Texts

Texts are units of communication that are created, can convey meaning, and can be interpreted. As such, they can be spoken, written, or visual. For the purposes of clinical linguistic analysis of texts, however, this discussion focuses on spoken and [Page 1954]written texts. Texts can vary in size from single-word texts (e.g., stop signs or single-word utterances such as no) to long texts (e.g., Tolstoy’s War and Peace), a lengthy conversation (e.g., between friends at a dinner party), or a monologue (e.g., a speech or lecture). The number of participants or contributors also can vary from a single contributor to many, and texts can be produced in a vast array of settings from public to private and with differing levels of formality, style, and structure. ...