Citizens of Language

Vanhoozer suggests that we condiser,

… the author as citizen of language, with all the rights and responsibilities attaching thereto. Language is indeed our environment, but it is neither open field nor prison house. Language is like a city in which there is both overall structure and diverse neighborhoods, a city in which speakers have freedom of movement within (city) limits.

Vanhoozer, Kevin J., Is there a meaning in this text? The Bible, the reader and the morality of literary knowledge (Leicester, Apollos, 1998) , p202