Enunțiator asumat vs enunțiator reținut: evidențialitatea

Abstract

Evidentiality is a semantic-pragmatic category by means of which one can assess the extent of speakers’ participation in the propositional content of the language facts stated. In other words, evidentiality refers to using a succession of language-specific codes called evidentials, to embed in a message the sources on which speakers rely to gain access to the discursive meaning. This eminently theoretical article takes into consideration the various ways in which evidentiality is manifested in Romanian. In everyday speech, evidentiality corresponds to sources of knowledge/information, and languages have different ways of referring to them. As regards Romanian, sources of information can be recognized on the level of inference, quotation (report), and perception. Speakers’ main propositional attitudes are identified in relation to the ways in which evidentiality is achieved. The article distinguishes between speakers who take on the responsibility of the speech acts performed and speakers who are reluctant to be subjectively involved in the construction of utterances. There are certain grammatical (and lexical-semantic) markers which indicate speakers’ participation in utterances. Locutors use pieces of information pre-existing in language, which they alter by leaving more or less salient marks of their personality. This study employs terminology specific to philosophy of language, grammar and pragmasemantics.