Register-analysis as a means for eliciting the meaning of literary texts
Literator
| Field | Value | |
| Title | Register-analysis as a means for eliciting the meaning of literary texts | |
| Creator | Jeffery, C. | |
| Description | Intuitive reading of a literary text does not enable one to understand how the text means. For that purpose one needs a suitable semantic theory. This article proposes such a theory, based on the concept of register as meaning-potential. Situation-types have semiotic properties, which set up expectations of the kind of meaning likely in that kind of situation, and those expectations constitute the meaning-potential of the situation, that is the register, which is realised in whatever texts are actually uttered there. So register determines meaning; and register is determined by situationtype, which can be precisely defined by means of categories of (discourse-) situation. Five such categories are put forward. Their application constitutes register-analysis. The process is demonstrated on a literary text; and it is claimed that an intuitive, practical-criticism-type analysis could not be as clear, precise and comprehensive as a register-analysis. And the coherent theory of meaning which supplies the categories also provides a consistent, defined metalanguage to work in. So register-analysis offers a significant advance on intuitive reading. | |
| Publisher | AOSIS | |
| Date | 2002-08-06 | |
| Identifier | 10.4102/lit.v23i2.332 | |
| Source | Literator; Vol 23, No 2 (2002); 87-104 Literator; Vol 23, No 2 (2002); 87-104 2219-8237 0258-2279 | |
| Language | eng | |
| Relation |
The following web links (URLs) may trigger a file download or direct you to an alternative webpage to gain access to a publication file format of the published article:
https://literator.org.za/index.php/literator/article/view/332/301
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