| dc.description.abstract | The subject of the author's research is a speech micro-act — a hypothesis — that builds a speech macro-act — which
is an autobiography.
A condition of efficiency of such a speech act like a hypothesis is the speaker's lack of knowledge referring to a
fact, a situation that is being described. The lack of knowledge is for example signaled by the following
particles: może/may, być może/maybe, chyba/like enough, pewnie/surely, zapewne/very like, prawdopodobnie/probably
which the author considers in this paper.
The appropriation of a hypothesis as a speech act appears, which is emphasized by Russian linguists, from an
intention to give the addressee a possibility to consider, a possibility that refers to a given hypothesis.
Perlocutionary effects of such a speech act may be different. If the addressee shared the sender's lack of
knowledge referring to a fact, then he/she would simply take the given possibility into account in a way. But if
he/she knew what a fact really is, then according to the co-operative principle he/she should communicate that to
the speaker and not to keep him/her guessing. In a situation when the truthfulness of a suggestion depends on the
addressee, a hypothesis as a speech act is used as for instance a request or a piece of advice.
Research material presented in the paper was excerpted from autobiographies written in the 20th century by Poles
who were not professionally engaged in literary creation, therefore up to the present the texts were discussed
from either a psychological or a sociological point of view. They can be called naïve, spontaneous, authentic or
ordinary autobiographies.
An analysis of chosen autobiographic compositions leads to the conclusion that the sender tends to put past events
into such words that enable on one hand to follow the chronological progress of them and on the other hand to
state a (quasi)logical arrangement.
An autobiographer arranges the reality he/she tells about according to the temporal-spatial rule and thus he/she
presents events as situated in a particular time and in a particular space, he/she gives names of people engaged
in the events. Used indices of a hypothesis show the sender's particular problems. The indices may appear together
with information referring to:
— time, especially turning points, time limits of the events that are mentioned;
— place, space where the events happen:
— people participating in the events.
The author of an autobiographical composition is not limited to report past events according to a chronological
order of them but he/she tries to arrange them logically.
An important rule of developing an autobiographical text is a causal-consecutive relation referred to a logical
relation of resulting. An author of an autobiographical composition arranges the reality he/she tells about
according to the causal-consecutive rule presenting events as a sequence of causes and results. However the
speaker may have difficulties in communicating causes or results (or the purpose) of some activities and in this
connexion he/she shapes a hypothesis.
A contrast corresponding to logical relation of contradiction may be recognized as another important rule of
developing an autobiographical text. An analyzed general scheme of contradiction (of the type p mais q) may be
identified in different varieties of autobiographical compositions. For instance, realizations of such a scheme
where the first element expresses a hypothesis may be found in the compositions.
Rules of developing, narration of autobiographical texts presented in the paper testify intellectual control,
"acquaintance" with phenomena, events or activities connected with an autobiographer's record. | en_EN |
