Are there any instruments for measuring the imaginability of a piece of writing from a semiotic/linguistic perspective?
I’m aware of a quantitative measurement of word-by-word ratio of concrete vs abstract nouns/verbs, but I’m interested in any other methods that have been used.
Hi Hassan and Dibakar,
Thanks for the reply. I’m taking my definition of imaginability from Horst Ruthrof: “If you are able to imagine what I am talking about and the way I am saying it, then there is meaning; if not, there is not”.
Eg: “The cat walked across the carpet and theough the front door,” is more imaginable than...
”The animal went through the room.”
The first contains visual elements that relate closer to things we can imagine (cat, walked, carpet, door), while the second uses more abstract terms (animal, went, room) which are harder for us to imagine.
Imaginability seems to be bound to practical examples, due to the neurobiology of our brain, i.e. practical figurative language is needed to convey meaning.
I am not an expert but what could be done for those who know drawing. Draw a picture after reading the paragraph. Somebody could check how much the picture is close to the message of the text. I guess this will be a qualitative method because it is about feelings.
I think the use of metaphors and analogies are very strong tools for imaginability.
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