Iv - University of Salford Institutional Repository

communicate through the actualization and utilization of recordable,
preservable and retrievable utterances. The evolution, continuity and
progression of the process of text-actualization is actually, what
makes the text a text. The 'textness' of a text is conditioned by
certain criteria which de Beaugrande proposed in his book "Text
Discourse and Process" (1980, pp19-20)
De Beaugrande's standards of textuality, that is, standard text
requirements, are: (1) cohesion; (2) coherence; (3) intentionality; (4)
acceptability; (5) situationality; (6) intertextuality; and (7)
informativity. Cohesion is the grammatical hinge which makes the
multifarious surface elements of the text 'hang together'. This
involves, as de Beaugrande's proposes, "the grammatical formatting of
phrases, clauses, and sentences, and such devices as recurrence, pro-
forms, and articles; co-reference, ellipsis, and junction." (ibid,
1980) Coherence is sustained at the conceptual level. Ideas,
concepts, and thoughts inherent in the text should logically cohere
with one another so that the semantic unity of the message would not be
impaired. Intentionality implies that the text-originator's goals and
intentions are sufficiently obviated, otherwise ambiguations and
misinterpretations should inevitably occur. Acceptability simply means
that the text should be grammatically well-formed and stylistically
appealing to its immediate readership. Situationality implies the
adaptability of the text material to the situation of occurrence in
which it unfolds. The scope of situationality implies the roles of two
communicative participants at least: addresser and addressee, or writer
and reader. Intertextuality implies that a given text shares common
56