Passages and Path within the Intertext

Abstract: In promoting the necessary consolidation of the discipline, text linguistics has supplanted the linguistics of languages, as well as language linguistics. For indeed, text linguistics is the branch which makes it possible to integrate the significant contribution of corpus linguistics. In addition, the text has been acknowledged as the main grounds for articulation bewteen internal descriptions – particularly syntactic descriptions –, and external descriptions – particularly pragmatic descriptions. The conception of the text as elaborated within the framework of interpretive semantics is compatible with textometric models and tools. In particular, the assisted characterization of passages enables one to portray textual activity as transformation chains, also known as metamorphisms, as much within the text as within the intertext gathered by the corpus. In order to characterize such transformations, some examples may be provided, namely passages which have been rewritten in a work’s genetic file; similar passages found within several works by a same author; text commentaries regarded as rewriting acts; to conclude, paths resorting to many works for the interpretation of a passage. All this leads us to re-consider text modelization by taking corpora into consideration. It also creates an urge to redefine textuality according to intertextuality.