Blurring the Boundaries between Real Worlds, Discourse Worlds and Text Worlds
Blurring the Boundaries between Real Worlds, Discourse Worlds and Text Worlds

Summary/Abstract: What do the article title ‘Black Widow Breaks Up With Kylo Ren’ and a Twitter message saying ‘The scene in The Departed where Mark Wahlberg shoots Matt Damon is the blueprint for how to handle corrupt cops’ have in common? Clearly, they both combine references to actors and movies, but do they combine them through the same cognitive technique(s)? This paper starts by addressing the question of how these two instances of reference differ. The line of argumentation that is supported suggests that a world-building theory needs to be employed in order to understand the difference. In doing this, the paper aims and contributes to the theoretical advancement of world-building approaches by arguing for the introduction of the concept of ‘Real Worlds’ in research on Text Worlds and Discourse Worlds. Data set sample analyses employing the Real World concept are included to verify the main theoretical premise. The analyzed texts cover traditional genres such as political speeches as well as modern-day, boundary-blurring genres such as Twitter messages.

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