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Article published In:
Irregular perspective shifts and perspective persistence: Discourse-oriented and theoretical approaches
Edited by Caroline Gentens, María Sol Sansiñena, Stef Spronck and An Van linden
[Pragmatics 29:2] 2019
► pp. 170–197

Changing perspectives

Something old, something new

ORCID logo | University of Namur (NALTT institute) & KU Leuven (FunC research group)

This paper investigates questions of perspective shift or non-shift against a background of a basic deictic-cognitive divide in our understanding of what comes under the linguistic notion of perspective. In differentiating ‘distancing’ from ‘free’ indirect speech/thought in narratives, it proposes a new lens through which to reconsider a class of examples controlled in curious ways by the narrator’s deictic and cognitive perspective. Turning to a newer mode of communication – that of Internet memes combining set phrases and images in one multimodal package – the paper shows that despite this novelty, unusual uses of quotation in memes in fact join the ranks of existing non-quotative uses of quotation to express a stance rather than genuinely shift to a different discourse source. The paper also touches on the question of the constructional status of the ‘old’ and ‘new’ phenomena investigated.

Keywords: be like , deixis, distancing indirect speech/thought, fictive interaction, Internet memes, perspective, quotation, viewpoint
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Dividing perspectives: Deictic and cognitive perspective shifts
  • 3.Representing speech and thought, with a difference
  • 4.Non-quotative uses of direct speech representation in Internet memes
  • 5.Conclusions
  • Notes
  • Example sources
  • References
Available under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial (CC BY-NC) 4.0 license.
Published online: 12 March 2019
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/prag.18046.van
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