ABSTRACT
One might expect semantics to be the branch of linguistics which literary critics would find most useful. If there is any realm where the methods of linguistic description could with profit be applied to the language of literature, it is that of meaning. What critic does not in his moments dream of a scientifically rigorous way of characterizing the meaning of a text, of demonstrating with tools of proven appropriateness that certain meanings are possible and others impossible? And even if semantic theory did not suffice to account for all meanings observed in literature, would it not, at least, form a primary stage in literary theory and critical method by indicating what meanings must be characterized by supplementary rules? If semantics could provide a
description of the semantic structure of a text it would certainly be of great use to critics, even if it were not a panacea.
