New Criticism: "to explicate" (Wimsatt and Beardsley); "to construe" (Hirsch)
To explicate (OED, 3/8/07):
3. To develop, bring out what is implicitly contained in (a notion, principle, proposition).
4. To unfold in words; to give a
detailed account of. Sometimes with indirect question as obj. Now rare;
6. a. To make clear the meaning of
(anything); to remove difficulties or obscurities from; to clear up, explain; =
To construe (OED 3/8/07--I omit two rare Elizabethan senses, 8 and 9):
2. Gram. To combine (words, or parts of speech) grammatically. Now, to combine a verb, adjective, preposition, or other word with the case or relational words with which it is syntactically used.
3. Gram. To analyse or trace the grammatical construction of a sentence; to take its words in such an order as to show the meaning of the sentence; spec. to do this in the study of a foreign and especially a classical language, adding a word for word translation; hence, loosely, to translate orally a passage in an ancient or foreign author.
4. trans. To give the sense or meaning of; to expound, explain, interpret (language).
5. Law. To explain or interpret for legal purposes. (A technical application of 4.)
6. transf. To interpret, give a meaning to, put a construction on (actions, things, or persons).
7. To deduce (a meaning, etc.) by interpretation; to judge by inference, infer.