Abstract :
The issue of what happens when grammatical, lexical, and morphological errors are embedded in indirect reports is very interesting and surely puts the theory of indirect reports to the test and, in particular, Alessandro Capone’s paraphrase/style principle (which predicts, among other things, that if errors are present, they should be attributed to the original speaker of the indirect report). However, here the issue of footing interferes (the speaker should be considered a laminated category, normally consisting of an animator, an author and a principal (in the sense of Goffman 1981)) with Capone’s Principle, given that the speaker of the indirect report (the reporter) can be seen as author of the text and, thus, it is possible that errors will be attributed to him as well. The context usually plays a role in deciding how to resolve such interpretative problems. In some contexts, in fact, , even if the reporter may be tempted to correct errors, he will do so at the expense of theory of mind and will project interpretations that are not projected by the original speaker (in case he did not consider what may prima facie count as an error, an error).
