Structural Analysis of an Expository Text : Its Overall and Subordinate Schematic Patterns

概要

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For a better and deeper comprehension of a text, it is crucial to understand that language operates not merely at the levels of individual words or sentences but also at the levels of the paragraph and the text as a whole. Reading instructions widely conducted in Japan, however, seem heavily weighed towards the lower levels of text structure, and the consequence is often the learners who are too preoccupied with single sentences to consider them in a larger context. This paper attempts to clarify how an authentic English text written for real, purposeful language use is structured at higher or macro levels by elaborate examinations of its components and diagrammatical representations of their hierarchical relations. The analysis showed that the sample text follows a General-Specific pattern and embeds within itself General-Specific, Claim-Counterclaim, Problem-Solution, and Question-Answer patterns as subordinates. It was also found that among the basic clause relations the matching relation is most frequently employed. Finally, some pedagogical implications were suggested in relation to some findings of this paper.