Discurso Direto Fictivo: a perspectivação conceptual (construal) como estratégia intersubjetiva argumentativa

Abstract

The present work is aimed at studying the different types of Fictivity in language and the distinct ways it operates both discursively and intersubjectively by drawing on real speech data of Brazilian Portuguese spoken in the state of Minas Gerais. The study relies on Cognitive Linguistics LANGACKER (1987, 1990, 1991, 2008; TALMY 1988, 2000; LAKOFF; JOHNSON 1980; FAUCONNIER 1994, 1996, 1997; FILLMORE 1982, 1985, 1993; SWEETSER 1990; outlining the concept of construal as guiding the hypothesis that in their face-to-face interactions speaker and addressee use the Conversation Frame PASCUAL, 2002, 2006, 2014; PASCUAL; SANDLER, 2016; in order to structure Fictive Interaction, especially the type here under study – Fictive Direct Speech ROCHA, 2004, 2006, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2018, 2020; – as an intersubjective and argumentative device. The notion of (inter)subjectivity TRAUGOTT; DASHER, 2005; VERHAGEN, 2005, 2007, 2008; intertwined with the notion of construal TALMY, 1988, 2000; LANGACKER, 1987, 1990, 1991, 2008; VERHAGEN, 2005, 2007, 2008; is viewed as either linguistically codifying the attention of the speaker towards his/her addressee or as cognitively signalling a coordination or alignment of perspectives ALMEIDA, 2010, 2019; ALMEIDA; FERRARI, 2012. In regard to methodology, two different corpora – a study corpus and a reference corpus – were chosen for the analysis. The first one was compiled from spontaneous speech recordings at a beauty salon (PAULA, 2018), which were transcribed in order to better capture and explain the cognitive phenomenon. The second corpus was obtained from C-ORAL BRASIL I RASO; MELLO, 2012; a reference corpus of the spontaneous speech variety of Brazilian Portuguese, with both recordings and transcriptions available. We have adopted a methodology which blends a corpus-based and a corpus-driven approach to data MCENERY; HARDIE, 2012; TOGNINI-BONELLI, 2001; thus allowing the corpora to inform our analysis. Apart from that, the qualitative approach to data not only conveyed Fictive Interaction samples of Fictive Direct Speech but also made it possible to identify distinct semantic-syntactic patterns exhibiting specific prosodic features. The results make the empirical acceptability of the phenomenon clear and reveal the use of Fictive Direct Speech as an attentional frame LANGACKER, 2008; and perspective-taking as an intersubjective and argumentative device for ultimately aligning different vantage points through discourse.