The distinctiveness of literary communication: A pragmatics-based analysis.

This paper presents a pragmatics-based analysis of literary communication. It intends to address the following two long-standing research questions: What makes the literary use of language distinctive, and what mechanisms enable the functioning of literary communication? The task at hand is to advance the understanding of the complexities of literary communication without making use of the traditional assumptions of verbal communication. On the one hand, my explanation of the problems involved in that task falls within the general tradition of philosophical and linguistic pragmatics. On the other hand, this approach considerably differs from other previously established approaches in the field. My chief proposal is that a proper description of the distinctive character of literary communication requires a more adequate conceptual apparatus and a partly different outlook on verbal communication. I argue that Pettersson's theory provides just the kind of tenable approach that is required for the purpose. The analysis is illustrated by means of a literary example, Elizabeth Bishop's poem "One Art." • The cluster conception is a plausible approach to the nature of literary interaction. • The analysis undermines the traditional assumptions about verbal communication. • The specific pragmatic point that can be ascribed to a literary work is not mimetic. • Literary language is not a deviation from ordinary use of language. • Literary discourse is dominated by the presentational pragmatic function. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]