Enunciações

Enunciações, in the field of linguistics and semiotics, refer to the acts of enunciating in discourse—the production of utterances within a specific social and situational context. The term emphasizes not only what is said (the propositional content) but how it is said and from what viewpoint.

Enunciação is often distinguished from enunciado and discurso: enunciação denotes the act and positioning of the speaker, enunciado is the linguistic unit produced, and discurso refers to the broader narrative or communicative context. The enunciation thus encompasses features such as the speaker’s stance, the addressee, and the situational factors that shape meaning.

Key features of enunciações include deixis (time, place, and person reference anchored to the moment of speaking), modality and stance (expressing attitude, certainty, politeness), and subjectivity (the speaker’s voice and positioning toward the addressee). Through enunciação, two utterances with the same content can acquire different meanings depending on who speaks, to whom, when, and where.

Examples illustrate how enunciação works: sentences like “Eu vou agora” versus “Você vai agora” show how pronouns and deixis encode enunciational stance; direct speech versus reported speech reflect different enunciations and levels of involvement for the speaker.

Applications of the concept include the analysis of literary texts, everyday conversation, translation, and the study of how discourse constructs social relations and identity. The concept is widely used in Portuguese-language linguistics, semiotic analysis, and discourse studies to examine how language enacts subjectivity and positioning.

Enunciações is the plural form referring to multiple acts of enunciation.