Text: The sentences that make up a text need to be grammatical, but grammatical sentences alone will not ensure that the text itself will make sense Discourse: Can be defined as a stretch of language formed by several sentences, which seem to be related in same way. Sentences can be related not only in term of the ideas the share but also in terms of their functions. (they perform within the discourse) The are different definitions of the terms discourse and analysis: About the terms terms discourse and analysis there is some disagreement among writers, for some writers these terms can be used almost in the same way, for others, discourse refers to language in context. Crystal considers a discourse a continuous stretch of (especially spoken) language lager than a sentence, often part of a coherent unti, such as a sermon, argument, narrative. Crystal defines a text as a piece of naturally occurring spoken, written language or signed discourse identified for purposes of analysis. Ins often a language unit with a definable communicative function, such as a conversation, a poster….

Cook defines a discourse as stretch of language perceived to be meaningful, unified and purposive, while defines a text as a stretch of language interpreted formally without context.

Brown and Yule: we shall use text as a technical term, to refer to the verbal record of a communicative act.

David Nunan in the book uses the term text to refer to any written record of a communicative event, and the event may involve oral language ( a sermon, a casual conversation), it may also involve written language (a poem, newspaper, advertisement, a shopping list, a wall poster.

David Nunan uses the term discourse to refer to the interpretation of the communicative event in context.

Discourse analysis involves the study of language in use..Context is an important concept in discourse analysis, it refers to the situation giving rise to the discourse and within which the discourse is embedded. There are two different types of context:

Linguistic context: the language that surrounds or accompanies the piece of discourse under analysis.
The non-linguistic or experiential context within which discourse takes place. The non-linguistic contexts include the type of communicative event (can be a joke, a story, lecture, a conversation an so on), the topic, the purpose,

and settings of a communicative event, the participants ( people who take part to this communicative event) and the relation between them and the background knowledge).

Written language according to Halliday emerged as a result of cultural changes, which led to new communicative needs. With the rise of cultures based on agriculture, rather then hunting, people needed written records. Written language is used to get things done, to provide information, to entertain. However, the contexts in which we use written language are very different from those in which we use spoken language. In the case of information written language is used to communicate with people who are far from us or for those occasions on which a permanent record is required. Nowadays is possible communicate with others by phone but there are some types of information that are more appropriate in written form ( postcards greetings to family and friends)

Hallyday says that written language is used for:

Actions: (television and radio guide, computer manuals, bills, menus and so on
Information: newspapers, advertisements, political pamphlets.
Entertainment: books, poetry, comic strips. These different uses of written language can be reflected in the characteristics of the texts themselves; letters have different characteristics from a newspaper of from a poem and so on. Anyway, the features we tend to associate to with written language, can sometimes occur in spoken language and vice versa. Grammar Linguistically, written language is mainly formed by clauses that are internally complex, while in spoken language the complexity concerns the way the clauses are joint together. Spoken and written language differ in the ratio (proportion) of content words to grammatical or function words. Content words or lexical words are: nouns and verbs, while content words or grammatical words are prepositions, pronouns and articles. The lexical density: is the number of lexical words or content words that occur in a clause. There is a process frequently used in written language consists in turning verbs into nouns, Hallyday calls it grammatical metaphor. e.g. Good writers reflects on what they write Reflection is a characteristic of good writers, Discourse types can be classified in terms of the communicative jobs they are doing. Considering the intentions we use language for, we can distinguish in transactional language a language used to obtain goods and services, and interpersonal language the type of language used for socialising.