Pluralis Auctoris

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When plural Auctoris (also author plural , author plural ) refers to the use of a plural form in scientific texts and lectures or in legal language.

The speaker or writer, although he actually means himself, communicates consent with the listener or reader (e.g. "We do not want to go into this point ...") or reverses the objectivity and generality of a scientific work by renouncing that subjective and special “I” emerge. The author takes the addressee into consideration. Incidentally, scientific work is seldom an individual achievement, but builds on the work of others. This also finds its equivalent in the pluralis Auctoris.

In this sense, Bonaventure d'Argonne has handed down Blaise Pascal's argument : “Monsieur Pascal said of those authors who say, when they speak of their works: 'My book, my commentary, my story, etc.', you can tell that that they are citizens who have their own house and always say 'at my home' on their lips. You would do better, added this excellent man, if you said, 'Our house, our commentary, our story, etc.' because it usually contains more of the good of others than of your own. "

The pluralis auctoris is partly equated with the so-called pluralis modestiae (modesty plural ), in which modesty is to be expressed by avoiding the "I". Author plural and modesty plural thus stand in opposition to pluralis majestatis .

See also

Web links

Wiktionary: Pluralis Auctoris  - explanations of meanings, word origins, synonyms, translations

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Sigrid Nieberle, Elisabeth Strowick (ed.): Narration and gender. Texts, media, epistemes (= literature, culture, gender. Large series, vol. 42). Böhlau, Cologne et al. 2006, ISBN 3-412-35605-0 , p. 133 .
  2. ^ Sabine Fiedler : Technical communication in planned language and ethnic language. In: teaching and learning foreign languages. Vol. 24, 1995 = main focus: contrastivity and contrastive learning. ISSN  0932-6936 , pp. 182-197 , here: p. 192.
  3. ↑ Blaise Pascal: Thoughts . Translated by Ulrich Kunzmann. Comment by Eduard Zwierlein. Suhrkamp, ​​Berlin 2012, ISBN 978-3-518-27020-2 , p. 56, Nº 118.
  4. ^ Pluralis modestiae. In: Otto F. Best : Handbook of literary technical terms. Definitions and examples. 6th edition. Fischer Taschenbuch, Frankfurt am Main 1994, ISBN 3-596-11958-8 , p. 408.