The world of 'words'

Abstract EN

A text is a world depicted in the mind of the reader based on the interaction between the language of the text and the reader's schematic knowledge.

What happens if the text's main theme is to depict not an active fictional world, but a world of words just words Applying Text World Theory and Schema Theory which go beyond the borders of any specific language, the researcher intends to analyze a poem / kalmia : t 'Words' by the Syrian poet Nizar Qabbani (1923-1998).

The researcher aims at showing how both theories can account for the depiction of an imaginary joyful world.

Text World Theory is in essence a cognitive theory that accounts for the processing of any text.

It states that there are three levels to be addressed in approaching any text, namely ‘Discourse’, ‘Text’ and ‘Switch’ Worlds respectively.

Discourse World has to do with the immediate setting of the text and the relation between the sender (writer / speaker) and the receiver (reader / listener).

Text World deals with the initial world depicted by the language of the text.

Finally, Switch Worlds relate to all deictic shifts from the initial world.

Schema Theory, on the other hand, corresponds only to the first of these worlds.

Hence, both theories should be regarded as complimentary rather than alternative models.

The researcher will also incorporate these cognitive theories with Halliday’s notion of ‘transitivity’ to show how the processes reflect the Arab attitude towards women; an attitude that the poet, known as ‘the woman’s advocate’, hated and fought against.

The metaphors, lexical items and syntactic structures will be shown to weave a special world of words that captures the emotive effect of the poem-an effect of final disappointment-after wandering in a beautiful but illusive world.