Fictional Discourse

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stefano Predelli
Keyword(s):  
Proper Names ◽  
Literary Translation ◽  
Critical Discourse ◽  
Narrative Fiction ◽  
Narrative Time ◽  
Literary Characters ◽  
Fictional Names ◽  
Philosophy Of Fiction

This book defends a Radical Fictionalist Semantics for fictional discourse. Focusing on proper names as prototypical devices of reference, it argues that fictional names are only fictionally proper names, and that, as a result, fictional sentences do not encode propositions. According to Radical Fictionalism, the contentful outcomes achieved by fiction are derived from the outcomes of so-called impartation, that is, from the effects achieved by the use of language. As a result, Radical Fictionalism pays special attention to fictional telling and to related themes in narrative fiction. In particular, the book proposes a Radical Fictionalist approach to the distinction between homodiegetic and heterodiegetic fiction, and to the divide between storyworlds and narrative peripheries. These ideas are then applied to the discussion of classic themes in the philosophy of fiction, including narrative time, literary translation, storyworld importation, fictional languages, inconsistent fictions, nested narratives, and narrative closure. Particular attention is also given to the commitments of Radical Fictionalism when it comes to discourse about fiction, as in prefixed sentences of the form ‘according to fiction F, … ’. In its final two chapters, the book extends Radical Fictionalism to critical discourse. In Chapter 7 it introduces the ideas of critical and biased retelling, and in Chapter 8 it pauses on the relationships between Radical Fictionalism and talk about literary characters.

Tess of the D’Urbervilles

2020 ◽  
pp. 149-167
Author(s):  
Stefano Predelli
Keyword(s):  
Proper Names ◽  
Critical Discourse ◽  
Current Debate ◽  
Referring Expressions ◽  
Tess Of The D'urbervilles ◽  
Literary Characters ◽  
Fictional Names

Chapter 8 continues with a different aspect of critical discourse, namely its apparent commitment to so-called literary characters. The main aim of this chapter is to highlight the compatibility of Radical Fictionalism with a tolerant attitude towards character-talk, and with an analysis of character-names as fully-fledged proper names. Accordingly, this chapter discusses the sense of ‘character’ relevant from the Radical Fictionalist viewpoint, and it distinguishes it from the understanding of that term dominant in the current debate on fictional realism. The chapter continues with a negotiable hypothesis about character-names as actually referring expressions, and it puts forth a pre-semantic hypothesis about the launch of character-names and about their relationships with fictional names.

The Language of Fiction

2021 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Philosophy Of Language ◽  
Speech Act ◽  
Fictional Characters ◽  
New Research ◽  
Fictional Names ◽  
Philosophy Of Fiction ◽  
And Linguistics ◽  
Literary Techniques ◽  
Fictional Story ◽  
Fictional Truth

The Language of Fiction brings together new research on fiction from philosophy and linguistics. Fiction is a topic that has long been studied in philosophy. Yet recently there has been a surge of work on fictional discourse in the intersection between linguistics and philosophy of language. There has been a growing interest in examining long-standing issues concerning fiction from a perspective informed both by philosophy and linguistic theory. The Language of Fiction contains fourteen essays by leading scholars in both fields, as well as a substantial Introduction by the editors. The collection is organized in three parts, each with their own introduction. Part I, “Truth, reference, and imagination”, offers new, interdisciplinary perspectives on some of the central themes from the philosophy of fiction: What is fictional truth? How do fictional names refer? What kind of speech act is involved in telling a fictional story? What is the relation between fiction and imagination? Part II, “Storytelling”, deals with themes originating from the study of narrative: How do we infer a coherent story from a sequence of event descriptions? And how do we interpret the words of impersonal or unreliable narrators? Part III, “Perspective shift”, zooms in on an alleged key characteristic of fictional narratives, viz. the way we get access to the fictional characters’ inner lives, through a variety of literary techniques for representing what they say, think, or see.

scholarly journals THE REPRESENTATION OF HEALTH MINISTER IN HANDLING COVID-19 IN INDONESIA: A CRITICAL DISCOURSE ANALYSIS

2020 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
pp. 208-215
Author(s):  
Yulia Anggraeni ◽  
Rosaria Mita Amalia
Keyword(s):  
Discourse Analysis ◽  
Critical Discourse Analysis ◽  
Human Health ◽  
Proper Names ◽  
Critical Discourse ◽  
Health Minister ◽  
Proper Name ◽  
Negative Attribute ◽  
Discursive Strategy

COVID-19 outbreaks that threaten human health have become a pandemic. As the Health Minister in Indonesia, the actions were taken by the Letjen TNI (Purn) Dr. dr. Terawan Agus Putranto, Sp. Rad. (K) in handling this pandemic is in the spotlight. There are so many media that providenews related to the efforts of the Health Minister in handling this case, one of which is The Jakarta Post. This study aims to describe the representation of Mr. Terawan as Health Minister in handling COVID-19 cases in Indonesia in The Jakarta Post. Critical Discourse Analysis as an approach is used in his study. The data are the articles in The Jakarta Post related to Mr. Terawan in handling the COVID-19 cases in Indonesia. The data is analyzed using a discursive strategy. According to Wodak& Mayer (2001), there are five strategies in Discursive, but this study only applies two strategies, namely Nomination Strategies and Predication Strategies. The findings in this study are; (1) four nomination strategies areused by The Jakarta Post. They are deixis, proper names, professional anthroponym, and nouns. The Jakarta Post uses the nomination strategy to avoid repetition of the same proper name, to show the readers which person becomes the center of the text, and to describe and report Mr. Terawan’s action regarding his job as Health Minister; (2) The Jakarta Post gave a negative attribute to the performance of Mr. Terawan as a Health Minister in handling with COVID-19 cases.The Jakarta Post’s belief that Mr. Terawan has performed badly as a Health Minister in handling the COVID-19 case and The Jakarta Post sees Mr. Terawan as a careless person in the case.

Conclusion

2020 ◽  
pp. 168-170
Author(s):  
Stefano Predelli
Keyword(s):  
Critical Discourse ◽  
Narrative Fiction

This conclusion wraps up the discussion of Radical Fictionalism with a brief summary of the ideas discussed throughout the book. It rehearses the main tenets of Radical Fictionalism and their consequences for fictional discourse, such as the distinction between homodiegetic and heterodiegetic narratives, the fictional divide between storyworlds and peripheries, and the Radical Fictionalist takes on prefixed discourse. It continues with a summary of the consequences of Radical Fictionalism for a variety of themes from narrative fiction, such as inconsistency, unreliability, importation, nesting, and the different modes of critical discourse. This conclusion ends with a brief allusion to certain independently open semantic and philosophical issues.

Sound symbolism in translation

2017 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 137-161 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ruth Pogacar ◽  
Agnes Pisanski Peterlin ◽  
Nike K. Pokorn ◽  
Timothy Pogačar
Keyword(s):  
Proper Names ◽  
Sound Symbolism ◽  
Symbolic Meaning ◽  
English Speakers ◽  
The Novel ◽  
Brand Name ◽  
Literary Characters

Abstract Readers may infer that literary characters are sympathetic or unsympathetic based on the perceived phonetics of character names. Drawing on brand name literature in marketing, we investigate whether Slovene and English speakers can identify sympathetic and unsympathetic characters in Charles Dickens’s Oliver Twist based solely on their names, despite being unfamiliar with the novel. Both Slovene and English speakers can make this distinction, suggesting that sound symbolism may help communicate Dickens’s intended characterizations. Dickens’s documented focus on creating meaningful names suggests the sound symbolism in his characters’ names is likely intentional. These findings are relevant to the translating convention of preserving proper names, which leaves spelling intact (given similar alphabets). Preserving the original names in translation may be justified for readers fluent enough to perceive the original name sounds. However, not altering character names in translation may sometimes lead to different phonetic perceptions, which alter the sound symbolic meaning.

“Why did I sell my best years for somebody else’s words?”

1968 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 4-22
Author(s):  
Maria Khotimsky
Keyword(s):  
Literary Translation ◽  
Critical Discourse ◽  
Complex Nature ◽  
Ideological Context ◽  
Ideological Assumptions

Scholars and philosophers often turn to metaphors when discussing translation. While metaphors serve as tools to define the complex nature of this process, they can also offer unexpected insights into a specific cultural epoch, revealing implicit ideological biases and covert assumptions. In this article, I explore the use of metaphors in the programmatic statements of the Soviet Literary Translation School, as well as in several poems from the 1930s–1960s devoted to translation. The article outlines the dominant thematic groups of metaphors in connection with the ideological context, and compares them with more personal responses by several poet-translators, including Arsenii Tarkovskii, Boris Slutskii, and Vera Zviagintseva. The analysis suggests that while Soviet critical discourse on translation reflected the underlying ideological assumptions (such as the reception of the cultural “other,” or the views on creativity and artistic norms), the use of metaphors allowed poets and scholars to express conflicting opinions and voice artistic dissent.

scholarly journals Strands in literary English-to-Lithuanian translation criticizm in Lithuania since 1990

2011 ◽  
pp. 1-37
Author(s):  
Gabrielė Šalčiūtė-Čivilienė
Keyword(s):  
Critical Evaluation ◽  
Literary Translation ◽  
Critical Discourse ◽  
Periodical Literature ◽  
Market Conditions ◽  
Current Review ◽  
Rapid Production ◽  
Current Article ◽  
Critical Reviews

The current article surveys the scope and the major assumptions of domestic critical discourse on literary translation from English into Lithuanian since 1990. The market conditions have changed enormously since Lithuania moved to a market-free economy and chose a democratic ruling system, thus affecting all the spheres of culture, including literary and translation production.  Critical evaluation of quality, adequacy, norms and other related issues of literary translation does not seem to keep pace with a rapid production of literary translation. Since the publication of a textbook on translation by Armalytė and Pažūsis (1990), no other fundamental work has been published in this area. The current review of critical discourse on literary translation includes two major sources of periodical literature – that is, academic papers in scholarly magazines and critical reviews in newspapers and magazines targeting wider readership. The major aim of this review is to identify the potentials and limits of national critical discourse by examining topic areas, critical standards applied to the evaluation of actual translations, and some metadiscoursal issues.

scholarly journals Nomina appellativa w funkcji imion własnych postaci literackich – zagadnienia ortograficzne

2019 ◽  
Vol 35 (40) ◽  
pp. 44-50
Author(s):  
Marek Ruszkowski
Keyword(s):  
Full Article ◽  
Proper Names ◽  
Literary Text ◽  
The Other ◽  
Single Word ◽  
Literary Works ◽  
Lower Case ◽  
Literary Characters

[full article in Polish, abstract in English and Polish] Artykuł podejmuje problem pisowni nazw pospolitych (nomina appellativa) w funkcji nazw własnych (nomina propria) postaci literackich. Nazwy jednowyrazowe nie sprawiają na ogół kłopotów, ponieważ pisane są wielkimi literami, np. Sędzia, Wojski, Asesor, Podkomorzy, Woźny, Hrabia (postacie z „Pana Tadeusza”); Cześnik, Rejent (postacie z „Zemsty”); Pustelnik (postać z „Dziadów”). Zdecydowanie mniej jednoznaczne są zwyczaj ortograficzny oraz reguła, które dotyczą nazw dwu- i więcejwyrazowych, typu: KRÓLOWA ŚNIEGU, MAŁY KSIĄŻĘ, ŚPIĄCA KRÓLEWNA, KRÓLEWNA ŚNIEŻKA, KOT W BUTACH, STAROSTA GADULSKI, PAN KLEKS. W praktyce ortograficznej pojawiają się trzy wersje: 1. obydwa wyrazy wielką literą, 2. pierwszy wyraz wielką literą, drugi małą, 3. obydwa wyrazy małą literą. Wiele zależy od tego, w jakiej postaci wyrażenie występuje w tekście literackim i w jego ewentualnym tłumaczeniu na język polski. Nazwy własne w utworach literackich są efektem wyboru autora, a to nie sprzyja ujednoliceniu ich postaci ortograficznej (ta sama nazwa postaci może być odmiennie zapisywana w różnych utworach). Jeśli nie znamy intencji autora, należałoby polecić pisownię wszystkich wyrazów (z wyjątkiem spójników i przyimków) wielką literą, tym bardziej że drugie składniki tych wyrażeń mogą w odpowiednim kontekście występować samodzielnie: Książę, Śnieżka, Królewna. Nomina Appellativa as Proper Names of Literary Characters – Spelling Issues The article deals with the problem of spelling common names functioning as proper names of literary characters. In general, single word names pose no problems as they are written in capital letters, e.g. Sędzia, Wojski, Asesor, Podkomorzy, Woźny, Hrabia (characters from “Pan Tadeusz”); Cześnik, Rejent (characters from “Zemsta”); Pustelnik (figures from “Dziady”). Definitely less clear is the usage and rule in terms of spelling that applies to names composed of two and more words, such as KRÓLOWA ŚNIEGU, MAŁY KSIĄŻĘ, ŚPIĄCA KRÓLEWNA, KRÓLEWNA ŚNIEŻKA, KOT W BUTACH, STAROSTA GADULSKI, PAN KLEKS. There are three versions of spelling as far as usage is concerned: 1) both words in capital letters, 2) the first word in capital letters, the second word in lower case, 3) both words in lower case. Much depends on the form in which the expression appears in the literary text and in its possible translation into Polish. Proper names in literary works are the result of the author’s choice, and this does not contribute to the unification of their spelling form (the same name of a character may be written differently in different works). If the author’s intentions are not known, we should recommend that all words (except for conjunctions and prepositions) be spelt in capital letters, especially as the other components of these expressions may appear in their own context: Książę, Śnieżka, Królewna.

Moral Geometries

2020 ◽  
Vol 26 (3) ◽  
pp. 453-551
Author(s):  
Adir H. Petel
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Critical Discourse ◽  
Classical Antiquity ◽  
Literary Characters

The literary and critical discourse about characters and characterization in Anglophone drama and fiction since the Renaissance shows a persistent but underrecognized presence of three idioms and vocabularies, two highly developed and one nascent, that either derive from the rhetoric of mathematics in classical antiquity or participate in its modern afterlife. Those discourses—which this article studies in detail—are, first, an explicitly Theophrastan one, in which taxonomies of character are constructed; second, an explicitly Euclidean one, in which characterization is discussed and accomplished in relatively conventional or commonsensical geometric terms; and third, a non- or post-Euclidean one, in which characterization is discussed and inchoately accomplished in the terms of the “new geometries” that emerged during the nineteenth century. What taxonomy in the Aristotelian mode (Theophrastus was Aristotle’s student) and geometry in the Euclidean mode have in common is that when their vocabularies are applied to characterization, they delimit characters in terms of established categories—whether of ideal shapes or statistically probable types—while discounting whatever features may be unique to individuals. An obliviousness to these three discourses can limit seriously what can be said about, and what can be said on behalf of, the literary and critical texts framed in their terms and also, most importantly, what can be said about the nature of literary characters.

Proximal and distal deictics and the construal of narrative time

2019 ◽  
Vol 30 (2) ◽  
pp. 399-415
Author(s):  
Barbara Dancygier
Keyword(s):  
Past Tense ◽  
Special Focus ◽  
Narrative Fiction ◽  
Fictional Narratives ◽  
Narrative Time ◽  
Temporal Adverbs

AbstractThis paper proposes an approach to narrative deixis which offers a coherent analysis of the respective roles of proximal and distal deictic expressions (demonstratives as well as temporal and locative adverbs). The paper starts by arguing that fictional narratives require an approach to deixis which modifies a number of broadly held assumptions, especially as regards the interaction between tense and other deictic forms. It then considers the widely discussed instance of the temporal adverb now in the context of Past Tense. The second part of the paper gives special focus to demonstratives in narrative fiction, showing their role in temporal construals. It argues that both temporal and demonstrative expressions are primarily used to serve narrative viewpoint construction (which includes but is not limited to temporal viewpoint). Examples from several novels are then used to show how the proximal and distal choices of demonstratives, temporal adverbs and locative adverbs structure narrative viewpoint, including narrative representation of character experience. The paper concludes by proposing that in the context of fictional narratives the proximal/distal contrast is more relevant to meaning emergence than individual aspects of deixis, and that the construal of time can be achieved through the whole spectrum of deictic forms, not just tense and temporal adverbs such as now and then.

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