A new branch of linguistics – teleological linguistic semiotics – has been originated. Teleological linguistic semiotics deals with linguistic means of realization of the teleological category in discourse and is based on the heuristic principles and methods of semiotics and phenomenology. A semiotic heuristic approach has been developed for the analysis of the teleological category (Telos) and semiosis as the mechanism of its realization in the English language publicistic discourse.
Heuristic methods have proved to be relevant in revealing the teleological specificity of attribution of meaning to the facts of reality in the text in cases when traditional empirical means fail in determining the underlying evaluative and purpose related characteristics of the concept of the text. It has been established that the English language publicistic text as a semiotic entity possesses specific ontological attributes that predetermine the importance of its scrutiny in the teleological paradigm. Given that the publicistic text (as opposed to belles-lettres) is characteristically focused on social issues of real life, the essentially teleological notion of “existential significance” as an ultimate criterion of meaning for an author and a reader is deemed applicable for its analysis. Hence, discourse participants are regarded as subject to moral laws and social and ethic conventions, and a speech act (an utterance, a text and its comprehension) is qualified as a moral deed.
The Kantian tenet about the impossibility of understanding the essence of a certain phenomenon without relying on the series of the basic ontological categories – cause, process, substance, time, space – serves as a conceptual basis for this research. The methodological significance of these categories for this research is understandably obvious since causality within the system of ties with other ontological categories reveals its inherent relevance to the teleological domain where purpose is viewed as the consequence of causal links. The teleological category realization in the English language publicistic discourse is looked into from the dual plane perspective: a) the plane of textually mirrored communicative interaction which presumably demonstrates the regulatory function of the teleological category; b) the plane of teleologically determined tentative realization of the teleological category in the process of evolvement of discourse as perception, comprehension, contemplation and signification of the lingual representations of the facts of reality by the reader.
The analysis of the lingual means of the teleological category realization in the English language publicistic discourse has been conducted with special attention to teleological words and phrases as components of teleological exponents, explicit and covert teleological exponents, teleological descriptions and asyntactic covert teleological exponents. In terms of teleological linguistic semiotics the English language publicistic text is viewed as a macroteleological exponent, where the postulated concept functions as an explanandum (a component being explained), and the text as a universal set of semiotic elements functioning as an explanance (lingual representation of the explaining factor). The whole complex of explicit and covert teleological exponents in the text as elements of the macroteleological exponent fulfil the argumentative function as to the evaluative and purpose related validity or the concept of the text or a separate utterance.
The notion of a linguistically relevant “fuzzy semiotic set” denoting elementary teleologically and conceptually aggregated asyntactic semiotic structure has been introduced. Fuzzy semiotic sets of lingual representations of facts of reality in the English publicistic discourse are viewed as a teleologically determined open ended dynamic structure organized according to the correlation principles. A fuzzy semiotic set is postulated as a covert asyntactic teleological exponent, belonging to the domain of covert teleology. Fuzzy semiotic sets are incorporated into the whole system of teleologically determined semiotic ties in the English language publicistic discourse, which are revealed through the logical operations of merger, addition, cross-reference.
The results and conclusions of this research can be used in the courses of general linguistics (classes of semiotics, linguistic pragmatics), “The English language stylistics” (classes “Stylistic semasiology”), in the development of innovative courses of linguistic semiotics, text linguistics, discourse studies, text interpretation.
