Open Daily: 10am - 10pm | Alley door pickup 10am - 7pm 3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
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  • Open Daily: 10am - 10pm
    Alley-side Pickup: 10am - 7pm

    3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
    612-822-4611

Open Daily: 10am - 10pm | Alley-side Pickup: 10am - 7pm
3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
612-822-4611
Interpretive Acts: In Search of Meaning

Interpretive Acts: In Search of Meaning

Harris, Wendell V.

Hardcover

Literary CriticismLinguistics

ISBN10: 0198129599
ISBN13: 9780198129592
Publisher: Clarendon Press
Published: Jun 30 1988
Pages: 208
Weight: 0.92
Height: 0.63 Width: 5.50 Depth: 8.50
Language: English
Over the last twenty years, the humanities and social sciences have become peculiarly preoccupied with the limitations of language--especially what language cannot do. Rather than ask whether communication is possible, this study explores how it occurs. Drawing on a variety of fields that have contributed to literary theory--including discourse analysis, sociolinguistics, philosophy of language, and rhetorical theory--Harris defines the goal of interpretation as uncovering an author's intended meaning, and considers criticism in terms of the question What does it mean that the author meant that meaning? He examines the shared components of context that govern the interpretations of language-in-use presupposed by any critical analysis or evaluation, arguing that seven dimensions of mutually understood context, calculated by authors and relied upon by readers, make language understandable to all.

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