Reformulation implies reformulating.
Formulation is the process and result of formulating (indicating, declaring or externalizing something; explaining it with precise words). From this definition, we can understand what the concept of reformulation refers to, even when the term is not part of the dictionary prepared by the Royal Spanish Academy ( RAE ).
To do this we can first observe the prefix re- , whose presence tells us that reformulation is doing something again . In other words, when a person carries out this action, they do so based on a previous formulation, also their own.
What does a reformulation consist of?
It can be indicated that a reformulation consists of the introduction of changes . For example, if a scientist reformulates a theory , what he does is add or eliminate postulates according to the new evidence he has discovered.
The reformulation of a soccer tournament, for its part, involves modifying the format of the competition. A tournament of twenty teams that play 19 games each can be reformulated so that forty teams begin to compete, facing each other in a match and revenge.
Say the same thing with other words
In certain contexts, rephrasing can be about saying the same thing again but with different words . An Argentinian can enter a store in Spain and ask for a “cell phone” : to the seller's confusion, he reformulates the query and asks for a “mobile phone” , since that is the concept used in Spain to refer to the device. known in Argentina as “cellular” .
In the latter case, we can note that reformulating does not always consist of modifying the essence of something, but it can also be a change in the way of communicating it .
A person may talk about a “cell” phone and then, after rephrasing, refer to the same device as a “mobile” phone.
Reformulation as transformation
Reformulation is a procedure that offers us the possibility of transforming one message into another, so that communication is effective in any context. To do this, it is not enough to know the rules of syntax, but we must develop the ability to choose the words and structures appropriate to each situation, to each interlocutor, since a correct text is also one that can be understood and used .
Since our student years, we learn almost unconsciously to reformulate our words and those of others: when we try to express an idea and go through the same phrase several times, changing words or structures, until we find the clearest version of our explanation, or when we feel the need to summarize what another person has said, orally or in writing, we are putting this essential communication skill into practice.
Substitution strategies
Reformulation can be carried out following various strategies, one of which is substitution . It is about presenting a portion of text (which can be a sentence or a paragraph) or an entire text in a different way, without the information being altered; In other words, no data should be removed or added to the source. For this we can resort to:
* synonyms : it is the resource that we most often use to reformulate a phrase, although sometimes finding the right word is more difficult than it seems. For example, although it is correct to state that hitting and beating are synonyms, they cannot be used interchangeably in any situation;
* hypernyms : they are terms whose meaning includes that of others, as is the case with furniture , which encompasses the concepts table , chair , armchair and wardrobe , for example;
* pronouns : broadly speaking, these are those words that can designate something without directly naming it. For example, we can say that " I left my bag on the desk " is another way of saying " I left it on the desk ", as long as the context allows us to understand what "it" refers to;
* paraphrase : when we do not find a synonym, a hypernym or a pronoun that allows us to reformulate, we can always construct a phrase that has the same meaning as the original. For example, " they dug for hours " can be replaced by " they dug holes for hours ."