AJL52021 Topics in Linguistics: Text Linguistics

Faculty of Arts
Spring 2026
Extent and Intensity
0/0/0. 7 credit(s) (plus 3 credits for an exam). Type of Completion: zk (examination).
Teacher(s)
Mgr. Renáta Tomášková, Dr. (lecturer)
Guaranteed by
prof. Mgr. Jan Chovanec, Ph.D.
Department of English and American Studies – Faculty of Arts
Contact Person: Tomáš Hanzálek
Supplier department: Department of English and American Studies – Faculty of Arts
Course Enrolment Limitations
The course is only offered to the students of the study fields the course is directly associated with.
fields of study / plans the course is directly associated with
Course objectives
The course focuses on the essential topics in text linguistic research striving to explore text as a unit of communication, reveal the principles of its structure and function(s) and characterize the factors that influence its interpretation by the receiver. Students will be introduced to a variety of approaches towards analyses of text and discourse, which will be presented or tested through a series of analyses of authentic English text in different genres and from different discourse domains.
Syllabus
  • 1. Text and non-text; linguistics of the text as an interdisciplinary research field; standards of textuality; grammatical and lexical means of cohesion, cohesive chains and their role in the composition of the text.
  • 2. Exploring textual coherence: default principle of coherence, the concept of inference; form and function in linguistic communication, semantic and pragmatic meaning, Co-operative and Politeness Principle.
  • 3. Knowledge and text: schema theory and the production and reception of the text.
  • 4. Halliday’s approach to language as social semiotic, the concept of metafunctions and their contextualization.
  • 5. The concept of genre and the methodology of genre analysis; web genres and the scope of multimodal discourse analysis.
Literature
    required literature
  • TÁRNYIKOVÁ, J. (2002). From Text to Texture. Olomouc: UP.
  • COOK, G. (1990). Discourse. Oxford: Oxford Univesity Press.
  • HALLIDAY, M.A.K., HASAN, R. (1989). Language, Context and Text. Oxford: OUP
    recommended literature
  • GILTROW, J. & STEIN, D. (2009). Genres in the Internet. Innovation, evolution, and genre theory. In J. Giltrow & D. Stein Genres in the Internet. Issues in the theory of genre (pp. 1–25). Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins Publishing Company.
  • HOPKINSON, Ch., TOMÁŠKOVÁ, R., BLAŽKOVÁ, B. (2011) Power and persuasion: Interpersonal discourse strategies in the public domain. Ostrava: Ostravská univerzita.
  • STUBBS, M. (1993). Discourse Analysis. Oxford: Basil Blackwell
  • HOPKINSON, C., SEDLÁŘOVÁ, L., TOMÁŠKOVÁ, R., WILAMOVÁ, S. & ZAPLETALOVÁ, G. (2009). Communication Strategies in Text and Talk. Ostrava: University of Ostrava.
  • FAIRCLOUGH, N. (1993). Discourse and Social Change. Cambridge: Polity Press.
  • URBANOVÁ, L. (2003). On Expressing Meaning in English Conversation. Brno: MU.
  • DANEŠ, F. (1968). Typy tématických posloupností v textu. In: Slovo a slovesnost 29. s. 125 -141.
  • HOEY, M. (2001). Textual Interaction. An introduction to to written discourse analysis. London and New York: Routledge.
  • BEAUGRANDE, R., DRESSLER, W. (1981). Introduction to Text Linguistics. London: Longman Gr. Ltd
  • BHATIA, V. J. (2004). Worlds of Written Discourse. A Genre-Based View. London and New York: Continuum.
  • HOMOLÁČ, J. Intertextovost a utváření smyslu v textu. Praha: UK, 1996
  • KRESS, G. (2010). Multimodality A social semiotic approach to contemporary communication. Abingdon: Routledge
  • HOLMES, J., MARRA, M. (2004). Relational practice in the workplace: Women´s talk or gendered discourse? In: Language in Society. Vol. 33, N. 3, London and New York: Cambridge University Press.
  • TOMÁŠKOVÁ, R. Dramatický dialog z hlediska textové koheze a koherence. Ostrava: OU, 1999.
  • BAX, S. (2011). Discourse and Genre. Analysing Language in Context. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.
  • KRESS, G. and VAN LEEUWEN, T. (1996, 2006). Reading Images. The Grammar of Design. Abingdon: Routledge.
  • FAIRCLOUGH, N. (2001). Language and Power (2nd ed.). London: Longman.
  • SANTINI, M. (2007a). Characterizing Genres of Web Pages: Genre Hybridism and Individualization. In 40th Annual Hawaii International Conference on Systém Sciences (HICSS'07). Accessible at: http://www.itri.brighton.ac.uk/~Marina.Santini/
  • BARTON, D. and LEE, C. (2013). Language Online. Investigating Digital Texts and Practices. London: Routledge.
  • TANNEN, D. (1994). Gender and Discourse. Oxford: Oxford Univesity Press.
  • HALLIDAY, M. A. K., HASAN, R. (1976). Cohesion in English. London: Longman Gr. Ltd.
  • LEVINSON, S. C. (1983). Pragmatics. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
  • COOK, G. (1995). Discourse and Literature. Oxford: Oxford Univesity Press.
  • KARHANOVÁ, K. 1999). Funkce mezitextového navazování v novinách. In: Slovo a slovesnost. 60.
  • BHATIA, V. J. (1993). Analysing Genre. Language Use in Professional Settings. London and New York: Longman.
  • URBANOVÁ, L. Implicit and Explicit Dialogue Structure in Fiction. In: Linguistica Pragensia. Vol. XII/2, 2002.
  • SIMPSON, P. (1997). Language through Literature. An Introduction. London: Routledge.
  • PÍPALOVÁ, R. (2002). On Cohesion and Coherence in a Selected Fairy-Tale Sample. In: GRMELOVÁ, A., FARRELL, M., ed. Prague Conference on Linguistics and Literary Studies (10 May 2002) Proceedings. Praha: UK.
  • TANNEN, D.(1993). Framing in Discourse. Oxford: Oxford Univesity Press.
  • FAIRCLOUGH, N. (1995). Media Discourse. London: Edward Arnold.
  • DUŠKOVÁ, L. (1984). A Contrastive View of Grammatical Means of Textual Cohesion. In: KOŘENSKÝ, J., HOFFMANNOVÁ, J. Text and The Pragmatic Aspects of Language. Linguistica X. Praha.
  • ZAPLETALOVÁ, G., MALČÍKOVÁ, T., BIZOŇ, D. (2011). Co-membership and co-operation: Interpersonal discourse strategies within communities of practice. Ostrava: Ostravská univerzita.
Teaching methods
lecture, group discussion, text analysis
Assessment methods
a written test
Language of instruction
English
Further comments (probably available only in Czech)
The course is taught once in two years.
The course is taught every other week.
General note: This course is NOT designated for Erasmus students! List of courses offerd by the Department of English and American studies for Erasmsus students is available at http://www.phil.muni.cz/wkaa/ under "Information for Erasmus students".
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