tekstuaali

Tekstuaali is a term used in some Nordic and Baltic academic contexts to refer to the textual dimension of a subject—the features that pertain to text itself, such as structure, language, style, and discourse. It is typically used as a noun or a noun-derived adjective in scholarly writing; in phrases like tekstuaali analyysi (textual analysis) or tekstuaali kulttuuri (textual culture). The term emphasizes text-centric rather than authorial, historical, or material aspects.

Etymology: The word is formed from the stem tekst- (text) plus a suffix common to nouns and adjectives in some languages (akin to -ual, -al in English) to yield a label for text-related phenomena. Its precise morphology varies by language.

Usage and scope: In linguistics, literary studies, media studies, and digital humanities, tekstuaali is used to describe properties of texts—narrative structure, coherence, stylistic features, intertextuality, genre conventions, and readability. It is often contrasted with contextual or material dimensions, such as biographical or publication history. In digital corpora research, tekstuaali analysis focuses on the text proper, sometimes aligning with concepts of textuality.

Relation to related concepts: Textuality, textual criticism, close reading, discourse analysis, and stylometry. The term is not universally standardized in English-language dictionaries and is best understood as language-specific usage reflecting a text-centered approach.

See also: Textuality, Textual criticism, Textual analysis, Discourse analysis, Stylometry.