Fundaments for the study of orality in written language

Abstract

In this paper, we put forth some reflections upon the production of effects of orality in written texts in light of the fundaments of enunciation. In this theoretical context, we show that the study of orality in written language should not depart from the random identification of lexical and syntactic, figurative and thematic, stylistic or rhetoric resources. What matters is the identification of the interactive scenario in which these linguistic resources are manifested. The interactive scenario is configured by the relationship between narrator/narratee revealed in the text. If this relation takes place by means of the interaction between an I (narrator) and a you (narratee), either explicit or implicit, then it is instituted, in this scenario, the basic principle of dialog, of conversation, which defines the proximity condition of the interlocutors and, therefore, the interactive scenario favorable to the use of orality resources. When this relation, however, takes place in the form of a third person narrator who addresses him/herself to an implicit reader, the scenario of distancing is installed, in which orality resources may be unfit or, if they occur, they may have specific functions. This text addresses special attention to the interactive scenario set by the interaction between I/you, showing, in different examples, traits of orality determined by such interaction, and also the various degrees of proximity that this interaction may reveal in its various manifestations.