La expresión de la agentividad en el Informe Rettig (Chile, 1991)
Year: 2014
Type: article
Abstract: This article proposes a cognitive-linguistic analysis of agentivity in the Informe Rettig. Based on a definition of agentivity which integrates lexical, morphosyntactic and pragmatic components, it is shown through a quantitative and qualitative analysis that: (i) in most cases, the Informe Rettig refers to the death of the victims of the dictatorship without referring to the perpetrators, (ii) the report uses syntactic structures in which the reference to the perpetrator possesses a secondary degree of prominence, as in periphrastic passive constructions, (iii) the report uses very frequently expressions which, at first sight, suggest natural deaths. The final conclusion is that the Informe Rettig avoids naming perpetrators of the crimes committed by the military dictatorship, that it mitigates the intentionality of the actions and that it conceals the causal relationship between the perpetrator, the intended action and the death of the victim.
Authors: Barbara De Cock, Daniel Michaud Maturana
Language: Spanish
Subfield: Linguistics and Language
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W1693746338