《Debate on Genre amp;c. 》.docx

Debate on Genre Text Type [all messages are taken from sysfling] Hi All, ?? Preparing for a class on genre, register, context and realised I am a bit vague on the distinction between genre and text type. Seems the literature goes two ways in defining what a genre is: - external to the text, texts that share a common social purpose can be said to be in the same genre. - internal to the text, in that texts that share common linguistic styles and text structurings are grouped together as a genre. Martins English Text seems to go with the first, talking of goals are defined in terms of systems of social processes at the level of genre. Martin and Rose (Working with Discourse) on the other hand seems to use more of an internal criterion: We use the term genre in this book to refer to different types of texts that enact various types of social contexts. As children, we learn to recognize and distinguish the typical genres of our culture, by attending to consistent patterns of meaning as we interact with others in various situations. Since patterns of meaning are relatively consistent for each genre, we can learn to predict how each situation is likely to unfold, and learn how to interact in it. - all of this quote suggests that properties internal to the text define a texts genre. On the other hand, I see cases where genre is equated with social purpose, and text type is used for the internally consistent models that realise these purposes (e.g.,  HYPERLINK /razwritingweb/topic/tools/beginning-fluent/rubrics/genres_text+types?id=51 /razwritingweb/topic/tools/beginning-fluent/rubrics/genres_text+types?id=51) Anyone want to help me clarify the current status of the terminology here? Mick Hi Mick and sysfling-readers Such an interesting question! Right now I am sitting in front of my pc wondering about and discussing exactly the same issue in my ph.d.-thesis! I am still writing and havent finished it yet, but have been reading some literature on the subject. Still confus