Hypothetical Focalization and Intensional Semantics

In the present article, after reviewing the classical typologies of focalization and considering discoursal markers of focalization identified by traditional narratologists, we will turn our attention to a kind of focalization which entails hypothesizing about what might have been perceived/conceived through a perspective never adopted by the focalizer; thus “hypothetical focalization”. For this kind of focalization to be described (ahead of any explanation), we need to apply some linguistic and philosophical insights gained either after, or out of, the ensemble of conventional narratology. The ideas specifically at issue here will be those first developed within the frameworks of the possible-worlds and intensional semantics. The due conceptual framework will serve to spotlight the intensional aspects (or the sense) of narrative well beyond the structural narratologists’ and logical semanticists’ formal accounts. Therefore, the present study not only will specify the most usual modes of verbal focalization in a number of Persian extracts, but will also examine some lesser known semantic dimensions of narrative discourse, drawing on those virtual aspects of focalization inherently refraining from the logical or formal investigations pertinent to structural narratology.