Text

篇章、语篇

A pre-theoretical term used in linguistics and phonetics to refer to a stretch of language recorded for the purpose of analysis and description. What is important to note is that texts may refer to collections of written or spoken material (the latter having been transcribed in some way), e.g. conversation, monologues, rituals, and so on. The term textual meaning is sometimes used in semantics as part of a classification of types of meaning, referring to those factors affecting the interpretation of a sentence which derive from the rest of the text in which the sentence occurs – as when, at a particular point in a play or novel, a sentence or word appears whose significance can only be appreciated in the light of what has gone before.

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 identifying 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.

语言学和语音学的一个前理论术语，指为分析和描写目的而记录下来的一段语言。需着重指出的是，篇章不仅指结集的书面材料也指口说材料（后者经某种转写），例如会话、独白、仪式讲话等等。语义学有时用篇章意义指分出的一类意义，即影响一个句子理解的那些来自句子所在篇章其他部分的因素；例如一个剧本或一部小说的某一处出现的一个句子或词，其意义只有参照前文才能理解。

近年来篇章研究已成为称作篇章语言学（特别在欧洲）的语言学分支的定义特征，“篇章”在其中有重要的理论地位。篇章被视为一类语言单位，有其可定义的信递功能，受连贯、衔接、信息度这类原则的支配，这些特点可用来从形式上定义起鉴别作用的篇章性的组构成分。根据这些原则，篇章可分为各种类型，如路标、新闻报道、诗歌、对话等。