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The Discourse of Indirectness: Cues, voices and functions
Edited by Zohar Livnat, Pnina Shukrun-Nagar and Galia Hirsch
[Pragmatics & Beyond New Series 316] 2020
► pp. 83–96

Indirectness and co-construction

A discourse-pragmatic view

| University of Southern Denmark (emer.)
Indirectness in language can basically be understood in two different ways: on the one hand, there is the indirectness that is associated with the meaning (either literal or ‘indirect’) of the speaker’s words; on the other hand, we have the indirectness that is specific for the discourse, understood as the textual work of co-constructing meaning. The first kind of indirectness is a semantic-contextual one; the other kind (while also relying on the context for its interpretation) is a pragmatic one, as it involves the active collaboration of the interactants in language use. It is this latter understanding of indirectness, in particular as it concerns the ‘voices’ of the interactants and their access to the underlying ‘indirect’ meanings of the discourse that will be the subject of my contribution.
Keywords: indirect speech acts, egocentric vs. pluricentric acts, pragmatic acts, adaptability, co-locution, context and co-text, voice, textual collaboration, (free) indirect discourse, ‘erasure’
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction: Two kinds of indirectness?
  • 2.Egocentric vs. pluricentric acts
  • 3.Adapting to pluricentricity: On facts and ‘indirect speech’
  • 4.The dialectics of context
  • 5.The dynamics of discourse
  • 6.Indirectness and discourse: the discoursants’ voices
  • 6.Conclusion
  • Notes
  • References
Published online: 29 October 2020
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/pbns.316.04mey
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