ATLAS OF LANGUAGE

AT-DEP6-0014 · ATLAS 260

Textuality

The quality by which a linguistic artefact functions as a coherent, situated and communicative text.

Part of the subject path Poetics, Narrative and Representation

Why is this entry in the Atlas?

G · Foundational concept R2 · Necessary foundation

Textuality supplies the encompassing concept needed to relate formal linkage, interpretability and communicative situation in the functioning of a text. Grammatical sentences alone do not establish an integrated communicative text.

Colours and admission grounds

The rectangular label identifies the entry function: F – linguistic figure or procedure; A – analytical concept; G – foundational concept; E – selected concrete case. The rounded badge indicates the admission ground: R1 – distinctive contribution; R2 – necessary foundation; R3 – justified illustrative case. This editorial rationale explains the current selection rather than claiming an undocumented original selection history.

Explanation

Textuality is the property through which a linguistic configuration functions in a situation as a coherent communicative text. It does not arise from grammatically correct sentences alone. Connections, thematic coherence, recognisable intention, acceptability, information structure, situational relevance, and relations to other texts interact. Which criteria dominate depends on medium and genre: dialogue, form, poem, and multimodal website organise coherence differently. Textuality is therefore not a substance possessed by a word sequence but a relational achievement of design, context, and reception. The concept reveals how individual signs become an addressable unit that forms expectations and enables continuation beyond sentence boundaries.

Movement of thought

1. Individual utterances or sign sequences first stand beside each other and offer local grammatical and semantic cues. 2. Reference, recurrence, thematic development, and genre patterns connect them into an anticipated coherence. 3. Situation, communicative purpose, and readers actualise this coherence as a functioning and addressed textual unit. 4. A counter-test changes order, context, or referential structure and examines which conditions are genuinely necessary. 5. The configuration returns as a relational whole whose textual status arises through form, use, and reception.

Scientific use case

Text linguistics can annotate cohesive devices, coherence construction, information structure, and genre expectations. Reception studies can test how readers establish textuality in fragmented, digital, or multimodal environments.

Example

Three brief notices—“Front entrance closed. Please use the courtyard. Ramp on the left.”—form an intelligible text through situation and action sequence although connective conjunctions are absent.

Counterexample

A random list of grammatical sentences with no discernible relation, purpose, or situational relevance is not a functioning text merely because its components are sentences.

Distinction

Distinguish textuality from grammaticality, cohesion, coherence, discourse, and materiality. It encompasses several conditions of textual functioning; cohesion and coherence are important but not sufficient alone.

Effect on thought and perception

Textuality binds separate utterances into an actionable unit and guides expectation and memory; failed connection produces fragmentation or misleading coherence.

Resonance

One sentence answers the previous one and opens the next; local returns form a larger current experienced as a text.

Cite this entry

Reich, Michael (Hrsg./ed.): „Textuality“. Atlas der Sprache, AT-DEP6-0014. ATLAS 260, data model 1.6.0. https://atlasoflanguage.com/concept/AT-DEP6-0014

https://atlasoflanguage.com/concept/AT-DEP6-0014

The address remains stable; editorial content may evolve. Editorial reading state: 2026-10-15. Include your access date for precise references.

Historical background

The Magdeburg university glossary, dated 2017, explains Textualität through seven criteria attributed to Beaugrande and Dressler 1981. Grammatical and conceptual connections are combined with intention, reception, information, situation and relations to other texts. This German institutional account witnesses a multidimensional conception of textual functioning. The 1981 originals remain indirectly cited, and 2017 dates the glossary entry rather than the concept’s origin.

How conceptual history changes the analysis

Do not infer textual functioning solely from grammatical linkage. Situation, participants and relations to other texts belong in the analysis.

References for the historical section

Historical source evidence and Atlas applications remain separate; this import does not assert new first attestations or a fresh exhaustive source verification.