Text

In language, text is a broad term for something that contains words to express something.

In linguistics text is a communicative act, fulfilling the seven constitutive and the three regulative principles of textuality. Both speech and written language, or language in other media can be seen as a text within linguistics.

In literary theory a text is the object being studied, whether it be a novel, a poem, a film, an advertisement, or anything else with a linguistic component. The broad use of the term derives from the rise of semiotics in the 1960s and was solidified by the later cultural studies of the 1980s, which brought a corresponding broadening of what it was one could talk about when talking about literature.

In mobile phone communication, a text is a short digital message between devices. Also known as short message service

In computing, text refers to character data, or to one of the segments of a program in memory.

See also

• boilerplate text
• plain text

References

• Mowitt, John. Text: The Genealogy of an Antidisciplinary Object. Durham, N.C.: Duke University Press, 1992.

See also: Text, Advertisement, Boilerplate text, Character (computing), Computing, Cultural studies, Film, Language, Linguistics, Literary theory