Isotopy

Isotopy (iso = same; topos = place) refers to a meaning conception as a "contextual effect", that is something that does not belong to words considered one by one, but as a result of their relationships within texts or speeches.

The Isotopies function help in understanding speeches (or texts); in fact, each of the isotopies detects a reference context shared among a number of words, which however does not result from their specific meanings. That is because the whole is something different from the summation of its parts.

Isotopy detection, therefore, is not a simple "fact" observation, but the result of an interpretation process (F. Rastier 1987).

It was first proposed by the semiologist A.J. Greimas (1966) to define the recurrence, within syntagmatic units (sentences or texts), of words with the same semantic traits.

In T-LAB logic, the detection of isotopes derives from the analysis of occurrence and co-occurrence tables.