Vom Textarchetyp zum Textprototyp. Möglichkeiten und Grenzen der prototypischen Hypothese in der Textlinguistik

The present study aims to discuss the significance of the prototypical hypothesis with regard to text-theoretical questions. The prototypical hypothesis in text linguistics can be traced back to the basic assumption that the bundle of features, which can be attributed to a text, shows a fundamental openness. This means that a definition of ‘text’ in the most literal sense of the word (i.e., the demarcation of a series of fixed text features, at the same time necessary and sufficient) proves to be impossible. In the prototypical oriented text linguistics, the attempt to determine an archetypical unity ‘text’ is thus replaced by attempting to determine prototypical units ‘text’. In practical terms, this new understanding of text definition consists on the one hand in an attempt to collect and to integrate possible text characteristics, and on the other hand in an attempt to determine which characteristics are central. However, the prototypical hypothesis shows itself only insofar as meaningful, if it is clear that it does not actually concerns the notion itself of text. A general notion of ‘text’ (text as a communication-related linguistic unit) is required as a precondition in order to justify the centrality of certain features.

本研究旨在探讨原型假说（prototypical hypothesis）针对文本理论问题的重要意义。文本语言学（text linguistics）领域的原型假说可追溯至一项基本假设：可归属于某一文本的特征集合，具有根本性的开放性。这意味着，若以字面意义定义“文本”——即通过同时具备必要性与充分性的固定文本特征集合划定其边界——最终将被证明不可行。在以原型为导向的文本语言学中，试图确立“文本”这一原型统一体的尝试，已被确定“文本”这一原型单元的路径所取代。从实践维度来看，这种对文本定义的新认知，一方面体现为对各类潜在文本特征的收集与整合，另一方面则体现为对哪些特征属于核心特征的界定。然而，原型假说仅在明确其实际上并非围绕“文本”这一概念本身展开的前提下，才具备阐释效力。为了论证特定特征的核心地位，我们需要以“文本”的一般性概念（即作为交际关联型语言单元的文本）作为前提基础。