Text Types

It is obvious that not all texts are of the same type. We may distinguish between political texts, legal texts and medical texts; fairy tales, novels and short stories differ from newspaper reports, essays, and scientific papers; food recipes, instructions booklets and advertisements may show similarities but they are not the same, expository texts differ from argumentative texts, etc. All these types of text differ in ways that are somewhat obvious, intuitively, but which nevertheless invite detailed analysis.

En el último tercio del siglo XIX surgió en Gran Bretaña un importante movimiento artístico llamado Arts & Crafts que tenía como objetivo ofrecer una alternativa al arte mecanizado e impersonal del momento, producto de la Revolución Industrial. Diferentes escritores, artistas, arquitectos y pensadores de la época aunaron sus fuerzas para desarrollar una reforma estética. El representante más importante de este movimiento fue William Morris (1834-1896), poeta, artesano, impresor, diseñador de interiores y activista socialista.

The purpose of this study was to explore whether there was a significant correlation between vocabulary and reading
comprehension in terms of text types as well as whether the vocabulary was a predictor of reading comprehension
in terms of text types. In this regard, the correlational research design was used to explain specific research objectives. The study was conducted in Ankara-Sincan during the 2008-2009 academic years. A total of 120 students having middle socioeconomic status participated in this study. The students in this research were in the fifth-grade at a public school. Reading comprehension and vocabulary tests were developed to evaluate the students’ reading comprehension and vocabulary levels. Correlation and bivariate linear regression analyses
were used to assess the data obtained from the study. The research findings indicated that there was a medium
correlation between vocabulary and narrative text comprehension. In addition, there was a large correlation
between vocabulary and expository text comprehension. Compared to the narrative text comprehension, vocabulary
was also a strong predictor of expository text comprehension. Vocabulary made more contribution to expository text comprehension than narrative text comprehension.

This study investigates the most common morpho-syntactic Arabic-English and English-Arabic translation errors made by fourth year students of the English Department (Translation Program) at the University of Science and Technology (UST) in Yemen. It identifies how frequently these errors occur and sheds light on issues for EFL students and translation teachers in Yemen in general and the UST in particular, regarding the importance of having a good command of both Arabic and English. This may help learners identify and reduce such errors.  In this empirical study, a test of 20 English and 20 Arabic sentences was given to the subjects of the study to be translated into Arabic and English respectively. Findings from the study show that the students make significantly more errors in tense, noun, verb, preposition, pronoun, relative clauses, article, and voice when they translate sentences from Arabic into English. There are also no significant differences in the students' translation in terms of agreement, word order, mood, and condition. The study concludes with some important recommendations such as adding a course on contrastive analysis and other Arabic language courses to the curriculum of the Translation Program in the English Department. Teachers and students are advised to take into account the different morpho-syntactic rules when teaching or translating respectively.

No âmbito das classificações textuais, observa-se o uso da designação "narrativo(a)" em construções como "modo narrativo", "género narrativo", "texto narrativo" e "sequência narrativa". Sendo expectável que a mesma designação seja usada exclusivamente no âmbito de uma única classificação, como se explica que, neste caso, ela seja incorporada em classificações diferentes?
No âmbito de uma reflexão integrada, que articula teorizações quer da Teoria da Literatura, quer da Linguística Textual, procurar-se-á responder às seguintes questões:
a) a designação "narrativo" aplica-se, em todos os casos referidos, aos mesmos objetos textuais?
b) o que legitima o uso dessa mesma designação em níveis classificativos diferentes?

Teaching writing at Tokai University can be challenging. The curriculum is intended to have all first-year and second-year students build productive skills for actual communicative tasks. However, the curriculum goals are hard to translate into actionable lessons due to a gap between student abilities and teacher expectations. This paper discusses the potential problems that could surface when teachers face low-level students. It also discusses what instruction could give students proper support meeting the goals described in the unified curriculum. Some popular instructions methods may not be effective with most students at Tokai, such as the five sentence patterns and teaching the introduction-body-conclusion. Alternatives are presented and discussed. In addition, some activities are introduced that may help students develop skills to express themselves in written English while working with peers.

This article approaches the problem of theorizing genre from the perspective of Folklore Studies. Although it is developed with particular concern for folklore, the view taken is quite broad, and readily relates to a broad range of forms of cultural expression.  The discussion will therefore have relevance to genre research in other disciplines such as linguistics, literature studies, performance studies, discourse analysis, etc.

This article proposes that, if genre is to be an effective analytical tool rather than simply a fancy word for category, the categories identified as genres must be based on commensurate criteria.  It builds on earlier approaches to propose a four-aspect model for genre. Generic products are qualified according to (a) conventions of form + (b) content or what is enacted. The combination of formal features with appropriate content or enactment operate like a Saussurian signifier + signified forming an iconic sign for a generic product. The significance of this signification is associated with (c) conventions of practice, or the who what where when and whys of situated use. The fourth aspect is a genre's social and semiotic (d) functions at a broader level in relation to other genres and to the semiotic system more generally.  This abstract model for approaching genre is intended as a calibratable tool that can be used for investigations of different scope with different types of material.

Textual criticism of the New Testament illuminates the pseudepigraphic issue insofar as the reception of a text in the early Church is inseparable from the circulation of its manuscripts. David PASTORELLI confronts the Epistle of Jude to three different types of texts: Alexandrian, Byzantine and "Western". Though it is widely attested in the Alexandrian type at the end of the second century, the Alexandrian authors know that some churches do not accept the Epistle. It is most plausibly churches of Syria they have in view: four minor Catholic Epistles (2 Peter, 2 John, 3 John and Jude) are but lately accepted in the Syro-Byzantine type. The major discovery comes from the "Western" text which excludes the Epistle of Jude, allowing thereby to show that its pseudepigraphic status is already discussed in the first half of the second century; the Muratorian Canon confirms that the debate goes on at the end of that same century.

La critique textuelle du NT permet de jeter un éclairage sur la question pseudépigraphique dans la mesure où la réception d’un écrit dans l’Eglise ancienne est indissociable de sa diffusion dans la tradition manuscrite. David PASTORELLI confronte l’épître de Jude aux différents types de texte connus (« occidental », alexandrin et byzantin). Jd est largement attestée dans le type alexandrin dès la fin du second siècle, mais les auteurs alexandrins n’ignorent pas qu’elle n’est pas admise par toutes les églises. La Syrie est vraisemblablement visée : les quatre épîtres catholiques mineures (2 P, 2-3 Jn et Jd) ne sont reçues que tardivement dans le type syro-byzantin. La découverte majeure provient du texte « occidental » qui exclut Jd et permet ainsi de montrer que le statut pseudépigraphique de l’épître de Jude est discuté dès la première moitié du second siècle ; le Canon de Muratori confirme la poursuite du débat à la fin du second siècle.

Quelle relation la poésie entretient-elle avec le langage ? Dans un texte inédit en français, dont nous produisons ici la traduction intégrale et annotée, E. Coseriu a formulé une série de thèses qui défendent l’identité entre le langage (pure activité libre ou créatrice) et la poésie (la littérature en tant qu’art). Ces thèses prennent place au sein d’une linguistique du sens, élaborée par E. Coseriu, dont nous exposons les grandes lignes dans le but de : 1) discuter une définition linguistique de la poésie ; 2) interroger les rapports méthodologiques entre linguistique et littérature ; 3) montrer que la linguistique cosérienne offre un cadre particulièrement adapté à l’étude linguistique des œuvres littéraires.

Vocabulary is an important aspect of language learning, but how to teach it has not been fully developed and vocabulary items are often taught separately from skills to express oneself. In this paper, I discuss how vocabulary should be taught so that learners with limited knowledge can eventually work on productive tasks by themselves. To relate different types of verbs to different text types, the understanding of which is generally considered critical in writing instruction, pedagogical grammar models derived from Cognitive Linguistics and Systemic Functional Linguistics are presented with teaching implications.

This article provides an overview of key terms in text linguistics according to different theoretical models, from cognitive approaches to the systemic-functional model and genre analysis. Basic notions such as text type, pragmatic function, register, language variation, speech act, discourse community etc. are illustrated and the pros and cons of different theories are compared in order to develop an approach suitable for distinguishing and classifying the broad range of text types produced by EU institutions. This taxonomy and the principles upon which it is based are used as a reference grid to select comparable genres produced in Italy, Spain and the UK. In line with the selection method, text corpora have been compiled to conduct comparative studies designed to assess the differences between the varieties of Italian, Spanish and English written at EU level and their counterparts at national level.

Comment poser la question du style du point de vue d'une sémantique interprétative et au sujet de textes relevant de la poésie moderne (Gérard Macé, Jacques Dupin) ? En prenant pour point de départ la dimension interprétative de l'activité linguistique, cette thèse formule des propositions théoriques et méthodologiques qui visent à définir le cadre d'une sémantique des styles.

Quel est l’objet de la linguistique des genres et de quelle complexité est fait ce champ d’études ? Quels critères objectifs doivent assurer le maniement de la notion de genre ? En quoi réside la complexité de la relation entre un texte et « son » genre ? Quelle est la pertinence de la notion de « sous-genre » ? Quels observables centraux restent négligés par la linguistique des genres ? Pour répondre à ces questions, qui témoignent d’une discipline en crise, cet article non seulement réaffirme le lien indissoluble entre histoire, culture et genres discursifs, mais entend repenser la linguistique des genres du point de vue variationniste — comme l’appelle clairement l’étude ethnologique des phénomènes communicationnels. Dans ce but, on introduit ici le concept de variété générique et des distinctions méthodologiques permettant la mise en œuvre d’une approche variationniste des genres en linguistique.

Within the framework of university and school cooperation, the Turkish language teacher education is a multi-element system including Turkish teacher candidates, field academicians, Turkish teachers and primary/secondary school students who take Turkish lessons, and Turkish text books. Any change made to the field will affect each of these elements. As is known, the educational activities in the schools are carried out within the framework of the curriculum. The Ministry of National Education is responsible for the preparation and enforcement of curricula in our country. The Ministry of National Education has enacted a new curriculum for primary and secondary school Turkish lesson in 2017. The latest version of this curriculum was published in 2018. In this study, the previous Turkish lesson curriculums were compared with the 2018 Turkish lesson curriculum and then new text types of the curriculum were identified. Then, the existence of these text types in the 2017-2018 Turkish textbooks were examined. The research was conducted with the document review method. In conclusion, the text types which were not found in the previous curriculums, Turkish sources and in 2017-2018 Turkish textbooks were named as unusual text types, which is referred to in the title of the study. These types include: blog, social media message, email, brochure, poster, list, diagram, table, graphic, sketch, map, user guide, instruction text, procedural text, street writing, and placard. Finally, the features of these types were discussed using different academic studies. It is expected that this research will be beneficial for all the elements within the scope of university and national education by presenting resource diversity in the Turkish education field.

The main goal of this investigation is to establish the temporal and aspectual properties of these four types of textual sequences: narrative, descriptive, explicative and argumentative (cf. Adam (1992)).
Our analysis takes into account Vendler’s (1967) classification of situation types and the theoretical framework of Kamp and Reyle’s (1993) Discourse Representation Theory. The relevant factors that are under scrutiny in our analysis are situation types, verbal tenses, time adverbials, connectives with temporal value, and discourse relations.
Among the conclusions of this investigation, we argue that narrative and descriptive sequences show important differences in terms of temporal and aspectual properties. Narrative sequences typically include events, and the temporal relation of precedence is clearly dominant. Descriptive sequences typically include stative situations, and the temporal relation of overlapping is dominant. Both explicative and argumentative sequences share these properties: they may include either events or states, and either the temporal relations of precedence or overlapping may be dominant.

The purpose of this study was to explore whether there was a significant correlation between vocabulary and reading comprehension in terms of text types as well as whether the vocabulary was a predictor of reading comprehension in terms of text types. In this regard, the correlational research design was used to explain specific research objectives. The study was conducted in Ankara-Sincan during the 2008-2009 academic years. A total of 120 students having middle socioeconomic status participated in this study. The students in this research were in the fifth-grade at a public school. Reading comprehension and vocabulary tests were developed to evaluate the students' reading comprehension and vocabulary levels. Correlation and bivariate linear regression analyses were used to assess the data obtained from the study. The research findings indicated that there was a medium correlation between vocabulary and narrative text comprehension. In addition, there was a large correlation between vocabulary and expository text comprehension. Compared to the narrative text comprehension, vocabulary was also a strong predictor of expository text comprehension. Vocabulary made more contribution to expository text comprehension than narrative text comprehension.

The main goal of this article is to identify parameters of the genre Master Thesis. Our analysis is based upon some theoretical key concepts as proposed by Coutinho and Miranda (2009) – parameters of genre, mechanisms of textual realization, and genre markers –, in order to provide a clearcut description that takes into account the abstract status of genres, and the empirical status of texts. Other relevant theoretical contributions are brought by Bronckart (1996), Adam (1999, 2001), Adam and Heidmann (2007) and Charaudeau (2001). A corpus of ten texts of the genre Master Thesis, written in European Portuguese and recently presented to Universidade Aberta, was analysed, and preliminary conclusions suggest that enunciative and pragmatic parameters are central to determine other features of this genre (namely compositional, semantic, stylistic, metatextual, peritextual and material parameters).

KEYWORDS: discourse genre, parameters of genre, mechanisms of textual realization, genre markers

The paper presents an application of Multi-dimensional (MD) analysis initially developed for the analysis of register variation in English (Biber, 1988) to the investigation of a genre diverse corpus, which was built from modern texts of the Russian Web. The analysis is based on the idea that each linguistic feature has different frequencies in different registers, and statistically stable co-occurrence of linguistic features across texts can be used for automatic identification of texts with similar communicative functions. By using a software tool which counts a set of linguistic features in texts in Russian and by performing factor analysis in R, we identified six dimensions of variation. These dimensions show significant similarities with Biber's original dimensions of variation.    We studied the distribution of texts in the space of the dimensions of our factors and investigated their link to 17 externally defined Functional Text Dimensions (Forsyth and Sharoff, 2014), which were assigned to each text of the corpus by a group of annotators. The results show that dimensions of linguistic feature variation can be used for better understanding of the genre structure of the Russian Web.

Associations between words and grammatical patterns have been studied under various labels. Such studies have consistently shown that grammatical structures are typically associated with an above-chance frequency with sets of lexical items that are often functionally or semantically motivated. The stability of such associations across text types is less clear: since vocabulary differs quite strongly depending on text type, the same would be expected of lexicon-grammar associations. In this paper, I show that such variation exists and can be used to investigate domain-specific functions of grammatical patterns as well as the functional relationship between text types.

Propomo-nos reflectir, neste artigo, acerca da expressão do tempo em textos de instruções a partir da análise de um género discursivo particular: a receita de culinária. Assinalaremos as especificidades que caracterizam a temporalidade destes textos, designadamente a ausência de ancoragem no eixo do tempo e o facto de a duração e a ordenação relativa dos estados de coisas referidos se revelarem decisivas para a finalidade prática subjacente a estes textos. Para uma análise global das relações temporais entre as situações referidas, explicitaremos os diferentes processos de interacção entre formas verbais, adverbiais temporais e classes aspectuais.

Text means meaningful and coherent writings that words, sentences and paragraphs form together. Informative texts are written to inform the reader about a subject. Establishing a semantic and logical integrity between units of information in these writings is ensured with the coherence, one of the measures in article textuality. It provides a communication between sentences and paragraphs in the deep structure of the text. In this respect, the importance of coherence in informative text cannot be denied. The aim of this research is to identify the problems that Turkish teacher candidates experience about coherence during the process of creating informative text. The data in this study were obtained from the texts written by 85 first-and final-year students at the Department of Turkish Education in MKU, in the academic year 2015-2016. As data collection tool, " Informational Text Writing Form " developed by the researchers was used. The data obtained in this form were analyzed in " Informational Text Coherence Problem Inventory " developed by the researchers. A total of 13 issues were identified in the inventory. Accordingly, the most common problems in made between frequency were found to be " There are unnecessary repetitions " , " Accurate information on the tion is given " Extended Abstract Purpose Text means meaningful and coherent writings that words, sentences and paragraphs form together. Informative texts are written to inform the reader about a subject. Establishing a semantic and logical integrity between units of information in these writings is ensured with the coherence, one of the measures in article textuality. It provides a communication between sentences and paragraphs in the deep structure of the text. In this respect, the importance of coherence in informative text cannot be denied. The aim of this research is to identify the problems that Turkish teacher candidates experience about coherence during the process of creating informative text. Method This study which aims to determine the coherence-related problems experienced by the Turkish teacher candidates in creating informative texts is a descriptive study using the screening model developed

Wie strukturieren und gliedern WerberInnen in Suchmaschinenanzeigen die Werbepropositionen, die uns überzeugen? Sprechen sie uns dabei direkt an? Welche Typen von Werbepropositionen sind in den Werbetexten besonders wichtig? Welche Rollen spielen Markennamen, welche unser Suchbegriff? Welche Einzelwörter werden von den TexterInnen gerne in den Anzeigen eingesetzt?

Neste artigo, propomo-nos analisar a expressão do tempo numa sequência textual de tipo explicativo. O objectivo da nossa investigação consiste em verificar se existem propriedades temporais e aspectuais inerentes às sequências explicativas. O nosso ponto de partida traduz-se na seguinte questão: a selecção inicial, por parte do locutor, do tipo sequencial explicativo determina necessariamente a ocorrência, na superfície textual, de certos mecanismos temporais e aspectuais, os quais são, por isso mesmo, inerentes aos textos que actualizam este protótipo? Por outras palavras, há propriedades temporais e aspectuais específicas das sequências textuais que constituem actualizações do protótipo explicativo? Estas reflexões constituem, portanto, um contributo no sentido de demonstrar se é pertinente ou não associar à sequência explicativa a ocorrência preferencial de um dado tempo verbal ou de uma determinada classe aspectual ou ainda de uma dada relação discursiva entre os enunciados.

The main goal of the investigation that is presented in this article is to establish the temporal and aspectual properties of these four types of textual sequences: narrative, descriptive, explicative and argumentative (cf. Adam (1992)). Our analysis takes into account Vendler’s (1967) classification of situation types and the theoretical framework of Kamp and Reyle’s (1993) Discourse Representation Theory. The relevant factors that are under scrutiny in our analysis are situation types, verbal tenses, time adverbials, connectives with temporal value, and discourse relations. Among the conclusions of this investigation, we argue that narrative and descriptive sequences show important differences in terms of temporal and aspectual properties. Narrative sequences typically include events, and the temporal relation of precedence is clearly dominant. Descriptive sequences typically include stative situations, and the temporal relation of overlapping is dominant. Both explicative and argumentative sequences share these properties: they may include either events or states, and either the temporal relations of precedence or overlapping may be dominant.

KEYWORDS: tense; time adverb; aspectual class; textual sequence; discourse relation

Malgré leur importance pour l'étude des arts du langage et la linguistique du texte en général, les rapports entre genre et style individuel demeurent peu étudiés, même dans des domaines aussi propices que la poétique et la stylistique. Les méthodes de la linguistique de corpus assurent à présent la mise en oeuvre empirique de cette problématique aux paliers du mot et de la phrase. Plus précisément, comme elle reflète la diversité des usages oraux et écrits d'une langue historique, l'étude des variations lexicales et morphosyntaxiques dues aux discours et aux genres 1 permet d'apprécier, par contraste, les régularités qui relèvent en propre de l'individuel. La notion de style s'identifie alors à celle d'idiolecte, pour un empan qui va des unités lexicales aux phénomènes transphrastiques. Au-delà, au palier du texte, les rapports entre genre et style intéressent les conditions posées par les normes traditionnelles du discours sur la singularisation de l'expression individuelle. Qu'en est-il en sémantique des textes ? Cette étude envisage le cas particulier du poème en prose et analyse, sur la base de propositions méthodologiques, les tendances de composition sémantique qui caractérisent la pratique de ce genre chez Gérard Macé (1946).

This article presents some comparative results of an investigation
project about temporal and aspectual properties in texts of different sequence types
(namely narrative and descriptive; cf. Adam (2001)) and, simultaneously, in texts of
different discourse genres. It is argued that aspectual classes (cf. Moens (1987)) and
temporal relations among eventualities depend upon the choice of the sequence
type: narrative sequences include mainly events and the temporal relation of precedence;
descriptive sequences include mainly states and the temporal relation of
overlapping. It is also pointed out that narrative sequences present a more complex
temporal and aspectual structure than descriptive sequences. Furthermore, the
results of the analysis of two narrative sequences which belong to two different
discourse genres suggest that some discourse genres also play an important role on
determining the temporal and aspectual properties of a textual sequence.

KEYWORDS: sequence type; discourse genre; tense; aspectual class; temporal relation

The objective of this study is to prove that the basic philosophy teaching on an academic level is compulsory in translation and interpretation departments by taking into account the challenges encountered in the translation of philosophical texts and besides the ways to solving them. At the end of their training, students in translation and interpretation departments cannot be expected to translate or interpret every sort of texts owing to the fact that the translation of every text requires specialized knowledge in different fields. Considering that the undergraduate may not gain an opportunity to be specialized at every field, it is sometimes impossible for him or her to understand the source text wholly and translate it to the target culture. As a natural consequence of what he/she has learnt during his/her training, the translator may compensate his/her lack of knowledge in ordinary texts with finding suitable equivalents in each culture. In other words, the translator can further develop his/her skills in the translation of ordinary texts after she/he has graduated from the department. However, in the translation of text types such philosophical ones encompassing an important part of a culture, both internalization and questioning are required other than finding accurate equivalents in source and target texts. This can only be achieved if students take the basic philosophy education. The fact that each course in translation and interpretation departments is offered by a different field specialist and the philosophy is regarded as an area of specialization make easily understanding of translation challenges encountered particularly in the translation of philosophical texts possible.

Text-type determines the linguistic and paralinguistic means for convey-ing the message. The present study investigates how to discriminate between text-types and which types should be focused on in language teaching. One of the distinctive features of text-type is text formality, determinable from its part-of-speech structure. Our formality analysis concerns 28 oral and written texts. The results indicate that written texts are more formal than oral ones, and monologues more formal than dialogues. The results are applicable in FLT as well as in language technology for automatic identification of text-types.

This investigation aims at establishing the temporal and aspectual properties of the narrative sequences that occur in texts which belong to a specific discourse genre: the live narration of a sporting event (such as a football game). As prototypical properties, narrative sequences include denotation of events and the temporal relation of precedence. When narrative sequences occur in texts of this particular genre, speakers may choose presente do indicativo or pretérito perfeito simples as the dominant verbal tense. Evidence points out that, in terms of temporal and aspectual properties, there is an interaction between the narrative sequential prototype and the discourse genre of the text that the analysed sequence is part of.

The goal of my investigation is to establish the existence of temporal and aspectual
properties which are prototypical of the descriptive sequences. I intend to answer the
following questions: is there a tense (present tense, for instance) which prevails in all
descriptive sequences? Are these sequences characterized by the occurrence of a specific
aspectual class (like states)? What about time adverbials? Do they occur in a significant
number (like it happens mostly in narrative sequences)? Is there a discourse relation which
prevails in these types of textual sequences?
The results of this investigation suggest the following hypothesis, which I will try to
confirm in my next studies: the prototypical temporal and aspectual properties of the
descriptive sequences must be seeked at the aspectual classes level and at the time relations
level (and not at the tense level, or at the time adverbs level, or even at the discourse relations
level). Descriptive sequences are mainly characterized by the occurrence of states and by the
overlapping relation between these stative situations.
In association with other studies – see Silva (2002) and Silva (2005a) –, it arises the
ideia that, so far as temporal and aspectual properties are concerned, there is a continuum
between two poles: the narrative sequence pole (which is mainly characterized by the
occurrence of events and the temporal relation of sequenciality between those events) and the
descriptive sequence pole (which is mainly characterized by the occurrence of states and the
temporal relation of overlapping between those states).

KEYWORDS: Descriptive sequence, States, Overlapping, Verbal form, Discourse relation

Malgré les avancées réalisées depuis une vingtaine d’années, l’étude de la productivité lexicale demeure épineuse en raison de difficultés définitionnelles mais aussi méthodologiques, notamment concernant la variation en discours de la productivité. Pour contribuer ainsi à la réflexion méthodologique, cet article examine en particulier les catégories descriptives indispensables à l’étude de la productivité (auteur, genre, style, registre, etc.).

Despite progess made over the last twenty years, the study of lexical productivity remains a thorny issue because of definitional but also methodological difficulties, especially concerning the discursive variation of productivity. Thus, this paper examines the descriptive categories essential to the study of productivity (author, genre, style, register, etc.) in order to promote a more critical and precise methodology in this research field.

Results are reported from an extensive experiment where speech syntehsis was compared to natural speech among a group of visually disabled persons in a recall study of connected prose. The results indicated effects of text type as well as of modality of text presentation. Speech synthesis gave equal, or lower, performance compared to natural speech. It was suggested that text type and training effects are important topics for future studies.

Usos y normas de la comunicación escrita: Libro de estilo de la Universidad de Cádiz. Cádiz: Universidad de Cádiz, 2012. 254 páginas. En febrero del pasado año 2013 se presentó en la Universidad de Cádiz (España) este libro de estilo objeto de nuestra reseña. Puesto que tuvimos la oportunidad de asistir a aquel acto público, pudimos conocer de primera mano sus aspectos fundamentales. En aquella presentación fueron desgranados los objetivos principales que los autores se habían propuesto alcanzar con esta obra, objetivos claramente vinculados con su trayectoria profesional, tanto en su calidad de docentes universitarios como de miembros de una Consultoría lingüística constituida en el seno del grupo de investigación "Semaínein", al que pertenecen. En esencia, estos objetivos se basan en la primordial relevancia que, para ellos, debe tener "el uso correcto, adecuado e incluso estratégico del lenguaje", particularmente en el ámbito universitario, que es aquel al que se dirige inicialmente esta obra. Y esto es así porque estos lingüistas quieren alzarse firmemente contra la creencia de que sólo las ideas, y no las formas, aseguran la comunicación, falacia cuyo corolario supone que la escritura es tarea reservada a creadores literarios o bien a cultivadores de una estética vana y florida que nada aporta a lo esencial del proceso comunicativo, lo que es radicalmente incierto. Un texto siempre comunica más eficazmente si resulta adecuado en todos sus planos materiales, incluido por supuesto aquel en el que se sustancian las convenciones de la escritura.

Uma vez que caracterizar os géneros do discurso académico permite identificar os processos de construção dos textos que os integram, permitirá também melhorar a proficiência dos estudantes do ensino superior. A este respeito, Parodi (2009), evidenciou não só a maior ou menor diversidade de géneros das leituras aconselhadas em diferentes cursos, como também a conveniência de basear as reflexões sobre os géneros em corpora extensos e adequadamente ricos. Numa linha complementar, propomo-nos contribuir para a reflexão teórica sobre géneros do discurso académico, sob a perspetiva das práticas de escrita na universidade. Analisámos um corpus de 179 textos (de 500 a 1000 palavras), pertencentes ao género resposta de desenvolvimento, obtidos em exames de Ciências Humanas. Tendo selecionado respostas com sequências de tipo argumentativo, identificámos os parâmetros mais relevantes segundo os níveis textuais propostos por Adam (2001) – semântico, enunciativo-pragmático, composicional e estil...

The main goal of this article is to identify parameters of the genre Master Thesis. Our analysis is based upon some theoretical key concepts as proposed by Coutinho and Miranda (2009) – parameters of genre, mechanisms of textual realization, and genre markers –, in order to provide a clearcut description that takes into account the abstract status of genres, and the empirical status of texts. Other relevant theoretical contributions are brought by Bronckart (1996), Adam (1999, 2001), Adam and Heidmann (2007) and Charaudeau (2001). A corpus of ten texts of the genre Master Thesis, written in European Portuguese and recently presented to Universidade Aberta, was analysed, and preliminary conclusions suggest that enunciative and pragmatic parameters are central to determine other features of this genre (namely compositional, semantic, stylistic, metatextual, peritextual and material parameters).