MITIGATION: SOME METHODOLOGICAL KEYS FOR ITS ANALYSIS

Abstract

The study of linguistic mitigation, understood as a pragmatic phenomenon, requires consensus-based criteria in order to help analysts in their investigations and facilitate the development of contrastive studies. In this sense, this article aims to reflect on the phenomenon of attenuation and, more precisely, on the criteria presented in the literature to identify it. These criteria could be summed up in the vagueness of the semantic content, the mitigation of illocutive force, the defocalization of the participants in the interaction and the recognition of the function or purpose of mitigation. In addition to these criteria, we will offer three proofs that can be used to validate the analysis: the absence proof, the commutation proof and the solidarity proof. These proofs, as well as the general interactive context (discoursive genre) and the concrete interactive context can be paramount to strengthen the criteria previously presented and to facilitate the recognition of mitigation.