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Chapter 5 Enunciator position, positioning and posture

  • Alain Rabatel
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French theories on text and discourse
This chapter is in the book French theories on text and discourse

Abstract

This article draws connections between the notions of enunciator position, positioning, and posture, which structure the dialogic, cognitive and interactional coproduction of utterances. The notion of enunciative position corresponds to the fact that the (first or second) enunciator refers to objects of discourse while positioning him/herself with regard to them, by indicating from what point of view s/he considers them. In view of the dialogic nature of the discourse, two modal subjects and levels of responsibility can be discerned: the first enunciator has the role of agent in charge of the discourse and the second enunciators fulfill internal functions of validation, thus assuming a sort of responsibility which does not necessarily commit the first enunciator. The article then analyzes the dialogic strategies of positioning by enunciative intensification and distancing which account for autodialogic and heterodialogic situations. Finally, it deals with the enunciative postures of coenunciation, overenunciation, and underenunciation, which refine the notions of enunciative intensification or distancing by specifying the degrees of agreement, according to a dialectic between discordant concordance and concordant discordance.

Abstract

This article draws connections between the notions of enunciator position, positioning, and posture, which structure the dialogic, cognitive and interactional coproduction of utterances. The notion of enunciative position corresponds to the fact that the (first or second) enunciator refers to objects of discourse while positioning him/herself with regard to them, by indicating from what point of view s/he considers them. In view of the dialogic nature of the discourse, two modal subjects and levels of responsibility can be discerned: the first enunciator has the role of agent in charge of the discourse and the second enunciators fulfill internal functions of validation, thus assuming a sort of responsibility which does not necessarily commit the first enunciator. The article then analyzes the dialogic strategies of positioning by enunciative intensification and distancing which account for autodialogic and heterodialogic situations. Finally, it deals with the enunciative postures of coenunciation, overenunciation, and underenunciation, which refine the notions of enunciative intensification or distancing by specifying the degrees of agreement, according to a dialectic between discordant concordance and concordant discordance.

Chapters in this book

  1. Frontmatter I
  2. Contents V
  3. Introduction Language/speech vs. text/discourse: A “family resemblance”? 1
  4. Part 1: Text-discourse links
  5. Chapter 1 Micro-level, meso-level and macro-level of textual structuring and complexity 19
  6. Chapter 2 “Framing adverbials” as markers of discourse organization 57
  7. Chapter 3 Text, discourse, cognition 77
  8. Chapter 4 From discourse analysis to analysis of discourses 95
  9. Chapter 5 Enunciator position, positioning and posture 107
  10. Part 2: Text epistemologies
  11. Chapter 6 Dissipative units 131
  12. Chapter 7 Corpus semantics, the unfinished project of Greimas’ Structural semantics 153
  13. Chapter 8 Suggestions for a diachronic text linguistics 169
  14. Chapter 9 40 years of text linguistics and its didactic application in teaching French as a foreign language 185
  15. Part 3: Epistemologies of discourse – and beyond
  16. Chapter 10 A socio-communicational model of discourse (between communication situation and individuation strategies) 205
  17. Chapter 11 Discourse, discourse analysis, and discourse genres 231
  18. Chapter 12 Integrating argumentation in discourse analysis? Problems and challenges 245
  19. Chapter 13 Linguistics and literature: Style in question 269
  20. Index nominum 279
  21. Index rerum 283
https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110794434-006

Chapters in this book

  1. Frontmatter I
  2. Contents V
  3. Introduction Language/speech vs. text/discourse: A “family resemblance”? 1
  4. Part 1: Text-discourse links
  5. Chapter 1 Micro-level, meso-level and macro-level of textual structuring and complexity 19
  6. Chapter 2 “Framing adverbials” as markers of discourse organization 57
  7. Chapter 3 Text, discourse, cognition 77
  8. Chapter 4 From discourse analysis to analysis of discourses 95
  9. Chapter 5 Enunciator position, positioning and posture 107
  10. Part 2: Text epistemologies
  11. Chapter 6 Dissipative units 131
  12. Chapter 7 Corpus semantics, the unfinished project of Greimas’ Structural semantics 153
  13. Chapter 8 Suggestions for a diachronic text linguistics 169
  14. Chapter 9 40 years of text linguistics and its didactic application in teaching French as a foreign language 185
  15. Part 3: Epistemologies of discourse – and beyond
  16. Chapter 10 A socio-communicational model of discourse (between communication situation and individuation strategies) 205
  17. Chapter 11 Discourse, discourse analysis, and discourse genres 231
  18. Chapter 12 Integrating argumentation in discourse analysis? Problems and challenges 245
  19. Chapter 13 Linguistics and literature: Style in question 269
  20. Index nominum 279
  21. Index rerum 283
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