Linguistic Multi-Level Analysis of Literary Texts: A Cognitive Linguistic Translation-Oriented Modification of the DIMEAN Model

The aim of the paper is to investigate the possibility (1) to harmonize the linguistic multi-level discourse analysis model DIMEAN by Warnke/Spitzmüller (2008) with M. H. Freeman’s (2000, 2006) cognitive approach to literary texts and translation; and (2) to include into the DIMEAN model the notion of subjectification/objectification as proposed by Langacker (1985). For this purpose, the science-fiction story BLIT (1988) of the so-called Basilisk series by D. Langford is to be examined. It is anticipated that the proposed modifications/enhancements of the DIMEAN model will make it possible to better reconstruct the conceptual and linguistic universe of the text under examination. It seems that such reconstruction, to be comprehensive and conducted in a minimally subjective manner, should be done according to clear criteria applied in a well-ordered analysis. The DIMEAN model appears to be well-suited for the purposes of such text analysis since it is clearly organized and provides a comprehensive (yet open- ended) list of aspects. Although the model initially was not designed for a literary text analysis, I share the opinion of Ulla Fix (2016), who, in her article, shows that DIMEAN can successfully be applied to literary texts. The results of the examination show that the proposed mode of text examination allows to identify salient features of the text-world, especially those to be translated, and issues potentially problematic for translation.