A Gentle Introduction to Formal Semantics

Studies in Polish Linguistics, 2017

Th e article refers briefl y to the development, over the last half-century, of the sub-discipline of literary linguistics called literary semantics in anglophone tradition (mostly British), pointing out its roots in other scholarly paradigms (among others Russian formalism and the Moscow-Tartu school of semiotics) and its close connection with cognitive poetics. Th e author mentions also a development of studies on artistic language in contemporary Polish linguistic theorizing. Conceived by Trevor Eaton as a broad linguistic approach to literary texts, interdisciplinary in nature, literary semantics-in a natural way-enters into dialogue with translation studies in the area of research called comparative stylistics. Th e author discusses the notion of semantic dominant, introduced into linguistics by Roman Jakobson in 1976 and into the Polish critical theory of translation by Stanisław Barańczak (2004) to designate the most salient element of the poem's complex structure, acting as a clue to its interpretation and translation. Th e examples provided by Barańczak, voiced as metalinguistic comments on the construal of his own translations of selected English poems as well as critical evaluation of other translators' output, lead us to the conclusion that the concept of semantic dominant should be renamed stylistic dominant, the term that better refl ects a peculiar characteristic of a multi-level and oft en multimodal nature of meaning in poetic texts (plurisignation, aft er Wheelwright 1954/1968). What is more, we should talk about sets of stylistic dominants (rather than their single occurrences) that act as keys to complex semantics of poetry. An important dominant remains fi guration (troping in particular) but the orchestration of the poem (the totality of its phonetics and versifi cation) and oft en its graphic layout are of no less import in meaning construction.

Journal of Literary Semantics 42(1), 115-140, 2013 (http://www.degruyter.com/view/j/jlse)

In analysing a range of 20th century poems and excerpts, stylisticians and literary critics have individuated a number of linguistic and textual features which they relate – with various degrees of explicitness – to the complex notion of ‘difficulty’. While there is a fair amount of agreement in the set of phenomena identified, to the best of my knowledge these have never been analysed, grouped and classified from a linguistic and unified perspective. This is the chief aim of the present paper, in which I reconsider previously discussed poetic excerpts in order to derive a checklist of linguistic phenomena demanding further investigation and even future empirical testing. Another major aim is that of illustrating how widespread and problematic the use of ‘difficult’ and ‘difficulty’ is, often implying quite distinct senses. The meaning of this pair will be kept indeterminate throughout the whole paper, where it simply refers to the personal usage of the critic or stylistician at stake. At the end of the paper, by contrast, a clearer characterization will emerge in the light of the textual excerpts analysed: difficulty is regarded as a combination of semantic opacity and hypothesized processing effort at syntagmatic level. However, being part of a wider ongoing research project, a more satisfactory formulation is still to come. Finally, an additional outcome of the paper is that of adding some evidence to the study of poetic language by taking into account recent poetic developments that so far have been given little attention in stylistics.

International Journal of Multilingual Education, by Viktoriia Iashkina, 2015

Sound instrumentation of poetic speech as one of the drivers producing direct influence on the emersion and genesis of sound symbolism in the tissue of poetic texts has always been, and remains a subject of vivid scientific interest and polemics among linguists and literary theorists of both the past and nowadays. A correlation between phonetic significance and semantic meaning still remains a subject of clarification and more precise definition. Those who tried to find a correlation between the formal and the notional used to apply for studying appropriate stylistic means of sound arrangement of poetical works, such as paronymic attraction, parallelism, and poetical etymology. In the later research works it is stated that while the stylistic means foregrounded by the precursors are comprehended as those deliberately used by poets to their full extent, the area of the subconscious mind should be considered of at least equal importance in this regard, as the latter produces great influence on the ways of artistic imagery formation as well as ability of its further perception and appreciation. In this sense it appears that the connection between sounding and meaning, or sound symbolism, can hardly be revealed in monolingual poetic sample. Contemporary linguistics has no doubt about the fact, that sounds of speech, even spelled separately, do have an ability of forming non-sound associations and images. The aim of this article is to find links which unite a unique poetic whole with its multilingual translations.

Philosophia: International Journal of Philosophy, 2022

In "Words and Battlefields: A Theoria on the Poem," Cirilo Bautista advances the thesis that there is such a thing as a Filipino epic and that it is key to nation-building. Well known for his long-form poetry, Bautista can be said to be taking a position on one of the main issues in the philosophy of poetry, namely the ontology or being of poems. I argue that his theory of the poem has three cornerstones, which I critique and evaluate through a close reading of the epic poem “The Cave.”

SPIL plus, 2014

Witwatersrand Acl<nowledged as the most difficult of all types of translation the translation of poetry has provided a focal point for attempts to create a theory of translation. Until recently the focus has been on the comparison and evaluation of originals and their translations, leaving the actual process of the translation of poetry largely neglected. The reasons for this are clear: it is extremely difficult to describe objectively a process that has been universally accepted as inherently creative. It is also problematic to obtain reliable Information from subjects under test conditions.' How might the science of linguistics solve the dilemma faced by translation theorists and linguists when attempting to construct a model of translation theory which will encompass "poetic" texts? It has proved extremely difficult to construct anything resembling a theory of translation as such, although various "theories" have been proposed.^ Many linguists have ignored the field of translation studies, which has largely been dominated in recent years by literary specialists, while many translation theorists have neglected to take into account recent advances in modern linguistics.^ Bell suggests that it is now possible to construct an adequate theory of translation,'* or at least a theoretical approach to the translation process, making use of current advances in cognitive science, artificial intelligence and text linguistics, basing such an approach on a broadly functional theory of language.^ The question still remains however, whether it is possible that such a model would also be able to deal with the specific problems posed by poetic texts. Within the framework of Bell's model the translator processes the text according to three areas of operation. Firstly, the text is broken down clause by clause to provide information on its syntactic structure. The text then enters a stage of semantic analysis, where the task of "concept recovery" is undertaken. The next stage consists of a pragmatic analysis in which the communicative function of the text is determined. A "semantic representation" of the text is thus created in the mind of the reader, clause by clause.^ This representation

Australian Great War Poetry, 2019

The following supplementary is designed to be a small and quick guide to reading and writing poetry from a purely technical point of view. The artistry we will leave to the poet, but the poetic terms, tools and devices, are all things we should be more aware of when considering poetry critically. Without at least some working knowledge of these things, we will read poetry as though blind, hear poetry as though deaf and create poetry as though dumb. Like any language, if we disregard the grammar, we soon lose structure which will in turn inhibit or destroy meaning.

J Pragmatics, 1986

Semiotica, 2018

One of the main components of the Peirce’s semiotics is interpretant, which is formed through the interaction of representamen and object in the mind of the subject. As meaning-production is an endless, infinite process, it is the interpretant that plays a key function in this process; in fact interpretant leads to the revival of some other sign and consequently makes the signification go on in an endless route. Peirce, taking this in mind, asserts that the study of the rules by which an interpretant leads to the revival of another new sign could be established under a comprehensive topic of pure rhetoric. However, the question of pure rhetoric and its rules is almost completely neglected in his writings and his arguments in this regard are no more than a couple of pages. As a result, the present research tries not only to analyze and justify the rules proposed by Peirce, but also investigate theoretically their application in the semiotics of poetry. The researcher, accordingly, by...

In T. Kusumi (ed.) New Directions in Metaphor Research, Hitsuji Shobo, Tokyo: 483–501, 2007

Ibercampus , 2021

Some notes on the definition of poetry, taking into account not just the formal features of poetic genres, but also the social and artistic contexts in which poetry is written, read, circulated, invoked or used. Keywords: Poetry, Literary theory, Discourse analysis, Criticism, Poetics