Ett ekologiskt perspektiv på språk och textanalys
Publisher: University of Copenhagen, Denmark; Lund University, Sweden
Published: 2011
Place of publication: Lund, Sweden
Language: swe
Format: Paper
Number of pages: 33
Description: This article presents an ecological theory of language and text. It is assumed that the development of language and the production of text are perspective creating activities. A perspective is formed when the material and the immaterial dimension of a text meet. This process can be discovered through a formal mechanism, of which the core component is the Agent. By means of examples from historical times some facts and circumstances are discussed, which support the idea that an Agent, that is, the conscious human being, may have been evolved as a consequence of a shift from object governed to mentality governed human behaviour. This evolutionary theory is underpinned with arguments that bind perspective development to syntax. The continuing presentation describes the principles of a method of analysis based on the ways the ecological coordinates are functioning in text production. The system operator of this Agent-governed formalism is termed the Functional Clause. The idea of modelling the Agent as steering function has great importance for the view on text processing, because the essence of language is no longer conceived in the light of semantics. In regarding syntax from a functional point of view the focus is on text as a flow, and as a consequence the discussion directs itself towards the topological dimensions of language and text production. The validity of the application of the proposed methodology is demonstrated by a well-known text, which is represented in 3D graphs, both as unfolded and folded textual spaces.
Table of contents: title: Ett ekologiskt perspektiv på språk och textanalys  1; title: Förändring av perspektivet  8; title: Den funktionella satsen  13; title: Perspektiviska skiftningar  18; title: Rymden i texten  25; title: Referenser  32