The purpose of this study was to create an instrument for research and to present a semantic and literary application to illustrate its use. / The instrument is comprised of a computer tape containing the text of Les Liaisons dangereuses de Laclos and a limited concordance developed from selected terms from the novel's two predominant semantic fields, power and knowledge, and two inter-related fields, stratagem and divinity. / The concordance constitutes in itself a partial verification of the beginning hypothesis that the novel is generated in large part by its two predominant semantic fields. The computer output of over 200,000 lines was so voluminous that it was only possible to include a much reduced concordance in this work. / The reduced concordance permits the establishment of partial statistics. The co-occurrences of terms from the four selected semantic fields is very high. It is of particular importance to note that the reduced concordance reveals that approximately 10% of the total words in the novel (one word per line of text) is generated by the two predominant semantic fields, power and knowledge. / The analysis attempts to classify the terms found in the reduced concordance according to the principles of Greimas and Blanche and to study the use of the terms and the context in which they are used by the novel's principal characters. / The reduced concordance allows the comparison of the vocabulary and style of the characters to occur in a more systematic manner. It illustrates the fact that the language and style of the characters are very personalised. For example, certain words appear only in the vocabulary of particular characters. The reduced concordance also permits the comparative study of the varying contexts that can be applied to a given word throughout the text by characters on both sides of the aggressor/aggressee axis. / This study illustrates one use of the research instrument that has been created. There are numerous other possibilities limited only by the imagination of a researcher. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 46-10, Section: A, page: 3049. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1985.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:fsu.edu/oai:fsu.digital.flvc.org:fsu_75673 |
| Contributors | THOMAS, HOLLY., Florida State University |
| Source Sets | Florida State University |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Text |
| Format | 385 p. |
| Rights | On campus use only. |
| Relation | Dissertation Abstracts International |
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