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.

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.

Do Proper Names Always Rigidly Designate?

1978 ◽  
Vol 8 (3) ◽  
pp. 475-484 ◽  
Author(s):  
Donald Nute
Keyword(s):  
Possible Worlds ◽  
Proper Names ◽  
Alternative Interpretation ◽  
Single Individual ◽  
Saul Kripke ◽  
Possible Worlds Semantics ◽  
Referring Expressions ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Naming And Necessity

Many philosophers have claimed possible worlds semantics is incoherent because of insoluble problems involved in the notion of identifying a single individual in different worlds. One frequent approach to trans-world identification has been to assume that all the possible worlds, complete with their populations, are described by means of qualities alone prior to our considering the question of identification of the same individual in each world in which it exists. If we interpret possible worlds semantics in this way, trans-world identification could only be accomplished on the basis of some properties the individual has uniquely in every world in which it exists. This becomes problematic since the individual doesn't have the same properties in every world. In ‘Naming and Necessity’ and ‘Identity and Necessity’ Saul Kripke rejects such an account of both possible worlds and trans-world identification, developing an alternative interpretation of the new semantics. His approach involves a distinction between referring expressions which designate different individuals in different worlds according to the distribution of properties within each world and referring expressions which designate the same individual in every world.

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.

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.

Evidence from aphasia for the role of proper names as pure referring expressions

Nature ◽  
1989 ◽  
Vol 342 (6250) ◽  
pp. 678-679 ◽  
Author(s):  
Carlo Semenza ◽  
Marina Zettin
Keyword(s):  
Proper Names ◽  
Referring Expressions

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.

Loneliness

2019 ◽  
pp. 22-45
Author(s):  
Alicia Mireles Christoff
Keyword(s):  
Thomas Hardy ◽  
Psychic Life ◽  
Tess Of The D'urbervilles ◽  
The World ◽  
How People Learn ◽  
Literary Characters ◽  
The Way

This chapter talks about how people learn to feel alone and sustained, rather than alone and persecuted, lost, adrift, untethered. On loneliness and character in Tess of the D'Urbervilles, the chapter describes the way people internalize novelistic structures and come to feel like literary characters. Like Tess, readers imagine that others are with them, narrating and experiencing their lives alongside them, even when they are alone. Alone with others, Tess introduces a notion of paradoxical solitude that D. W. Winnicott would explicitly theorize more than half a century later, as a fact of psychic life in his essay “The Capacity to Be Alone.” The chapter also shows how Thomas Hardy anticipates Winnicott's theory of relational solitude by making and unmaking his character Tess, who becomes an existence, an experience, a passion, a structure of sensations—an internalized presence—to her readers as much as to herself, and who seems to likewise sense the presence of the narrator and the reader in the world of the story.

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.

Referring and accessibility

1988 ◽  
Vol 24 (1) ◽  
pp. 65-87 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mira Ariel
Keyword(s):  
Proper Names ◽  
Definite Descriptions ◽  
Appropriate Use ◽  
Referring Expressions ◽  
Linguistic Analyses

The analysis of referring expressions can be divided into two branches for our purposes. The first includes theories of definite descriptions and proper names. The key to the riddle of the appropriate use of such expressions, it was thought, is the notion of presupposition: existence and/or uniqueness. Indeed, this was the question that dominated the literature for many years, starting with the early philosophical analyses of Frege (1982), Russell (1919) and Strawson (1956, 1964), and ending with the much later pragmatically oriented linguistic analyses, such as Liberman (1973), Kempson (1975), Prince (1978, 1981b), Gazdar (1979), McCawley (1979), Hawkins (1974, 1984) and even Loftus (1972, 1974, 1975), although this last approach is more psychological. The second branch of research totally neglected the question of presupposition. Non-syntactic/semantic theories of anaphoric expressions, pronouns especially, were psychologically oriented, and hence saw the issue to be accounted for quite differently. In fact, the objective of these theories has been to elucidate processing procedures by examining anaphoric expressions, rather than to make claims about anaphoric expressions as such.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document