Funciones pragmáticas de la referencia de persona en el lenguaje coloquial y en el discurso político

In this study we look at person reference in colloquial language and political discourse from a cognitive perspective. The quantitative analysis allows for comparing the presence of the speaker and hearer roles (enunciator and enunciatee) in both genres. The qualitative analysis is based on the concepts of subjectivity and intersubjectivity (Benveniste 1966, Lyons 1982, Closs Traugott 2003). The greater tendency to overtly assign states of consciousness and stances to the very enunciator evidences the subjectivity of colloquial language. Political discourse, however, contains much less (inter)subjectivity expressions. It is far less grounded in the enunciator and enunciatee roles, and their distribution is more balanced than in colloquial language, as it reflects the typical interaction between opponents in a debate. The position of the enunciator further varies depending on whether the figure of the Prime Minister is considered to be part of the own group or not. Insofar as the analysis of person reference in terms of subjectivity and intersubjectivity permits to distinguish different positions in interaction, it constitutes a contribution to discourse genre typology.status: publishe