Text Type and Texture (Functional Linguistics)

PAPERBACK EDITION PUBLISHED JULY 2010

Texture – the quality that makes a text ‘hang together’ as a text – is a key focus of investigation in discourse analysis. This volume provides a systematic overview of recent research on textual resources that are used to construct texture, and on the ways in which these resources are deployed differently in different text types. Theme is the major resource that is explored in the first part of the book. The opening papers set out the current understanding of Theme and explore aspects of the concept which remain controversial in the field. This is followed by an examination of thematic choices in a range of text types. Issues raised include the different kinds of meanings appearing in Theme which are particularly significant for each genre, the ways in which these relate to the broader socio-cultural context, and the ways in which thematic choices interact with other kinds of texturing. In the second part of the collection, the scope widens to include an examination of other resources, particularly the contribution to texture made by patterns of interpersonal choices, in Theme and more broadly across texts as a whole. The volume closes with an overview and illustration of a methodological approach by which our understanding of texturing can be further extended.

Geoff Thompson is Senior Lecturer in Applied Linguistics at the University of Liverpool. He currently runs the MA in TESOL, and teaches courses on Functional Grammar and language teaching methodology. He has three main areas of research interests: functional grammar, discourse analysis and teaching materials development. He has published an introductory book on Functional Grammar (second edition 2004), and with Susan Hunston co-edited a volume on evaluation in text (2000) and one on systemic linguistics and corpus linguistics (2006). Gail Forey is Assistant Professor in the Department of English at The Hong Kong Polytechnic University. She has contributed to a number of journals and edited volumes.