textuell

Textuell is a German adjective meaning pertaining to text or characterized by text. In linguistics, literary studies, and media theory it is used to describe aspects of a work that are textual as opposed to nontextual, i.e., primarily involving words and sentences rather than images, sounds, or interactive features. The term appears in phrases such as textuelle Merkmale (textual features), textuelle Analyse (textual analysis), and textuelle Struktur (textual structure).

Etymology and usage: The form textuell combines the root Text with a suffix that yields an adjective describing textual properties. In academic writing, textuelle descriptions focus on language, syntax, discourse, and cohesion, separating them from visual or auditory elements of a medium. The concept supports analysis that treats text as a central carrier of meaning, while still recognizing the role of other modalities in multimodal artifacts.

Applications: In literary studies, textuell analysis examines how textual elements convey theme, tone, and narrative strategy. In media studies and digital humanities, the term is used to refer to text-centered methods such as corpus linguistics, textual encoding, and natural language processing. The distinction between textuell and nontextual aspects helps clarify where interpretation centers on words, structure, and discourse.

As a proper noun, Textuell may appear as the name of journals, magazines, blogs, or projects that emphasize textual content. Such uses are variable and depend on branding choices rather than a standardized disciplinary meaning.

See also: textual analysis, textual criticism, multimodal text, text processing.