Cognitive Semantics Goes Multimodal: Looking at Quot(ativ)es in Face-to-Face-Settings

摘要

This paper advances, from a Cognitive Semantics perspective, an integrative approach to quotations as complex multimodal acts in interactive communicative settings, whose modal(ity) "signature" is reflected in the choice of the quotative introducing the quote. Against the background of hegemonic variationist-sociolinguistic research centering around quotative like, I will offer a cross-venue and cross-modality comparison of be like, quote (unquote), and the air-quotes, recruiting a specialized contextual factor from Leonard Talmy's (forthcoming) The attention system of language. The approach allows for a consistent re-analysis of these interactive quotatives as essentially modality-sensitive triggers that direct some attention away from the quotation's referring function, to invoke meta-linguistic awareness of non-verbal (visual, auditory, and kinetic) particularities of a previous (imagined) speech event. As long as the quote is "running", they instruct the addressee(s) to differentially reallocate their attention to para- and extra-linguistic concomitants of the quote inherent in the original communicative interaction: Typically, quoters convey their attitudinal stance toward the quote(e) through characteristic vocal and gestural styles of delivery. Assigning each quotative a distinctive multimodal "attentional profile", the comparative analyses proposed may not only account for speakers' preferences for one quotative over another but sensibly open up a(nother) vista of Cognitive Semantics, testifying to the framework's explanatory power.