The purpose of the documentation of a language is to represent it for those who do not have direct access to the language and thus cannot engage in the activity of using it. It therefore presents specimens of manifold uses of the language as shown in the diagram.

Monological discourse is mostly well represented both in comprehensive language documentations and in text collections appended to language descriptions. Texts are mostly narrative, although this genre is not highly representative of the use of most languages. Beside this, there are instructive, discursive and poetic texts. Mostly underrepresented is polylogical discourse, simply because of the practical difficulties of obtaining and processing relevant data. Occasions for recording such discourse include conversions, palavers and games.