Fictive Interaction

Fictive interaction or ‘FI’ (Pascual 2002, 2006, 2014) is a conceptual phenomenon that mimics the turn-taking pattern of conversation and is thus at the heart of the relation between language, interaction, and cognition (see overviews in: Pascual & Sandler 2016; Pascual & Oakley 2017). Fictive interaction may also be described as a communicative type of fictivity in the sense of Talmy (2000), its ontological nature being between reality and fiction. As will be shown in this chapter, the umbrella term ‘fictive interaction’ covers under-studied and un-studied phenomena, as well as well-known −but formerly unrelated− structures. Specifically, FI may partially model: (i) thought (e.g. talking to oneself, Pascual 2014, Pascual & Sandler 2016); (ii) the conceptualization of experience (e.g. evidence as speaking, Pascual 2008a, 2008b, 2014); (iii) discourse organization (e.g. monologues structured as dialogues, Pascual 2014; Fonseca, Pascual & Oakley 2020); and (iv) grammar (e.g. direct speech used for evidentiality, Pascual 2014; Spronck 2012, 2016; Jarque & Pascual 2015).