Informativity of Introduction to Text Linguistics by Beaugrande

''Informativity'' of ''Introduction to Text Linguistics'' by ''Beaugrande and Dressler" -------- Presented by Raed Dakhil Kareem (MA in English Language and Linguistics) Ph. D Candidate Dept. of English, College of Arts , University of Baghdad

1 -INTRODUCTION Text linguistics is a branch of linguistics which studies spoken or written TEXTs, e. g. a descriptive passage, a scene in a play, a conversation. It is concerned, for instance, with the way the parts of a text are organized and related to one another in order to form a meaningful whole. In the approach to text linguistics by de Beaugrande & Dressler (1981), text, oral or printed, is established as a communicative occurrence, which has to meet seven standards of textuality. 2

CONTINUED If any of these standards are not satisfied, the text is considered not to have fulfilled its function and not to be communicative. They are as follows: • ‘cohesion’ referring to the surface text, i. e. grammatical dependencies in the surface text. • ‘coherence’ referring to the textual world, i. e. the configuration of concepts and relations which underlie the surface text. • ‘intentionality’ referring to the text writer’s attitude. 3

CONTINUED • ‘acceptability’ referring to the text reader’s attitude to the text. • ‘informativity’ referring to the extent to which the message of the text is (un) expected, (un) known, etc. • ‘situationality’ referring to the factors that make a text relevant to a situation. • “intertextuality’ referring to the factors which make the utilization of one text dependent upon knowledge of previously encountered texts. 4

2 -INFORMATIVITY First of all, this standard has made use of C. Shannon and W. Weaver's information theory which is based on a statistic notion; it says : the greater the number of possible alternatives at a given point, the higher the information value when one of them is chosen. Beaugrande and Dressler replace the notion of statistical probability with that of contextual probability. 5

CONTINUED The crucial consideration for them is then not how often things occur together in any absolute frequency, but rather what classes of occurrences are more or less likely under the influence of systematic constellations of current factors. In language, this would be that the degree of informativity is inversely proportional to contextual probability. 6

CONTINUED Beaugrande and Dressler postulate that: "A sequence might be composed of syntactically probable elements (hence, having low informativity in its cohesion) but conceptually improbable ones (hence, having high informativity in its coherence)". This is illustrated in the following examples: 7

CONTINUED All our yesterdays have lighted fools to dusty death (Macbeth V v 22) which is more informative than, All our Western agencies have guided tours to dusty Death Valley. They also postulate that: " A sequence might be composed of syntactically improbable elements, but conceptually probable ones, as in: 8

CONTINUED Him who disobeys, me disobeys. (Milton Paradise Lost VVII. 1) which is more informative than, Whoever disobeys him, disobeys me. So, what is " Informativity''? Informativity concerns the extent to which the contents of a text are already known or expected as compared to unknown or unexpected. 9

CONTINUED No matter how expected or predictable content may be, a text will always be informative at least to a certain degree due to unforeseen variability. The processing of highly informative texts demands greater cognitive ability but at the same time is more interesting. The level of informativity should not exceed a point such that the text becomes too complicated and communication is endangered. 10

CONTINUED Conversely, the level of informativity should also not be so low that it results in boredom and the rejection of the text. The notion of informativity is applied to content since it designates how much a presentation is new or unexpected for the receiver. 11

CONTINUED The text receiver must do a motivation search to find out what these occurrences signify why they were selected and how they can be integrated back into the continuity that is the basis of communication. An illustrative example is: --Call us before you dig, you may not be able to afterwards. 12

CONTINUED This assertion that “you may not be able to call” is much more unexpected than it is in “call us before you dig. ” There might be an underground cable if you break the cable, you will not have phone service and you may get a severe electric shock. Then you will not be able to call us. The text receiver must do a motivation search –a special case of problem-solving to find out the missing information from the text. 13

CONTINUED There are three orders of informativity. Beaugrande and Dressler (1981: 141 -144) have come up with three orders of informativity which language users distinguish during actual communication: a. Upper degree (first-order informativity) b. Medium degree (second order informativity) c. Lower degree (third order informativity) 14

A. UPPER DEGREE (FIRST-ORDER INFORMATIVITY) It is fully predictable in cohesion, coherence and planning. The ideas and the situation of occurrence are actually obvious. Well information is given to the receiver. The receiver will find the message easily, as in: STOP ; a text found on a road sign. 15

CONTINUED The sign has a unique shape and colour recognizable at considerable distance. This level focuses on only important content words to make the text informativity. Therefore, the function words such as articles, prepositions, conjunctions etc. are generally omitted. 16

B. MEDIUM DEGREE (SECOND ORDER INFORMATIVITY) The reader must do a motivation search to find out the missing information. The text is not fully predictable in cohesion, coherence and planning. In order to find the missing information, the receiver will activate the same chunk of knowledge in active storage in mind. That is, the second order informativity is another type of information which occurs as an unexpected alternative but a possible one. The attention is reserved for higherorder occurrences. 17

C. LOWER DEGREE (THIRD ORDER INFORMATIVITY) Occurrences of the lower degree are downgraded. A senseless or nonsensical text is one in which text receiver can discover no continuity because there is a serious mismatch between the configuration of concepts and relations expressed and receiver’s prior knowledge of the world. 18

CONTINUED That is, the information in the third order informativity occurs when the text producer accounts for unexpected or unknown alternatives to the target receiver by using general words, loan words with modification to make clearer explanations. Besides, this third -level informativity can be used to upgrade the degree of information. 19

IN SHORT Informativity is concerned with how unexpected/expected or known/unknown are the occurrences in the text. In order for an effective text to be achieved, this is an unneglectable standard which can be grouped as 1 st order informativity, 2 nd order informativity, and 3 rd order informativity. 20

CONTINUED The first one requires ordinary trivial knowledge such as articles, prepositions etc. It is not about the content, thus receive little attention; the second one, normal standards, content related; the third one, much attention-demanding occurrences which is caused by discontinuity and discrepancies. 21

CONTINUED The first and third order informativity are bound to be changed for making it more interesting. That is, they are upgraded (from 1 st order to 2 nd order) and downgraded (from 3 rd order to 2 nd order) respectively. Unless this is done, it can block readers and display a disturbing structure. 22