On the inherent dialogicity of written texts and discourses

The aim of this paper is to discuss the notion of dialogicity, namely the interactional quality of text and discourse, with special attention to the problems posed by written texts. I will highlight and critically discuss complex interrelated oppositions that are in the background (dialogue vs monologue, text vs discourse, and, of course, written vs spoken mode), adopting a pragmatic perspective that employs and develops Benveniste’s concept of enunciation (1966, 1974). This allows me to focus on the role of metadiscourse as the main locus of interaction between author and future reader and to propose a distinction between two main types of dialogicity (primary vs. secondary), according to the different enunciative planes which are identifiable in a text/discourse.