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Между читателем и текстом: инструментарий для изучения понимания имплицитных смыслов вербальных текстов. Часть 2
The article describes the second part of the research aimed at developing the framework for studying the comprehension of implicit meanings of verbal texts. The uniqueness of the proposed framework stems from the combination of psychological and linguistic methodologies. We outline the current approaches to the phenomenon of text comprehension along with its classifications available to date. Special emphasis is made on the analysis of the
gradual approach to comprehension studies linking various levels of texts’ text comprehension with certain types of underpinning intellectual operations. In addition to the theoretical analysis, we present the results of empirical study aimed at piloting the previously developed research tool for testing the comprehension of texts’ texts’ implicit meanings. During this pilot, the stimulus text – a short story with a complex structure of implicit meanings – was
analyzed at the initial stage of this research in order to identify the elements of its meaning and then subjected to an independent linguistic expertise. The results of this stage validated the results of the initial analysis and, thus, confirmed the structure of the text meanings. Next, we presented the text to ‘naïve’ participants (N = 30) in order to reveal the variety of its interpretations and compare them in terms of the extent of comprehension as well as quality of
reconstruction of elements of implicit meanings. We used in-depth semi-structured interview and the grounded theory methods which allowed to distinguish and qualitatively describe five levels of comprehension of implicit meanings in verbal texts. The lowest level corresponds to the recipients’ inability to identify the semantic invariant of the text and filter it from their own subjective projections. The highest level corresponds to the ability to articulate both central and peripheral themes of the text and control the impact of subjective projections. The examples of the interpretations corresponding to each level are presented. The suggested research framework provides a tool for online-tracking the dynamics of the comprehension of the text’s implicit meanings and draw connections between the level of comprehension reached by a recipient and specific types of elements of implicit meanings which were/were not reconstructed. Overall, the use of framework proposed might increase the validity of empirical data obtained in psycholinguistic studies on comprehension of implicit semantics.