Особенности формирования референции в устном дискурсе

Abstract

The reference theory, which saw active development in the 20th century, has since undergone considerable changes, with the scope of research both expanding and becoming less clear. We trace the shift of research focus from a single word or word combination taken out of context to their use in discourse. Numerous studies of the oral discourse have demonstrated differences in use and interpretation of the theory’s main concepts and units. For instance, there are considerable discrepancies between a sentence and a discourse utterance described as the totality of prosodic elements with a common topic, the same temporal, personal and other characteristics. The current state of affairs has necessitated new approaches, new notions and terms, such as focusing and defocusing. One of the key components of the oral discourse is the speaker whose presence can be marked in various ways: either explicitly focusing our attention on the first person, or implicitly and inconsistently defocusing attention, causing focus loss and the creation of a blurred indefinite personal form which, nevertheless, does refer to the speaker. This kind of defocusing is typical of a completely spontaneous oral discourse. Thus, it becomes obvious that reference is realized differently in different types and genres of discourse. In other words, the degree of discourse spontaneity or preparedness determines the most suitable reference type. The article offers the analysis of defocusing in the framework of indexical reference formation, and cases of the typical first-person reference are examined in the Spanish-language spontaneous oral discourse. As the main genre, interviews of various degrees of preparedness were selected. The highest level of preparedness is characteristic of the TV interview which, as a genre, is normally preceded by certain preliminary agreements; no loss of focus (defocusing) occurs there. In case of spontaneous, unprepared interviews the blurred first person might be used; it is possible to analyze this phenomenon. The data obtained in this analysis are preliminary and require further investigation.