Mä en sit siihe sanonu mitää. Raportit sanomatta jättämisestä ja evidentiaalinen partikkeli sit(te(n)) keskustelun kertomuksissa

• Mia Halonen

Avainsanat: kertomukset, kielto, partikkelit, päättely, referointi, valittaminen

Abstrakti

Reports about saying nothing and the evidential particle sit(te(n)) in conversational narratives (englanti)

2/2005 (109)

Reports about saying nothing and the evidential particle sit(te(n)) in conversational narratives

The article studies the way in which speakers, when recalling earlier conversations, report that they said nothing at a particular juncture. It focuses on negation clauses in the 1st person singular past tense containing a communication verb, of the type M en sit sanonu mitn I didnt say anything then. This structure is examined in conversational narratives and narrative sequences. The study data consists of a total of about 30 hours of conversations.

Besides imparting information, narration is always also a moralistic exercise. The recounting of an interactive situation reveals how the conversation participants themselves describe the situation and conveys their attitude towards what happened and what should have happened. Half of the occurrences of the negation structure being examined include the particle sit(te(n)) then, after that. With this particle the narrator indicates the reason and the evidence for saying nothing in the preceding reported speech. The cases in which the particle appears are always preceded by a direct presentation, against which saying nothing is set. The particle demonstrates that saying nothing was the outcome of the reasoning at the time of the event, but this reasoning nevertheless remains implicit and for the recipient to interpret. The particle allows the narrator to construct something from his/her experience that is recognisable by a member of any culture and thus by the recipient: Draw the same conclusion now as I did in the situation described and understand my actions in that context. In negation clauses containing this particle, the narrator turns the narrative into a complaint or criticism directed at the particular party in the narrative. In descriptions without the particle, the narrator does not leave the reasons to be inferred by the recipient in the same way, and neither are negation descriptions containing the particle preceded by reported speech but by the narrators description of the situation. In narrations of this kind, criticism can be focused on the narrator himself/herself.

Mia Halonen