MAINGUENEAU, Dominique. Enunciados aderentes [Adherent Utterances]. Tradução de Sírio Possenti. São Paulo: Parábola, 2022, 192 p.

MAINGUENEAU, Dominique. Enunciados aderentes. Tradução de Sírio Possenti. São Paulo: Parábola, 2022. 192 p

As highlighted by Sírio Possenti, in the introduction of Frases sem texto [Phrases without text]¹ (Maingueneau, 2014), a book that tries to justify the pertinence of its own search object is something uncommon. However, that’s exactly what Dominique Maingueneau tries to do (once again, as in the one from 2014) in this new book, Enunciados aderentes (2022) [Adherent Utterances], by not defining a theoretical concept a priori, but a corpora of heterogeneous manifestations that differ from the focus on the topic statute (the type of discourse, the discursive positioning or the genre) from those highlighted in the Discourse Analysis (henceforth, DA).

This proposal was recently elaborated by Maingueneau and possesses the short history of an article dedicated to a general delineation (Maingueneau, 2020a), of the chapter “Ethos no corpo” [“Ethos in the Body”] in Variações sobre o ethos [Variations on Ethos] (Maingueneau, 2020b), of a topic in an article about the limits of DA (Maingueneau, 2021a) and one last chapter added to the fourth French edition of Análise de textos de comunicação [Analysis of Communication Texts] (Maingueneau, 2021b); beyond lectures on events.²

For a synthesis of what would be an adherent utterance, we shall observe the following passage from the book Alice’s: Adventures in Wonderland: “(...) if you drink much from a bottle marked ‘poison,’ it is almost certain to disagree with you, sooner or later if you drink too much from a bottle on which is written ‘poison,’ it’s almost certain that, sooner or later, you will feel bad” (Carroll, 2007, p.8).³ This excerpt does not show the characteristic nonsense aspect of the work, on the contrary, through the childish speech of Alice one can spot an evident dimension in certain discursive manifestations, yet ignored by theories: the word ‘poison’ is not only inscribed on the bottle, but modifies its nature (identity) to the point of making us presuppose if its content is beneficial or lethal. That is the definition of an adherent utterance, a written verbal form that integrates itself into a materiality, affecting themselves mutually (Maingueneau, 2020a).

The book is divided in a preamble, two parts (the first with five chapters and the second with seven) and a conclusion. In the preamble, the author performs two brief movements: the author notes an almost invisible presence of adherent utterance and tracks some references that touched on questions near those that will be discussed. Of those, the study of Paveau (2010) stands out by decentering the notion of enunciation of two theoretical presuppositions: the binarism (dialogical norm) and anthropocentrism. Maingueneau seems to adhere to this position in later works, such as in the studies about polyphony (Maingueneau, 2010)⁴ and about aphorization (Maingueneau, 2014, 2015) and needs to engage in it for the proposition of this new “type” of enunciation.⁵

In the first part, Maingueneau dedicates himself to a new presentation of “basic questions” and is noticeable that, in it, the author recurs to the traditional manifestations (more analogic, even) of this type of utterance. The first chapter, “A aderência: contiguidade e integração” [“The Adherence: Contiguity and Integration”] is about settling the definition of adherent utterance, pertinent due to the relation between certain verbalities and their supports. This relation is not only existent because of proximity, but due to a notion of attribution in two dimensions: one physical and semantic adequation between the words and the things and an appropriation by the agent(s) that institute an adherent utterance. The author adverts that it is a paradoxical dynamics, on which one element seems to touch the other, but that, together, transform each other; implying themselves, they create a world where they are necessary. Amidst the conceptualizations, the one of “adherent signs” deserves emphasis, divided among: non-verbal (signs with icons only, for example), verbal (the adherent utterances), and mixed (an amalgam of the previous types, as in a medal).

In chapter two, “Identidades e apoios” [“Identities and Supports”], Maingueneau highlights that the statuses of utterance and of support require one another, existing even mutual conditioning. Referring to the inscription told biblically as put on the top of Jesus’ cross, the author shows how the adherent utterance tries to escape the existing logic and establishes itself in a socially acknowledged activity. This leads to the proposition of two supports of this utterance: an institutional support (a social sector or a network of institutions that legitimize the inscription and legitimize itself in this practice) and an ideologic support (not a discursive statement properly, but a doxa, a vague and mobile interdiscursive).

In Chapter three, “O acesso aos enunciados aderentes” [“The Access to Adherent Utterances”], the author discusses, under the terms of “background” and “figure,” the way in which the arrangement of statements can interfere with the expected interpretive process. Thus, certain statements can be highlighted by placing them in a more latent plane (as a figure) in front of others (in a background); some statements can be hidden, making them visible only in certain positions; and it is also possible to codify some utterances in a simple way in order to compromise or specialize their readability process.

Chapter four, “Imagens e legendas” [“Images and Subtitles”], discusses the imprecise relations between verbal texts that seem to be part of imagery texts. On mentioned the paintings, the author distinguishes them from engravings and their integrated utterances. He also analyses the relation between photographs and captions that integrate themselves into one textual unity. At last, Maingueneau analyses incrusted utterances on television transmissions, with only a few of them being adherent (such as the channel number).

The last chapter of the first part, “Em que língua(s)?” [“In what language(s)?”], the author calls attention to the observation of the linguistic investments that are constitutive of the meaning of adherence. To do this, the author returns to the example of the crucifixion utterance and adds others, such as the signs in clothing stores, imported biscuit packages, and utterances of protests, demonstrating how the use of an interlanguage and external multilingualism builds the identities of their products and spectators.

Whereas in the first half we find a more theoretical concern, on the second half Maingueneau concentrates on demonstrating the usefulness of the notions in diverse objects. With that, less traditional issues emerge. The author says there is not a systematic order of these manifestations, but just highlights the multifaceted interest of the proposal.

In the first chapter of the second half, “Um pacote de doces” [“A Box of Candies”] the author connects the textual heterogeneity of packages (Possenti, 2009) to the adherent utterances problem. In it, it is possible to realize the expansion of the discussion pointed out by Maingueneau in the preamble, because the verbality is put in an indissociable way from the space it takes and the way it manifests. Every materiality is taken into consideration, such as the sides of the exposition, the disposition, and the colors, without abdicating a detailed analysis of properly verbal elements.

Chapter two, “Um apoio ideológico” [“An Ideological Support”], is about a deepening in ideological sustentation starting from utterances related to the ecological concerns assumed by the State or by non-governmental entities. Such utterances have unusual supports, such as the environment itself (a grassy area) or dumping place (that can refer either to one trash can or to a group of other ones arranged in the same park). Therefore, these utterances, apparently dispensable, create their legitimacy in a conflict between urbanism and ecology that finds itself on “the day’s agenda.”

The third, fourth, and fifth chapters resemble themselves due to dealing with adherence degrees and the subject bodies appropriation that serve as support for adherent utterances. In previous texts, Maingueneau (2020a, 2020b) talked about “bearers” and “sustainers.” However, in this book, he distinguishes “bearers” from “supporters”⁶ and adds the “expressive” utterances.

In chapter 3, “Os portadores” [“The Bearers”], the author presents situations in which a subject sees oneself as imputed to bear certain adherent utterances. Normally, there is a normalizing agent, an organization that manages this process. This way, the author analyzes materials such as hospital identification bracelets, badges, police, business, and sportive uniforms; these being manifestations marked by the involuntariness and by a lack of responsibility of the one that bears them.

In the following chapter, “Os suportadores” [“The Supporters”], the author presents the relationship of commitment between the subject that not only “bears,” but “sustains/supports” (becomes a supporter) the adherence of the body to an adherent utterance. For instance, Maingueneau details the analysis he had drafted in Variações sobre o ethos (2020a) about the individual posters utilized in contemporary manifestations. The author’s thesis is that there is a change in the way of conceiving adherent utterances in manifestations (formerly shared in a classic system; a collective saying) because it operates a change in society in relation to the notion of collectivity (creating and being created by a new system in which every individual sustains their saying which only later becomes part of a whole).

The utterances sustained on manifestations or political rallies are, besides everything, momentaneous and pertain to a collective belonging (to a social group, to a cause, to a party). By these characteristics the author finds pertinent, in chapter five, to separate the utterances he calls “expressive,” in which the subject’s connection with the utterance is more stabilized and pertains to the very own subjectivity of the one that expresses oneself. That way, he analyses t-shirts, customized objects (such as the masks), and the most representative manifestation, tattoos. The emergence of this degree of commitment is related to an enactment of itself, with a characterization of society marked by the “lifestyle” culture (Giddens, 1991).⁷

The last two chapters also have certain approximations in two senses: for dealing with unusual objects (the adherent utterances in bovines and vehicles) and for raising related problematics to technological mutations. In the sixth chapter, “A identidade do bovino” [“The Bovine Identity”], Maingueneau analyses the transformations of utterances, codes, and devices put on the animal or in its carcass in every step of the process of raising, slaughtering, and selling them for consumption of the meat. It is not only about realizing how every utterance corresponds to multiple needs from different interested subjects in every step but how the own history of these brands and devices creates different needs justified by the changes in epidemiologic, zootechnical, and legislative fields.

The last chapter of the second half, “Veículos” [“Vehicles”], analyses the incorporated utterances to this object and to the activity of locomotion that follows it. The analyses range from the signs to the inscriptions of the brand as ways of distinction (in the sense of identification and social status) and of control, especially on the State’s part. He also focuses on the adherent utterances that are demanded in order to drive vehicles, such as documents, which tend to a digitalized codification.

The conclusion proposes the unification of these problematics, mainly from the second part and it is indispensable to understand the proposal of Maingueneau, since it assumes and systematizes the “vertigo feeling” foreshadowed at the end of the preamble. There are fourteen hierarchized classifications, making the adherent utterances part of a bigger group of “associated utterances.” Besides the theoretical deepening, the work presents a new perspective, with no pretension of being exhaustive, besides a coherent ending, by indicating the developments that the analysts may be able to develop to keep expanding the notion of discursivity.

The book starts with a reference to M-A Paveau and finishes with an implicit, but suggestive path to his proposals about technodiversity (Paveau, 2021). If the discussion about the new apprehensions of discursivity had been kept aside, Maingueneau shed new light on them compromising himself with an innovative proposal considering both traditional packages, paintings, clothes and new objects connected to digital technologies.

The author guards himself in a recognition of a dilemma for the discourse analysts: to maintain the stability of the discipline that depends on the notion of discursivity based on conversation and on the pair text/genre or to deal with these changes. Besides being slippery (a characteristic that comes from the very navigating textuality), it seems imprudent that the analysts deny themselves to observe a phenomenon so diffused such as the QR Code in the Brazilian context pressed forward by the dynamics of the Covid-19 pandemic. What will they say when faced with this practice and non-verbal materiality, but which sometimes conducts to an utterance and is about always entangled by verbality, without even disposing of a primary notion such as “re-transmitter” proposed by the author of the book? There is a warning that we may run the risk of assuring a methodologic-interdisciplinary “structuralism” to the detriment of the epistemic functionalism that pushed forward the very awakening of DA.

From a forward-looking point of view of the reception, there is the fear that this discussion stays out of focus if compared to other texts of the author with deeper conceptions. Often in his comments, Possenti highlights that Frases sem texto [Phrases without Text] is a little explored work and that he had expected to create a larger interest, however, the work keeps in the potentialities and is mentioned in the very few works that discuss it. It seems to us incongruent with the proposals found in the works of Maingueneau to separate them by an allegedly functional criterion of the object: the general ones, that apply to “everything” (we put between quotation marks to indicate the contradiction with the author’s presumptions)⁸, and the “hobby” ones, that would be appendices to the specific interests of whom decides to analyze a type of unusual corpus (the aphorizations and the adherent utterances)

As Maingueneau reinforces in these corpora, they are odd groups to the current notions of discursivity, however, after understanding them, their recognition, relevance, and diffusion on society are undeniable. Rather than the analysts just finding refuge in wider notions, such as ethos, to analyze consecrated manifestations by DA itself, it is necessary to articulate and reformulate the analysis criteria of these other utterances, that far from being facultative, become unavoidable.

Such destabilization inevitably modifies the relationship of all theoretical net with the objects, revealing the historicity of the “instrument” itself and of subject-analyst, which to DA should not be problematic, since it understands itself and the others as situated discourses. There is not a priority of the theoretical gaze upon the object, this seems to be the medullar theoretical-methodological contribution of Maingueneau, as he himself admits: “I produce concepts to categorize and analyze phenomena” (Freitas et al., 2021, p.256)⁹. The revelation and comprehension of the discursive complexity can only happen if accompanied by transformations and theoretical adequations.

Research Data and Other Materials Availability

The contents underlying the research text are included in the manuscript.

REFERÊNCIAS

• CARROLL, L. Alice: Aventuras de Alice no País das Maravilhas & Através do espelho. Edição definitiva. Tradução de Maria Luiza X. de A. Borges. Rio de Janeiro: Zahar, 2013.
• FREITAS, E. C.; BALDISSERA, R.; ANTUNES JUNIOR, F. S.; BOAVENTURA, L. H. Dominique Maingueneau: questões teóricas para análise discursiva na comunicação: cenografia e ethos. [Entrevista]. Organicom, v. 18, n. 36, p.253-261, 2021. https://doi.org/10.11606/issn.2238-2593.organicom.2021.186368
  » https://doi.org/10.11606/issn.2238-2593.organicom.2021.186368
• GIDDENS, A. Modernidade e identidade. Tradução de Plínio Dentzien. Rio de Janeiro: Zahar, 2002.
• MAINGUENEAU, D. Gênese dos discursos. Tradução de Sírio Possenti. Parábola: São Paulo, 2008.
• MAINGUENEAU, D.; GRESILLON, A. Polifonia: polifonia, provérbio e desvio. Tradução de Maria Cecília Perez de Souza-e-Silva. In: MAINGUENEAU, D. Doze conceitos em análise do discurso. Organização de Sírio Possenti e Maria Cecília Perez de Souza-e-Silva, tradução de Adail Sobral et al. São Paulo: Parábola Editorial, 2010.
• MAINGUENEAU, D. Frases sem texto. Tradução de Sírio Possenti et al. São Paulo: Parábola, 2014.
• MAINGUENEAU, D. Discurso e análise do discurso. Tradução de Sírio Possenti. Parábola: São Paulo, 2015.
• MAINGUENEAU, D. Os Enunciados Aderentes. Tradução de Maria Cecília Pérez de Souza-e-Silva. DELTA: Documentação de Estudos em Lingüística Teórica e Aplicada [online], v. 36, n. 3, 2020a. https://doi.org/10.1590/1678-460X2020360302
  » https://doi.org/10.1590/1678-460X2020360302
• MAINGUENEAU, D. Variações sobre o ethos. Tradução de Marcos Marcionilo. São Paulo: Parábola, 2020b.
• MAINGUENEAU, D. Aux limites de l’analyse du discours. Cadernos de Linguística, v. 2, n. 1, p.1-15, 14 fev. 2021a. https://doi.org/10.25189/2675-4916.2021.V2.N1.ID336
  » https://doi.org/10.25189/2675-4916.2021.V2.N1.ID336
• MAINGUENEAU, D. Analyser les textes de communication. 4. ed. Paris: Armand Colin, 2021b.
• PAVEAU, M.-A. Uma enunciação sem comunicação: as tatuagens escriturais. RUA, v. 16, n. 1, p.6-41, 2010. https://doi.org/10.20396/rua.v16i1.8638829
  » https://doi.org/10.20396/rua.v16i1.8638829
• PAVEAU, M-A. Análise do discurso digital: dicionário das formas e das práticas. Tradução organizada por Julia Lourenço e Roberto Baronas. Campinas: Pontes, 2021.
• POSSENTI, S. Questões para analistas do discurso. São Paulo: Parábola, 2009.

• 1
  We did not find any of the cited author's books have a version translated into English. For that reason, we have kept the quote in Portuguese followed by free translation.
• 2
  Mini-course “Novas Textualidades” at the I Seminário Internacional de Estudos em Linguística Popular, in 2020; III Semana de Letras (UEMG-Passos) (Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8DgS5MnK6TE); Café com Análise do Discurso (Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HN8nBUGkF9M&t=450s); III Conversa com pesquisadores (Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YfcrsdX6fOw).
• 3
  CARROLL, L. Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. Originally published by MacMillian & Company, 18652007. Open Books Electronic Edition. Cover Art by Eliza Parenska. Available at: https://www.open-bks.com/alice-4.html. Access on October 31st, 2022.
• 4
  This is an article written in co-authoring with Almuth Gresillon, publish originally in Langages jounal in 1984. It was translated to Brazilian Portuguese by Maria Cecília P. Souza-e-Silva. Titled Polifonia: polifonia, provérbio e desvio [Polyphony: Polyphony, Proverb, and Detour], it composes the compilation of articles in Doze conceitos em análise do discurso [Twelve Concepts in Discourse Analysis] (Maingueneau, 2010).
• 5
  In the preface of the Brazilian edition of Gênese dos discursos [Genesis of Discourse] (Maingueneau, 2008, p.12), the author reevaluates his “(...) insuficiente consideração da complexidade dos processos de comunicação” [(...) insufficient consideration of the complexity of communication processes] in the work. The topics pointed out in the article about the limits of DA (Maingueneau, 2021a) are indicators that, in issues that were already worked on or just pointed out, Maingueneau filiates himself to the instabilities of Paveau, incorporating them as a foundation to analyze other manifestations outside of the usual model of communication, that is to say, he does not deny the existence of a communicative prototype, but just does not perceive it as the only one (Maingueneau, 2015).
• 6
  The terminological change is not only a matter of translation but of a conceptual replacement, although, in French, “sustain” and “support” usually have equivalent semantics.
• 7
  GIDDENS, A. Modernity and Self-Identity: Self and Society in the Late Modern Age. Oxford: Polity Press, 1999.
• 8
  Let’s remember that as much wide as a concept can be concerning the enunciations, its application it’s always dependent of the corpus that might require transformations. After all, to DA it is not the texts that should be adequate to theory.
• 9
  In the original: “Fabrico conceitos para categorizar e analisar os fenômenos.”

Review I

About the reviewer SCIMAGO INSTITUTIONS RANKINGS

Review I

The Enunciados Aderentes review is very well elaborated, once it describes with a lot of precision all the parts and chapters that compose the book written by Dominique Maingueneau. The author also does not miss the opportunity to do a pertinent critique to the fragmented reception, which is very often attributed to the work of the French researcher in the Brazilian context. In this sense, to reinforce this non-fragmentation even more, I suggest that the reviewer consider as being part of the genealogy of this most recent work from Dominique Maingueneau not only the question of the aphorizing utterance (of the phrases without texts) but also the 1984 text, written in collaboration with Almuth Gresillon, that was translated to Brazilian Portuguese in 2010 by Maria Cecília P. Souza-e-Silva, intitled Polifonia: polifonia, provérbio e desvio [Polyphony: Polyphony, Proverb and Detour] and published on the book Doze conceitos em análise do discurso [Twelve Concepts in Discourse Analysis].

Suggestion: Also consider as one of the elements that compose the genealogy of the book Enunciados Aderentes, the 1984 text, written in collaboration with Almuth Gresillon, that was translated to Brazilian Portuguese in 2010 by Maria Cecília P. Souza-e-Silva, intitled Polifonia: polifonia, provérbio e desvio [Polyphony: Polyphony, Proverb and Detour] and published on the book Doze conceitos em análise do discurso [Twelve Concepts in Discourse Analysis]. ACCEPTED WITH SUGGESTIONS [Revised]

• peer review recommendation: accept

History

• Peer review received
  13 Feb 2023

Review II

About the reviewer SCIMAGO INSTITUTIONS RANKINGS

Review II

How very opportune is this review of the recent Dominique Maingueneau on which the author, once again, affirms the principle that the discourse analysis should address the manifestations of discourse in all of its diversity and, at the same time, presents us an innovative proposal by making adherent utterances an investigation field. Although it is about a recent work, the reviewers were careful enough to base themselves on previous texts that dealt with the matter of such utterances (2020 and 2021). As a result, there is a review that allows the reader to get closer to the theoretical principles that characterize this work and the comments about the multiple types of inscribed utterances “considering both traditional packages, paintings, clothes and new objects connected to digital technologies,” which is a point of approximation between M.-A. Paveau and D. Maingueneau. Exactly by dealing with a new investigation field, I suggest that the reviewers add the definition of adherent utterances and their manifestations types; it would be opportune to also return to the notion of attribution, in order to make the readers capable of following the paths proposed by the author with more certainty (Ch.1 of the first part). It is also suggested the explanation of the complexity of the adherent utterances in accordance with what is inscribed on different types of bearers; would be important to modalize the following sentence: “All these manifestations marked by the involuntariness and lack of responsibility of the one that bears” (Ch. 3 of the second part). ACCEPTED WITH SUGGESTIONS [Revised]

• peer review recommendation: accept

History

• Peer review received
  13 Feb 2023

Publication Dates

• Publication in this collection
  18 Sept 2023
• Date of issue
  Jul-Sep 2023

History

• Received
  03 Jan 2023
• Accepted
  14 May 2023