Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
Chapter 7
The Analytical Task of “Analyzing the
Discourse Production around a Subject”
7.1.Introduction
Now let us take a look at a descriptive task which, technically speaking, relies on
a class of configurations which can become very complex. This is a descriptive task
which is very important, or even
crucial
in the context of a
thematic description*
(or
description of the content) of an
audiovisual text*
. It constitutes one of the decisive
moments during the analysis in the sense of an
expert assessment of the content
, i.e.
a structured and explicit evaluation of the
discursive value
of a piece of information
(also see [STO 99; STO 01]) - of the way in which a topic is approached in an
audiovisual document.
There is a clear difference between the statements that two audiovisual texts
making up an analysis corpus speak about a specific archaeological dig - in such-
and-such a physical location, devoted to such-and-such an era and with such-and-
such a type of artifact - and how that “same” subject is approached in the two texts.
The first statement stems from
referential description*
; the second from
discursive
description
as such.
This chapter is given over to a brief presentation on the description of the
discourse production around a subject. As explained in Chapter 5, this is a question
of understanding and explaining how a theme is dealt with by the
author
or, rather,
by its e
nunciator
, i.e. by the person responsible for what is said about a given
knowledge object. Just like the referential description of a theme (that is, just like
the description of a topical structure), description of discourse production also relies
