LingLunch : Márta Abrusán

Márta Abrusán (CNRS/ Institut Jean Nicod)
Types of perspective shift, protagonists, stereotypes

Natural languages allow us to describe the mental state of a protagonist that conveys, to some extent, her perspective. In this talk I examine different techniques that allow such perspective shift, including free indirect discourse and protagonist projection. After discussing some empirical and formal properties of these techniques, I address two outstanding questions: (a) In the absence of overt markers, how do we know that we need to shift the perspective in discourse and to whose perspective we should attend to? (b) Is there a clear demarcation line between real attitude/speech reports vs. stereotypical views/assertions we attribute to others?