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Iv - University of Salford Institutional Repository

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dependent layers <strong>of</strong> pragmatic, semiotic, and communicative meanings.<br />

"Discourse processing", he continues, "is envisaged in terms <strong>of</strong> the<br />

discourse producers' utilization <strong>of</strong> 'texts' as a means <strong>of</strong> action on the<br />

environment and in terms <strong>of</strong> the discourse receivers' reaction to such<br />

actions. For such pragmatic purposes to be contextually accessible,<br />

texts take on a set <strong>of</strong> semiotic values. These establish interaction<br />

with the environment by regulating producers' pragmatic actions and<br />

receivers' reactions. They define the nature, form and function <strong>of</strong> the<br />

message as a sign among signs. Pragmatic action and semiotic<br />

interaction only materialise when a 'communicative' dimension is<br />

introduced to set up the transaction between text users' actions and<br />

reactions, on the one hand, and between these and the text, on the<br />

other hand." (ibid, p298)<br />

The text-typological focus, which is the outcome <strong>of</strong> semio-pragma-<br />

communicative interface, is, according to Hatim, the basic determinant<br />

<strong>of</strong> expository, argumentative, or instructional text types.<br />

Hatim<br />

refers to discourse as "the totality <strong>of</strong> undifferentiated linguistic<br />

material, eg. a whole article". His distinction between discourse and<br />

text is empirically irrelevant since discourse, in actual fact, is text<br />

in action.<br />

Hatim employs the theme-rheme theory, which has come to be<br />

collectively referred to as 'Functional Sentence Perspective', in his<br />

explanation <strong>of</strong> how texts are internally structured. The term is used<br />

to indicate that sentence elements function within a certain<br />

91

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