Approaches to the definition of text and discourse in sociolinguistics

Abstract. The article reflects various approaches to the definition of the concepts "text", "discourse" in sociolect. the process of differentiation of these functional and speech phenomena was carried out.

Keywords: discourse, text, linguistics, concept, interpretation, communication theory, sociolinguistics

The idea of a link between text and discourse is certainly controversial in modern linguistics. At the same time, this idea is of fundamental importance for the interpretation of these concepts, which are also far from unambiguous. The only obvious thing is that text and discourse are essentially related concepts.

This term is one of the most complex, since it denotes the highest reality of language-discursive activity. N. D. Arutyunova gives the following definition of discourse: "Discourse (from the French discourse-speech) – a coherent text in combination with extralinguistic, pragmatic, socio-cultural, psychological and other factors, a text taken in a conceptual aspect; speech, considered as a purposeful social action, as a component involved in the interaction of people and the mechanisms of their consciousness (cognitive processes).

According to N. D. Arutyunova, “on the one hand, discourse turns into a pragmatic situation, which is associated with determining the consistency of discourse, its communicative adequacy, to clarify its consequences and prerequisites for its interpretation …” [1]

It should be noted that initially the term “discourse” in the French language tradition meant speech in a General sense and was a direct synonym of the term “text”; moreover, the concepts designated by these terms were considered identical.

However, with the development of communication theory, sociolinguistics, psycholinguistics, and the formation of a cognitive paradigm, the content of these concepts gradually becomes heterogeneous. The first to distinguish between the concepts of "text" and “discourse” is Virgil van Dijk in his treatise “Strategies for understanding a coherent text”, but in this work the terms are constantly confused, which is clear: English. Discourse is used both in the sense of text and simply in conversation. [2]

Thus, although the concepts of text and discourse are very distinct, they are not opposed to each other - their relations are characterized by causal relationships: the text is the result of discourse. The text appears during a certain process, but it is studied in its finished form, and the discourse is considered in a certain mode and time.

In any case, discursive analysis assumes the restoration of this process, even if its result is studied. As the researchers’ observations show, along with the opposite characteristics, these two concepts have some common properties. For example, Virgil van Dijk notes that the “users” of both text and discourse are the author and reader, who are not always in direct contact with each other. [2]

It is also believed that the above will be true for a scientific text that is born in a certain socio-cultural and historical environment, which in one form or another is reflected in its informative and formal structures. When creating a scientific text, the author not only captures certain knowledge in writing, but also includes elements of an imaginary dialogue with the addressee in this text, seeks to implement their intentions with the help of certain language text structures, and bring certain pragmatic settings to the addressee.

When considering the text from the linguistic side, “a related text is usually understood as a certain (complete) sequence of sentences related in meaning to each other within the framework of the author's General idea” [8], this “concept is both syntagmatic and functional. This is a specially organized, closed chain of sentences that represents a single utterance”. [3] In addition to this, linguists have identified the ability of the text to be included in a linear chain of links, which made it possible to deduce this kind of definition of the text: “the set of utterances in their function and-accordingly - as a sociocommunicative implementation of textuality”. [4]

However, another feature of the text is that it can act as a chain microstructure, or as a macrostructure Union (absolute unity) with absolute coherence inside. The concept of “text” includes any related and complete, written or oral utterance, regardless of the correctness of compliance with grammatical canons. Consequently, it turns out that the text considered by translinguistics implies “any final segment of speech that represents a certain unity in terms of content, transmitted with secondary communicative goals and has an internal organization corresponding to these goals, and is associated with other cultural factors than those that relate to the actual language”.

In other words, the author plunges into the discursive space of the science or knowledge against which a particular text is born, using all the possibilities of discourse for the purpose of a reasoned presentation of their views, assumptions and conclusions.

From the point of view of mass communication theory, the text is presented in the form of a hierarchy of communicative attitudes that obey the rules of reference. If we follow the psycholinguistic approach, the text is considered “as a detailed statement that must have completeness in terms of expressing the intent”, and “must be presented structurally in the form of separate or more or less separate groups of statements related to each other at the formal-grammatical and semantic levels”  [5]

As we know, F. de Saussure, speaking about speech activity as a set of all language phenomena, identifies two main components in it-language, language (the language itself) and speech, UDO (specific speech acts) and recognizes the social, stable, systematic character of language, and the individual, free character of speech. [6]

At the same time, it is suggested that discourse is the third member of the language/speech opposition. Talking about it in the 1940s, the Belgian linguist E. Buyssens. He introduces a new element into the binary Saussure opposition-discourse, defining it as a kind of conductor between an abstract language system and live speech; as a mechanism for actualizing language in speech. Discourse is  “something paradoxically and “more verbal” than speech itself, and at the same time-more amenable to study using traditional linguistic methods, more formal and thus “more linguistic”.

A special view on the concepts under study is found in the work of Chang Kim Bao, whose theory is a synthesis of modern European and American linguistic methodology and philosophical and methodological principles typical of the Eastern school of linguistics. The linguist notes: “Any speech work is a text that serves as a real means of human communication. The text has its “partner” in the form of discourse. Discourse is a text in action. Text is understood as Yin, discourse as Yang. They obey the law of interpenetration. This means that the text has elements of discourse, and the discourse has elements of text....” [7]

Taking language as the Great limit, the scientist notes the specificity of Yin and Yang in language, which is that “Yang” is characterized as an element of movement, and Yin-as an element of stagnation (in the broadest philosophical sense of the word)” . Taking as a basis the triad “speech activity” – “language” – “speech”, Chang Wang Ko compares the elements of the triad with Yin and Yang: “We understand speech activity as the Great Limit that generates Yin (language) and Yang (speech).” Contrary to Saussure's idea of the Diametric movement of language and speech (language down, speech up), Chang van Ko defines them as the sources of generation of each other, based on the above laws: mutual penetration, mutual transformation and harmonious combination.

In turn, correlating the concepts of text and discourse, it is worth noting that the text is a component of discourse, fixed at a certain moment of speech (discursive) activity. The above allows us to define the text as follows: “Text – education, which is the dual unity of language and speech as a discursive activity and its result.”