American Journal Of Philological Sciences
283
https://theusajournals.com/index.php/ajps
VOLUME
Vol.05 Issue06 2025
PAGE NO.
283-285
10.37547/ajps/Volume05Issue06-74
Intertextuality as A Cognitive Category of The Text
Makhmatkulova Yayra
UzSWLU, Korean philology department, Lecturer, Korean language teacher, Uzbekistan
Received:
26 April 2025;
Accepted:
22 May 2025;
Published:
24 June 2025
Abstract:
This article analyzes the importance, types, and applications of intertextuality in linguistics.
Keywords:
Cognitive linguistics, linguoculturology, intertextuality, stylistics, semiotics, etc.
Introduction:
Intertextuality is the generally accepted
term
denoting
the
interconnectedness
and
interrelatedness of texts. The term in 1966 was
introduced by Julia Kristeva in her work “Semiotics: A
Critical Science and/or a Critique of Science” (Kristeva,
1968). According to J. Kristeva every text is an intertext
formed out of the previously constructed texts and
which constitutes the basis of the next one, so the new
text is thus viewed as part of the vast network of texts
influencing one another.
The term itself has an intertextual meaning as it echoes
the concept of polyphony introduced by Mikhail
Bakhtin (Bakhtin, Mikhail M. The Dialogic Imagination.
Ed. M. Holquist, tr. C. Emerson & M. Holquist. Austin,
Tex./London: University of Texas Press. 1981). Bakhtin
pointed out that polyphony reveals the existence of ‘a
plurality of independent and unmerged voices and
consciousnesses’. The Russian theorist dwelt upon the
dialogical essence of speech which implies that speech
is based on the interlocutors’ previous social,
communicative experiences that help both encode and
decode the intended messag
e of the interlocutors’
utterances. Thus, the very speech by its nature is
intertextual as it refers to the previously usages of
language, it is a multi-voiced set of experiences which
help create new texts. Bakhtin locates the logic of the
literary word.
There is not one accepted mainstream definition of
intertextuality. Intertextuality is referred to as a
unifying technique of text weaving by means of other
texts in literary discourse. It is an attempt to analyze the
plurality of distinct voices in the narration which
interact with the reader’s experience. The process of
reading appears to be the process of text interaction.
The writer encodes the message referring to both
external and cultural sources which are inferred by the
reader with the help of his literary and cultural
background. Consequently, while decoding the
author’s text the reader creates his own which is both
a reflection of the author’s original text and his
personal background.
The divergence of opinions could be explained that the
term of intertextuality is viewed in different ways.
Some researchers refer intertextuality to a ‘technique
of allusion’; others consider it to be a ‘part of the
network of evaluative devices found in literary
discourse, which works in complex ways to deepen the
meaning of the text’. All of them support the idea that
a text does not exist in isolation, moreover it cannot be
decoded in isolation from the vast network of texts
from where, it takes its origins and which help to get a
better understanding of a text.
There are two approaches to the problem of
intertextuality: broad and narrow. In a broad sense,
which is mostly accepted in the theory of literature, any
text is regarded as an intertext, which is defined as “a
universal text” that reflects the world cultu
re and
history. As J. Kristeva claims «Any text is constructed of
a mosaic of quotations; any text is the absorption and
transformation of another» (Kristeva, 1980). Another
well-
known theorist R. Barthes, developing Kristeva’s
conception, asserts that “Th
e text is a tissue of
quotations drawn from the innumerable centres of
culture…the writer can only imitate a gesture that is
always anterior, never original” (Barthes, 1977).
Accepting the assumption that neither text can be
American Journal Of Philological Sciences
284
https://theusajournals.com/index.php/ajps
American Journal Of Philological Sciences (ISSN
–
2771-2273)
regarded as original, he annou
nced the “death of the
Author”. However, this approach, as the researchers
note, allows to study only the ways of interactions of
different texts, not the text itself (Чернявская, 2009).
The narrow approach to the problem of intertextuality
has been accepted in linguistics. Intertextuality in this
view is understood as an explicit or implicit citing of
other texts (Arnold I.V., Fateeva N.A.), as a mechanism
of co-presence of two or more texts within one text
which has an explicit reference to the other. In other
words, the fragments of the precedent text are
introduced into the recipient one with the help of
certain codes
–
intertextual markers or signals. There
are various kinds of intertextual inclusions: title,
epigraph,
quotation,
plagiarism,
imitation,
antonomasia, allusion, repetition, etc. The text or its
fragment containing any of these intertextual markers
is regarded as an intertext, which on the one hand
implies reference to the precedent text, on the other
–
becomes a constituent part of the recipient text.
Intertextuality is realized in several ways in a literary
text. Valentina Şmatova states that ‘the search for
intertextuality goes in different directions’ and
delineates eight possible ways:
•
thegenericdirection;
•
stylistic devices as the underlying force of
intertextuality;
•
combination of visual and linguistic texts;
•
translationintertextuality;
•
parodyintertextuality;
•
incorporationintertextuality;
•
many-voicednarration;
•
globalintertextuality.
As is indicated by some researchers there are six levels
of intertextuality:
1. The text may draw on prior texts as a source of
meanings to be used at face value. This occurs
whenever one text takes statements from another
source as authoritative and then repeats that
authoritative information or statement for the
purposes of the new text. In a U.S. Supreme Court
decision, passages from the U.S. Constitution can be
cited and taken as authoritative givens, even though
the application to the case at hand may be argued. In
the example discussed above, the title of the news
article “The Weak Link” invokes and takes at face value
the old adage that “a chain is only as strong as its
weakest link.”
2. The text may draw explicit social dramas of
prior texts engaged in discussion. When a newspaper
story, for example, quotes opposing views of Senators,
teachers’ unions, community activist groups, and
reports from think tanks concerning a current
controversy over school funding, they portray an
intertextual social drama. The newspaper report is
shaping a story of opponents locked in political
struggle. That struggle may in fact preexist the
newspaper story and the opponents may be using the
newspapers to get their view across as part of that
struggle; nonetheless, the newspaper brings the
statements side by side in a direct confrontation.
3. Text may also explicitly use other statements as
background, support, and contrast. Whenever a
student cites figures from an encyclopedia, uses
newspaper reports to confirm events, or uses
quotations from a work of literature to support an
analysis, they are using sources in this way. In the
example above, the reporters use the TIMSS and NAEP
data to back up their assertion about troubles of middle
schools.
4. Less explicitly the text may rely on beliefs, issues,
ideas, statements generally circulated and likely
familiar to the readers, whether they would attribute
the material to a specific source or would just
understand as common knowledge. The constitutional
guarantees of freedom of speech, may, for example, lie
behind a newspaper editorial on a controversial
opinion expressed by a community leader, without any
specific mention of the Constitution. The news article
discussed above relies on the middle school mission “to
attend to young adolescents’ social, emotional,
and
physical needs.” This phrase relies most directly on
familiar discussions about how schools can serve the
whole child, calls for schools and other institutions to
deal with the problems of youth, and journalistic,
academic, and policy presentations of school programs
that succeed and fail. The statement more indirectly
relies on common and oft-restated beliefs about the
difficult transitions of adolescents as well as fictional,
journalistically embellished, and honestly factual
accounts of troubled youth and youth violence.
5. By using certain implicitly recognizable kinds of
language, phrasing, and genres, every text evokes
particular social worlds where such language and
language forms are used, usually to identify that text as
part of those worlds. This book, for example, uses
language recognizably associated with the university,
research, and textbooks. In the example above,
paragraph by paragraph the news article moves us
through the worlds of school and administrative policy,
political
contention,
statistical
analysis,
and
contentious policy debate.
6. Just by using language and language forms, a text
relies on the available resources of language without
American Journal Of Philological Sciences
285
https://theusajournals.com/index.php/ajps
American Journal Of Philological Sciences (ISSN
–
2771-2273)
calling particular attention to the intertext. Every text,
all the time, relies on the available language of the
period, and is part of the cultural world of the times. In
the example news report, the opening sentence relies
on familiarity with the “middle grades” concept, which
came out of the mid-twentieth century movement to
create middle schools. It also relies on familiarity with
the idiomatic phrase “feeling the squeeze” which had
its origins in underworld language and then worked its
way into sports and business.
Levels of intertextuality can be recognized through
certain techniques that represent the words and
utterances of others, starting with the most explicit:
1. direct quotation. Usually identified by quotation
marks, block indentation, italics, or other typographic
setting apart from the other words of the text. While
the words may be entirely those of the original author,
however, it is important to remember that the second
author, in quoting the writing, has control over exactly
which words will be quoted, the points at which the
quote will be snipped, and the context it will be used in.
2. indirect quotation. This usually specifies a source
and then attempts to reproduce the meaning of the
original but in words that reflect the author’s
understanding, interpretation, or spin on the original.
Indirect quotation filters the meaning through the
second author’s words and attitude and allows the
meanings to be more thoroughly infused with the
second writer’s purpose.
3. mentioning of a person, document or statements.
Mentioning a document or author relies on the reader’s
familiarity with the original source and what it says. No
details of meaning are specified, so the second writer
has even greater opportunity to imply what he or she
wants about the original or to rely on general beliefs
about the original without having to substantiate them,
as the news reporters do with respect to proponents
and critics.
4. comment or evaluation on a statement, text, or
otherwise invoked voice. The reporters in the example
above accept as truthful and definitive the TIMSS and
NAEP studies, although they have been in fact
criticized. They also see “the original concept
undermined” and they pass judgment on curricula as
“ill
-
defined.”
5. using recognizable phrasing, terminology associated
with specific people or groups of people or particular
documents. In the example article, William Schmidt
criticizes middle grade math and science education by
the phrase “an intellectual wasteland” that recalls
Newton Minnow’s famous statement of the sixties
calling television “a vast intellectual wasteland.” This
echo not only evokes major public controversy over
educational issues, but also implicitly suggests that
middle school education has no more value than
television as an educational tool.
6. using language and forms that seem to echo certain
ways of communicating, discussions among other
people, types of documents. Genre, kinds of
vocabulary (or register), stock phrases, patterns of
expression may be of this sort. The reporters of the
example article clearly are writing within the forms of
journalism over public policy controversies. And as
mentioned previously the language of that article
brings us through worlds of educational planning,
political movements, statistical evaluation, and policy
controversy.
In summing up, the major points may be outlined:
● intertextuality as an essential property of the literary
text is regarded as an implicit or explicit reference to
other texts or events;
● the most frequently used signal of intertextuality is
allusion, which serves to convey cultural information
and activate knowledge structures related to history,
literature, religion, mythology, etc.
REFERENCES
Ashurova D.U. Text Linguistics.
–
Tashkent: Tafakkur
Qanoti, 2012.
–
204 p.
Ashurova D.U., Galieva M.R. Stylistics of Literary Text.
–
Tashkent, Alisher Navoiy nomidagi O’zbekiston Milliy
kutubxonasi nashriyoti, 2013.
–
204 p.
Galperin I.R. Stylistics.
–
М.: Higher School, 1977. –
332
p.
Kristeva J. Narration et transformation // Semiotica.
–
The Hague, 1969. -
№ 4.
- P. 422
–
448.
Барт Р. От произведения к тексту // Р.Барт
Избранные работы: Семиотика: Поэтика. М.:
Прогресс, 1989. –
С.413
-424
Арнольд И.В. Интерпретация художественного
текста:
типы
выдвижения
и
проблема
экспрессивности
//
Экспрессивные
средства
английского языка: Сб. науч. работ. Л., 1975.
-
С. 11
-
20.
Арнольд
И.В.
Семантика.
Стилистика.
Интертекстуальность:
Сб. ст.
/
Науч.
ред.
П.Е.Бухаркин.
-
СПб.: Изд
-
во С.Петерб. ун
-
та, 1999.
-
444 с.
Арнольд И.В. Стилистика современного английского
языка: Стилистика декодирования: Учеб. пособие
для студентов пед. ин
-
ов по спец. "Иностр. яз."
- 3-
е
изд.
-
М.: Просвещение, 1990.
-
300 с.
