Individual otherness: the others in/of the text

Abstract

The present article discusses critically the self-unfolding of the subject-author into personae who speak in the text. In addition, the article puts forward the category of individual “otherness”. “Otherness” is considered a manifestation of the characters (i.e. the various masks [= personae] which make up our personality, as they interact). The study focuses on the relationship between discursive locus and the choice of a linguistic style. As the analysis unfolds, the paper discusses linguistic multiplicity needed for the self-unfolding of subjects, as they perform a variety of textual- discursive roles. In this way, it is attempted to apply the theory of internal polyglossia (the hypothesis of polyglossia operating within one’s own language), as well as its textual materialization. The analysis stems from a socio-interactional and functional-semiotic perspective. These theoretical standpoints help identify signs which may either iconically or indexically point at the discursive-textual self-unfolding of the subject. The materialization of stylistic changes is observed by means of the restoration of possible clues retrieved from the configuration of syntactic-semantic relationships and mechanisms which may be observed in the organization of the text and the discourse.