This unit is concerned with the linguistic resources by which speakers/writers include, and adopt a stance towards, what they represent as the words, observations, beliefs and viewpoints of other speakers/writers. This is an area which has been widely covered in the literature under such headings as "attribution", "direct and indirect speech", 'intertextuality" and, following Bakhtin, "heteroglossia". At its most basic, this attribution or intertextual positioning is brought into play when a writer/speaker chooses to quote or reference the words or thoughts of another. By referencing the words of another, the writer, at the very least, indicates that these words are in some way relevant to his/her current communicative purposes. Thus the most basic intertextual evaluation is one of implied `relevance'.
Once an attributed proposition has been included (and hence evaluated as `relevant') it can the be further evaluated as `endorsed' or `disendorsed'. The endorsed utterance is one which the writer either directly in indirectly indicates support for, or agreement with. The endorsed utterance is represented as true or reliable or convincing.
Thus,
He punctures the romantic myth that the mafia started as Robin Hood-style groups of men protecting the poor. He shows that the mafia began in the 19th century as armed bands protecting the interests of the absentee landlords who owned most of Sicily. He also demonstrates how the mafia has forged links with Italy's ruling Christian Democrat party since the war, and how the state has fought to destroy the criminal organisation despite the terror campaign that assassinated anti-mafia judges, such as Giovanni Falcone. (From the Cobuild Bank of English)
Here the use of the quoting verbs `show' and `demonstrate' signals endorsement for the attributed author's observations about the Mafia.
Similarly,
Elsewhere, he espoused the thesis, convincingly propounded also by other Marxists, that Marx evolved from his Eurocentric perspective of the 1850s towards a stance of anti-colonialism and of rejection of the unqualified idea that the capitalist destruction of pre-capitalist agrarian structures was necessary and inevitable. (Cobuild: UKBooks)
It is interesting to note that a speaker/writer may endorse (indicate that they support, hold-to-be true) a proposition while distancing themselves from the speaker/writer themselves. Consider, for example,
The Government has finally conceded that they made a mistake.
Here the term "concede" carries a number of connotations. Firstly, of course, it indicates that the Government only reluctantly came to offer up the proposition that "we made a mistake". "Concede" like "admit" implies that the attributed source has been "holding out on us" so to speak and has only now been compelled, somehow, to reveal the truth. And, secondly, of course, there is the implication that what is "conceded" is "the truth of the matter" - that is to say, the proposition framed in this way is represented as true. Accordingly a positive endorsement is not of the quoted source, but of their proposition or proposal.
