Silent abstractions versus “ Look at me ” drawings
-
Karen Sullivan
Abstract
Artworks can be said to metaphorically “speak” to their viewers (Sullivan 2006, 2009) in a form of fictive interaction (Pascual 2002). The current study examines the fictive speech of different types of artworks in a corpus of 1,105 examples extracted from DeviantART, the world’s largest online artwork community. In the corpus, abstract artworks are less often presented as “speaking” directly than figurative artworks. That is, a figurative painting might say, “Look at me!” in directly presented speech, whereas an abstract work is more likely to scream for attention without any direct speech attributed to the artwork. I suggest three reasons for this disparity. I also find that artworks depicting named characters participate in fictive conversations not shared by other works.
Abstract
Artworks can be said to metaphorically “speak” to their viewers (Sullivan 2006, 2009) in a form of fictive interaction (Pascual 2002). The current study examines the fictive speech of different types of artworks in a corpus of 1,105 examples extracted from DeviantART, the world’s largest online artwork community. In the corpus, abstract artworks are less often presented as “speaking” directly than figurative artworks. That is, a figurative painting might say, “Look at me!” in directly presented speech, whereas an abstract work is more likely to scream for attention without any direct speech attributed to the artwork. I suggest three reasons for this disparity. I also find that artworks depicting named characters participate in fictive conversations not shared by other works.
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- List of contributors ix
- Acknowledgements xi
-
Part I. Introduction
- Fictive interaction and the conversation frame 3
- Fictive interaction and the nature of linguistic meaning 23
-
Part II. Fictive interaction as cognitive reality
- Generic integration templates for fictive communication 45
- Real, imaginary, or fictive? 63
- Silent abstractions versus “ Look at me ” drawings 87
-
Part III. Fictive interaction as discourse structure
- Persuading and arguing with the reader 113
- Invocation or apostrophe? 131
- On discourse-motivated “sorries” 151
-
Part IV. Fictive interaction as linguistic construction
- What about? 171
- Fictive questions in conditionals? 193
- Intonation of fictive vs. actual direct speech in a Brazilian Portuguese corpus 215
- Polish nominal construction involving fictive interaction 235
- Evidential fictive interaction (in Ungarinyin and Russian) 255
- Recursive inflection and grammaticalized fictive interaction in the southwestern Amazon 277
-
Part V. Fictive interaction as communicative strategy
- “Say hello to this ad” 303
- The use of interactive structures as communicative strategy in Dutch and Portuguese aphasic speakers 323
- Echolalia as communicative strategy 343
- About the contributors 363
- Author index 369
- Language index 375
- Subject index 377
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- List of contributors ix
- Acknowledgements xi
-
Part I. Introduction
- Fictive interaction and the conversation frame 3
- Fictive interaction and the nature of linguistic meaning 23
-
Part II. Fictive interaction as cognitive reality
- Generic integration templates for fictive communication 45
- Real, imaginary, or fictive? 63
- Silent abstractions versus “ Look at me ” drawings 87
-
Part III. Fictive interaction as discourse structure
- Persuading and arguing with the reader 113
- Invocation or apostrophe? 131
- On discourse-motivated “sorries” 151
-
Part IV. Fictive interaction as linguistic construction
- What about? 171
- Fictive questions in conditionals? 193
- Intonation of fictive vs. actual direct speech in a Brazilian Portuguese corpus 215
- Polish nominal construction involving fictive interaction 235
- Evidential fictive interaction (in Ungarinyin and Russian) 255
- Recursive inflection and grammaticalized fictive interaction in the southwestern Amazon 277
-
Part V. Fictive interaction as communicative strategy
- “Say hello to this ad” 303
- The use of interactive structures as communicative strategy in Dutch and Portuguese aphasic speakers 323
- Echolalia as communicative strategy 343
- About the contributors 363
- Author index 369
- Language index 375
- Subject index 377
