Student Question

Does a text have one correct meaning?

Expert Answers

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This is a complex question that can be answered in a few ways. In light of this, I will give you two points.

First, it all depends on the text. If the text is an instruction manual to put together a piece of furniture, then the text has only one intended meaning. If the text is a piece of literature, then there is greater interaction between the text and the reader. When this happens, there is no one correct meaning.

Second, all people are different. This is to say that all people read texts through their own experiences. For this reason, texts also will have different meanings, because they necessarily are filtered through people.

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