TEST FOR ENGLISH MAJORS (2006)
-GRADE EIGHT-
PART I LISTENING COMPREHENSION
SECTION A MINI-LECTURE
Now let's move on to the second approach to meaning, that is, meaning is created by and contained in the text itself. Does the meaning exist in the text? Some scholars argue that the formal properties of the text, like grammar, diction, uses of image and so on and so forth, contain and produce the meaning, so that any educated or competent reader will inevitably come to more or less the same interpretation as any other. As far as I am concerned, the meaning is not only to be found in the literary traditions and grammatical conventions of meaning but also in the cultural codes which have been handed down from generation to generation.