Strategy 8: Identification of propositions: structure analysis (Propositional strategies)

Propositional Strategies

Readers employ propositional strategies to reconstruct the text base by means of the propositions established in the sentences of the text. Cubo de Severino et al. (2008) define a proposition as the meaning of a sentence which represents events that happen in any possible world. A sentence can have more than one preposition, i.e. it may refer to more than one event (p. 186).

 

Propositions are units which can be analyzed in terms of a predicate, which is syntactically represented by a verb; and one or more arguments, syntactically represented by nouns or noun phrases (Cubo de Severino et al., 2008, p. 187). Besides, propositions can be compound and complex in the same way sentences are compound when they contain one or more clauses; or complex when they have at least one subordinate clause (Cubo de Severino et al., 2008, pp. 191-192). These clauses may express different degrees of proximities among the events they relate to:

 

• O – No relation: it is characterized by lists of words or incoherent discourse.
• Indirect coherence: the events belong to the same episode in the possible world sharing a setting, plot and meaning. They are expressed by sentences which are not included one after the other.
• Direct coherence: the events are described in linear clauses or sentences and the relation is expressed by connectors such as then, as a result, thus, so, therefore, etc.
• Coordinated connection: the events are related as cause and consequence, forming a single event as unity. Frequently, they form a compound sentence joined by explicit coordinating connectors.
• Subordinated connection: events are not organized as a sequence but in a hierarchical order, since one event is presented as the specification of the other.
• Integration: one event determines on aspect of the other event. They are typically expressed by relative clauses.
• Reduction: the event is reduced to one of its properties, expressing it through adjectivization.

 

These different propositional relationships are expressed in the surface structure of the sentence by using specific connectors, as well as other factors such as context and reader´s knowledge of the world. (Cubo de Severino et al., 2008)

 

When readers make use of these propositional strategies, they represent a possible world, its settings and other circumstances in which those events described in the text may take place. Then, they build the representation of the objects or persons which are included and participate as well as other events

within the situation. After that, the individuals obtain their roles in relation to those events such as agent, object, and instrument. This strategic interpretation aids the reader to build the propositional scheme in order to comprehend the sentences and text. Word order, morphological structure, and syntactic categories at the surface structure of the text help readers build the propositional scheme (Cubo de Severino et al., 2008).