Textuality on the Web: A Focus on Argumentative Text Types

Central features in the construction of texts are the notions of cohesion and coherence, originally tailored for linear time-based modes of communication, where both the elements and their sequentiality contribute to meaning making. In light of the disruption of linear sequentiality brought by the space-based logic of the hypertext, this chapter aims to understand how cohesion and coherence work in the website environment, with specific regard to genres characterised by an argumentative drive, which potentially suffer more than other text types from the loss of the author’s control on the linear dispositio of arguments. The analysis identifies different patterns for the construction of cohesion and coherence in argumentative websites, which accommodate traditional standards of textuality into the new environment. The chapter concludes that the mechanisms at work for the construction of coherence on a website are not qualitatively different from those for the construction of coherence in traditional texts. However, the difference lies in the intensity of relevance ties between physically adjacent contents, which tends to be significantly looser on the web.