Scientific information and discursive heterogeneity: An analysis of “A brief history of time”, by Stephen Hawking

Abstract

The present paper thematizes the issue of heterogeneity in the Discourse of Scientific Circulation (DSC). Such a discourse, articulated in the interface between scientific discourse (SC) and the statements of “non-scientists” (SNS), presents a heterogeneity which I call discursive (following GALLO, 2001), and which is constituted not only of non-coincidental enunciations (AUTHIER-REVUZ, 1982), but also of coincidences bearing pre-constructed meanings. From such an interface of meanings a new discursive formation can arise, that of DSC, reordering the meanings of SC and of SNS.