The oxymora : a tool for polemics or textual cohesion ?

Le jeu des points de vue dans l’oxymore : polémique ou reformulation ?

Michèle Monte (1)

1 BABEL - Laboratoire Babel - EA 2649

In this paper, we consider the oxymora as a confrontation between contradictory points of view which are built by the co (n) text and related with different enunciative origins. We definite two kinds of oxymora : a polemic one and a more consensual one. In the polemic oxymora, the speaker assumes responsibility for only one of the points of view and gives the antithetic one as untrue or limited. In the second kind of oxymora, the speaker assumes responsibility for a point of view which results from the synthesis of two contradictory ones. The paper, studying literary examples belonging to different genres and oral contemporary uses, deals with oxymora textual and pragmatic interests. Oxymora appears as an argumentative weapon in which the speaker’s point of view can prevail, but also as a tool for textual cohesion, keeping in an easy-to-remember formula the whole discursive process.

Keywords: oxymora; point of view; polemics; enunciative responsability; textual cohesion

Keywords: oxymore; points de vue en confrontation; polémique; prise en charge énonciative; cohésion textuelle

Domains: Linguistics

Michèle Monte. Le jeu des points de vue dans l’oxymore : polémique ou reformulation ?. Langue française, 2008, Figures et point de vue, 160, pp.37-53. ⟨10.3917/lf.160.0037⟩. ⟨hal-01490457⟩