Abstract
Abstract Essentially grounded in Cognitive Semantics and conceived to capture fundamental compositional properties inscribed in (written) text and (spoken) discourse, this study proposes a unifying account of parenthesis and quotation in English. Understood as determinants of conceptual structure in language, these two categories, though ubiquitous in all forms of language use, but so far entirely missing from the Cognitive Semantics, research agenda, are (re-)conceptualized under the aegis of Bakhtin’s polyphony and voice, and Goffman’s decomposition of the speaker as ‘fictive’ polyphony. In achieving this goal, the paper explores via dense, multimodally informed micro-studies of authentic text and discourse how voices are made salient to readers and hearers, scrutinizing various categories of cuing devices. As a corollary, Cognitive Semantics is seen to be developed and enriched, opening it up to transcend the language system, thus paying respect to the ‘total linguistic fact’ in the sense of Silverstein.
Published Version
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