Volume 4, Issue 1

This article follows a generative approach to language, which argues that language is in part organized by rules and conditions which are specific to language. In Chomsky (Syntactic Structures, 1957), which is the foundational statement of generative linguistics, an example of a language specific rule was the ›transformational rule‹. This means that language may also be subject to other modes of organization, including linear concatenation, or counting, or rules of sequential ordering, which are not specific to language: these are the ›non-linguistic‹ modes of organization of language. In this article I identify some of the non-linguistic modes of organization as they appear in poetic language, and suggest that many aspects of poetic language must in fact be seen as non-linguistic in this sense. This violates a widely-stated hypothesis held by many linguists (at least since Sapir) who work on poetry, that poetic language is a development of the rules or conditions or processes of non-poetic (ordinary) language: this is the ›development hypothesis‹. I begin with verse, which is text which is divided into lines. Lines are not linguistic entities: they are non-linguistic modes of organization of language. I argue that lines are not composed by the linguistic processes which generate ordinary speech, and which start from conceptual structure and apply syntactic rules to generate utterances. Instead, I suggest that lines of verse may be composed directly by non-linguistic processes which do not necessarily begin from conceptual structure; in this sense, conceptual structure – or meaning – plays a less determinate role in the production of poetry. Direct composition of lines bypasses the normal syntactic rules; instead verse lines are composed by linear concatenation of elements, and have no overall syntax and hence have no inherent interpretation. This presents two problems: first, if lines are not composed by syntactic processes why does a poetic text generally resemble a syntactically well formed text, and second, if there is no syntax there should be no interpretation – the line should be interpreted as though it were a random jumble of words – and yet lines are perfectly easy on the whole to interpret. I propose to solve these two problems by independently generating an unspoken ›ordinary language‹ text alongside the poetic text, and using the ordinary text as a filter by which the poetic text is assessed and if necessary edited by the poet in composition. This explains some formal aspects of verse, including its resemblance to the list of words or phrases (another non-linguistic mode of organization of language), and its sometimes ›crazy‹ syntax. It also explains some of the semantic distinctiveness of verse, such the greater use of indirect meaning, and verse's potential to surprise by its meanings. I conclude this section by speculating on how this might relate to problems of individual creative difference. Next, I look at metrical rules as a constraint on verse lines, and apply the theory of Fabb and Halle (Meter in Poetry. A New Theory, 2008), which attempts to solve the problem of how metrical elements are counted (another non-linguistic phenomenon). I show that while metrical rules share some rules or principles with phonological rules, they also share rules or principles with other types of counting and non-linguistic (e. g., musical or dance) rhythmic organization. Thus, again, literature involves a way of organizing language which is ›non-linguistic‹ in the sense that it is not specific to language. One consequence of this approach is to reinforce the notion that the line is the compositional unit; this goes against the traditional metrical notions that the metrical line is composed from feet or other smaller component parts. In the next section, I distinguish two ways in which any kind of form can hold of language. One type of form is ›inherent‹ in the sense that it is given by the linguistic system, and part of the history of production of the text: being a noun or being a sentence would be a kind of inherent form in this regard. The other type of form is ›communicated‹ in the sense that it holds of a text only because the text communicates to us that it does. Genre would be an example of communicated form because we assign a genre to a text as much as we assign a meaning to a text, on the basis of the evidence provided, in the context of our knowledge (of literature), and with varying degrees of certainty. I suggest that many kinds of poetic form hold simultaneously in two ways, and constitute a pairing of two distinct kinds of form: thus, metrical form can be split into a type of form which is inherent and a type of form which is communicated, and the same is true of lineation. This dual status means that both metrical form and lineation can hold in multiple and contradictory ways of the same text: a text can be in two metres at the same time, and have multiple possible simultaneous lineations. Thus, prose poems might be inherently lineated (composed by the same processes as verse) but communicate that they are prose (present evidence on the page that they are prose). In the final section of the paper I examine the widespread formal practice of parallelism. I note that like metre and lineation it has both inherent and communicated aspects: the inherent aspects of parallelism relate to its use of semantic and formal priming in the mental lexicon, and the communicated aspects relate to the ways in which formal parallelism can create relations between previously unrelated words or notions. I recall Jakobson's influential view that parallelism draws attention to the linguistic form of the text, and thus manifests the poetic function, and I reinterpret Jakobson's account so that it becomes an account of coinciding symmetry and asymmetry, which I argue is an aesthetic effect.

After a brief survey of the establishment of German Studies as an academic discipline, the article will deal with the process by which the two ›sides‹ of the subject, literature and linguistics, grew apart, and the 1960s and 1970s attempts to bring them closer together; finally, the current situation will be briefly reviewed. How will the relationship between the two ›sub-departments‹ take shape in the radically different academic world of the 21st century, against a background of different paradigms, concepts, and methods? Is there any real and objective substance to the appeals for a return to – purported – similarities, which, while hardly dominating the self-perception of literary or linguistic studies, are perceptibly coming from both camps? This study orients itself chiefly on the relevant discussion in the journal Literaturwissenschaft und Linguistik (LiLi), which has concerned itself with interdisciplinarity since its foundation, with particular reference to the relationship between the two ›sides‹ of German Studies. Building on the case of LiLi, and going beyond this, this article shows, via current conceptions of text, style and genre, as well as the methodological possibilities of corpus linguistics, that there are areas of common ground, and what methods will prove useful in collaborative work. It is concluded that, whether one approaches one's object of study from a literary or linguistic perspective, that object is both a linguistic and textual phenomenon. Today, both sub-disciplines can agree on a broad understanding of ›text‹ and ›style‹. The contemporary understanding of style has turned away from traditional rhetorical – or purely linguistic – categories, towards text- and function-related understandings, or to discourse linguistics and semiotics. Equally, the former understanding of texts as a unit, complete in structure and content, unified in theme, and unambiguous in its intentions has vanished. Instead, when approaching texts in general and literary texts in particular, scholars proceed from an assumption of a semantically open, processual, functional text, which is different for each recipient. As this can only be constituted through language, considerations of style are always implicitly present in the superficial textual features. Language and literary studies could also co-operate in the field of text-type/genre. Both the current linguistic understanding of ›text‹, much broader in comparison to older ones, and the cultural studies approach to the phenomena of text-type, imply that text-type can be understood not only from a language-internal perspective, but also as communicative patterns and cultural artefacts. They can be understood as instruments of collective action, which the members of a cultural community produce together, so as to live and act together in their lived reality and to engage with this reflectively and in practice. Text-types are as much involved in the form/constitution of cultures as they are formed by them. Their cultural conditioning is closely related to their characteristic of acting as crystallised ›bundles‹ of knowledge. The patterns (understood in the cognitive sense), which underlie the linguistic-communicative uses of texts of particular text-types, are the intersections between relevant areas of situated knowledge, to which, along with encyclopaedic knowledge of the world, knowledge of behavioural norms, and linguistic knowledge, cultural knowledge also belongs. This also includes the social function of a text-type, the ›Sitz im Leben‹ (Gunkel, Einleitung in die Psalmen: Die Gattungen der religiösen Lyrik Israels [1933], 1986, Jauß, Theorie der Gattungen und Literatur des Mittelalters, 1972) unique to the pattern of each text-type. This refers to the fact that each text-type makes possible a specific situation for problems of its lived reality. It is easy to imagine a collaboration between linguistics and literary studies here. In both linguistics and in literary studies, a new interest in questions of hermeneutics, of understanding and interpretation can currently be noted. In linguistics, there is a determined effort to make the study of the understanding and interpretation of texts, on the basis of new knowledge about cognition and processes of understanding, the centre of attention. In a cognitive-linguistic act, the complex sign constituted by a text is given meaning, which always entails an interpretation of that which is understood, which moves between closed and open meanings (Gardt, Linguistisches Interpretieren. Konstruktivistische Theorie und realistische Praxis, 2007). With this new turn towards hermeneutics, the single, individual text as creative achievement returns to the centre of attention. Via micro- and macro-analyses, all levels of the text and their functionalities are considered. Similar approaches may be met in literary studies, for instance when Weimar (Mitteilungen des deutschen Germanistenverbandes 49: 104–115, 2002) demands that texts should be given all the efforts at understanding which are necessary to the text and which the text offers, and when he develops the idea of Interpretation as an understanding of that which has been understood. Electronic data-storage and electronic access (e. g. search engines) make possible the exact and complete analysis of what would have been an impossible mass of text in a paper corpus, and enable the discovery of systematic connections where once only chance results might have been found. It is now possible and easy to compare large text corpora in search of inter-textual connections, or large or small similarities in theme. This promises to be an aid to the production of scholarly editions, as well as in the study of the literary, artistic, and theoretical discourses of a given era. As well as a historical overview, the article shows that German Studies raises questions which it appears may be profitably investigated by linguists and literary scholars in collaboration. It will also introduce, via representative examples, the insights and methods which literary studies lack, and linguistics can offer in this shared undertaking.

Free indirect discourse (FID) is a widely studied mode of speech and consciousness representation in narratives. One aspect of analysis and debate is the combination of the characters' stream of consciousness and the narrator's voice. Various ideas about the effects FID might have on readers have been formulated. Some of these hypotheses are contradictory, which makes them an excellent starting point for reader response studies. More in particular, there seems to be disagreement whether FID increases or decreases readers' empathy for story characters. Also, there is no consensus concerning the effect on the transparency of the narrator's stance toward the story character, nor on the clarity of the implied author's intentions. Rather than adding theoretical arguments, historical evidence, or exegeses of textual examples, the present contribution attempts to explore the empirical validity of FID hypotheses in a series of reading experiments. Previous studies by Schram (Norm en Normdoorbreking, 1985), and Bortolussi and Dixon (Psychonarratology: Foundations for the Empirical Study of Literary Response, 2003) suggest that FID does increase readers' sympathy for, and understanding of a character. Results of Van Peer and Pander Maat (Perspectivation and Sympathy, 1996; Language and Literature, 10: 229–241, 2001) and Hakemulder (2000) on the effects of focalization add to the plausible conclusion that FID enhances readers' sympathy, understanding, and may even affect moral judgment. However, it remains complex to accurately predict the effects, partly because they seem to depend on idiosyncrasies of the literary texts used in the studies, as well as on background variables of the readers participating in them. The present contribution aims to add to the available insights by investigating responses to a text with an apparent ironic undertone; since irony is a central element in the discussions concerning FID. Second, we wanted to see whether it would be possible to replicate findings of earlier studies on FID while using a story with an immoral character. This would improve the match between theorists' claims and empirical evidence. The studies presented examined whether FID affects the (perceived) clarity of the moral of an ironic story, whether FID enhances or reduces the visibility of character's thoughts and feelings, and whether FID influences readers' sympathy, understanding, and/or judgment of an immoral character. We conducted four studies among undergraduate students, using rewritten versions of a short literary story, Tadeusz Borowski's ›The Record‹. In the first two studies participants were randomly assigned to either reading the original version or our manipulation. The original was dominated by direct speech and contained hardly any FID. In our manipulation we maintained the information provided but transposed much of it into FID. In the first study we tested the effects of our manipulation among students of Theatre, Film and Television Studies. We found that FID made it difficult for them to distinguish the opinion of the narrator. In the second study we contrasted our findings with responses from students of literature. For this sample we found that FID may have led to higher levels of sympathy for the main character compared to the original version. However, comparison of the first two studies suggests that readers' backgrounds override the effects of the text factors. Nevertheless, some indications for an interaction of the two were found. In the third and fourth study we took the text manipulation of Studies 1 and 2 one step further. We hypothesized that even higher percentages of FID were required to obtain the predicted effects. In the first two studies only direct discourse had been replaced with FID. At one important moment, however, the narrator's text was left as it was. It was expected that replacing that section with a FID version could promote readers' understanding of the character. Finally, in the fourth study, we investigated the role of reading frequency. We assumed that participants who read often for pleasure might be more sensitive to the subtleties of FID (cf. Dixon et al., Poetics 22: 5–33, 1993). In our analyses we contrasted responses of ›low reading frequency‹ and ›high reading frequency‹ participants, a (median-split) distinction based on self-report of the number of hours spent on reading for pleasure per week. In both the third and fourth study we found that the text manipulation yielded a main effect on the perceived visibility of the characters' feelings and thoughts: FID led to a higher perceived character visibility than the original narrator version. In other words, the stylistic device under investigation gave readers the impression that they learned more about the inner life of the character where in fact they received the same information. Moreover, FID enhanced tendencies of readers toward external attribution, that is, explaining characters' behavior in terms of situational factors rather than personality. This was interpreted as indirect evidence that FID stimulates readers to view story events from the perspective of the character. No direct evidence was found that reading frequency had a mediating effect. The results of these studies demonstrate that the effects of FID are limited, at least when we consider the strength and range of the predicted effects. While the general effect on visibility of characters' consciousness appears robust, there were no consistent effects of FID on variables like empathy or sympathy with the character and variables pertaining to the perception of the author's opinion and the moral of the story.

This article presents exploratory work in the newly emerging field of multimodal stylistics . By bringing together literary studies, linguistics and multimodal semiotics, multimodal stylisticians aim to extend the stylistic tool box by developing methodological frameworks applicable to the description and analysis of literary texts which – in addition to wording – make use of other semiotic modes such as typography, visual images, colour and layout for their meaning-making. The approach to multimodality deployed and examined is that proposed, for instance, by Kress and van Leeuwen (e. g. Reading Images. The Grammar of Visual Design, 1996; Multimodal Discourse. The Modes and Media of Contemporary Communication, 2001) and Baldry and Thibault (Multimodal Transcription and Text Analysis, 2006). According to Kress and van Leeuwen (Multimodal Discourse. The Modes and Media of Contemporary Communication, 2001, 2) »common semiotic principles operate in and across different modes«. Following this line of thought, the article sets out to examine modality as a cross-modal semiotic principle. After a brief introduction to the field of multimodal stylistics, the concept of modality is presented in its (Hallidayan) linguistic context as a verbal resource for the expression of speaker commitment by means of modal verbs, adverbials, modalised sentences and metaphorised modality. From here, the concept is transferred to the context of visual communication where it concerns the truth value of the visual representation, described at a »lexico-grammatical« level in terms of the visual modal parameters of articulation of detail, background, light, shadow, depth and colour (Kress/van Leeuwen, Reading Images. The Grammar of Visual Design, 1996). Subsequently, the concept of modality is applied to the analysis of two explicitly multimodal novels, with particular focus on the realisation of modality in visual images and typography. The texts put up for analysis are Alexander Masters' Stuart . A Life Backwards and Jonathan Safran Foer's Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close . While Kress and van Leeuwen's modal parameters prove to apply well to the analysis of modality at a lexico-grammatical level of the photographic images, analysis of the two novels reveals that modality also appears to be at play at a discourse level as a result of the multimodal interplay of the verbal and the visual. The analysis of Masters' and Foer's sporadic use of special typography, in turn, reveals that although some of Kress and van Leeuwen's modality parameters may be applicable to typography, the descriptive system is clearly less adequate in a typographic context where further work is needed before workable tools can be added to the multimodal stylistic tool kit.

In this essay I argue for the ongoing potential of feminist stylistics, demonstrating that its critical and contextual nature is well suited to explore the complex gender politics that operate in online texts. The text under scrutiny is Girl with a One Track Mind , the sex blog which is authored by Zoe Margolis under the pseudonym Abby Lee and has formed the basis of two books (2006; 2010). Girl with a One Track Mind embodies many of the contradictions typical of post-feminist writing. On the one hand, the author declares a feminist stance for her writing, but close attention to the language she uses to represent sexual experience and an empirical account of the online contexts of use suggest that there are limitations to the form this feminist stance might take. Margolis claims a feminist status for her blog and books on the grounds that they challenge the heteronormative conventions that prevent a woman from narrating sexual experiences in positive terms. However, a textual analysis shows that the gender politics of her writing are problematic for a number of reasons. First, an analysis of the verbs associated with sex acts indicate that instead of representing a shift towards feminine agency, the verbal constructions either depersonalise the sex acts (for example through nominalisation or use of non-finite verb forms) or continue to represent the woman as the ›acted upon‹ participant where sexual activity is something one person does to another. Second, Margolis' discourse of feminist emancipation is limited to a private sphere of personal pleasure, and fails to engage with the many real world sexual practices that directly oppress women of many kinds. The ›self-help‹ advice genres embedded in both blog and books reinforce a binary view of gender, and perpetrate stereotypes of idealised heteronormative femininity. An analysis of the new media contexts of use surrounding the blog further underscores the problematic status of the text as ›feminist‹. The links on Girl with a One Track Mind's blog roll include male-authored erotica, suggesting that Margolis' writing might not be treated as a feminist gesture of emancipation but as further material to be objectified and consumed by a sexualised gaze. Although Margolis defends herself against the charge of writing erotica by constructing an idealised female readership who express support for Margolis and construct her as »normal and not alone«, an empirical account of the commenting behaviour on the blog suggests that the demographic profile of the actual readers might be somewhat different. To understand the gender politics of Girl with a One Track Mind more fully, feminist stylistics needs to move beyond the analysis of representation and engage with the social contexts in which the text operates. The power of these social conventions was most apparent when the mainstream media outed Margolis as the real author of the blog and book in 2006. I distinguish between the structural and social meanings of narratives of »being outed« and the more well-documented genre of »coming out«. Although »being outed« marks a liminal moment of social transition, multiple retellings of this moment and its later consequences can unfold over time as part of the speaker's life history (Linde, Life Stories: The Creation of Coherence, 1993). Margolis' retellings of »being outed« occur diachronically and across different media. Through these stories, she negotiates the transition between the authorial identities of »Lee« and »Margolis«. Ultimately, while she recoups a coherent, transformed identity as an assertive woman author, gaps and inconsistencies in the narrative logic in her most recent retelling published in her 2010 book suggest that there are still points of instability that make it difficult for a woman to talk about sex in a positive, agentive manner. The analysis demonstrates the advantages of feminist stylistics as a method for analysing gender in contemporary popular fiction. First, a systematic, empirical analysis of the text's language (here verb choices for penetrative sex acts) brings to light patterns of representation that would not be apparent if isolated examples alone were taken as a basis for interpretation. Second, online evidence of patterns of textual production and consumption can be useful as a means of comparing actual and idealised readerships. Although Girl with a One Track Mind is only representative of one specific genre, these aspects of analysis are useful for the study of other literature studies too. They draw attention to the importance of defining and negotiating what is meant by ›context‹, and of using tractable data sources rather than relying on intuitions about contextual reception. Finally, this study has shown that while feminist stylistics continues to negotiate tensions and multiplicity of current gender studies, the work of feminism is by no means over and that we will need to contest practices which work against those outside heteronormative paradigms for some time yet to come.

This article takes as its point of departure recent developments in the sociologies of knowledge, science, and technology, where a ›cultural‹, ›pragmatic‹ or ›social-constructionist‹ turn is spoken of. Though the individual disciplines strike different keynotes, they are all characterised by the adoption of language- and culture-relative viewpoints, as well as by the integration of subject and discipline-related knowledge in a wider social context. This produces a specific orientation in the sociology of knowledge, which aims at a deliberate counter to the commonplace ›knowledge and technologically determined‹ manner of thinking, in which that which is scientifically, technically, or technologically possible is understood as the driver of social developments. By contrast the social-constructionist approach to knowledge, science, and technology research privileges forms of discussion in which the social actors and their possibilities of action, their wishes, aims, and limitation are included. Against a background of the ever-increasing multicultural and multilingual complexity of many present – and, as seems likely, future – societies, and in connection with the social-constructionist turn, one aspect of inquiry increases in importance, and brings the field of German Studies back to its origins as a linguistic and communication science. That is, it is vital that the developments in the fields of knowledge, science, and technology should be supported by appropriate instruments for the analysis and constitution of socially relevant actor groups with their individual agencies and competencies. In other words: when the constitutive role of social decision-makers in the development of knowledge, science, and technology is considered, then research into the processes by which such decisions are made is also indispensible, as is participation in their development. These key points call for the subject-related skills of German Studies, among other fields, which are examined in this study through the following questions: 1) What interests does (intercultural) German Studies have in filling its place in the constellation of international and multi-disciplinary ›knowledge cultures‹? 2) In what ways has (intercultural) German Studies contributed to the exploration of the language/culture complex? 3) To what extent does the co-operation of language and literary studies open ways of actively influencing the formation of international ›knowledge societies‹ and ›knowledge cultures‹? The starting point is the established sociological assumption that the knowledge produced by academia, and other areas of knowledge generation, will become a key variable in the transformation of the economy and the globalisation of society and the simultaneous redistribution of the production of new knowledge to disparate locations in the national and global system of innovation. Werner Rammert, a sociologist specialising in knowledge and technology, describes this as a ›heterogeneously distributed knowledge-production based regime‹, which is characterised by the heterogeneous nature of the actors involved, such as academics, managers, politicians, as well as those active in other fields, and is therefore accompanied by a so-called ›fragmented differentiation‹. In this type of transdisciplinary academic work, sometimes called ›mode 2‹, various forms of knowledge may be connected through the elimination of strict boundaries between the arts, social sciences and natural sciences, as well as the bringing together of theory and practice. The heterogeneity of the epistemic perspectives involved requires, as Rammert rightly stresses, »a successful reconciliation of the discrepancies« (Rammert, Technik – Handeln – Wissen. Zu einer pragmatistischen Technik- und Sozialtheorie, 2007, 192). However, he in no way assumes that this can only be done through a model of scientific exactness oriented on the strict explication and formulation of knowledge, as in the natural sciences. Instead he stresses the relevance of non-explicit or implied knowledge. The questions explored in this article, therefore, focus on the implicit in the ›knowledge societies‹ of the present, always keeping in mind the question as to the role linguistics and literary studies can play in academic and social circles where the social constructive turn (reflected in the sociologies of knowledge and technology) plays a decisive role. Step by step, this article considers: 1) fundamental positions of the cultural turn in knowledge science, academia, and technological studies are briefly sketched out, 2) the significance of the self-understanding of German Studies and intercultural German Studies is developed, 3) the intersections of sociology and linguistics are examined, and finally section 4) on the one hand sketches out the current state of a cultural studies and interculturally oriented linguistics, which concerns itself with the question of the language and culture complex, and on the other hand shows the central role of literary language-use in the communication of implicit knowledge, including an excursus on Goethe's scientific theory, and its reception by the physicists Niels Bohr and Werner Heisenberg. It is shown that it is the co-operation of linguistics and literary studies which allows a language and culture specific study of implicit knowledge, in that the relevance of the interplay between literary and everyday, as well as scientific, language use can first be apprehended and properly investigated. Thus, German Studies, – especially intercultural German Studies, since in the latter special attention is paid to questions of internationalism and intra- and interdisciplinarity – which maintains a presence through institutes and chairs in the German speaking world and beyond, can take an independent and central role in the constellation of the contemporary production of knowledge.

Certain verbal structures have been pointed out in Gerard Manley Hopkins' poem »The Windhover« as typical, and conducive to an ecstatic effect: tongue-twisters, adjective pileups, the scarcity of finite verbs and the use of such verbs as hurl and achieve as nouns. The relationship between such verbal devices and ecstatic quality is usually assumed, not accounted for. This paper explores the possible contribution of such verbal constructions to an ecstatic effect. It invokes Bergson's distinction between perceptions that are »clear, distinct, juxtaposed or juxtaposable one with another, and tend to group themselves into objects«; and »a continuous flux, […] a succession of states each of which announces that which follows and contains that which precedes it«. The latter underlies what he calls »Metaphysical Intuition«. I argue that Bergson's description »in reality no one begins or ends, but all extend into each other« can be applied to both the semantic and phonetic component of such phrases as Hopkins' »dapple-dawn-drawn falcon«, in a way that has psychological reality. One typical feature of ecstatic experiences is usually described as ›depersonalization‹. The scarcity of finite verbs contributes to such an effect. Abstract nouns and nominalized verbs and adjectives in referring position reinforce this effect and contribute to the effect of perceived »flux« – as opposed to objects that have stable characteristic visual shapes with stable contours, that resist fusion. Speech sounds are transmitted by a stream of rich precategorial auditory information, which is immediately recoded into phonetic categories, and excluded from awareness. Some of the precategorial auditory information, however, lingers on subliminally in active memory, and is available for certain cognitive tasks and aesthetic effects. Similar sound patterns may, in certain conditions, enhance such lingering information; but, in some other conditions, they may inhibit it (lateral inhibition). In the second part of the paper, a recording of this poem is submitted to instrumental analysis, and electronic manipulations to generate alternative solutions. The purpose of these exercises is to explore the vocal strategies by which a performer may boost or inhibit the interaction of gestalt-free elements across word and phrase boundaries.

An important type of hypotheses within the interpretation of discourse and text pertains to the intentions and beliefs guiding the production of discourse and text. Such hypotheses can explain various properties of the discourse or text to be interpreted. I concentrate upon hypotheses about authors' intentions. I try to show that such hypotheses can be tested empirically, i. e. that they can be confirmed and disconfirmed with empirical data. Hypotheses about authors' intentions are singular hypotheses about specific authors and their specific circumstances, as opposed to universal hypotheses. I proceed from general aspects of testing singular hypotheses to more specific aspects. In section 1 I discuss the general question how singular hypotheses can be confirmed and disconfirmed, i. e. how they can be subjected to severe or even to critical tests. If an empirical statement follows from a hypothesis and background knowledge and the empirical statement is tested, then we have a severe test of the hypothesis. If, in addition, the hypothesis is confronted with alternative hypotheses, we have a critical test. In section 2 I analyze methods of testing hypotheses about mental states in general, in section 3 methods of testing hypotheses about authors' intentions in particular. How do we test ascriptions of beliefs and intentions in everyday life ? We confront them with verbal utterances and non-verbal behaviour, using general nomological hypotheses of folk psychology within the background knowledge. In the social sciences and the humanities we proceed in the same way as in everyday life, but we do this in a more systematic manner: (1) we formulate our hypotheses more precisely; (2) we formulate implicit hypotheses explicitly; (3) we subject presupposed hypotheses about beliefs and intentions to severe and, possibly, critical tests; (4) we try to improve the nomological hypotheses within the background knowledge. With regard to hypotheses about authors' intentions there are two types of evidence particularly relevant for testing such hypotheses: (1) the conformity with the context of the text to be interpreted (in particular former drafts of the text, parallel texts, the social environment); (2) assertions of intentions made by the authors themselves. Furthermore, (3), a special role is played by the question whether hypotheses conform with charity principles within the background knowledge. I argue that charity principles have only a heuristic value, that they cannot be used for severe or critical tests. In section 4 I consider three objections against the possibility of testing hypotheses about authors' intentions: (1) the argument from the inobservability or privacy of mental states; (2) the argument of the hermeneutical circle; (3) the argument of the indeterminacy of mental states. I briefly discuss these arguments and conclude that they cannot establish the impossibility of testing hypotheses about authors' intentions.