HANDBOOK

ON
TEXT TYPOLOGY
SECON EDITION

Texts and
Materials for
Students of
Translation and
Interpreting

Mercedes Díaz Dueñas

Julian Bourne

Granada

2021 Editorial Técnica AVICAM

FLEMING
 No está permitida la reproducción total o
parcial de esta obra, ni su tratamiento informático, ni
la transmisión de ninguna forma o por ningún medio, ya sea electrónico,
mecánico, por fotocopia, u otros medios, sin el permiso previo y por
escrito de los titulares del Copyright.

© Mercedes Díaz Dueñas y Julian Bourne

Segunda edición, 2021

Edita: Editorial Técnica AvICAM

avicamediciones@[Link]

ISBN:
Depósito Legal: GR-2021

Maquetación e Impresión: Editorial Técnica AvICAM

Impreso en España–Printed in Spain
 FOREWORD

This handbook aims to introduce students of English to text typology. It is

particularly useful for second-year students of Lengua B4 Inglés and third-year
students of Lengua C6 Inglés of the Degree Translation and Interpreting at the
University of Granada. The explanations and materials contained in this
volume are designed to facilitate the students’ understanding of the uses and
conventions of different text types and genres, which will allow them to
analyse and to reproduce adequate versions of the texts they may encounter
in their academic and professional career. The handbook draws on state-of-
the-art and classic academic sources by leading authors devoted to the
study of textual typology (also called genre analysis), as well as online
materials and real examples of different texts.

The volume contains eight units. It begins with a general introduction to

textual typology, followed by seven units that address texts pertaining to the
fields of the media, literature, science, law, business, politics and advertising.
Each unit provides theoretical explanations, examples of texts and activities
that are designed to help students, either in class or on their own, to
assimilate and practise the contents they have learned. In addition, a
checklist of the main points studied in the unit is included at the end of each
one to allow students to measure their progress. To facilitate autonomous
learning, an answer key is included at the end of the book. Finally, an
extensive list of the references to the sources mentioned in the unit as well as
further reading suggestions appear at the end of each chapter. The materials
and activities have already been tried out in class for several years and have
proved to be effective.

The second edition of this handbook updates the previous edition with
current vocabulary, up-to-date links and further exercises.
 CONTENTS

Unit 1. Introduction to textual typology

................................................................... 7
[Link] basic concepts
..................................................................................... 7
1.1.1. Genre.....................................................................................................
8
1.1.2. Type........................................................................................................
12
[Link], lexical and textual features .....................................................
16

Unit 2. The language of the media

............................................................................ 19
[Link] Mass Media
............................................................................................. 19
[Link] ..................................................................................................
. 22
[Link] ...............................................................................................
25
2.2.2. News reports..........................................................................................
26
[Link] Media
.................................................................................................. 28
[Link] ............................................................................................
30
2.3.2. Textspeak ...............................................................................................
32
2.3.3. Memes ...................................................................................................
32

Unit 3. Literary
language........................................................................................... 37
[Link]: Literary genres .........................................................................
37
3.2. Is there a literary language?...........................................................................
38
[Link] devices .........................................................................................
44
3.4. Intertextuality................................................................................................
47
[Link]-assisted corpora ............................................................................
47
Unit 4. Technical and scientific language
.................................................................. 53
[Link] ..................................................................................................
53
[Link] characteristics ..................................................................................
53
[Link] of scientific and technical texts......................................................
57

Unit 5. The language of legal texts

............................................................................ 67
[Link] ..................................................................................................
67
5.1.1. Definition ...........................................................................................
67
5.1.2. Types of law ........................................................................................
68
5.2. General characteristics of legal
language ...................................................... 70
[Link] of legal texts ..................................................................................
73
[Link] language of court
................................................................................... 77
 Unit 6. Business English 81
............................................................................................
6.1. Introduction 81
..................................................................................................
6.2. Written and spoken Business English 82
.............................................................
6.2.1. Business letters, faxes and emails 86
.......................................................
6.2.2. CVs, job interviews, cover and reference 86
letters.................................
6.2.3. Business meetings 86
...............................................................................
6.3. Publications 88
...................................................................................................
Unit 7. Political language 93
..........................................................................................
7.1. Introduction 93
..................................................................................................
7.2. Famous political speeches 99
.............................................................................
7.3. UK Parliament 102
...............................................................................................
7.3.1. Specialized vocabulary 103
.......................................................................
7.3.2. Forms of 104
address.................................................................................
7.3. European Parliament 102
.....................................................................................
Unit 8. The language of advertising 109
...........................................................................
8.1. Introduction 109
..................................................................................................
8.2. Linguistic 112
features..........................................................................................
8.3. Parts of a written advertisement 116
....................................................................
ANSWER 125
KEY............................................................................................................
 UNIT 1. INTRODUCTION
TO TEXTUAL
TYPOLOGY

This book aims to enable students to recognize and produce different

types of texts following the conventions used in each of them. Probably, in
earlier stages of their language training, text typologies have been acquired
intuitively and more attention has been devoted to the production of
grammatically correct and pragmatically appropriate texts. Now is the time to
study consciously and reflexively how different types of texts are built and
how they function. This will place the student in a better position to
produce translations that are appropriate, correct and relevant to their
purpose.

Text Typology attempts to classify texts through the definition of certain

criteria. Depending on the criteria used, different classifications of texts
will emerge, resulting in the distinction between text types, text classes,
styles or genres. There is no comprehensive and universally applicable
classification of text typology, although many attempts have been made from
different perspectives (functional, situational, strategic, etc.).

Trosborg (1997) rightly observes how different types of text differ in ways
that can be distinguished intuitively, but which nevertheless require a
detailed analysis (3). Bhatia (1993) notes that various disciplines, such as
linguistics, rhetoric, the ethnography of speaking, pragmatics and discourse
analysis have contributed to the study and taxonomy of text typology.
Particularly, so-called genre analysis has been especially popular and has
been explored by literary scholars, rhetoricians, sociologists, discourse
analysts, cognitive scientists, machine translator scholars, computational
linguists, ESP specialists, business communication experts and language
teachers, among others (ix).

Exercise 1
In your opinion, in what ways is the study of text types or genres relevant
for future translators and interpreters?

1.1. Some basic concepts: genre and type

In order to be able to discuss textual typology, we should set out by
defining certain concepts and terms that will be needed to understand this
way of analysing texts. To begin, this section discusses the notions of genre
and type.

7
Handbook on Text Typology

1.1.1. Genre
The term genre, which was originally used in literary criticism and later
adopted by linguists such as Halliday (1977), gained momentum in
Translation Theory around the 1980s, as Montalt i Resurrecció and García
Izquierdo (2002) observe. According to Faya Ornia (2015), it is precisely
because the term genre has been used in so many disciplines, that it is
difficult to agree on its definition (5).

In the 1970s Halliday based his definition of genre on the notions of

field, tenor and mode. This definition has served as the foundation for many
later studies. The aforementioned three categories basically refer to the
answers to the questions posed by what?, who? and how? in relation to any
communicative situation. Later on, Halliday and Hassan (1989) expounded on
how these aspects of context affect language variation. We should not
forget that Halliday also explained how we use language within a situation
and a culture, both of which should be taken into account to interpret,
understand and evaluate any text. He employed the terms Context of Culture
and Context of Situation (which happens within the Context of Culture) to name
these two types of contexts. The following diagram shows the relationship
between all these concepts.

Context of
Culture
(social purpose, set of
values and beliefs,
social practices and
relations)

Context of
situation
(Field, Tenor, mode)

Language
system
(ideational,
interpersonal, textual
resources)

Text
8
 Unit 1. Introduction to textual
typology

Another important consideration is that when we refer to socio-cultural

aspects, we have to contemplate not only the culture of a specific country,
but also the cultural aspects implicit in a certain field of knowledge (Faya
Ornia, 10). This handbook is primarily organized around specific fields that
will cover various genres and different text types.

Exercise 2
Read the following excerpts and decide what is the field, tenor and mode
for the second one. The first has been done for you.

Pottermore is the digital publishing, e-commerce, entertainment and news

company created by J.K. Rowling. According to its information webpage 1 it
offers “news, features, and articles as well as new and previously unreleased
writing by J.K. Rowling.” Here2 we can find the following text (excerpt 1):

Writing by J.K. Rowling

Discover new and exclusive writing from the pen of J.K. Rowling. Today we
feature exclusive writing that explores the wizarding schools around the
world and the history of magic in North America

FIELD: Field refers to the topic being talked/written about (what?). Here the
domain is ‘J.K. Rowling’s new release’. Text 1 is written by the webmasters
for promotional purposes and the goal-orientation could be to persuade
readers in general, and particularly J.K. Rowling’s fans, to read the texts and
pay for the new releases.

TENOR: Tenor deals with the participants in the communicative exchange

(who?). The social distance for this text would be medium: it is appealing to
people with an interest in J.K. Rowling but also wants its appeal to be broad
enough to encourage new visitors. Therefore the language assumes a fairly
close relationship with the reader, who is addressed directly, but the lexis is
quite formal.

MODE: Mode attends to the channel of communication (how?). It is a

written text inviting readers to explore the website. Although mode was
originally conceived in either/or terms of written versus spoken language,
nowadays it tends to be measured on a continuum between the two channels,
since a lot of written language imitates features of spoken language, and vice
versa (Chaume: 2012, 143). So here, although the mode is written, it has a
directness which is similar to face-to-face interaction.

1. <[Link]
2. <[Link]

9
Handbook on Text Typology

On 17th August, 2016 the Time magazine published an article by Melissa

Chan, under the title “J.K. Rowling Is About to Release 3 New Harry Potter
Books”3, in which we can read (excerpt 2):

Rowling reveals surprises and intricate details about several characters’

lives in the three new ebooks, which are available next month, Pottermore
CEO Susan Jurevics said in a statement to TIME. The collections are
presented by Pottermore, the interactive website Rowling created for Harry
Potter fanatics, and cost about $3 each and will be released Sept. 6.

As we have seen, when looking at the field, tenor and mode, we have to take
into account that these influence the language choices in texts. In this case, it
is particularly interesting to see how these factors affect the length and
complexity of the words and sentences in each text, as well as the
grammatical and lexical choices. It is useful to ponder on these aspects,
because learners of English as a Foreign Language often forget that language
is not just a set of structures and lists of words to be learnt, independently of
any social context.

Although there are many approaches to the definition of genre, we can

adopt Hatim and Mason’s definition as a valid starting point to understand
the term. According to these authors, genres are “conventional forms of
texts associated with particular types of social occasion (e.g. the sonnet,
the cooking recipe, etc.)” (1990:241). A little earlier in the same book they
provide further detail, explaining that:
Genres are ‘conventionalised forms of texts’ which reflect the functions and
goals involved in particular social occasions as well as the purposes of the
participants in them. (Hatim and Mason, 69)

In this definition it is helpful to consider that formal aspects are referred to

when it mentions “conventionalised forms”; cognitive aspects are at play in
what is called the participants’ purposes; and socio-cultural aspects are taken
into consideration with the reference to “social occasions”.

Convention is a key concept in the definition and understanding of

genres, because it is precisely those conventionalised features which allow
authors to shape their texts to achieve a certain communicative purpose
and, at the same time, enable the audience to recognize and interpret the
text correctly. Furthermore, it is essential to keep in mind that these
conventions are culture-specific and subject to change throughout time. Nord
(2005) expresses this idea as follows:
Certain genres that are very common today did not exist in former times (e.g.
radio news or advertisements), whereas others, which were quite
commonplace centuries ago (e.g. magic
3. <[Link]

10
 Unit 1. Introduction to textual
typology

spells or heroic poems) have changed function or become obsolete altogether.

Genre conventions are not universal, but linked to a certain culture at a
certain time. (21)

The concept of communicative community is also useful in the understanding

of classifications of texts. It was first introduced by Ludwik Zabrocki (1963) to
refer to a group of people who exchange information. Other authors, such as
Herzberg (1986), use the term discourse community instead of communicative
community. Herzberg explains the relationship between discourse community and
the conventions of certain genres as follows:
Use of the term ‘discourse community’ testifies to the increasingly common
assumption that discourse operates within conventions defined by
communities, be they academic disciplines or social groups. The pedagogies
associated with writing across the curriculum and academic English now use
the notion of ‘discourse communities’ to signify a cluster of ideas: that
language use in a group is a form of social behavior, that discourse is a means
of maintaining and extending the group’s knowledge and of initiating new
members into the group, and that discourse is epistemic or constitutive of the
group’s knowledge. (1)

Swales (1990:25-29) provides further explanation and lists six

characteristics of discourse communities. First of all, a discourse
community shares common public goals, although its members do not
necessarily have the same object of study. Secondly, they possess
mechanisms of intercommunication, e.g. meetings, telecommunications,
correspondence, newsletters and conversations. Thirdly, they also share
participatory mechanisms to provide information and feedback, because
someone who receives, for example, a journal or newsletter, but never
reads it cannot be said to belong to that discourse community. In addition,
while they may use one or more genres in their communication, they are
aware of the “appropriacy of topics, the form, function and positioning of
discoursal elements” (26). Furthermore, they share a specific lexis. Finally, a
certain number of members in the discourse community have “a suitable
degree of relevant content and discoursal expertise” (27).

With these notions in mind, a more comprehensive and detailed definition

of genre can be grasped. Swales (1990) defines genre as follows:
A genre comprises a class of communicative events, the members of which
share some set of communicative purposes. These purposes are recognized by
the expert members of the parent discourse community, and thereby
constitute the rationale for the genre. This rationale shapes the schematic
structure of the discourse and influences and constrains choice of content
and style. Communicative purpose is both a privileged criterion and one
that operates to keep the scope of a genre as here conceived narrowly
focused on comparable rhetorical action. In addition to purpose, exemplars of
a genre exhibit various patterns of similarity in terms of structure, style,
content and intended audience. If all high probability expectations are
realized, the exemplar will be viewed as prototypical by the parent discourse
community. (58)

11
Handbook on Text Typology

The range of genres is very ample and differs from one categorization to
another. To mention just a few, there are very simple ones, such as recipes,
or more complex ones, such as research papers. Other examples include
letters of reference, advertisements and memoirs, among many others. In the
remaining units of this handbook we will examine some of these genres. If
you wish to examine another possible classification with examples, go to
the “Chart of Text Features, Forms, and Genres” published by Queen’s
Printer for Ontario, 2006, at: [Link]
textforms_genres.pdf

Exercise 3
Take into consideration the definitions of genre you have read so far. Could
you summarize the main elements that contribute to the definition of a
genre? Try to provide your own definition of genre.

1.1.2. Type
Now that we have dealt with the concept of genre, it is necessary to
turn our attention to the notion of text type. In the same way as there is no
consensus in the definition of genre, different authors provide alternative
explanations of text type. Some authors, such as Alcaraz Varó (2000), do not
establish any difference at all between genre and type. However, Brian
Paltridge (2002) recalls a distinction made by Biber that seems particularly
helpful:
Biber (1989, p. 6) observed that texts within particular genres “differ greatly in
their linguistic characteristics; for example, newspaper articles can range from
extremely narrative and colloquial in linguistic form to extremely informational
and elaborated in form.” On the other hand, he found that different genres can
be quite similar linguistically. For example, newspaper articles and articles in
popular magazines are often nearly identical in form.
[…] For him, the term genre characterized texts on the basis of external
criteria, such as a text that is written or spoken by a particular person, for a
particular audience, in a particular context, for a particular purpose, and
viewed by the discourse community as being an example of the particular
genre. Examples of genres, taken from this perspective, include university
calendars, documented essays, research reports, lectures, and tutorials. Text
types, on the other hand, represent rhetorical modes such as “problem-
solution,” “exposition,” or “argument” type texts that are similar in terms of
internal discourse patterns, irrespective of genre. Genre and text type thus
represent different yet complementary perspectives on texts […] (73-74)

The following table, taken from Paltridge’s classification, exemplifies some

instances of genres and text types (based on Hammond, Burns, Joyce, Brosnan,
& Gerot, 1992):
12
 Unit 1. Introduction to textual
typology

GENRE TEXT TYPE

Recipe Procedure
Personal letter Anecdote
Advertisement Description
Police report Description
Student essay Exposition
Formal letter Exposition
News item Recount
Health brochure Procedure
Student assignment Recount
Biology textbook Report
Film review Review

This distinction between genre and text type has been widely accepted
in the area of translation studies. Genres are regarded as conventionalized
forms of texts that are guided by the communicative goals of particular
situations, while the distinction between text types is based on rhetorical
expressions (e.g. descriptive, argumentative, persuasive).

According to Gramley and Pätzold (1992), we can distinguish five major

text types:
 Narrative
 Descriptive
 Directive
 Expository
 Argumentative

On the one hand, narrative, descriptive and directive texts are concerned
with the real world. On the other hand, expository and argumentative texts
involve explanation and persuasion. Since both relate to mental processes,
they are regarded as cognitively oriented texts.

Firstly, narrative texts deal with real-world events and time, whether fictional
(e.g. short stories, fairy tales, novels) or non-fictional (newspaper report).
Some possible characteristics are a sequencing of events expressed by
dynamic verbs and by adverbials such as “and then”, “first”, “second”,
“third”.

Secondly, descriptive texts have to do with the location of persons and things
in space. They situate the reader/listener spatially or offer background
information which can set the backdrop for narration. These descriptions may
be rather technical (objective)

13
Handbook on Text Typology

or more impressionistic (subjective). Often this type of text contains a

combination of state or positional verbs and adverbial expressions. For
example, “The shed is located on the right-hand side at the rear.”

Thirdly, directive texts address specific future activity. One of the most
outstanding features of this type of text are imperatives (“Press the green
button.”), equivalent forms, such as polite questions (“Would you press the
green button?”) or suggestions (“I wonder what would happen if you pressed
the green button?”).

Fourthly, expository texts identify and describe phenomena. For example,

essays, definitions, explanations and summaries are regarded as expository
texts. This type of text can be subdivided into subjective (e.g. essay) or
objective (e.g. summary), and into analytical (starting from a concept and
then characterizing its parts; e.g. definitions) or synthetic (describing certain
features and concluding with an appropriate concept; e.g. summaries). Their
characteristics include the use of state verbs (“Some children have no
sense of danger”) and epistemic modals (“An EU trade mark may consist of
any sign…”) or verbs describing certain activities or qualities (“Dancing
develops rhythmic awareness”).

Finally, argumentative texts are built to present arguments on an issue or to

change the reader’s/listener’s opinion. They include persuasive texts, such as
the ones found in advertising, which try to persuade their audience, at least
implicitly, that a particular product is better than others.

To conclude, it must be observed that few texts are pure realizations of

a single type. For instance, advertisements can be both argumentative (“this
product is the best because...”) and directive (“So try it now!”).

Exercise 4
Read the following excerpts and decide what type of text they belong to.

Excerpt 1: Papa and Mama

My father, Harald Dahl, was a Norwegian who came from a small town near
Oslo, called Sarpsborg. His own father, my grandfather, was a fairly
prosperous merchant who owned a store in Sarpsborg and traded in just
about everything from cheese to chicken-wire.
I am writing these words in 1984, but this grandfather of mine was born,
believe it or not, in 1820, shortly after Wellington had defeated Napoleon at

4. Boy by Rohald Dahl, 1984

14
 Unit 1. Introduction to textual
typology

Excerpt 2

serendipity (ˌsɛrən

ˈdɪpɪtɪ) n

the faculty of making fortunate discoveries by accident

[C18:
coined by Horace Walpole, from the Persian fairy tale The Three
Princes of Serendip, in which the heroes possess this gift] 5
Excerpt 3
Sri Lanka is filled with such romantic landscapes, governed by rising
mountains, lush forests,
ocean-like lakes and gushing waterfalls, that it was
considered the lost paradise by many a globetrotter who fell upon the
country. The golden beaches of the country have been praised for their
picture-postcard views since eternity. The dusk and dawn and many
activities connected to these times of day create a vibrant picture along the
Excerpt 4

Ladies and gentlemen, this is Linda Smith and I’m your chief flight attendant.
On behalf of Captain Thomson and the entire crew, welcome aboard British
Airways Airlines flight 8734, non-stop service from Madrid to New York.
At this time, make sure your seat backs and tray tables are in their full
upright position and that your seat belt is correctly fastened.
Also, your
portable electronic devices must be set to ‘airplane’ mode until an
Excerpt 5
Encouraging children to eat a nutritious, balanced diet early on is important
for a number of reasons. Ensuring they get the right vitamins and minerals
in their diet will help them grow and develop optimally. They are also more
likely to be energised and motivated, supporting their ability to learn.

5. Boy by Rohald Dahl, 1984

6. Collins English Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged, 12th Edition 2014. (1991, 1994, 1998,
2000, 2003,
2006, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2014). Retrieved 23 November 2016 from
[Link] serendipities
7. Adapted from Sri Lanka Wonder of Asia. Scenic. Retrieved 23 November 2016 from
[Link] travel/scenic_beauty
8. Based on information retrieved 23 November 2016 from [Link]
15
Handbook on Text Typology

1.2. Grammatical, lexical and textual features

In order to analyse a text we need to work through several levels.
Following Flowerdew (2002), and for the sake of clarity, we will deal with
the text types in each unit of this book systematically, starting with the
schematic structure and continuing with the lexico-grammatical structure.
Nevertheless, we are aware that in practice the “various interrelated levels
of analysis go on at the same time: identification of communicative
purpose(s), schematic structure, grammatical features, lexical features, etc.”
(95). Each unit will foreground the most relevant aspects in each text type or
genre.

References
Alcaraz Varó, Enrique. El inglés profesional y académico. Madrid: Alianza Editorial, 2000.
Bhatia, Vijay K. Analysing Genre. Language Use in Professional Settings. London/New York:
Longman, 1993.
Chaume, Frederic. Audiovisual Translation: Dubbing. Manchester: St Jerome, 2012.
Colina, Sonia. “Contrastive Rhetoric and Text-typological Conventions in Translation
Teaching.”
Target 9 (1997): 335-353.
Faya Ornia, Goretti. Estudio contrastivo (inglés-español) del género textual del folleto médico.
Granada: Comares, 2015.
Flowerdew, John. “Genre in the Classroom: A Linguistic Approach” in Ann M. Johns (ed)
Genre in the Classroom: Multiple Perspectives. New York and London: Routledge,
2002.
Gramley, Stephan & Kurt-Michael Pätzol. A Survey of Modern English. London: Routledge,
1992.
Halliday, Michael A. K. Aims and Perspectives in Linguistics. Brisbane: Applied Linguistics
Association of Australia, 1977.
Halliday, Michael & Ruqaiya Hasan. Language, Context, and Text: Aspects of Language in a
Social- semiotic Perspective. Oxford: OUP, 1989.
Hammond, Jenny, Anne Burns, Helen Joyce, Daphne Brosnan, & Linda Gerot. English
for Social Purposes: A Handbook for teachers of adult literacy. Sidney: National Center
for English Language Teaching and Research, 1992.
Hatim, Basil and Ian Mason. Discourse and the Translator. London: Longman, 1990.
Herzberg, Bruce. “The politics of discourse communities.” Paper presented at the CCC
Convention, New Orleans, LA, March, 1986.
Montalt i Resurrecció, Vicent and Isabel García Izquierdo. “Translating into Textual
Genres.”
Lingüistica Antverpiensia 1 Linguistics & Translation Studies (2002): 135-145.
Nord, Christiane. Text Analysis in Translation: Theory, Methodology, and Didactic Application of a
Model for Translation-oriented Text Analysis. Amsterdam & New York: Rodopi, 2005.
9. Nutritionist Resource. Healthy eating for kids.
[Link] [Link]. Retrieved 23
November 2016.

16
 Unit 1. Introduction to textual
typology

Paltridge, Brian. “Genre, Text Type, and the English for Academic Purposes (EAP)
Classroom” in Ann M. Johns (ed.), Genre in the Classroom: Multiple Perspectives.
New York and London: Routledge, 2002.
Swales, John M. Genre Analysis. English in Academic and Research Settings. Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press, 1990.
Trosborg, Anna, (ed.), Text Typology and Translation. Amsterdam & Philadelphia: John
Benjamins Publishing Company, 1997.
Zabrock, Ludwik. Communicative Communities in the Genesis and Development of German I:
The Prehistory of German. Warszawa: PWN, 1963.

In this unit you have learned …

… to understand and define the notions of

genre and
type.

… to be aware of the importance of convention.

… what a communicative community is.

… how the text is related to the Language

System, the
Context of Situation and the Context of
Culture.

… the relevance of the distinction between field,

tenor
and mode.
17