Vous consultezPoints de vue en confrontation dans les antimétaboles PLUS et MOINS

Confronted points of view in the antimetabola MORE and LESS

The article first of all analyzes the relations between antimetabola (repetition of words in an opposite order, in successive proposals), chiasmus and reversion, and then proposes two big classes of antimetabola, referred to as antimetabola MORE (A +) and antimetabola LESS (A –), according to whether the points of view contained in the reversed propositions are combined or are excluded. The analysis of these confronted points of view reveals two functions of antimetabola : in A +, the selection of a dominant point of view does not prevent the merging of the two points of view assumed by speaker1/enunciator1, while in A –, such a selection implies a rejection or a distancing of the point of view taken into account to the benefit of the only point of view assumed by speaker1/enunciator1. This distinction is reflected in the various pragmatic figures of speech which emerge, where there is a tension between the intake of the same and of the other, feeding on the consensual and/or agonic figures of speech of the enuciator.