Autopoiesis. Textual Procedures as User Guide to Reading.

<P align=left><I><FONT size=1 face="Times New Roman"><FONT size=1 face="Times New Roman"><FONT size=3>The present paper deals with the binomial </FONT></FONT></FONT><B><FONT face="Times New Roman"><FONT face="Times New Roman">to read / to imagine </FONT></FONT></B><FONT face="Times New Roman"><FONT face="Times New Roman">and its taxinomic definitions in various aesthetic paradigms. The point of departure is the discrimination between mimetic and non-mimetic texts and the ways they are (semantically) tributary (or not) to the reference world. The focus is on the idea that the conversion of signifiers and the negotiation of meaning are guided by textual procedures. They act as operational instructions for the reader or, as I put it, </FONT></FONT><B><FONT face="Times New Roman"><FONT face="Times New Roman">a User’s Guide to reading</FONT></FONT></B><FONT face="Times New Roman"><FONT face="Times New Roman">. The more elaborated they are, the more intense is the autotelism, the narcissistic nature of a given text. The parameters of fictionalization are discussed contrastively using two aesthetic paradigms (Realism and Surrealism) and their epitomic examples (Flaubert’s </FONT></FONT><B><FONT face="Times New Roman"><FONT face="Times New Roman">Madame Bovary </FONT></FONT></B><FONT face="Times New Roman"><FONT face="Times New Roman">and, respectively, Breton’s </FONT></FONT><B><FONT face="Times New Roman"><FONT face="Times New Roman">Nadja</FONT></FONT></B><FONT face="Times New Roman"><FONT face="Times New Roman">). At the superficial narrative level, these texts actualize the theme of love (licit or illicit, euphoric or deluded, real or specious etc.); in the profound semiotic layers, these two entities are self-referenced. But, if the Realist work dissimulates its specularity, the Surrealist text is ostentatiously self-reflexive; the Realist art creates </FONT></FONT><B><FONT face="Times New Roman"><FONT face="Times New Roman">possible possible worlds</FONT></FONT></B><FONT face="Times New Roman"><FONT face="Times New Roman">, while the Surrealist doctrine is the recipe for the </FONT></FONT><B><FONT face="Times New Roman"><FONT face="Times New Roman">impossible possible worlds</FONT></FONT></B><FONT face="Times New Roman"><FONT face="Times New Roman">.</FONT></FONT></I></P>

06_Diana Hornoiu.pdf

<span style="font-weight: bold;">Abstract</span>: This corpus-based paper addresses the use of softeners in Romanian conversational<br>discourse. It highlights two important interactional functions: (i) as devices for mitigating the<br>imposition of face-threatening acts; (ii) as markers of shared knowledge. When they serve the latter<br>function, softeners offer the addressee the opportunity to provide support, understanding, thus<br>showing that both speaker and addressee are on the same wavelength<br><br><span style="font-weight: bold;">Key words</span>: conversation analysis, extreme case formulation, face-threatening act, positive<br>politeness, softener