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The fifth standard of textuality is called informativity and concerns
the extent to which the occurrences of the presented text are expected
vs. unexpected or known vs. unknown/certain. <...> Every text is at least
somewhat informative: no matter how
predictable form and content
may be, there will always be a few variable occurrences that cannot be
entirely foreseen. Particularly low informativity is likely to be disturbing,
causing boredom or even rejection of the text. <...>
The sixth standard of textuality can be designated situationality
and concerns the factors which make a text
relevant to a situation of
occurrence. We saw in I.5 that one might treat the road sign [1] SLOW
CHILDREN AT PLAY in different ways, but that the most probable
intended use was obvious. The ease with which people can decide such
an issue is due to the influence of the situation where the text is presented.
In the case of sample [1], the sign is placed in a location where a certain
class of receivers, namely motorists, are likely to be asked for a particular
action. It is far more reasonable to assume that ‘slow’ is a request to reduce
speed rather than an announcement of the children’s mental or physical
deficiencies. Pedestrians can tell that the text is not relevant for themselves
because their speeds would not endanger anyone. In this manner, the sense
and use of the text are decided via the situation. <...>
The seventh standard of textuality is to be called intertextuality and
concerns the factors which make the utilization
of one text dependent
upon knowledge of one or more previously encountered texts. <...>
Intertextuality is, in a general fashion, responsible for the evolution of
text types as classes of texts with typical patterns of characteristics...
Within a particular type, reliance on intertextuality may be more or less
prominent. In types like parodies, critical reviews, rebuttals, or reports,
the text producer must consult the prior text continually, and text receivers
will usually need some familiarity with the latter. An advertisement
appeared in magazines some years ago showing a petulant young man
saying to someone outside the picture:
[17] As long as you’re up, get me a Grant’s.
A professor working on a research project cut the text out of a magazine,
altered it slightly, and displayed it on his office door as:
[17a] As long as you’re up, get me a Grant.
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In the original setting, [17] was a request to be given a beverage of
a particular brand. In the new setting, [17a] seems to be pointless: research
grants are awarded only after extensive preparation and certainly can’t
be gotten while casually walking across a room. The discrepancy is
resolvable via one’s knowledge of the originally
presented text and its
intention, while the unexpectedness of the new version renders it informative
and interesting. This interest effect offsets the lack of immediate
situational relevance and the nonserious
intention of the new text
presenter.
We have now glanced at all seven standards of textuality: cohesion,
coherence, intentionality, acceptability, informativity, situationality, and
intertextuality. These standards function as constitutive principles of
textual communication: they define and
create the form of behaviour
identifiable as textual communicating, and if they are defied, that form
of behaviour will break down.
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