Types de texte
Différents types de texte, correspondant à différents buts, correspondent à des choix d'éléments grammaticaux différents.
Narration
Une séquence dynamique d'événements, avec un accent particulier sur les verbes d'action ou, pour l'anglais, les verbes passepartout suivis d'un nom ou d'une particule ("he made an appearance", "he burst in"). Le temps caractéristique de la narration est le prétérit simple à la voix active.
The old man dropped the line and put his foot on it and lifted the harpoon as high as he could and drove it down with all his strength, and more strength he had just summoned, into the fish’s side just behind the great chest fin that rose high in the air to the altitude of the man’s chest. He felt the iron go in and he leaned on it and drove it further and then pushed all his weight after it. — E. Hemingway: The Old Man and the Sea.
She took another step, her weight came on the rope and the next moment she was away - sliding down the slope completely and at great speed - the rope had broken ! Ruth shot down fifty feet ... until she crashed into a half-embedded boulder which effectively stopped any further progress. Harry and I dropped our packs and sprinted across the hundred yards or so to Ruth. – E. Hillary: Nothing Venture, Nothing Win.
Description statique
Ici, l'accent est mis sur les verbes copules suivis d'adjectifs ou de noms dans la fonction attribut. Les groupes nominaux sont composés de noms qualifiés par des adjectifs, participes ou groupes prépositionnels:
Now she looked him full in the face and smiled. Her teeth were white in her brown face and her skin and her eyes were the same golden tawny brown. She had high cheekbones, merry eyes and a straight mouth with full lips. Her hair was the golden brown of a grain field that has been burned dark in the sun but it was cut short all over her head so that it was but little longer than the fur on a beaver pelt. She smiled in Robert Jordan's face and put her brown hand up and ran it over her head, flattening the hair which rose again as her hand passed. She has a beautiful face, Robert Jordan thought. — E. Hemingway: For Whom the Bell Tolls.
A little terrace, three concrete pots with laurel and a dusty cypress, a sagging, sun-faded blind, a scatter of battered tables and chairs, a wooden figure of a chef holding the day's menu, a drawing-pin through his pink, upheld hand. The paint had been scabbed from his face, but the menu, in violet ink, immaculately written, was attractive, if simple. (...) My room itself was pretty bare: a huge Napoleon bed in mahogany, a small table in the window, a couple of straw-bottomed chairs, a wardrobe of immense size, one lithograph of Jesus baring his heart and looking heavenwards, a smaller picture of kittens with goldfish in a bowl. — D. Bogaerde: Jericho.
Description dynamique (de processus)
La description dynamique est employée dans les instructions et la description de mecanismes en mouvement. Le texte est organisé à raison d'un stade à la fois, et souvent le format reflète cette organisation. Les impératifs et autres expressions (modales) d'obligation sont caractéristiques pour les instructions, tandis que les descriptions proprement dites emploieront plus facilement les verbes d'action au présent simple. Il peut y avoir pas mal de répétition d'éléments lexicaux par souci de clarté.
The first step is to remove the transparent foot. First detach the arm from the main plate in the usual way, and turn it over. Next remove the grey half-circle cover plate - there is a small opening at the peak of the circle to release the clip, or you could gently lever it from from the ends. Next step is release the foot from its main pivots, being careful not to tug it too far, since there is a cable attached, and watch out for the counter-weight rod and spring. The last step is to release the plug and cable, but this needs to be done carefully so as not to put too much tension on the spring, or you will break it's anchor point. With the tension released, the spring can be detached from the foot. (... ) The bottom plate needs some subtle but careful modifications. — '"'Modifying the i1i0 table for the i1pro2".
