In Search of Meaning : Literary, Linguistic, and Translational Approaches to Communication

Abstract

Meaning is a pivotal term in many varieties of investigation in the humanities. Positing current linguistic, literary and translational research in the frame of communication opens up a possibility for furthering our understanding of how meaning is communicated in various texts. However, in multidisciplinary environments – in which the contributors of this anthology work – that bring together writing, information, and interaction, communication can develop into a key concept to unite an entire university faculty, and the diverse fields of linguistic, literary, and translation research, even if it is not used explicitly as an operationalized concept very often. Communication, when understood as the sharing of meanings, uses language, a social sign system, as its vehicle. Language, whether verbal or visual, is what the articles in this collection engage intimately with. One outcome of this collection is therefore an exploration of how much of literary, linguistic and translation research is about, directly or indirectly, the communication of meaning through language.

This collection consists of six articles, in two languages, in the fields of literary, linguistic and translation studies. Five articles are in English, one in Finnish. The object of this anthology is not the delineation and discussion of each participant field’s conception of meaning and communication. Each article discusses its chosen topic from its discipline-specific framework. However, the function of this foreword is to bring to the reader’s attention, and to highlight, the fact that each field has its own implicit understanding of communication.