Agentivity, modalities of control and subjectivity
type: Dataset
description: The attribution of agentivity is an important enunciative operation. Our conception of time leads us to assign causes to actions and events. Linguistic “agency” or agentivity can be distinguished from linguistic causality (or causativity) by the fact that an animate entity (generally human) can be identified as the ultimate cause of an action or event. Animate entities are formally accorded intention, control and telicity over their own actions. However there are regular cognitive shifts from prototypical agency. Agentivity is a complex concept often allowing differing degrees of agency and the transfer of agency between actual or potential agents (the doubling of agents, delegated agency, etc.). Agentivity refers to the ascription and linguistic encoding of cognitive and enonciative operations which are at the disposal of an utterer / enunciator. Constructions which show nonprototypical agentivity are thus of particular interest. French constructions such as se faire + infinitif, se laisser + infinitif, se voir + infinitif, faire + infinitif as well as English constructions with get and have are revealing. Here there is a question as to the interpretation of the participative role of the animate subject. In certain cases control can be attenuated or even cancelled. In fact, se faire and get constructions have much in common, including their recent specialization as passives which describe unpleasant circumstances. This work uses concepts from Culioli’s Theory of Enunciative Operations. The contribution of an informative principle (recent developments in linguistic theories of information such as Vallduví’s “information packaging” and Lambrecht’s “informational structure”) makes it possible to detect in constructions similar to se faire + infinitif, a pragmatico-enunciative role which can be distinguished from canonical passives. The use of these constructions reflects the subjective and intersubjective management of information and the process of enriching the know…
identifier: NNT: 2012BOR30080
issued: 2026-05-08T01:22:43.137230
language: fr
modified: 2026-05-08T01:22:43.137235
contact point: Organization
  fn: CCSD
keyword: agency
keyword: agentivite
keyword: agentivity
keyword: causativite
keyword: causativity
keyword: control-of-action
keyword: controle-de-laction
keyword: discursive-representation-of-action
keyword: factitivite
keyword: factitivity
keyword: infoeu-reposemanticsdoctoralthesis
keyword: passif
keyword: passive
keyword: representation-discursive
keyword: shslanguehumanities-and-social-scienceslinguistics
keyword: theses
landing page: https://theses.hal.science/tel-00910818

Agentivity, modalities of control and subjectivity
type: Distribution
format: HTML
issued: 2026-05-08T01:22:43.169082
modified: 2026-05-08T01:22:43.112503
access URL: https://theses.hal.science/tel-00910818

test_moissonnage_selune
type: Agent