COGNITIVE-AFFECTIVE READING OF PUNCTUATION IN SHORT FICTION
The aim of the paper is to define the cognitive and affective aspects of punctuation marks in short fiction and demonstrate how these marks influence the reader’s perception, activate background knowledge, and stimulate thinking. Image-schema theory forms the framework of the analysis, complemente...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | deu |
| Published: |
Alfred Nobel University
2025-06-01
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| Series: | Alfred Nobel University Journal of Philology |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://phil.duan.edu.ua/images/PDF/2025/1/7.pdf |
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| Summary: | The aim of the paper is to define the cognitive and affective aspects of punctuation marks in short fiction
and demonstrate how these marks influence the reader’s perception, activate background knowledge,
and stimulate thinking. Image-schema theory forms the framework of the analysis, complemented by
graphematic, descriptive, conceptual, and content methods of analysis. The paper presents an approach
that provides a useful framework for studying punctuation from cognitive and affective perspectives
and disclose its role in the meaning-making process. The paper elaborates on the concepts “authorial
punctuation” and “affective punctuation,” demonstrating their relevance for the study of a creative use of
punctuation marks in short fiction.
The paper argues that, from a cognitive perspective, punctuation marks function as triggers that
activate the reader’s background knowledge and facilitate the knowledge with the new information
embedded in the text. Text comprehension depends not only on words and syntax but also on the reader’s
ability to process the text based on explicit and implicit relations between textual units. Regarding the
affective aspect, the paper argues that punctuation marks serve as triggers that engage the reader in the
meaning-making process and enhance participatory engagement with the text by activating various image
schemas linked to real-life experience.
Wasps, a short story by A.L. Kennedy, from the collection What Becomes (2010), will be analyzed,
first, the value of integrating cognitive and affective dimensions in the analysis of punctuation, and second,
the twofold significance of punctuation in the text: as a means of conveying the authorial message and as
an interpretive tool that guides the reader toward meaning.
The choice of the author and the story is deliberate. A.L. Kennedy is an award-winning novelist
and a short story writer, produces work that invites postmodern interpretations. Her fiction frequently
explores themes of trauma, loneliness, despair, betrayal, family relationships, by using unique narrative
techniques to engage the readers into the emotional world of the characters. The stories in the collection,
in particular Wasps, is noteworthy for the recurring motifs of silence and the unsaid (Mitchel, 2008), where each element gains significance in deciphering the meaning hidden underneath the unsaid. The analysis
of Wasps reveals that the use of punctuation in the story is a results of the author’s creative thinking and
is endowed with a potential of engaging the reader into the meaning making process, at the same time,
impacting the reader both from cognitive and affective perspectives. The paper focuses on the use of the
period, the dash, the comma and the ellipsis to demonstrate their contribution in revealing the intricate
areas of the emotional life of the characters existing beyond the boundaries of the words. The reading of
the story is schematic, and the analysis will illustrate how punctuation marks contribute to the activation of
image schemas which help the reader to infer meanings embedded between the lines. At the same time,
the analysis will show the applicability of the concepts of “authorial” and “affective” punctuation to A.L.
Kennedy’s narrative technique, as well as consider punctuation as a result of the author’s creative thinking
which triggers the readers’ creative abilities in building the text meaning. |
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| ISSN: | 3041-217X 3041-2188 |