Funkce první osoby plurálu v textech Věry Linhartové

This paper presents an analysis of the “rhetorical plural” as used in the prose of Věra Linhartová, namely in her Povídka nesouvislá (An incoherent story), included in the prose collection Prostor k rozlišení (Space to Discriminate, 1964), and in two texts from the collection Meziprůzkum nejblíž uplynulého (Interim Research into the Most Recent Past, 1964), entitled Totéž později and Račí kánon na běsovské téma (The same thing later, A crab canon on a fiendish theme, respectively). The first part of the study devotes attention to different types of text subjects and their involvement in the process of (literary) communication. The theoretical definition of various types of the first person plural presented by grammar and style handbooks or other specialised works is also the subject of brief examination. The second part of the paper focuses on the functions carried out by the first person plural in Věra Linhartová’s prose. Our aim is to show that the authorial plural in artistic texts need not serve the function assigned to this grammatical device in specialised texts and that the authorial plural must be distinguished from the inclusive plural, as these types not only perform different functions, but also refer to different referents.