Textuality on the Web: A Focus on Argumentative Text Types.

This chapter focuses on computer mediated communication from a linguistic perspective, exploring aspects of textuality which have been impacted by the pervasive spread of the hypertext. Central features in the construction of texts are the notions of cohesion and coherence, originally tailored on linear time-based modes of communication, where both the elements and their sequentiality - fully controlled by the author - 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.