Betekeniskonstruksie as kreatiewe proses: ’n tekslinguistiese benadering

Abstract

The creative process of meaning construction: A text-linguistic approach

The main aim of this article is to explore the usefulness of text linguistics in determining how and why a literary text creates meaning. In order to achieve this aim, the unique way in which a writer or reader creates a text by means of lexico-grammatical and conceptual elements is discussed.

The meaningfulness of the linguistic analysis of literary texts is then illustrated by an analysis of T.T. Cloete’s poem “Blydskap”. Lexical cohesion is emphasized and this cohesive device is used as a strategy to indicate how meaningful patterns are created in the text. This analysis illustrates that the methods of text linguistics indeed provide useful tools for examining the construction of meaning in a text.