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Abstract
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.
Keywords: Talmy's The attention system of language', quotatives: be like, quote {unquote), air-quotes; face-to-face settings; multimodality
1. INTRODUCING MULTIMODAL QUOT(ATIV)ES: A RESEARCH AGENDA
This paper outlines the conceptual basis and the incipient stage of a larger-scale project on the multimodality1 of quotatives, i.e., introducers to quotations, so far constrained to interactive (face-to-face) communicative settings (see chapter 2). Introducing a suggestive research agenda, this study contextualizes four verbal variants of the functionally defined (say) variable (in the sense of Buchstaller 2006: 5), scrutinizing them as essentially modality- sensitive items within a Cognitive Semantics framework. The simplex morphemes say and quote as well as the constructions be like and quote unquote qualify as instances of what Talmy (e.g., 2000) frames as conceptual alternatives, in this case targeting their modality- sensitive specifics: Typically, these quotatives will "induce" a characteristic vocal overlay on the subsequent quote that deviates from its environment2 and involves some gestural modulation-facial, manual, and bodily; these para- and extralinguistic3 signatures, it seems, vary along a continuum of perceptual distinctness,...