Fictive interaction within the sentence: A communicative type of fictivity in grammar

This paper examines the intersection of language, interaction and cognition. Specifically, a communicative type of fictivity is discussed, which I call fictive verbal interaction or simply fictive interaction (Pascual 2002). This constitutes a self-sufficient discourse unit conceptualized within a non-factive communicative occurrence, which functions syntactically and semantically as a grammatical constituent. Attested examples at different syntactic levels are dealt with. These levels are: (i) the clause (e.g., The attitude that, yes, I can do it); (ii) the phrase (e.g., The attitude of yes, I can do it.); and (iii) the lexical item (e.g., The 'yes, I can do it' attitude).