ABSTRACT
The importance of texts is self-evident when we remember that all language occurs in communicative units usually larger than single words or sentences. All the same, texts have proved to be the hardest units to describe, perhaps because of the seemingly endless variations with which texts present us. Nevertheless, this chapter shows that quite a number of meaningful things can be said about texts. The phenomenon text will be treated under two points of view. The first (dealt with in 5.1 and 5.2) defines what qualities linguists have in mind when they speak of texts. Particular attention is paid to the means used to establish uniform discourse. The second attempts a classification of text types (5.3), which is then applied to the discussion of a concrete example (5.4).
