When it comes to the production and reception of texts, most linguists will readily agree that writers as well as readers constitute and follow typical text patterns as they produce and read texts. It has become common today to describe text patterns as typical sets of manifestations of formal, thematic, and pragmatic features that arise from resemblances between different texts and that are inscribed in the communicative memories of a language community. However, speakers also transcend text patterns every day and oscillate between following and overstepping textual rules. This thesis investigates how speakers categorize linguistic knowledge in text patterns, and follow and transcend these patterns in everyday communication, using the example of Rainald Goetz’ text Loslabern. Excerpts from reviews about Loslabern illustrate how readers perceive the text: Some readers consider Loslabern as a ‘ruined’ text that falls apart, whereas others describe Loslabern as ‘ocean-like’ and fluid. Based on these reader experiences, the thesis attempts to answer the following central question: How can we describe ‘Loslabern’ and connatural texts from the viewpoint of textual linguistics in accordance with the readers’ intuitions? The thesis proposes and discusses three options: Textual linguistics may describe Loslabern i) as a broken text, ii) in terms of different concepts of text pattern, and iii) in terms of a novel concept of text pattern. The analytical section focuses on a discussion of different concepts of text pattern: discrete structural and prototypical pragmatic concepts. It examines how these concepts fall short of describing Loslabern in accordance with the readers’ intuitions. Following Wittgenstein and his concept of family resemblance, it creates a multi-dimensional and open concept of text patterns. This concept enables textual linguistics to depict the intertextual embeddedness of Loslabern and other texts systematically, to gain insight into the mechanisms of forming and transcending text patterns, and to describe Loslabern in accordance with the diversity of readers’ intuitions. In doing so, the thesis points at new directions in linguistics as well as literary studies.

The term “Fundamentalism” used as a comparative category within the academic study of religion has become problematic. Fundamentalism, is not one comprehensive movement but is, in fact, a phenomenon which encompasses a variety of beliefs, practices, and expectations. This thesis will explore the diversity of several different and distinct fundamentalist movements. I will discuss the natures of four Christian movements that have been labeled “fundamentalist” – Jehovah’s Witnesses, Christian Reconstructionists, Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson – on several key points, eschatology, political philosophy, as well as level of social involvement. I will then turn to fundamentalism as it is used as a category to describe a global phenomenon. I will discuss three different scholarly approaches by turning to the work of Bruce Lawrence, Mark Juergensmeyer, and Bruce Lincoln on the Islamic “fundamentalist” group al- Qaeda. Finally I will argue that the category “fundamentalism” can be best understood in terms of a family resemblance.

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The term “Fundamentalism” used as a comparative category within the academic study of religion has become problematic. Fundamentalism, is not one comprehensive movement but is, in fact, a phenomenon which encompasses a variety of beliefs, practices, and expectations. This thesis will explore the diversity of several different and distinct fundamentalist movements. I will discuss the natures of four Christian movements that have been labeled “fundamentalist” – Jehovah’s Witnesses, Christian Reconstructionists, Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson – on several key points, eschatology, political philosophy, as well as level of social involvement. I will then turn to fundamentalism as it is used as a category to describe a global phenomenon. I will discuss three different scholarly approaches by turning to the work of Bruce Lawrence, Mark Juergensmeyer, and Bruce Lincoln on the Islamic “fundamentalist” group al- Qaeda. Finally I will argue that the category “fundamentalism” can be best understood in terms of a family resemblance.

Indiscernibility, interchangeability and resemblance relations may be named as weak-identity relations or identity-like relations. Indeed,identical objects can be thought to satisfy all these three relations. According to realist view, these relations are defined on the basis of properties of objects. While indiscernibility is a context-independent relation, since indiscernibility is defined in terms of all properties of objects, interchangeability and resemblance relations are defined in terms of some significant properties of objects and thus they should be regarded as context-dependent. We should consider the following points while comparing rivalling theories of resemblance: 1. The theory explaining resemblance relations between objects should cover as many domains as possible. Instead of simply admitting that objects of a given type may resemble each other, the theory should explain how these relations are possible. 2. Objects do not just resemble or they do not / resemblance is a relation that admits degrees. Thus the theory providing a finer analysis of close and weak resemblances should be preferred. In comparison to resemblance nominalism, realist theory of resemblance is strongerwith respect to both points. The criticism that realist view may not explain degrees of resemblance can be rejoined by removing the indeterminacy as to the nature of this notion.Among knowledge representation systems, property and attribute systems provide a simple but strong models for analytic ontology. Weak identity relations can easily be defined in these systems and the results following from these definitions can be seen to conform to our intuitions about weak identity relations.

Durant ces dernières décennies, la traductologie a connu un essor remarquable. En côtoyant des disciplines voisines, elle a élargi ses champs d’investigation. Ainsi le champ conceptuel de la traduction s’étend-il désormais à divers domaines bien au-delà du transfert interlinguistique. Or, dans ce champ d’étude complexe où se croisent de multiples approches, il n’existe guère de consensus au sein de la traductologie et l’expansion de la notion de traduction risque de provoquer la dilution de son objet d’étude.Face à cette situation, la nécessité de mener des réflexions épistémologiques se manifeste au sein de la discipline. Dans cette mouvance, ce travail se propose d’étudier sur un terrain commun différentes positions théoriques sur l’activité de la traduction en revisitant les lieux de convergence entre métaphore et traduction, qui nouent un lien étroit sur le plan historique et conceptuel dans l’espace culturel de l’Occident. Pour cette analyse critique et métathéorique, les métaphores deviennent tantôt un instrument cognitif permettant de comprendre l’acte de traduire, tantôt un procédé argumentatif visant à imposer de nouveaux modèles théoriques, tantôt l’objet de la traduction, tantôt le miroir des théories de la traduction. / Over the last few decades, remarkable headway has been made in Translation Studies. Interaction withother neighboring disciplines has made Translation Studies expand its field of investigation. In particular,the conceptual field of translation reached an extensive area well beyond the interlingual transfer. Yet, acomplex picture of discipline that consists of multiple approaches reveals that there is little consensusamong scholars in the field of Translation Studies. Moreover, the expansion of the notion of translationmay seem obscure the main subject of study. Given this situation, there is a greater need to undertake theepistemological reflections within the discipline.In line with this, this thesis proposes to investigate on a common ground between various theoreticalpositions on the translation activity by revisiting the points of convergence between metaphor andtranslation that are closely linked, both historically and conceptually in the domain of Western culture.For this critical and meta-theoretical analysis, the metaphor take many different forms including cognitivetool to provide the understanding of the act of translation, argumentative method to impose newtheoretical models, the object of translation, and the mirror of translation theories.

Durant ces dernières décennies, la traductologie a connu un essor remarquable. En côtoyant des disciplines voisines, elle a élargi ses champs d’investigation. Ainsi le champ conceptuel de la traduction s’étend-il désormais à divers domaines bien au-delà du transfert interlinguistique. Or, dans ce champ d’étude complexe où se croisent de multiples approches, il n’existe guère de consensus au sein de la traductologie et l’expansion de la notion de traduction risque de provoquer la dilution de son objet d’étude.Face à cette situation, la nécessité de mener des réflexions épistémologiques se manifeste au sein de la discipline. Dans cette mouvance, ce travail se propose d’étudier sur un terrain commun différentes positions théoriques sur l’activité de la traduction en revisitant les lieux de convergence entre métaphore et traduction, qui nouent un lien étroit sur le plan historique et conceptuel dans l’espace culturel de l’Occident. Pour cette analyse critique et métathéorique, les métaphores deviennent tantôt un instrument cognitif permettant de comprendre l’acte de traduire, tantôt un procédé argumentatif visant à imposer de nouveaux modèles théoriques, tantôt l’objet de la traduction, tantôt le miroir des théories de la traduction. / Over the last few decades, remarkable headway has been made in Translation Studies. Interaction withother neighboring disciplines has made Translation Studies expand its field of investigation. In particular,the conceptual field of translation reached an extensive area well beyond the interlingual transfer. Yet, acomplex picture of discipline that consists of multiple approaches reveals that there is little consensusamong scholars in the field of Translation Studies. Moreover, the expansion of the notion of translationmay seem obscure the main subject of study. Given this situation, there is a greater need to undertake theepistemological reflections within the discipline.In line with this, this thesis proposes to investigate on a common ground between various theoreticalpositions on the translation activity by revisiting the points of convergence between metaphor andtranslation that are closely linked, both historically and conceptually in the domain of Western culture.For this critical and meta-theoretical analysis, the metaphor take many different forms including cognitivetool to provide the understanding of the act of translation, argumentative method to impose newtheoretical models, the object of translation, and the mirror of translation theories.

Comment définir la déroutante pensée de Bonaventure ? Étienne Gilson y voyait à l’œuvre une « logique de l’analogie », tandis que Hans Urs von Balthasar la présentait comme une « monadologie sans harmonie préétablie ». Dans les deux cas, c’est l’expressionnisme du Docteur séraphique qui se trouve mis en valeur : les créatures représentent leur Créateur par tout leur être, et le Créateur lui-même exprime ses créatures. Toutefois, cet expressionnisme universel et divin n’est que la face visible d’une structure dynamique et tripartite plus vaste que l’on peut appeler, en s’appuyant sur d’importantes déclarations de Bonaventure, la logique de la ressemblance. S’émancipant des restrictions et des interdits dionysiens et augustiniens, Bonaventure a étendu le champ sémantique et conceptuel de similitudo en réunissant sous ce vocable toutes les entités « mineures », c’est-à-dire tous les êtres dépendant radicalement d’une origine qu’ils expriment et vers laquelle ils reconduisent ou sont reconduits : le Fils, les créatures images, les créatures vestiges, les espèces sensibles, etc. Dans ce dispositif dont l’homme et le Christ occupent le centre, c’est la réconciliation du ciel et de la terre, de Dieu et du monde, de la théologie et de la métaphysique, que Bonaventure donne à voir. / Bonaventure’s puzzling thought seems to challenge any attempt to define it. Étienne Gilson saw it as a « logic of analogy », while Hans Urs von Balthasar summed it up as a « monadology without preestablished harmony ». Both of them thus emphasize the seraphic Doctor’s expressionism : each creature represents its Creator through its whole being, and the Creator himself expresses his creatures. However, this universal and divine expressionism is but the visible side of a dynamic and threefold structure that we suggest to call, according to several Bonaventure’s important texts, the logic of resemblance. Liberating himself from Dionysian and Augustinian restrictions and proscriptions, Bonaventure broadened the semantic and conceptual field of similitudo by gathering in this noun all « minor » entities, i.e. all beings that completely depend on an origin that they express and towards which they lead or are led back : these are the Son, the image creatures, the vestige creatures, the sensible likenesses (species), etc. Throughout this device, whose center is occupied by the human being and Christ, Bonaventure makes us see the reconciliation of heaven with earth, of the world with God, of theology with metaphysics.

Within the past three decades, Star Wars has become nothing short of a household name. The millions of dollars gained from the films and various products, as well as the enjoyment and enthusiasm generated among fans, shows that Star Wars' value and significance in the realm of entertainment is substantial. In addition to this value, there are also many religious and mythological elements that are embedded within each of the movies. However, these elements do not carry the same prominence or interest that the plotline has with the audience. In an interview, Lucas stated that it was not his intent to use Star Wars to create a new religion or ideology. Nevertheless, the movie series has raised questions regarding its ability to attain such a devoted following. Consequently, the thesis will look into the dynamic between authorial intent and reader response. In addition, this thesis will investigate the religious themes and mythological elements of the Star Wars series and use this analysis to corroborate the position that Star Wars both resembles traditional religion and functions as religion for the fans. This thesis will analyze the religious elements and myths that are embedded in the general story, as well as those that are unique to the individual movies, by highlighting a family resemblance/functionalist approach to religion that focuses on not only the resemblances to traditional religion but also the religious effects that Star Wars has on its fans and society; namely, moral issues and the sense of meaning and belonging it inculcates among the fan base.

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