Decontextualization and Detextualization, and Their Influence on the Function of a Text: (A Case Study of Naqsh-e-Jahan Square in Isfahan)

This paper is a discourse analysis of “decontextualization” and “detextualization in “Naqsh-e-Jahān Square” in Isfahan. It ’is worth mentioning that decontextulization here is used to express transforming the original context of the text or being transformed – here the Square - and the formation of the new relations among the text and the new contextual elements, and as a result changing its function(s).This process might also be called “museumization”. “Detextualizatin” is used for transforming the text itself, in a way that some of the constituents, elements or structures inside the original text are replaced by some others in the text. The process of detextualiztion is somehow a shift of the dominant function of the text, from the function of “museum” to everyday use, i.e. “museumization”. These two processes, which occur diachronically, are studied together with some examples.