CLASSIFICATION OF TEXTS ACCORDING TO THEIR COMMUNICATIVE FUNCTION

All texts fulfill certain communicative functions. These can be: informative or referential, expressive, artistic, appellative
or conative, phatic and metalinguistic. Some of these functions may coincide in the same text; but it is really one that
predominates and characterizes it. The first three are those that give rise to different texts; the remaining three can be
in the texts without being predominant. Let's see below the characteristics of some texts according to the predominant
function.

-Informative or referential texts : This type corresponds to all texts that refer us to an aspect of reality, about which the
author presents facts or data objectively. Scientific, journalistic, legal and other texts that deal with objective reality are
informative texts. Let's look at an example:
“Cape Town, also known as Mother City , is the southernmost city in South Africa and all of Africa. As happened in other
regions, the Portuguese were the first to arrive in this area. In 1488, the explorer Bartolomeu Días sighted the coasts of
the new land and, ten years later, another navigator from that country, Vasco da Gama, advanced eastward until
reaching the Indian Ocean.”
(R. Belt. Southern pearl of Africa. Bohemia Magazine.)

-Expressive texts : In texts in which the expressive function predominates, the moods, feelings and emotions of the
author are present. Expressive texts are the family letter, the conversation, the intimate diary, etc. Let's look at an
example of a casual conversation:
-Antonio! What a surprise!
- How nice to see you, Maria!
- Did you re-enroll in school?
- I would like to return. You look great!
- I'm doing aerobic exercises.
-And the boys, how are they?
- Everyone finished the course well.
- I would like to request registration again.
- Excellent! I am very happy that you want to continue studying.
- Well, I hope you're with us again!
- See you around.

-Poetic or artistic texts: When the author's communicative intention is to recreate reality artistically through figurative
language, we are in the presence of a text whose function is poetic or artistic. This function predominates in literary
texts (poems, stories, novels and plays). Let's look at an example:
“If you see a mountain of foam
It is my verse that you see:
My verse is a mountain, and it is
“A feather fan.”
“Simple Verses”, José Martí.
-Appellative or conative texts : When the author's communicative intention is aimed at convincing his interlocutor and
moving him to action, it is said that the text has an appellative function. Explicitly, someone or something is invoked.
This function is performed by: notices, announcements, political speeches, circulars, letters, etc. There are poems in
which, along with the poetic function, the appellative function is present. With texts that have an appealing function we
try to convince or persuade the people we are addressing. In the hallways of a hospital, posters may appear with the
following texts: Silence!, Take care of cleanliness!, No smoking! They are all aimed at the people who pass through the
place and the intention is to achieve the desired behavior in them. Likewise, the following notice may appear on the
classroom wall:
BUDDY:
TOMORROW, AT 8 AM, YOU MUST PARTICIPATE IN THE MEETING THAT WILL BE HELD TO ORGANIZE THE PRODUCTIVE
ACTIVITIES OF THIS SUMMER. ATTEND ON TIME!

Journalistic text:
It is that type of text whose purpose is to inform about facts and topics of general interest. Its main function is to inform
but it also allows critical assessments and opinions on events and news.
The elements that appear in the journalistic text are:

Issuer: Collective. Even when it is a specific person (journalist, editorial writer, reporter, columnist) who prepares the
message, he or she represents the interests of a certain editorial group.

Recipients: Wide and heterogeneous public. He has no possibility of response. Nor can it verify the veracity of the
information. Some critics have pointed out that only the distance between what happened and how it appears in the
press can be verified. Only then can we appreciate the distance between the facts and the way in which they are
presented. This fact is verified by seeing the different content about the same event in different newspapers.
Communication can be established through letters to the editor, but never a complete communication process.

Channel: Written press and Internet. They involve very complex technical means and processes. From the moment the
information is prepared until it reaches the hands of the recipient, it goes through several processes, covering very short
temporal distances and very long spatial distances.

Message: Conditioned by current events. Several elements determine the timeliness of an event:
The close.
The importance according to political, social or economic factors.
The fame of the protagonists.
Human interest.
Progress.
The conflict.
The unusual.

Code:
Mixed: mixture of linguistic code plus extralinguistic (typography) and visual (images) codes.
Discourse intention: Each genre imposes the intentionality of the discourse.
Inform (Informative Genres)
Form opinion (Genres of opinion)
Entertain (Various Sections)
We find different types of journalistic texts:
to. Ideological Journalism. Its most common genres are the essay, the commentary and the article.
b. Informative Journalism. The main genre is the news.
c. Explanatory Journalism. Whose main mission will be to interpret and evaluate the facts.

THE LEGAL-ADMINISTRATIVE TEXT: is the speech that uses a special type of language, typical of the State
Administration bodies. It is presented in written form, through various documents, such as minutes, announcements,
opinions, provisions, regulations, orders, regulations, resolutions, circulars, summonses, calls, statutes, forms,
notifications, and many other modalities. The documents most used by citizens are the application and the contract. It
receives the designation of legal-administrative text because the body in charge of enforcing judicial laws operates
through the administration.

ELEMENTS OF A LEGAL-ADMINISTRATIVE TEXT:

The issuer: Occupies a dominant position and seeks anonymity.

The receiver: Occupies a subordinate position with respect to the text, which is imposed on him as a prescriptive or
informative text. When the writer of the legal-administrative text is a citizen, the recipient occupies a position of power
and the sender is subordinate.

The channel: It is an official paper, dated and signed. The channel becomes the law itself.

The message: The content of the text is specific, without detours. It does not admit anecdote, history, or hypothesis. Its
intention is not to convince in the manner of advertising or political language, nor is it motivated by an aesthetic
objective, as is the case with literary language; The legal-administrative text has the fundamental purpose of informing,
ordering and, sometimes, dissuading and requesting or complaining when the issuer is the citizen.

The code: Varies depending on the language of the recipient. For example, if it is for an English-speaking recipient, the
text will be written in English.

The context: It is invariably formal. This type of text is used only in specific situations and with the greatest seriousness,
paying attention to the smallest details.

CHARACTERISTICS

The rigidity of its structure. It has an invariable scheme for each modality (contract, instance, sentence, etc.)

The lexicon. It uses a vocabulary full of technicalities, pre-established through formulas and phrases prepared without
considering the standard language.

The objectivity. The sender of the legal-administrative text cannot use creativity, expressivity, subjectivity, he cannot
improvise a new organization for his message, nor play personally with the language.

The anonymity of the issuer. The writing of the text is delegated to a sender other than the one who dictated it and he,
in turn, dictates it on behalf of another.
Uses the future subjunctive due to the need to specify nuances, especially in the drafting of laws: if appropriate; if there
is room; when I deem appropriate; if they do not appear, etc.

The content also justifies the frequent use of the imperative: participate, notify yourself, and the future indicative of
command in passive and impersonal constructions: it will be made known, as well as the frequency of punctual present
indicative: proceed, I certify, I dispose, it is dictated, etc., which affirm security in compliance with what is ordered or
provided. As a consequence of the excess of subordination, the length of the paragraph and the abundance of
paragraphs, the text is complex and obscure and sometimes becomes ambiguous.

Legal-administrative language differs from standard language due to its excessive use of passive constructions: the
signed claim was submitted to this Court and admitted to be processed; after the deadline.

The third person is used a lot. The typical case is that of the instance, which forces the sender to place himself in the
place of another and triggers, at times, a doubt among people throughout the text. The fluctuation is attributed to the
difficulty that an inexperienced speaker has in maintaining his speech on an impersonal level.

The accumulation of prepositional phrases: in the event of, in accordance with, for the purposes of, at the request of, as
provided in, etc., is another characteristic of the text we study. Many of these phrases do not provide real content but
are limited to serving as support in the structuring of the text.

But with their presence they contribute to reinforcing its rigid and invariable character and further prolong an already
long and complex phrase.

The lexicon is stable, it is a cultured, ritual language with little room for variation. Archaisms are abundant: debit,
provision, request, for this my sentence, for before me the Secretary; but many also constitute technicalities: debit,
reliable, diligence, decline in your right, submit a document, initiate a file, issue a certificate, etc.

Among the word formation procedures, the formation of adjectives ending in al stands out: procedural, educational and
in Aryan: allottee, lessee, petitioner, concessionaire.

The use of anaphorics such as said, mentioned, cited, expressed, indicated, referred to, alluded to, this, that and that,
etc. is abundant.

The legal-administrative language is also characterized by the abundant use of acronyms and abbreviations when
referring to organizations, institutions, laws and concepts: MEC, MAG, IMF. Although they are very useful, due to the
time and space savings they represent, their presence hinders the readability of the text.