In contemporary society, textuality is an omnipresent phenomenon that shapes communication in both written and spoken form. Texts are encountered in everyday life through books, newspaper articles, social media posts, or oral performances such as speeches. Especially in political contexts, speeches are a significant medium because they not only transmit information but also seek to persuade, mobilize, and inspire audiences. They constitute a central arena where linguistic strategies and rhetorical devices directly interact with historical and cultural circumstances.
This paper therefore engages with the question of what makes a text a text. Following de Beaugrande and Dressler’s framework, seven standards of textuality are considered essential for distinguishing a genuine text from a mere collection of words: cohesion, coherence, informativity, intentionality, acceptability, situationality, and intertextuality. These criteria offer a systematic approach to evaluating both written and oral communication.
To illustrate the application of these standards, one prominent example will be analyzed: Martin Luther King Jr.’s speech I Have a Dream. Delivered during the March on Washington in 1963, this speech has become one of the most iconic political texts in modern history. King’s famous sentence “I have a dream” has become a symbol of the Civil Rights Movement and continues to resonate in contemporary debates on equality and justice. By combining linguistic analysis with historical contextualization, this paper examines whether and how King’s speech fulfills the criteria of textuality. In doing so, it highlights the importance of political speeches as texts that are not only functional but also deeply embedded in cultural and social struggles.
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- Lina Ellert (Autor), 2025, What makes a text a text?, Múnich, GRIN Verlag, https://www.grin.com/document/1703963
