Notas sobre o ethos atribuído

Abstract

In this paper, considering the undeniable relevance and great impact of Maingueneau's diverse contributions to discourse studies, we seek to fuel debates concerning the concept of ethos, specifically regarding how this concept was remodeled by the author within the framework of French Discourse Analysis. To this end, we explore a subtype of ethos that has been more recently incorporated into reflections on the subject, namely, attributed ethos (cf. Possenti, 2024), attempting to explore some of its particularities. Unlike regular cases of ethos, the ethos in question does not emanate directly from the speaker's own discourse, but is attributed to them by another instance that comments on some aspect of their utterance. This can occur, for example, in cases of reported speech, although this is not the only possibility. Thus, the cases of ethos in question can be verified when a speaker evaluates aspects of another speaker's utterance, commenting on it in their discourse, conferring a certain image upon the first speaker. As we have presented throughout this work, this ethos has relevant effects that deserve careful consideration in the analyses, insofar as they involve one or another of the elements of utterance (who speaks, about whom they speak, to whom they speak). In these terms, our work highlights yet another facet of ethos, which is always a productive avenue for analyzing discourse.