Le passif peut-il éclairer les esprits ?

This article presents an examination of modes of expressing and attributing agency in verbal interactions concerning master-spirits among the Yucatec Maya of Quintana Roo (Mexico). The study combines a grammatical analysis of how notions pertaining to agency structure the Yucatec Maya, with an ethno...

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Main Author: Valentina Vapnarsky
Format: Article
Language:fra
Published: Laboratoire d'Ethnologie et de Sociologie Comparative 2013-12-01
Series:Ateliers d'Anthropologie
Subjects:
Online Access:https://journals.openedition.org/ateliers/9449
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author Valentina Vapnarsky
author_facet Valentina Vapnarsky
author_sort Valentina Vapnarsky
collection DOAJ
description This article presents an examination of modes of expressing and attributing agency in verbal interactions concerning master-spirits among the Yucatec Maya of Quintana Roo (Mexico). The study combines a grammatical analysis of how notions pertaining to agency structure the Yucatec Maya, with an ethnographic and discursive analysis of interactions involving spirits. Four discursive situations are compared: personal accounts of encounters with spirits, stories, comments from the ritual specialist, ritual invocation. These reveal sharp contrasts with regard to the grammatical and lexical modes of reference used to refer to spirits, making it possible, through a consideration of types of relatively typified discourse and local discursive choices, to detail certain correlations between participatory framework, linguistic mode of reference and relational system. The hypothesis put forward is that linguistic modes of reference to spirits and to their actions are jointly constitutive of the forms and gradations of agency that are assigned to them, insofar as they index, qualify or obliterate typified and contextual relationships of agency between the speaker, other participants in the speech event, and spirits.
format Article
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institution Kabale University
issn 2117-3869
language fra
publishDate 2013-12-01
publisher Laboratoire d'Ethnologie et de Sociologie Comparative
record_format Article
series Ateliers d'Anthropologie
spelling doaj-art-9869feaf7537401783cd1fea6eda72ea2025-01-30T13:42:00ZfraLaboratoire d'Ethnologie et de Sociologie ComparativeAteliers d'Anthropologie2117-38692013-12-013910.4000/ateliers.9449Le passif peut-il éclairer les esprits ?Valentina VapnarskyThis article presents an examination of modes of expressing and attributing agency in verbal interactions concerning master-spirits among the Yucatec Maya of Quintana Roo (Mexico). The study combines a grammatical analysis of how notions pertaining to agency structure the Yucatec Maya, with an ethnographic and discursive analysis of interactions involving spirits. Four discursive situations are compared: personal accounts of encounters with spirits, stories, comments from the ritual specialist, ritual invocation. These reveal sharp contrasts with regard to the grammatical and lexical modes of reference used to refer to spirits, making it possible, through a consideration of types of relatively typified discourse and local discursive choices, to detail certain correlations between participatory framework, linguistic mode of reference and relational system. The hypothesis put forward is that linguistic modes of reference to spirits and to their actions are jointly constitutive of the forms and gradations of agency that are assigned to them, insofar as they index, qualify or obliterate typified and contextual relationships of agency between the speaker, other participants in the speech event, and spirits.https://journals.openedition.org/ateliers/9449spiritsagencyMayaMexicopassiveverbal interaction
spellingShingle Valentina Vapnarsky
Le passif peut-il éclairer les esprits ?
Ateliers d'Anthropologie
spirits
agency
Maya
Mexico
passive
verbal interaction
title Le passif peut-il éclairer les esprits ?
title_full Le passif peut-il éclairer les esprits ?
title_fullStr Le passif peut-il éclairer les esprits ?
title_full_unstemmed Le passif peut-il éclairer les esprits ?
title_short Le passif peut-il éclairer les esprits ?
title_sort le passif peut il eclairer les esprits
topic spirits
agency
Maya
Mexico
passive
verbal interaction
url https://journals.openedition.org/ateliers/9449
work_keys_str_mv AT valentinavapnarsky lepassifpeutileclairerlesesprits