What's in a Text? Inquiries into the Textual Cornucopia

Numerous linguists of various orientations, translators and literary scholars share an interest in text. As students of language with very diverse interests and aims, they ask themselves, if only subconsciously, the following questions:What kind(s) of texts do we study?Why do we study them?What are we looking for?What do and don't we find?What do we do with whatever we do find?What does it tell us about language, its speakers or the human mind?Generally, what is (a) text for me as a linguist and/or translator?In the present volume, the questions are brought onto the level of the conscious and addressed by several practitioners in the fields of linguistics and translation - contributions with a literary slant also have a linguistic orientation. Although ultimate answers to these questions may not exist, the ambition of the book is to help the reader appreciate the richness of text and the variety of texts as a treasure-trove for scholars representing multifarious approaches to language.