Angelika Zirker

Physiognomy and the Reading of Character in Our Mutual Friend

In Our Mutual Friend, Charles Dickens uses physiognomy as an indirect way of portraying characters that observe their fellow-characters rather than as a direct means of portraying the characters observed. This reading of faces often constitutes misinterpretation: Dickens links Our Mutual Friend to the issue of reading itself, providing models of reader response. Misreadings thus become morally and aesthetically relevant to the overall structure and effect of the novel.

FictionalAssert and Implicatures

In this paper, we present interdisciplinary work of linguists and literary scholars on the emergence of implicatures in fictional, here particularly lyrical texts. By systematically analysing a small corpus of poems by Emily Dickinson, John Donne, and other poets not discussed here, we show that, due to specific characteristics of the text type, an additional effect of pragmatic interpretation occurs that we call apparent flouting: in poetry, the pragmatic interpretation of the text is achieved in a more complex way than in non-fictional discourse. It requires a speech act operator that is different from Assert (Krifka 1995), which applies to the text as a whole and does not assert its actual truth. Because the pragmatic interpretation of poetry is more complex, cases of ambiguity that put forward several possible readings, for example, are not resolved right away. Rather, all possible readings contribute to the overall meaning of the poem:

Explanatory Annotation of Literary Texts and the Reader: Seven Types of Problems

While most literary scholars wish to help readers understand literary texts by providing them with explanatory annotations, we want to go a step further and enable them, on the basis of structured information, to arrive at interpretations of their own. We therefore seek to establish a concept of explanatory annotation that is reader-oriented and combines hermeneutics with the opportunities provided by digital methods. In a first step, we are going to present a few examples of existing annotations that apparently do not take into account readerly needs. To us, they represent seven types of common problems in explanatory annotation. We then introduce a possible model of best practice which is based on categories and structured along the lines of the following questions: What kind(s) of annotations do improve text comprehension? Which contexts must be considered when annotating? Is it possible to develop a concept of the reader on the basis of annotations—and can, in turn, annotations address a particular ki...

Dimensions of Iconicity

This volume addresses five different Dimensions of Iconicity. While some contributions examine the phonic dimensions of iconicity that are based on empirical, diachronic and theoretical work, others explore the function of similarity from a cognitive point of view. The section on multimodal dimensions takes into account philosophical, linguistic and literary perspectives in order to analyse, for example the diagrammatic interplay of written texts and images. Contributions on performative dimensions of iconicity focus on Buddhist mantras, Hollywood films, and the dynamics of rhetorical structures in Shakespeare. Last but not least, the volume also addresses new ways of considering iconicity, including notational iconicity, the interplay of iconicity, ambiguity, interpretability, and the iconicity of literary analysis from a formal semanticist point of view.

Wordplay and it's interfaces in speaker-hearer interaction : an introduction

Taking the ubiquity and variety of wordplay in both everyday communication and literary texts as a starting point, this contribution sets out to present two different perspectives that allow for a profound interdisciplinary approach. Firstly, the metalinguistic / metadiscursive point of view helps us analyze how wordplay is used and interpreted in various communicative situations. This metalinguistic / metadiscursive perspective reflects on both the linguistic code (or linguistic codes in cases of multilingual wordplay) and on the act of communication itself. Secondly, we are looking at various interplays of wordplay, including linguistic, cognitive, social, etc. forms of such interplay. Our approach foregrounds not only the complexity of wordplay as an interface phenomenon but also allows for a better understanding of wordplay as employed in speaker-hearer interaction and thus also unravels fundamental aspects of language and communication.

Jeux de mots, enjeux et interfaces dans l'interaction locuteur-auditeur : réflexions introductives

Résumé : Partant de l’omniprésence et de la grande diversité des jeux de mots dans la communication quotidienne et dans les textes littéraires, cette contribution vise à présenter deux axes de réflexion qui permettent d’approfondir son analyse dans une perspective interdisciplinaire. Premièrement, la fonction métalinguistique / métadiscursive permet d’envisager la façon dont les jeux de mots sont employés et interprétés dans des situations de communication particulières, opérant une réflexion sur le code linguistique (ou les codes linguistiques, dans le cas de jeux de mots plurilingues) et / ou sur l’acte de communication. Deuxièmement, nous nous interrogerons sur les différents enjeux du jeu de mots : enjeux linguistiques, cognitifs, sociaux,... Les analyses font ressortir la complexité du phénomène, qui est un véritable phénomène d’interface, et le potentiel d’approches pluridimensionnelles combinant diverses perspectives, pour arriver non seulement à une meilleure compréhension du jeu de mots à partir de son emploi dans l’interaction locuteur-auditeur, mais aussi d’envisager certains aspects fondamentaux du langage et de la communication en général.

Ambiguität in der Sprecher-Hörer-Interaktion: Linguistische und literaturwissenschaftliche Perspektiven

In our paper, we explore the use and functions of ambiguity in communication, i. e. in speaker-hearer-interaction. A pragmatic point of view opens up the possibility to include parameters such as the roles of speaker and hearer, the salience of ambiguity in communication and its effects on ongoing communication as well as contexts that frame the occurrence of ambiguity. These parameters are applicable onto examples from everyday speech and literary communication alike.Our interdisciplinary approach, together with our choice of examples, goes beyond traditional perspectives on ambiguity in several ways. Including examples of pragmatic ambiguity that are not inherent to the language system allows us to investigate the central role of ambiguity in language change. The study of literary examples shows that ambiguity also involves several levels of speakers and hearers so that ambiguity can be analyzed both within the text and on a level outside the text. All this contributes to an increase of complexity in the communicative situation and thus gives us a more comprehensive perspective on ambiguity in its manifold varieties.

»The Two Coeval Come«: Emily Dickinson and ambiguity

By focussing on three poems by Emily Dickinson, this paper shows that linguistic analysis based on the compositional interpretation at the level of Logical Form helps us establish a clearer picture of notoriously difficult poetic texts. At the same time, poems which provide us with borderline cases of interpretability help us see clearer the limits of adaptability within the grammatical system. Ambiguity is the field in which both sides meet, as it is used by Dickinson quite systematically in order to present different aspects of the way in which language relates to experience. In » This was a Poet« (J448), for example, two coherent readings created by ambiguity at the level of Logical Form emerge as the result of simultaneously pursuing all strategies of presupposition and anaphora resolution and as the quintessence of the poet-reader relationship described. In »He fumbles at your Soul« (J315), ambiguity of reference and of reinterpretation lead to underspecification of the resulting meaning, which appropriately serves to convey the idea of a speaker narrating an experience that is both general and specific. In »This would be Poetry« (J1247), reinterpretation must occur at the highest level because the poem consists of a sequence of statements that cannot simultaneously be true literally. Each poem is marked by a high degree of linguistic self-awareness and may be regarded as a test case, stretching the limits of what grammar makes possible.

36. Drama and cultural change: turning around Shakespeare.

This collection of essays is concerned with the way in which drama both responds and contributes to cultural change. Not all of the contributions are focused on Shakespeare but most of them address the fact that, as regards the English-speaking world, Shakespeare has formed the pivot of the relationship between drama and culture for several centuries. This will perhaps appear most clearly when we consider the ways in which Shakespeare’s plays have been adapted and transformed. It seems possible to read these adaptations as documentary evidence of cultural change, no matter whether the adaptation is meant to be a way of ‘saving’ Shakespeare for a different cultural climate, whether it is an iconoclastic attempt at showing the need for a thoroughgoing revision of the cultural assumptions on which his plays appear to be based, or whether Shakespeare’s words, themes, characters and elements of action are mainly used as a kind of language helping later authors to make their own individual statements known and understood at particular cultural moments. This very process of marking similarity and difference by ‘using’ Shakespeare, however, shows that drama indicates, considers, enhances or slows down cultural change in complex ways. Eckhard Auberlen’s contribution to this volume, together with Ellen DengelJanic’s and Johanna Roering’s essay, is most immediately concerned with the use of Shakespeare in later dramatic works. In his article on George Granville’s adaptation of The Merchant of Venice, Auberlen points out that to Granville, Shakespeare’s play becomes a means of pursuing an aesthetic and political agenda which responds to the social and economic situation of Granville’s own time. One way of doing so is to present The Merchant of Venice as the defense of a world in which trade forms a harmonious league with aristocratic ideals of generosity in the face of a more ruthless, profi t-oriented form of capitalism. In their discussion of the British-Asian fi lm Second Generation, Dengel-Janic and Roering come to a conclusion which evinces parallels to Auberlen’s: in this TV