Measuring the Energy of a Text

Authors

  • Tamara Matveeva

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.15826/qr.2017.3.253

Abstract

This article examines the issue of introducing the term “energy” into the practice of specific linguistic studies. It is argued that this concept is useful for comprehending the subjective modal content of a speech work. The traditional linguistic interpretation of speech impact is based on the functionalsemantic concept of the expressivity of language units conveying the speaker’s emotions and evaluations. With the development of text linguistics, a broader view of the content of speech works and of impact-ensuring tools has become relevant. The author puts forward the term “energy” as a concept which synthesises speech and text, including categories of movement (changes, dynamics) and volition (goal-setting) of the subject of speech and the category of expressivity (intentionality). This idea is proved with reference to the extrapolation of philosophical interpretations of the concept of energy. The author describes the functional-semantic content of the energy component of the text and its structure. In terms of expression, the category of energy is a functional-semantic field which is realised as a set of expressive and nonexpressive language means belonging to different levels and verbal techniques aimed at impact. A separate tool or technique like this can be termed energema. The composition of text energemas is defined on lexical-semantic, grammatical, and prosodic grounds. This article considers energemas of two energy subfields: movement and volition. The author poses the problem of the statistical interpretation of text energy, which is particularly important for comparative studies of this phenomenon. Referring to a comparison of speech works of different genres united by one theme, the author demonstrates the energetic difference between a lecture and an encyclopaedic article. She also establishes groups of speech tools, providing dynamism and volition instruments as opposed to the static and abstract character of the text. It is proved that the intensity of the energy text field is directly proportional to the impact the text makes on the addressee.

References

Bally, Ch. (1961). Francuzskaja stilistika [French Stylistics]. Moscow, Izdatel’stvo inostrannoj literatury. 394 p.

Energetika teksta [The Energy of a Text]. In Kofejnya – Internet Forum. URL: forum. cofe.ru/showthread.php?t=106101 17.05.2008 (mode of access: 14.08.2017).

FE (1960–1970). Filosofskaja enciklopedija [Philosophical Encyclopaedia]. (Books 1–5). Moscow, Sovetskaja enciklopedija.

GSRLJA (1970). Grammatika sovremennogo russkogo literaturnogo jazyka [A Grammar of the Contemporary Russian Literary Language]. Moscow, Nauka. 755 p.

Hrapova, V. A. (2005). Energetika teksta [The Energy of a Text]. In Gumanitarnye l’no-ekonomicheskie nauki, 3. Rostov-on-Don, Juzhnyj federal’nyj universitet. Pp. 25–28.

Lojfman, I. Ja. (1973). Principy fiziki i filosofskie kategorii [Principles of Physics and Philosophical Categories]. Sverdlovsk: Ural’skij gosudarstvennyi universitet. 136 p.

Losev, A. F. Filosofiya imeni [The Philosophy of Name]. In Samoye samo: Sochineniya. Moscow, EKSMO-Press, pp. 29–204.

Lukjanova, N. A. (1986). Ekspressivnaja leksika razgovornogo upotreblenija: problemy semantiki [Expressive Colloquial Vocabulary: Issues of Semantics]. Novosibirsk, Nauka, Sibirskoe otdelenie. 230 p.

Matveeva, T. V. (2000). Energetika teksta [The Energy of a Text]. In Izvestija Ural’skogo gosudarstvennogo universiteta. Ser. Gumanitarnye nauki, 3 (17), pp. 107–112.

Myshkina, N. L. (1998). Vnutrennjaja zhizn’ teksta: mehanizmy, formy, harakteristiki [The Internal Life of a Text: Mechanisms, Forms, Characteristics]. Perm: Permskij gosu- darstvennyj universitet. 151 p.

Pozdeeva, T. V. (2011). Otnoshenija adresant – adresat v politicheskom gazetnom diskurse: koncepcija vzaimodejstvija i vzaimokorreljacii [The Addresser – Addressee Relationship in Political Newspaper Discourse: The Concept of Interaction and Correlation]. Avtoref. dis. … kand. filol. nauk. Krasnodar. 21 p.

Ramishvili, G. V. (1998). Gumboldtianstvo [Humboldtiana]. In Yazyikoznanie: Bolshoy entsiklopedicheskiy slovar. Moscow, Bolshschaya Rossiyskaya entsiklopediya, pp. 123–124.

SES (2003). Stilisticheskij entsiklopedicheskij slovar’ russkogo yazyka [Stylistic Encyclopaedic Dictionary of the Russian Language]. Moscow, Flinta, Science. 696 p.

Shabalina, T. Teatr “Globus” (GLOBE) [The Globus Theatre (GLOBE)]. In Enciklopedija “Krugosvet”: http://www.krugosvet.ru/enc/kultura_i_obrasovanie/teatr_i_kino (mode of access: 14.08.2017).

Shcherba, L. V. (1974). O trojakom aspekte jazykovyh javlenij i ob eksperimente v jazykoznanii [On the Three-dimensional Aspect of Linguistic Phenomena and Experiment in Linguistics]. In Shcherba L. V. Jazykovaja sistema i rechevaja dejatel’nost’. Leningrad, Nauka, pp. 24–39.

Telia, V. N. (1986). Konnotativnyj aspekt semantiki nominativnyh edinic [The Connotative Aspect of Semantics in Nominative Units]. Moscow, Nauka. 142 p.

TSRJA (2008). Tolkovyj slovar’ russkogo jazyka s vkljucheniem svedenij o proishozhdenii slov [An Explanatory Dictionary of the Russian Language with Information on the Origins of Words]. Moscow, Centr “Azbukovnik”. 1175 p.

Volkova, P. (2013). Most cherez bezdnu [A Bridge across an Abyss]. Moscow, Zebra E. 256 p.

Zhinkin, N. I. (1998). Razvitie pis’mennoj rechi uchashhihsja III–VII klassov [The Development of Written Speech for Pupils between the 3rd and 7th Forms]. In Zhinkin N.I. Jazyk. Rech’. Tvorchestvo. Izbrannye trudy. Moscow, Labirint, pp. 183–319.

How to Cite

Matveeva, T. (2017). Measuring the Energy of a Text. Quaestio Rossica, 5(3), 838–850. https://doi.org/10.15826/qr.2017.3.253

Issue

Section

Disputatio