Text types

Introduction

(Biber & Finegan 1992, Görlach 1995c)

Text types are defined as conventional forms or formulas, the knowledge of which is shared by the writer/speaker (determming the details of production) and by the reader/listener (determining his expectations and degree of acceptance of the text produced). There are more than 2,000 text types distinguished by name in the English language; the degree of conventionalization differs widely from type to type, being largely dependent on the function of the form – legal contexts require a huge number of fossilized types, each characterized by a unique and invariable form, whereas everyday forms exhibit much more freedom and variability according to social, stylistic/functional, diachronic and idiosyncratic factors. This variability can be exploited in intentional extensions and ‘misuses’, particularly in literary texts or advertising. For instance, a well-known text type can be re-used for a new function, such as a cooking recipe in the form of a sonnet, or an advertisement in the form of a proclamation, or late Victorian valentines in the form of bank notes, telegrams or cooking recipes, the product thus sharing elements of the two underlying forms and the reader being expected to identify both and be attracted by the mismatch.

A particular problem connected with the concept ‘text type’ is the frequent instability of form, which cannot, in all cases, be interpreted teleologically, i.e. as a developmental stage on the way to present-day stable conventions.