Modes of Co-reference as an Indicator of Genre

This book explores the property of co-reference within various texts as a possible means of distinguishing genre types. Based on observed rather than invented material, it supplies empirical data on co-reference as a cohesive mechanism within authentic English texts. Co-referential form and frequency are identified in nine texts representing three genres: academic journals, news magazine articles and fictional narrative texts.
This study offers not only quantitative but also qualitative information regarding co-reference in three individual text types, thereby laying the foundation for a comparative study of the three different genres. Focusing on the property of co-reference in this way singles out differences in language use and allows for some pertinent statements to be made regarding modes of co-reference as an indicator of text variety.

Autorentext

The Author: Wendy Swanson (born in 1961 in Aurora, Illinois, USA) earned a B.A. in German from Wheaton College, Illinois and holds a Lic. phil. degree in English and German from the University of Basel. She completed her doctoral studies in English linguistics in April 2002 and is currently teaching at the Bezirksschule Zofingen and lecturing at the Schule für Angewandte Linguistik in Zurich.

Inhalt
Contents: Study of one aspect of text cohesion: co-reference Definition of co-reference Study of the modes of co-reference Co-reference as a text-distinguishing language feature Genre characteristics Co-reference linked to language use Language variation Use of anaphora versus cataphora Definition and identification of referent types Systemic-functional linguistic approach as applied to co-reference Influence of register variables (field, mode, and tenor) on co-reference Quantitative and qualitative similarities and differences concerning use of co-reference in different text types.