Semantic structure of oral spontaneous text: theoretical and methodological approaches to its study

The paper deals with semantic structure of oral spontaneous text based on integrity and coherence as the primary text properties. Different views on the text integrity in terms of speech generation and perception as well as different points of view on text coherence and its types (superficial and deep) are analyzed. Text structure is considered as a set of superficial and deep connections in the text, specifically, connections be­tween the units and meaning components of the text. It is assumed that semantic structure of the text can be treated as a complex hierarchy involving the local connections of units within the text micro themes as well as the global connections of micro themes with each other. Generally, semantic structure of the text is sug­gested to be understood as a set of important themes and subthemes of the text, semantic units that imple­ment these subthemes and various connections (semantic and grammar) between the units and themes/subthemes. An essential feature of this model of text semantic structure is that it takes into account the grammar coherence between the basic semantic elements (lexical units). The semantic structure of the text that depends both on semantics and grammar is shown in a schematic diagram. It is emphasized that the analysis of the semantic structure of the text should be performed from superficial structure to the deep one, and from local coherence via the global one to the integrity of the text.