. Therefore, intertextuality turns to be relevant because it allows for the
classification of texts in terms of the most frequent elements encountered in them in order to convey a determined
purpose.

In fact, this standard is related to the two traditions of classifying texts. On the one hand, Aristotle’s Rhetoric alludes
to the modes of discourse carried out through text types, say narration, description, directive, exposition and
argumentation. On the other hand, the second tradition regards rhetoric as a communicative function defined in
functional lines such as descriptive or narrative. In this line, Trimble (1985) states that texts can be classified in two
ways. Firstly, according to purpose, and secondly, according to type or mode. The former regards discourse as
something intended to inform, express an attitude, persuade and create a debate. The latter classifies texts in
descriptive, narrative, expository, argumentative and instrumental modes.
Then, Bal (1985) narrowed down the concept of narrative text. Thus, a narrative is a recounting of things distant in
time and space that allows for different ways of telling events. The purpose of a narrative text is to entertain, to tell a
story, or to provide an aesthetic literary experience in fiction or real life. Narrative text is based on life experiences
and is person-oriented using dialogue and familiar language. It is organized using story grammar, which gives account
of interesting events which constitute part of our daily life, like jokes, letters or e-mails. So, the genres which
compose narrative texts are folktales (wonder tales, fables, legends, myths, fairy tales and realistic tales),
contemporary fiction (mysteries, science fiction, realistic fiction, fantasy and historical fiction) novels,
autobiographies, poetry, drama and non-fiction.

STRUCTURE AND CHARACTERISTICS

Narrative texts are composed of basic elements, which are namely the characters, the characterisation, the setting,
the figure of the narrator; the theme(s), and the plot.
First of all, characters and characterisation are necessary to maintain coherence and consistency in a story. On the
one hand, characters are defined as the people, and sometimes animals, who perform actions in narrative texts.
There are main characters, who take part in almost all the events of the plot; secondary characters, who are actually
a support for the main characters; and juncture characters, who are known as the extras.
On the other hand, characterization concerns how characters’ traits are introduced. Thus, there are round
characters, who are individuals presented as if they had real existence, attracting the narrator’s attention since the
plot is organised around them. In addition, there are flat characters, presented as stereotypes because they
represent conventional attitudes or ideas about human behaviour. Furthermore, characterisation can be either
direct, if the narrator describes characters’ physical and psychological traits; or indirect, if their features are firstly
known by their actions.
Concerning the theme of a narrative text, it is the central idea of the story. It can be directly addressed or stated
through the use of story elements, namely characters. This element has the twofold objective of making readers infer
the ending of the story because it involves a lesson and encouraging them to get the theme as a key to understand
how some characters’ behaviour and actions affect the story.
Regarding the plot, it involves the action around which the story is developed and its sequence. Thus, the plot
involves a problem or a conflict which is presented in a specific order of events and triggers the onset of the action.
The plot includes a series of episodes that are written both to hold the readers’ attention and to build excitement as
the story goes on. Therefore, a narrative text has at least three basic parts, which are the beginning, which serves to
introduce characters, contexts and circumstances, and the main and secondary themes (love, injustice murder); the
middle, in which the plot is further complicated due to the appearance of conflicts and possible solutions; and the
end, where both the sub-plots and the main plot are solved. As for the end, there can be twist, flashback, closed or
open endings. Twist endings occurs when the story is finished in a way readers do not expect. Flashback endings take
place when the story begins with an event and then goes back in time allowing the reader to understand previous
events. Moreover, the end can be open, if the reader has to fill in some gaps so as to make sense of the story, since

3
the writer wants each reader to extract his/her own conclusions; or closed, if all the plots and subplots are
completely solved at the end of the story.
In relation to the setting, it includes the environment, the context, and the circumstances of the story that may
happen in real or imaginary situations. In addition, according to Scholes and Kellogg (1966), it is defined as the
environment of the action as constituted by time, space and atmosphere.
Time and place are usually important when the details of the setting have a metaphorical meaning. Therefore,
regarding space, stories can be set up in faraway lands, imaginary places, and/or familiar places. Moreover, the
setting may correspond either to universal places such as the Universe, the ocean; or a specific place such as a city or
village. In fact, a story can be set in one or more settings where indoor or outdoor scenes can be observed. Finally,
the place may have a symbolic meaning (ghost stories in English castles).
Regarding ‘time reference’, a story can be set in the present, past or the future. Therefore, there is a sub-classification
of time. The so-called historical time frames the action in a particular epoch, like Napoleon’s Russian Invasion and
downfall of the Empire (1805-1815) whereas the internal time specifies the story within this historical time, such as in
Jeanette Winterson’s The Passion. Then, verbal time is usually presented in past tense although the present simple is
used to give a feeling of lively actions. Finally, the narrative rhythm is independent from the chronological setting of
the story since the author either slows down the pace by describing events more precisely, or hastens it by
summarising.
Finally, the atmosphere of the setting is the general effect produced by the theme, the characters and other
components of the story. For instance, in Edgar Allan Poe’s The Black Cat, the setting and characters lead readers to
hypothesise several versions of how the main character’s actions are affected both by the presence of the cat and
alcohol consumption.
Focusing now on the figure of the narrator, it is defined as the voice that tells a story. Therefore, the narrator is the
author’s creation and belongs to the narrative world and serves to introduce the characters and their circumstances.
The narrator is also used to introduce a determined point of view for influencing on the way the audience
understands the text. Thus, the figure of the narrator can be approached regarding three main aspects, which are
who the narrator is in the story, the relation that the narrator has to the action and the mode of presentation.
So, first of all, when analysing ‘who the narrator is’ and ‘how much the narrator knows about the story’, the focus
lies on noticing if it is a main or secondary character or if it is an invented narrator external to the action.
Concerning the point of view of the story, there are three types of perspectives depending on how the narrator
describes events. The text may have a first person narrator who takes part in the story as a character and can be
omniscient or not; a second person narrator who transmits the feeling of confession or internal story facts; or a third
person narrator, which means that the narrator is the author and a mere witness of the story.
Thus, narrators can be omniscient, if they know all the aspects of the plot, express the characters’ feelings and may
anticipate the action, or non-omniscient, if they are external observes and objective. Finally, there can be an
invented narrator used to offer his point of view about the story. Thus, the narrator can be either reliable or non-
reliable depending on the author’s purposes.
Besides, depending on the narrator’s intention, the mode of story can be either ‘telling’ or ‘showing’. ‘Telling’ refers
to the narrator’s subjective point of view, whereas ‘showing’ alludes to the narrator’s objective viewpoint.
Finally, the narrator can use several devices so as to report the characters’ thoughts or speeches, such as the so-
called ‘stream of consciousness’ and ‘free indirect style’. The former is an ambiguous form of narration in which the
characters’ thoughts are introduced in an immediate manner, literally as a copy of thoughts itself, rather than a
‘reported thought’. The latter is used when the narrator reports the characters’ thoughts or speech directly without
no accompanying reporting clause, like ‘He said or ‘he thought’ as it occurs in direct speech. Therefore, these two
devices approach the minds of the characters so as to get fused with them instead of viewing them from the outside.
In so doing, texts become more dynamic.
Finally, narrative texts are structured in sequences of events whose development can be linear, when following a
chronological order from the beginning to the end of the story; circular, when the focus of attention resides in those
circumstances that have led to a particular situation and that are described in terms of flashbacks so that the
audience gets to know what happened before reaching again the starting point of the story; or in media res, when
both the beginning and the ending matter, so the story starts at and intermediate point within the story for events to
be described in terms of backwards and forwards movements.
4
TYPE OF LINGUISTIC STRUCTURES

It is important to bear in mind that there are also a set of linguistic structures that outline coherence and cohesion in
order to compose narrative texts.
Linguistic structures are divided into stylistic characteristics, structural characteristics and lexical characteristics, each
of them subdivided into several categories.
Hence, regarding stylistic characteristics, there are some important styles that mark a text as narrative and that are
chosen depending on the writer’s intention.
First of all, the encoder can use a neutral, formal or informal style. In a neutral style the linguistic choices are not
marked by any connotation to the items previously used, whereas an informal style is used when the aim is to
foment a close relationship between the encoder and the receiver. For instance, jokes and personal anecdotes use
this style. In spoken informal style there will also be many hesitations such as ‘er’, ‘hmm’; reformulations like ‘well,
so’; and interjections such as ‘oh, really’. However, a formal style is used to show respect for the audience. There is a
more precise choice of lexical items, more syntactical precision and less use of idiomatic English. Rhythmic patterns
are slower, phonemes are enunciated with more clarity and there is less range in the intonation.
Secondly, an evocative style can be used to raise emotional responses in the receiver. It is done by using specific
connotations or other elements such as dialect or specialised terminology. For example, telling a story by using the
typical jargon of a specific kind of group, being it ethnic or from different ages of social classes.
In addition, hyperbolic style is a type marked by choices which reflect that the encoder is feeling unusual excitement
or surprise at whatever he/she is referring to. The lexical and syntactic choices exaggerate or distort the factual
element, often with numbers or dimensions, but also with specific phrases such as ‘I’m in seventh heaven’.
Furthermore, persuasive style can also be used when the aim is to influence the receiver into accepting the encoder’s
point of view. Language items used in these cases include intensifiers, attitudinal descriptions and parenthetical
comments such as when a teenager tries to convince his parents that he needs to go to a concert and he tries to be
touching by saying ‘Please, let me go… I’m sure you felt like me when you were young’.
A technical style is employed when the narrative is directed to an audience that shares with the encoder an exact
knowledge of the subject, and for this reason it often includes many specialised lexical items, as in the case of a
report on the symptoms and prognosis of a disease in a medical journal. The technical style will also tend to use
language that specifies dimensions, temperatures, densities, and all kinds of scientific, precise descriptions. In
contrast, illustrative style is used when the audience does not share the specialised knowledge of the encoder. The
encoder’s objective is to share his or her knowledge, and gets to the point using illustrative examples and analogy,
rather than using specialised terminology.
Finally, the metaphorical style is often found in subjective narrative texts. A metaphor is a literary device that uses an
image or word to indicate something different -and yet similar- to its literal meaning, in order to achieve a striking
effect. For example, ‘He blushed to the roots of his air’. This style also includes simile, in which a similarity is stated,
using words such as like and as, such as the first line of Shakespeare’s Sonnet 130 ‘my mistress eyes are nothing like
the sun’.

Moving now on structural characteristics, structural elements of a text depend on style. Thus, the most remarkable
features found in narrative texts are the following ones. First of all, clause and sentence length varies, according to
the type of narrative. For instance, in a joke the sentence can be simple, with no subordinate clauses, like in ‘Waiter,
waiter, there's a fly in my soup! -Sssh, don't speak so loudly. The other guests will want one too! However, complex
narrative texts need sub-clauses so that their inter-relationship is adequately understood.
Thus, verb forms in narrative texts will usually be the active or passive simple tenses, past, present, or present
perfect. Continuous tenses will be used to describe temporary or concurrent actions or states, or those whose time
limits are not relevant to the sequential aspects of the narrative. Passive forms are more predominant in objective
narrative because the importance resides more in the actions than the people performing them. Finally, modal verbs
and conditional forms may be found in texts where possibilities are speculating on, or conditions are being examined
in terms of cause and effect in time.
At last, lexical characteristics also depend on the particular lexical items related to styles of text. There are few
general lexical features found in narrative texts, which are mainly graphology, lexical complexity and lexical
categories.

5
Regarding graphology, it alludes to how the information is presented depending on if the text belongs to a historical
narrative, biography or a report, since there may be maps, titles, headings, quotations and bibliography supporting
the narrative, for instance.
Concerning lexical complexity, it depends on the mode. The more subjective and informal the narrative is, the lower
the occurrence of Latinate forms, specialised terminology and other formal lexical items. Instead, there will be more
phrasal verbs, idiomatic expressions, and semantic linkers such as so, well, then, anyway.
Finally, lexical categories refer to frequent use of times, dates, and other temporal reference words such as that
evening, the next day, not long after, subsequently. The subject matter of the narrative can affect their choice,
abstract nouns and stative verbs of emotion. Nevertheless, they are not used as often as concrete nouns and
dynamic verbs, as these are more useful at pushing the narrative forward.

DIDACTIC IMPLICATION

In conclusion, narrative texts are the way to travel around the world and discover places and stories far from us.
Narration is a synonym of imagination, and we need to give our students the tools to write down with words what is
on their minds. When students learn how to craft a narrative, they not only improve their language skills but also de -
velop their creativity and critical thinking.

For example, imagine asking students to write a short story about a character facing a challenge in an unfamiliar cul-
ture. This activity encourages them to organize their thoughts, use descriptive language, and build a coherent plot.
It’s a fun and engaging way for students to practice vocabulary, structure, and storytelling techniques, all while en -
hancing their English fluency.

This approach aligns directly with LOMLOE, the Spanish educational law, which emphasizes the development of lin-
guistic and communicative competences. By writing narratives in English, students practice both oral and written
communication, organizing their ideas in a clear, logical way. They also gain plurilingual competences, learning to
compare how different languages express universal themes.

Ultimately, by teaching narrative texts, we help students not only become better English speakers but also creative
thinkers and confident communicators. They learn how to use language to express their stories and connect with
others, which is at the heart of what LOMLOE aims to foster in education.