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11. Computing Perspective in Text
Natural language surfaces transport three basic kinds of information. These
are (i) the propositional content, or content for short, (ii) the evaluation of the
content, also called appraisal, and (iii) the perspectives of the speaker and the
hearer onto the content. The transfer of (i), propositional content, has been
discussed throughout the previous chapters. The mechanism of appraisal, (ii),
for the purpose of maintaining balance has been focused on in Chap. 5. In this
chapter we turn to (iii), the computation of perspective in text, complementing
the computation of perspective in dialogue analyzed in the previous chapter.
11.1 Coding the STAR-1 in Written Text
Pre-theoretically, there are many different kinds of texts, ranging from rhymed
and unrhymed plays to novels, to newspaper articles in such different domains
as politics, economics, feuilleton, sports, etc., to journal papers on physics, bi-
ology, medicine, mathematics, philosophy, law, religion, etc., to private letters,
to the mundane phone books and bank statements. As written signs, they have
in common that the STAR-1 parameter values of their speak (write) mode pro-
duction may be arbitrarily far removed from the STAR-2 parameter values of
their hear (read) mode interpretation.
Given that language signs code the speaker's STAR-1 perspective from the
utterance situation towards the content's STAR-0 origin (Sects. 10.1, 10.2), it
is essential for the hearer to know the utterance situation as specified by the
STAR-1. Because the reader (hearer) is normally not present when a text is
written - in contradistinction to the hearer in face-to-face communication - it
is in the interest of the writer to code the STAR-1 into the text itself. Otherwise,
the reader will have difficulty anchoring the written sign to its context of use,
which would compromise a correct and complete interpretation.
As an excellent text sample, consider the following citation:
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