ABSTRACT
When we talk about texts, we use categories. It would be almost impossible not to. Such categories include not only text types, or genres (see Unit 4, Recognizing genre), such as sonnet, thriller or tragedy, but also smaller-scale elements of composition that make up those text types: verse, rhyme, sentence, character, etc. Is there a list of correct and incorrect categories that we should use? And are textual categories just a part of metalanguage, or how people talk about the language of texts, or do they actively guide understanding or even shape composition?
