Chaînes de référence et structure textuelle dans les Essais sur la peinture de Diderot

Abstract

This paper addresses the relation between reference chains and structural units, in the three first chapters of the Essais sur la peinture by Diderot. This corpus is taken from the DEMOCRAT project, during which it has been prepared and annotated. In a first part, a close analysis addresses the distribution of referents and chains across the three chapters and five comparable paragraphs, in order to observe the variability in lengths, coverage and density. A second part focuses on reference chains with respect to units theme (chapter titles, paragraph themes). Multilevel quantitative analyses have been operated with help of the URS extension of TXM. It appears that reference chains do affect textual continuity and discontinuity. More precisely, chapter themes are rather marked by long and continuous chains whereas paragraph ones are rather marked by short and discontinuous chains (new, local and specific to that unit).

Keywords

• reference chains
• textual structures
• discourse theme
• annotated corpus
• textometry