Asteriscul. Un semn cu multiple valori

Abstract

"The asterisk is one of the oldest graphic signs and still plays an important role in both printed and electronic texts. The sign * appears in a wide variety of domains (literary texts, scientific works, legal and administrative documents, advertising messages), and the roles differ depending on the type of text. Some roles played by the asterisk remain constant regardless of the domain: for example, marking footnotes, delimiting chapters or anonymizing proper names. Other roles are specific to a certain field: marking unattested and reconstituted forms or ungrammatical constructions in linguistics or marking bold text in communication on electronic devices that do not allow bold letters."