04_Alina Buzatu.pdf

<font size="3"><span style="font-weight: bold;">Abstract</span>: The present paper deals with the binomial to read / to imagine and its taxinomic<br>definitions in various aesthetic paradigms. The point of departure is the discrimination between<br>mimetic and non-mimetic texts and the ways they are (semantically) tributary (or not) to the reference<br>world. The focus is on the idea that the conversion of signifiers and the negotiation of meaning are<br>guided by textual procedures. They act as operational instructions for the reader or, as I put it, a<br>User’s Guide to reading. The more elaborated they are, the more intense is the autotelism, the<br>narcissistic nature of a given text. The parameters of fictionalization are discussed contrastively using<br>two aesthetic paradigms (Realism and Surrealism) and their epitomic examples (Flaubert’s Madame<br>Bovary and, respectively, Breton’s Nadja). At the superficial narrative level, these texts actualize the<br>theme of love (licit or illicit, euphoric or deluded, real or specious etc.); in the profound semiotic<br>layers, these two entities are self-referenced. But, if the Realist work dissimulates its specularity, the<br>Surrealist text is ostentatiously self-reflexive; the Realist art creates possible possible worlds, while<br>the Surrealist doctrine is the recipe for the impossible possible worlds.<br><br><span style="font-weight: bold;">Key words</span>: autopoiesis ; specularity;textual procedures ; User’s guide to reading; Realism;<br>Surrealism</font>

Hedging Opinion in Romanian Conversational Discourse: The Use of Softeners

<P align=left><I><FONT size=1 face="Times New Roman"><FONT size=1 face="Times New Roman"><FONT size=3>This corpus-based paper addresses the use of softeners in Romanian conversational </FONT><FONT size=3>discourse. It highlights two important interactional functions: (i) as devices for mitigating the </FONT><FONT size=3>imposition of face-threatening acts; (ii) as markers of shared knowledge. When they serve the latter </FONT><FONT size=3>function, softeners offer the addressee the opportunity to provide support, understanding, thus s</FONT><FONT size=3>howing that both speaker and addressee are on the same wavelength.</FONT></FONT></FONT></I></P>