Language in cultural context


We know that every text has its own meaning. Meaning comes from complex interactions between text (or speech, or image), audience, and purpose, and it can change depending on the language, culture and context. To understand and analyze a text, we need to find:


Theme: is the central idea or ideas explored by a literary work. John Gardner puts it this way: "By theme here we mean not a message -- a word no good writer likes applied to his work -- but the general subject, as the theme of an evening of debates may be World Wide Inflation."


Topic: A topic is the main organizing principle of a discussion, either verbal or written.


Main idea: The central purpose or gist of a passage or text; the primary message expressed by a passage or text. The main idea of a paragraph may be explicitly stated in a topic sentence.


Source: The point at which something springs into being or from which it derives or is obtained.


Target Audience: Audience to whom the text is directed.

Author's Purpose: is the intention of the author. It can be to persuede, inform or entertain.

Genre: A type or category of literature or film marked by certain shared features or conventions. It can be a fiction or non-fiction genre.

Tone: is the author’s attitude toward the writing (his characters, the situation) and the readers.  A work of writing can have more than one tone.  An example of tone could be both serious and humorous.  Tone is set by the setting, choice of vocabulary and other details. 

Register: a term designating the appropriateness of a given style to a given situation. Speakers and writers in specific situations deploy, for example, a technical vocabulary (e.g. scientific, commercial, medical, legal, theological, psychological), as well as other aspects of style customarily used in that situation. Literary effect is often created by switching register.