“Texts used in a particular situation for a
particular purpose may be classified using every-day Iabels such as a guidebook, a nursery rhyme, a poem, a business letter, a newspaper article, a radio play, an advertisement, etc. Such categories are referred to as genres” (TROSBORG, 1997, p. 4).
“Genre refers to abstract, socially recognised
ways of using language. It is based on the idea that members of a community usually have little difficulty in recognising similarities in the texts they use frequently and are able to draw on their repeated experiences with such texts to read, understand, and perhaps write them relatively easily” (HYLAND, 2007, p. 149).
“ How do genres relate to register and text
types? How is one genre to be identified and distinguished from other genres? Are the defining criteria text-internal, or is the classification based on text-external criteria, or both? [...] What are the characteristics of specific genres? Do these characteristics differ cross-culturally and if so in what ways?” (TROSBORG, 1997, p. 1)
“The category of register is postulated to
account for what people do with their language. When we observe language activity in the various contexts in which it takes place, we find differences in the type of language selected as appropriate to different types of situation” (Halliday et al. apud TROSBORG, 1997, p 4).
The language of religion The language of legal documents The language of newspaper reporting Medical language Technical language
Register constraints operate at the linguistic level of vocabulary and syntax. Genre constraints operate at the level of discourse structure: specific conditions for beginning, structuring and ending a text.
Description: differentiation and interrelation of perceptions in spacen. Narration: differentiation and interrelation of perceptions in time. Exposition: comprehension of general concepts through differentiation by Analysis and/or synthesis. evaluation of relations Argumentation: between and among concepts through the extraction of similarities, contrasts, and transformations. Instruction: planning of future behaviour.
A note: This is just to say I have eaten the plums that were in the icebox and which you were probably saving for breakfast. Forgive me, they were delicious: so sweet and so cold.
A translation: Este bilhete é só para lhe dizer que comi as ameixas que estavam na geladeira e que provavelmente você estava guardando para o café da manhã. Desculpe-me, mas elas estavam deliciosas: tão doces e geladas.
I have eaten the plums that were in the icebox and which you were probably saving for breakfast
Forgive me they were delicious so sweet and so cold
“ How do genres relate to register and text
types? How is one genre to be identified and distinguished from other genres? Are the defining criteria text-internal, or is the classification based on text-external criteria, or both? [...] What are the characteristics of specific genres? Do these characteristics differ cross-culturally and if so in what ways?” (TROSBORG, 1997, p. 1)
“Genre
pedagogies promise very real benefits for learners as they pull together language, content, and contexts, while offering teachers a means of presenting students with explicit and systematic explanations of the ways writing works to communicate” (CHRISTIE, MARTIN 1997 apud HYLAND 2007, p. 150).
A genre-based writing instruction offers students an explicit understanding of how target texts are structured and why they are written in the ways they are. The exploration of texts and contexts through genre teaching helps learners to see how grammar and vocabulary choices create meanings and to understand how language works and its role in texts “The function of the genre must be understood from
the perspective of the composer/translator who must draw upon knowledge of register and genre to perform effectively” (TROSBORG, 1997, p 15)
Identify the genre of the extracts on attachment 5. Point out the characteristics that led you to identify the genres. Translate the texts into Portuguese.
ARROJO, R. Oficina de tradução: a teoria na prática. São Paulo: Ática, 1986 HYLAND, K. Genre pedagogy : Language, literacy and L2 writing instruction. Journal of Second Language Writing 16 (2007) 148–164. Available on < www.sciencedirect.com> MAGALHÃES, C. “Estratégias de análise macrotextual: gênero, texto e contexto”. In: PAGANO, A (org.). Traduzir
com autonomia: estratégias para o tradutor em formação .
São Paulo: contexto, 2000. p. 71 – 86
TROSBORG, A. Text Typology: Register, Genre and Text Type. In: Trosborg, Anna (ed.). Text Typology and Translation. 1997. Available on:
