By Nedim Taş

ANALYSIS  OF A TEXT FROM A NEWSPAPER

This paper aims to analyse an English text from a newspaper using the seven standards of textuality. The copy of the original text is attached at the very end of the paper. After a general introduction to the ‘text’, the analysis takes place with relevant examples from the text. For every standard of textuality a brief information is given before relating it to the given text.

As a means of communication texts play a very important role in getting the meaning across others. Having very different types (literary/expressive, scientific/informative and so on) they are expected to meet the expectation of different-purposed  readers. In other words, no matter what type it may be, every text ought to address certain receivers who read it for a specific purpose like to get information, to read for fun etc. This is not the only way texts come into being; namely, an article in a newspaper, a letter  in a magazine, a poem of a poet, a road sign, a conversation between two or more people...are all various kinds of texts which serve for different communicative aims.  These are produced for a great many receivers. But here lies an important element: how and for what reason  these must be produced and received; and what standards they must have in order to fulfill the communicative aims. It is true that in a communication process there are participants who produce/send a message and who receive the produced/sent message respectively. Yet if the text to be produced does not meet certain standards, it cannot achieve the aim of communication.

These crucial standards for a satisfying text are the seven standards of textuality without which a text will not mean anything to the receiver; thus, there will be no communication. As what makes a text is its contribution to communication between producer(s) and receiver(s), a text without any of these standards cannot be considered as communicative.

The above mentioned standards of textuality are as follows:

1.      Cohesion

2.      Coherence

3.      Intentionality

4.      Acceptability

5.      Informativity

6.      Situationality

7.      Intertextuality

Each of these standards itself means much to the text and the lack of any of them constitutes barriers to an efficient and effective communication.

The text which is going to be analysed here is taken from Turkish News dated July 10, 2001. It is an informative and scientific text given under the topic of ‘World’s first mechanical heart implant’. As it can also be understood from the topic, the subject of the text turns around mechanical heart implant (which is on the contrary to heart transplantation), heart disease, patients, surgery... The readers of this Newspaper-thus the text- are either native speakers of English who live in Turkey or Turkish people who can use English as a foreign language. But every reader may not be assumed to read this specific informative text. Because that depends on different reasons which are going to be dealt within the analysis.

 Below is given the analysis of this text in terms of seven standards:

1.      In terms of cohesion:

  Cohesion refers to the grammatical unity of a text in which different components exist. Here the important ones of these are the surface components which depend on each other according to grammatical forms and conventions. In order to make a whole structure and  unity of components, some elements such as recurrence, paralleism, paraphrase, pro-forms, anaphora, use of tense, junction etc. are helpful supporting elements. For example; if a recent event still having influences on many things is reported in the Past Perfect Tense, it may mean that the writer ignores its present influence.

Within the text recurrence (repetition ) is made mainly on the most important words which reflect the core of the text [e.g. ‘first (major advance)’, ‘artificial’, ‘heart’, ‘patient’]. The repetition of such words helps to prevent digression and to focus on the main theme again and again.

Paralleism ( re-use of certain surface formats with different expressions) is seen in the following for instance; “our goal is to provide them with a reasonable quality of life and an extension of life.” This is necessary for avoiding monotony and ineffectiveness resulting from repeating the same grammatical units over and over.

We can find pro-forms/anaphora which doesn’t mean anything itself but gains meaning through its use with other expressions  as in the following example; “It is the first artificial heart to be free of wires connecting it to an outside energy source.”  

Use of tense defines  the continuity or discontinuity of the subject given in the text. Here, the Present Perfect Tense (e.g. ...mechanical heart has been implanted...), the Present Continuous Tense (e.g. ...we are starting with... ), The Simple Present Tense (e.g. ...which weighs two pounds...) and Past Tense (e.g. ...he was confined to his bed,...) are used. But especially Simple Present Tense is dominant; this is due to the new device’s just having  been produced. Past Tense is only used when mentioning the previous procedures of the new device and the earlier versions of it.

Junctions also are important supporters of cohesion. They can be categorized as conjunction (e.g. Abiomed got U.S. Food  and Drug Administration approval...), disjunction ( e.g. Shares of Abiomed surged13.54 percent or $3.18 to...), contra junction (e.g. In the United States, 4, 231 people are registered for a heart transplant but only 2,197 actually received a new heart in 2000.) These link two or more separate words/utterances and clauses .

2.      In terms of Coherence:

We can define coherence as the continuity of senses in a text. Cohesion deals with the surface text whereas coherence deals with the underlying text. The unity of meaning through the harmony of concepts and relations is emphasized here. What makes a text coherent is the use of related words, utterances etc. This relation is provided when there is causality, reason, purpose ,time, enablement in the text. That is, to relate sentences to each other in a meaningful way, they mustn’t  be irrelevant items. So when a reader reads a coherent text s/he finds a meaningfully united sets of expressions in that particular text. If the subject matter is reflected as ‘What to do for health care’ with the topic but the text mainly deals with the ‘Health Minister’s love affairs’,  that means there are irrelevant utilization of a set of utterances.

The chain of relations within this text may be exemplified as

§        mechanical heart implant > revolutionary procedure ? first major advance > alternative to transplantation >Jewish Hospital > heart transplant > new heart > donors > candidates for a heart transplant...

§        patient > die > ends of their lives > critically ill > life expectancy > surgeons > cardiologist...

§        device > implant > grapefruit-sized > artificial heart > earlier version >                  bulky > limited benefit > electric motor > implanted battery...

As is noticed here, all these are related with each in the text and form a meaningful unity under the topic.

3.      In terms of Intentionallity:

The producer of text brings his/her words together to achieve a specific goal. This may be the expression of oneself, informing others, criticizing, etc. Whatever the aim is, the text must be produced in a cohesive and coherent way so that it serves for the text-producer’s intention. In a scientific book, for instance, texts are written with the intention of  giving technical information about particular subject(s); and the reader read it for getting information about the specified topic. Therefore text must meet participants’ intentions.  

The writer’s main aim is to give information about the innovation ‘the first mechanical heart implant so far in nearly two decades’. As a receiver of  the text we can learn about where, when, how this event took place and who the leading persons  of this procedure are and the new device’s features, benefits etc. Concerning the maxims of quantity-quality-relation-manner, we can point to writer’s giving new information upon the former known ones, quoting specialists to give true knowledge, avoiding irrelevant information and presenting his material in a brief way. 

4.      In terms of Acceptability:

As mentioned before, readers of a text receive that text for various purposes. Reading a text means expecting something from that. Consequently, for the matching of readers’ expectations with what is meant in the text, there must be a coherent and cohesive set of components which form it. In this sense, the type of the text and readers’ intention as well as the producer’s intention must build a whole body. This to some extent depends on such factors as text-type, cultural setting and the desirability of goals. For example, if the topic is about sports yet the body of the text focuses on some irrelevant subject matters other than sports, then it cannot be acceptable for a reader who wants to read something about a branch of sport. 

This is a scientific text which gives information about a specific subject outlined along with the topic and the subline. So when a reader has a look at the topic and thinks about the whole text, there will not be any unacceptability annoying him/her. This is because it constitutes a consistent wholeness.

5.      In terms of Informativity:

Informativity is concernt with how unexpected/expected or known/unknown are the occurrences in the text. In order for an effective text this is an unneglectible standard which can be grouped as 1^st order informativity, 2^nd order informativity, 3^rd order informativity. The first one requires ordinary trivial knowledge such as articles, prepositions etc. It is not about the content, thus receive little attention; the second one, normal standards, content related; the third one, much attention-demanding occurrences which is caused by discontinuity  and discrepancies. The first and third order informativity are bound to be changed for making it more interesting. That is, they are upgraded (from 1^st order to 2^nd order)  and downgraded (from 3^rd order to 2^nd order) respectively. Unless  this is done, it can block readers and display a disturbing structure.

The text comprises both expected and unexpected information. For example;

Expected information: where the mechanical heart implant takes place, how different is implantation from transplantation, how it works, the producer of the device, its benefits, how successful it is, etc.

Unexpected information: on whom it was tried first, how long it extended his/her life, that it is free of wires, that its approval of testing it on some patients  came in February , that it weighs two pounds, that the number of people registered for a heart transplant,  shrinking pool of potential heart donors, how long Dr. Barney Clark who was a heart patient and used the earlier versions of the artificial device lived, that shares of Abiomed Inc. Surged 13.54 percent or $3.18 to $26.66 on the Nasdaq etc.     

6.      In terms of Situationality:

 A text also must be relevant to a situation of occurrence. This is related with the context and the situation the reader is in. Here we can come up with that different people in different situations can conclude different meanings from the same text. But what is important here is that the text must present the knowledge to make sense with a minimum use of words (maximum economy). Otherwise, it may even not be received at all. For example; when a person takes a newspaper in hand to look for information about a specific subject(e.g. a trial) and has limited time, he directly looks at the headlines, sublines to make it quicker. But if there is no headline which categorizes different subjects peculiar to the agenda then the reader most probably skip many of the papers and not read the rest due to the short of time.

From this perspective the text gives a very clear and summarizing headline which specifies what it is about. The interest in the topic depends on the person’s situation. For instance, if s/he is one of the very many heart patients, s/he will get more  interested in it and read it to the letter.

The maximum of economy in the use of expressions can also be provided with the use of pro-forms. We can find this in the following instance from the text; “We are starting with patients who are at the end of their lives.”

7.      In terms of Intertextuality:

During the reading process our stored knowledge, experience, previous readings all affect the present reading perception. That is why the production and the reception of a given text depends on the participants’ knowledge of other texts. If a text is produced without making use of any particular knowledge which the reader is supposed to know, it may not be an appropriate text. Especially when it refers to well-known texts or things  or people, it is much better. Intertextuality helps to build meaningful relations between various components of communication. For example; the name of the film ‘Back to the Future -2-’ means that there was another film displayed before ‘Back to the Future’. As such we can build meaningful links between two or more texts.

In this text, ‘first mechanical heart implant’ shows that previous implantations weren’t mechanical. Also, the concept ‘major advance’ implies a ‘minor advance’ in the same field of science. The sentence ‘It is the first artificial heart to be free of wires connecting it to an outside energy source.’ refers to the ‘previous hearts with wires.’

In this work the English text has been analysed in terms of the seven  standards of textuality. On the whole, as it shows nearly all ins and outs of these standards according the text-type it has, we can say it is one of standard texts which is means of communication between its participants: the producer and the receiver