Modelling The Text: Iurii Lotman’s Information-Theoretic Approach Revisited

Modelling The Text: Iurii Lotman’s Information-Theoretic Approach Revisited

Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Cretu, Andrei Ionut
Language:English
Published: The Ohio State University / OhioLINK 2008
Subjects:
Language
Linguistics
Literature
Slavic Literature
information theory
theory of the text
semiotics
information
entropy
code
Lotman
Bulgakov
The Master and Margarita
Georgii Ivanov
Valerii Briusov
Ivan Bunin
Online Access:http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1218122289
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spelling ndltd-OhioLink-oai-etd.ohiolink.edu-osu12181222892021-08-03T05:54:20Z Modelling The Text: Iurii Lotman’s Information-Theoretic Approach Revisited Cretu, Andrei Ionut Language Linguistics Literature Slavic Literature information theory theory of the text semiotics information entropy code Lotman Bulgakov The Master and Margarita Georgii Ivanov Valerii Briusov Ivan Bunin The interdisciplinary effervescence of the 1960’s-1970’s resulted in the adoption of terms like “information,” “entropy” and “code” into linguistic and literary analysis; one of the schools that contributed to this tendency was the Soviet semiotics school, represented by scholars like Iurii Lotman, Boris Uspenskii, Viacheslav Vs. Ivanov. This dissertation offers a critical examination of the controversial aspects of the interdisciplinary connection between information theory and semiotics, concentrating on Iurii Lotman’s works on the theory of the text. In order to address the question of the applicability and relevance of information-theoretic principles to text analysis, this dissertation proposes (a) to offer an understanding of how “structure” in the linguistic sense can be related to the concepts of information theory; (b) to evaluate Lotman’s use of information-theoretic terminology against the scientific “standard”; (c) to develop an understanding of what, in information theory, could be relevant to the analysis of texts. The central claims that emerge from my theoretical investigation are (a) that the formalism of information theory is not compatible with Iurii Lotman’s theory of the text and that the attached terminology has been used in ways unrelated to the assumptions and results of information theory; (b) that the formalism of information theory does provide the basic elements for an approach to structure in the most general sense and that these elements can be made relevant to both linguistic description and text analysis; (c) that it is possible to formulate a coherent approach to the text as an informational object by taking into account the distributional properties of the variables that can be defined in the text at various structural levels; (d) that it is possible to use these properties to characterize the specifics of the language of a text and its relationships to other texts, and therefore to guide, and add coherence to, the application of traditional approaches to the text. The second part of my dissertation is dedicated to applying the theoretical considerations to the analysis of texts from 20-th century Russian literature, including G. Ivanov’s <i>Raspad Atoma</i>, M. Bulgakov’s <i>Master i Margarita</i>, I. Bunin’s <i>Grammatika liubvi</i>. 2008-09-10 English text The Ohio State University / OhioLINK http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1218122289 http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1218122289 unrestricted This thesis or dissertation is protected by copyright: all rights reserved. It may not be copied or redistributed beyond the terms of applicable copyright laws.
collection NDLTD
language English
sources NDLTD
topic Language
Linguistics
Literature
Slavic Literature
information theory
theory of the text
semiotics
information
entropy
code
Lotman
Bulgakov
The Master and Margarita
Georgii Ivanov
Valerii Briusov
Ivan Bunin
spellingShingle Language
Linguistics
Literature
Slavic Literature
information theory
theory of the text
semiotics
information
entropy
code
Lotman
Bulgakov
The Master and Margarita
Georgii Ivanov
Valerii Briusov
Ivan Bunin
Cretu, Andrei Ionut
Modelling The Text: Iurii Lotman’s Information-Theoretic Approach Revisited
author Cretu, Andrei Ionut
author_facet Cretu, Andrei Ionut
author_sort Cretu, Andrei Ionut
title Modelling The Text: Iurii Lotman’s Information-Theoretic Approach Revisited
title_short Modelling The Text: Iurii Lotman’s Information-Theoretic Approach Revisited
title_full Modelling The Text: Iurii Lotman’s Information-Theoretic Approach Revisited
title_fullStr Modelling The Text: Iurii Lotman’s Information-Theoretic Approach Revisited
title_full_unstemmed Modelling The Text: Iurii Lotman’s Information-Theoretic Approach Revisited
title_sort modelling the text: iurii lotman’s information-theoretic approach revisited
publisher The Ohio State University / OhioLINK
publishDate 2008
url http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1218122289
work_keys_str_mv AT cretuandreiionut modellingthetextiuriilotmansinformationtheoreticapproachrevisited
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