Principles of segmentation in the literary text. The case of the formally unsegmented text

This article explores the relationship that exists between the formal and functional units of a text, and attempts to show that some strategy of text segmentation can function as a device of text progression as it enables the concatenation of new segments. Within the framework of information structuring text segmentation is motivated by the need to change ‘Discourse Topics’ (DTs). If segmentation occurs where a new DT is presented to the text, the options available for the text are either to be segmented before or after the introduction of the new discourse segment. The article focusses on text segmentation after DT mention. Though the literary text is shown to conform to norms of text segmentation it is employed in an elaborate manner for poetic purposes. Deviant as it is, the literary text obeys cognitive and communicative postulates.