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The Construction of Meaning in the Correspondence of Charles Darwin

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The Construction of Meaning in the Correspondence of Charles Darwin THE CONSTRUCTION OF MEANING IN THE CORRESPONDENCE OF CHARLES DARWIN By DOMINIK VAJN A thesis submitted to The University of Birmingham for the degree of DOCTORATE OF PHILOSOPHY The School of English, Drama and American & Canadian Studies College of Arts and Law The University of Birmingham M a r c h 2 0 1 4 University of Birmingham Research Archive e-theses repository This unpublished thesis/dissertation is copyright of the author and/or third parties. The intellectual property rights of the author or third parties in respect of this work are as defined by The Copyright Designs and Patents Act 1988 or as modified by any successor legislation. Any use made of information contained in this thesis/dissertation must be in accordance with that legislation and must be properly acknowledged. Further distribution or reproduction in any format is prohibited without the permission of the copyright holder. Abstract This thesis analyses the process of construction of linguistic meaning from a diachronic perspective. The analysis is based on the theories of intertextuality and social construction and applies a corpus analysis of collocations and paraphrases of key notions discussed in Darwin’s correspondence. In particular, the focus of the analysis is on the terms species and varieties with the aim to observe how the meanings of these terms are formed in a process of social negotiation. The thesis analyses the difference in the meanings of these terms, but also focuses on the diachronic dimension of their use in the correspondence, which allows for the observation of how different interpretations of meanings emerge in discourse. Thus far, diachronic studies in the field of corpus linguistics focused on comparing different historical corpora rather than observing the diachronic change of the immediate contextual environment of particular terms. The results presented in this thesis show that the meanings of terms are not only formed of different interpretations in discourse, but that these interpretations can be specific to particular temporal spans in discourse. i Acknowledgements Firstly, I would like to thank the College of Arts and Law for providing me with the scholarship which allowed me to undertake this PhD programme by covering my tuitions fees and contributing towards my maintenance during my studies. I would also like to extend my gratitude to the Open Society Foundation that has granted me supplementary scholarships needed to get me through these years. I am especially grateful to my supervisor, Professor Wolfgang Teubert, for all the advice and guidance he has provided me over the years, but also for his patience and understanding. I would also like to thank the all the staff at the English Department, University of Birmingham, especially Dr Nicholas Groom and Dr Paul Thompson for all the help, advice and support during the long four years of my thesis writing. Special thoughts and gratitude are reserved for my family: my mother, Dragica, and my sister, Katarina, who have supported me, both financially and emotionally, throughout all these years. Finally, I would like to thank my dear girlfriend, Charlotte, who has been there for me in the most difficult moments, supporting me right to the very last sentences of this thesis. ii Table of Contents 1 Introduction .......................................................................................................... 1 1.1 Introduction ................................................................................................... 1 1.2 Background ................................................................................................... 4 1.3 Research goals ........................................................................................... 14 1.3.1 Research Questions ............................................................................. 15 2 Literature review ................................................................................................ 16 2.1 On the origin meaning: approaches in language theory ........................... 16 2.1.1 Language as a psychological phenomenon ........................................ 17 2.1.2 Language as a social phenomenon ..................................................... 41 2.1.3 Summary .............................................................................................. 59 2.2 Constructing meaning and reality............................................................... 62 2.2.1 Social construction by negotiation ....................................................... 62 2.2.2 Interpretation and meaning .................................................................. 69 2.2.3 Paraphrase as Interpretation ............................................................... 71 2.3 Terminology ................................................................................................ 75 2.3.1 Special features of terms ..................................................................... 75 2.3.2 Paraphrases of terms ........................................................................... 77 2.3.3 Summary .............................................................................................. 79 2.4 The Species Problem ................................................................................. 80 iii 2.4.1 Historical context of Darwin’s theory ................................................... 82 2.4.2 Historical overview of the Species Problem ........................................ 87 2.4.3 Summary .............................................................................................. 93 3 Research Framework ........................................................................................ 95 3.1 Introduction ................................................................................................. 95 3.2 Theoretical position..................................................................................... 96 3.3. Research framework.................................................................................. 99 3.3.1 Collocation and Paraphrase................................................................. 99 3.3.2 Intertextuality ...................................................................................... 101 3.3.3 Diachronic analysis ............................................................................ 103 4 Methodology .................................................................................................... 106 4.1 Introduction ............................................................................................... 106 4.2 On the Corpus ........................................................................................... 106 4.3 Research tools .......................................................................................... 108 4.4 Methods..................................................................................................... 109 4.4.1 Collocation Analysis ........................................................................... 112 4.4.2 Paraphrase analysis ........................................................................... 114 4.4.3 Intertextuality Markers ........................................................................ 115 4.4.4 Diachronic analysis ............................................................................ 116 5 Analysis ........................................................................................................... 118 iv 5.1 Introduction ............................................................................................... 118 5.2 Collocation analysis .................................................................................. 119 5.2.1 Frequency collocations ...................................................................... 120 5.2.2 Mutual Information .............................................................................. 124 5.2.3 Contrasting Collocations .................................................................... 127 5.2.4 Summary ............................................................................................ 138 5.3 Construction of meaning by paraphrase .................................................. 140 5.3.1 Introduction ......................................................................................... 140 5.3.2. Analysis ............................................................................................. 140 5.3.3 Summary ............................................................................................ 150 5.4 Intertextuality ............................................................................................. 151 5.4.1 Introduction ......................................................................................... 151 5.4.2 Markers of Intertextuality .................................................................... 151 5.4.3 Markers: aware, unaware................................................................... 152 5.4.4 Markers: agree, disagree ................................................................... 155 5.4.5 Markers: say that, say about .............................................................. 156 5.4.6 Markers: object to, objection .............................................................. 157 5.4.7 Markers: regarding, in/with regard to ................................................. 159 5.4.8 Markers: hear ....................................................................................
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