We have looked at rules that combine morphemes into larger units called “words” and rules that combine words into larger units called “clause” (or “sentence”). There are no corresponding rules that combine sentences into the even larger units we often call “texts”, but nevertheless, texts are not just random sequences of sentences. In this chapter, we will look at some of the general principles (not rules) that distinguish such random sequences from the texts we encounter in actual language use.

When you’ve completed this chapter, you’ll be able to:

• identify the linguistic features that create relations between sentences
• provide explanations for the way these features work together to create the larger units of language that we call “texts”
• identify the features that distinguish different text types from each other

Contents

10.1 What is a text?
10.2 Textual coherence
10.3 Textual cohesion
10.4 Is cohesion coherence?
10.5 Classifying texts: Genre
10.6 Other classifications