Discursive level
المؤلف:
Bronwen Martin and Felizitas Ringham
المصدر:
Dictionary of Semiotics
الجزء والصفحة:
P51
2025-05-24
318
Discursive level
The discursive level relates to the process of putting the narrative structures into words, that is, of giving them figurative and linguistic shape. It is on this level that the actants/subjects, for example, are named and become actors, adopting thematic roles such as 'son', 'father' or 'soldier'; transformations enacted are arranged in chronological sequences and placed in a given space; the objects pursued are installed in systems of values which organize the utterance and determine the direction of desires and conflicts.
To analyse the discursive level of an utterance, we have to examine specific words and expressions or grammatical items/structures to discover their semiotic pertinence. Little Red Riding Hood is sent by her mother to take a cake to her grandmother. Thus she is placed in the position of an actant/subject pursuing a quest (narrative level). Her figurative description allots to this actant/subject the thematic role of child with the term 'little' alone establishing her vulnerability (discursive level). The story turns the wolf into an anti-subject (narrative level). The expression 'wolf - a wild beast - and his figurative portrayal place him in the thematic role of a monster with the wish to harm (discursive level). Child and wolf and their conflicting narrative programmes here illustrate, for example, an underlying value system which opposes in the shape of 'eating' versus 'being eaten', 'ogre' against 'victim' or 'evil' against 'good'.
There are no abstract formulas for the figurativization of texts or discursive trajectories, since most texts (particularly literary texts) are too complex to be reduced in this manner.
See also actantial narrative schema.
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