Quote:
Decontextualization, referring to the abstraction of a written text from all of its contexts, is a flawed concept. Rather than viewing writing as an isolated abstraction, a text's involvement with the human world should be acknowledged. Two major questions arise when dealing with the concept of decontextualization: (1) Can written discourse be rendered meaningful context-free? and (2) Is the locus of meaning solely within the text? Several types of context are involved in written discourse--linguistic, situational, cultural, and textual. To consider language as decontextualized means to consider it removed from the totality of its contexts, a theoretically impossible isolation. In addition, the five components of written discourse--writer, content, reader, meaning, and intertextuality--are not static in their relationship but are in continuous intermingling motion. The assumption that any one component can be isolated, even for analytical inspection, without regard for the other four leads inevitably to further related arbitrary separations in language study. Socio-political implications of decontextualization are also evident. Those who invest the written word with the power of revealing meaning to the exclusion of situational, personal renderings of meaning are upholding the authority of the printed documents of society over those who might otherwise question the traditional culture. (Eleven references are appended.) (MM)
07 Nov 2006, 6:54 pm
