Linguistic bases of the intertextuality theory

Abstract

As the object of the research the author chooses the linguistic characteristics of the intertextual unit as the main form of realization in texts of the stylistic device based on borrowing textual elements from other texts. Despite a significant development of the intertextuality theory, the analysis of the theoretical framework in the field of intertextual interaction reveals a lack of knowledge of the linguistic aspects of functioning of intertexts both at the level of expression and meaning. In the article the author analyzes the basic structural particularities of the intertextual unit in postmodernist fiction. This kind of textual material was chosen because of high content of intertexts in this discoursive system, the fact conditioned by the interest of postmodernist writers to the capacities of the stylistic device described in the article. To delineate the content of the notion “intertextuality” according to the “broad” and “restricted” approaches, the author applies cognitive methods and carries out an experiment based on semiotic methods whose the aim was to describe the mechanisms of decrypting intertexts in non-verbal texts. Having analyzed the content of the term “intertextuality” according to the “broad” and “restricted” approaches from the cognitive and semiotic points of view, the author suggests differentiating two distinct phenomena. One of them, the stylistic device based on inclusion of different elements of other texts into a proper text, is under-researched from the linguistic point of view. The article presents main theoretical conclusions about the correlation between the plane of expression of intertexts and their source-texts, as well as the types and the role of the attribution as a key intertextual element. The conclusions may be used in intertext-making activity, e.g. in translation. They may also serve as the basis for further researches in this field.