Quotatifs et ethos interactionnel : quelques fonctions de l’introducteur BE LIKE
The quotative system of English, after two new forms appeared in its midst – the verb GO and, more prominently, the construction BE LIKE – has been subject to many studies aiming at characterising the new quotatives. Considering that mere semantics appeared somewhat insufficient in such an endeavour...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Laboratoire d’Etudes et de Recherches sur le Monde Anglophone (LERMA)
2020-06-01
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| Series: | E-REA |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://journals.openedition.org/erea/9902 |
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| Summary: | The quotative system of English, after two new forms appeared in its midst – the verb GO and, more prominently, the construction BE LIKE – has been subject to many studies aiming at characterising the new quotatives. Considering that mere semantics appeared somewhat insufficient in such an endeavour, most works on the topic have focused on investigating the pragmatic and discourse functions newly acquired by those markers. However, although both BE LIKE and GO are still mainly confined to informal oral conversation, they are still rarely considered to have truly interactional attributes. This paper seeks to trigger a reflexion on the potential interactional functions of quotative BE LIKE, insofar as it contributes to the construction of interactional ethos. This construction is twofold: first, the use of BE LIKE is a way for the speaker to take and keep the floor in order to tell a whole narrative, against the usual turn-taking schemes of oral conversation. Second, its use enables the speaker to implicitly take an intersubjective stance and/or align with prior stance in oral interaction. By analysing a few examples of real conversation, this paper defends the necessity to consider the transmission of pragmatic content beyond the unidirectional patterns sometimes associated to discourse analysis, in the specific case of quotatives in interaction. |
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| ISSN: | 1638-1718 |