Long live the hyphen and the exclamation mark! On the trait-d’union as inter-ship

Abstract

This first session after the inaugural lecture establishes the concept of ‘semiosphere’ through a discussion of the minimal signs in the European semiosphere that facilitate understanding without knowledge of the languages concerned as well as the integration of writing with the tones of spoken language. The author also discusses the short film that makes use of such signs, It’s About Time! Reflections on Urgency, with the exclamation mark in the title as the meaning-shifter. This film, spoken in Polish, stages the figure of Cassandra and her lover Aeneas as main characters of the mythical birth of Europe, the problematic of fictional time, the necessary skill and willingness of listening, and the idea of beginning. To make a useful distinction between identity as in-born features and identification as a willingness to affiliate, the article brings the French term trait-d’union to an English non-existing word, inter-ship.