Violations of Textual Norms: A Structural and Functional Approach

The article deals with violations of linguistic norms that ensure the integrity, coherence and structuredness of speech. The analysis of theoretical and applied research on the problems of textual orthology and deviance allowed substantiating the thesis that the textual norm in the structural-functional aspect performs several functions: it fixes the mandatory correspondence of the text header to its content, thus explicating the deep structure of the utterance; regulates the grammatical and lexical-semantic connection of textual elements; provides the correct selection of subtexts and their optimal combinatorics within the whole speech composition. Failures in these directions lead to deviations. The empirical base of the research is the publications in the Russian press, materials for a student corporate edition, reports on the sites of South Ural State University. In this material, six types of non-normative textual implementations were identified and described using the system-functional analysis method: 1) a defective header that does not provide a correct representation of the informational occasion; 2) violation of the law of blending due to the incorrect choice of grammatical and lexical connectors between related sentences in the text; 3) violation of the law of incorporation due to the thematization of the rheme; 4) deviations in the organization of supra-phrase unities (eliminated mandatory speech segments, violated order of sentences, isolated components in the supra-phrase unity’s composition); 5) non-normative combinatorics of subtexts (eliminated necessary text blocks, redundant subtexts, their violated sequence, shifted presentation with incorrect development of adjacent micro-topics); 6) non-standard paragraph division, when paragraph borders are within supra-phrase unities and destroy the relative integrity of the latter. Among the identified deviations, misuse of sentence connectors in the text (105 units out of 134, 78% of the studied scope) prevails. It is similar to syntax mistakes that occur in the non-normative formation of complex sentences, that is, this is a common area for text orthology and intraphrase syntax orthology. Other types of deviations are much less common. This is due to the specifics of the relevant textual norms, which admit many options and are recommendations rather than imperative prescriptions. They are connected with the linguistic level that is used with the highest degree of awareness. In this orthological sphere, language provides communicants with the most considerable degree of freedom and personal responsibility for the result of their speech activity.

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