ABSTRACT
Text structure refers to the hierarchical principles of composition. Text is composed of a series of sentences which together serve some overall rhetorical purpose. Hasan introduces the term 'contextual configuration' to refer to those values from the whole range of field, tenor or mode, actually selected in any particular instance of communication within a particular discourse or genre. Lexical and syntactic signals are always present to mark this shift, which may also at times correspond to paragraph boundaries. As a guide within the complex maze of decision making, translators may also find it useful to refer to a recognisable set of global patterns to which texts conform in different languages. From the translator's point of view, what is particularly interesting about discourse relations is that they provide patterns which facilitate retrieval of rhetorical purposes. The attitudinal or ideological drift of a text is patterned in textual structures. These are the tangible linguistic units which guide the translator's work.
