Text and Discourse in Nominative Grammar and Communicative Grammar

Abstract

The article examines the problem of text and discourse which became central to contemporary linguistics. This issue is crucial and became subject of linguistics since resolving it will affect not just the understanding of language but also the disciplinary structure of linguistics. General study of text and discourse is related to various approaches to them and reflects identification of attributes which differentiate and combine them. The latter includes recognition of a connection between text and discourse with speech activity. Simultaneously, concept of “discourse” is broader than concept of “text”. Discourse represents “live”, dynamic meaning creation and generation of original text within speech activity. Text outside of discourse is abstracted from speech activity but still related as a preserved in memory, reproducible secondary artifact. The principal process of discourse is meaning creation and transfer of its products – communicative function. Text preserves and accumulates the results of learning; therefore, nominative function becomes primary. Functional divergence of text and discourse is ensured by use of different language means and models which dictates division of grammar onto nominative branch, which is services text along with other nominative units, and communicative one, which services discourse and speech outcomes. Functional divergence of text and discourse is also demonstrated by their typology, speech registers and register variants, forming nominative and communicative register paradigms.