The manifestations of norms: The transgenericity of Paul Willems’ dramatic texts

In this paper, I analyse the plays of Belgian author Paul Willems in terms of the richness of their genre. To achieve this, I identify elements foreign to the art of classical theatre (according to Jacques Scherer’s concept). The analysis concerns the dramatic construction of the plays, the forms of the dialogue, the sequences of the paratext as well as the hermeneutical elements. In my approach, I rely on the theoretical propositions of Witold Wołowski.

Existential discourse and romanesque narrative: The case of Jan Potocki

The existential discourse and its representation in fictional narration are envisaged in their two aspects – as protodiscourse and discourse of the epoch. Its basic structure of the “existeme” is shown through the positioning of the “self” in its narrative journey, the correlation of identity dominants vs experiential and discursive modes of manifestation/(re)presentation of “self” and the world. While promoting the principles of narrativization of human life of the envisaged epoch, The Manuscript found in Saragossa by Jan Potocki maximally condenses and accumulates them and thus demonstrates the discursivity as a mode of existence. 

Lombard dialects and the cinema: From pragmatics to the artistic idea

The article deals with the cases of usage of Lombard dialects (in particular those of Milan and Bergamo) in various genres of cinematographic production. The author shows the most significant examples of narrative fiction, documentaries as well as cartoons, and tries to analyse the reasons which make directors include pieces of dialect into their films. The author traces in diachrony both the evolution of the artistic value of dialects and the changes in the general attitude towards them, while the variety of genres presented permits a more universal overview and makes possible a more generalized classification of usages, which is given at the end of the article. 

Augmentatives in Portuguese and Romanian

The aim of the paper is to analyse, in a comparative perspective, the augmentatives in Portuguese and Romanian, two Romance languages traditionally called peripheral. As theoretical framework, some remarks on the phenomenon of evaluative derivation in general, and the augmentative one in particular, are presented. Different ways of forming evaluative derivatives, as well as the semantic values they normally convey, are mentioned. Furthermore, the mechanisms of the augmentative derivation in Portuguese and Romanian are analysed. Repertories of augmentative suffixes existing in both languages are depicted with an explanation of their origin and primitive semantic motivation. Their other functions and productivity are mentioned too. Also the process of lexicalization of augmentative derivatives is referred to on this regard. Based on this data, similarities, analogies and differences that can be observed in the field of evaluative morphology of both linguistic systems are pointed out. 

In search of the origin of the two meanings of <querer + infinitive>

The objective of the paper is to analyse the origin of the two meanings of the periphrastic construction <querer ‘will’ + infinitive>, founded in Spanish texts of the Middle Ages: the change of the discursive topic and the explanatory one of the ‘meaning’.