A model of sequential relations in expository test
Dionysis Goutsos · Text and Talk · 1996
The paper is a contribution towards a theory of sequentiality in expository text, aimed at developing a model for describing the linear segmentation of discourse. The model suggested employs two sequential strategies (shift and continuity) accomplished through a number ofsequential techniques (framing, introduction, closure, continuation). The function of the techniques results in a periodic alteration of transition and continuation spans, related to one another by sequential relations. The identification of spans relies on signals, whose function in text is hierarchical and synergistic. To illustrate the application of the model, an editorial is analyzed. It is argued that sequential relations are interactive with but independent from ideational, interpersonal and other text relations, as well as from considerations of discourse topic. It is also claimed that sequentiality expresses a crucial aspect of discourse topic, if not being identical with its articulation. This view of sequential relations has significant implications for the theory of topic, as well as for discourse analysis, language processing and language pedagogy, which have to be re-oriented to take account of the non-propositional aspects of text.