Explanation
Sermocinatio is invented, reconstructed, or imitated speech attributed to another person, figure, or social voice. The representing instance allows someone to appear to speak directly although wording, selection, and framing remain its own construction. An absent perspective may thereby become vivid, a character gain definition, or a counter-position receive dramatic testing. The figure also creates a problem of representation: another voice may be stereotyped, appropriated, or unfairly shaped. The conceptual movement separates represented figure, representing instance, and actual source status, then tests linguistic plausibility, function, and the power involved in attribution.
Movement of thought
1. The represented voice is clearly separated from the instance assigning words to it. 2. Style, knowledge, and stance are tested for plausibility in relation to the fictional speaker. 3. Framing and selection reveal the audience response intended towards that voice. 4. Sources or comparable statements clarify whether the speech is reconstructed, imitated, or invented. 5. Ethical review asks which person or group is being represented through attributed speech.
Scientific use case
Rhetoric, narratology, drama studies, historiography, and discourse analysis study sermocinatio through voice construction, source status, and representational ethics, with special care for fictionalised marginalised voices.
Example
In a speech, an author lets a future resident say, “You planned for our safety but never asked whether we could feel at home here.” The voice is invented and argumentatively framed.
Counterexample
A clearly marked verbatim quotation with a verifiable source is not sermocinatio in the narrow sense. The figure requires a shaped or fictional voice rather than straightforward documentary reproduction.
Distinction
Distinguish sermocinatio from direct quotation, prosopopoeia, and imitation generally. Sermocinatio foregrounds attributed invented speech; prosopopoeia can more broadly personify the absent, dead, or abstract.
Effect on thought and perception
Sermocinatio makes argument scenic and can render absent perspectives emotionally present. It may also simulate authenticity and place other voices under the control of the representing instance.
Resonance
A voice enters the space although its person is not speaking. The imagined figure overlaps with the instance that gives it sound, words, and direction.
Cite this entry
Reich, Michael (Hrsg./ed.): „Sermocinatio“. Atlas der Sprache, AT-HAR4-0010. ATLAS 260, data model 1.6.0. https://atlasoflanguage.com/concept/AT-HAR4-0010The address remains stable; editorial content may evolve. Editorial reading state: 2026-10-15. Include your access date for precise references.
Historical background
Peacham’s 1593 discussion distinguishes sermocinatio from prosopopoeia by the interaction between an invented speaker and the orator: the orator answers or responds within the staged exchange. This boundary is more specific than the present profile’s broad category of attributed invented speech. The difference should be reported as a historical classification, not imposed on all later usage. Peacham also devotes considerable attention to making speech fit the represented person. His examples rely on social and occupational stereotypes, which show how rhetorical plausibility can reproduce a period’s hierarchy rather than recover an individual voice. For the Atlas, that is an important counterweight to the apparent vividness of dialogue. A convincing imagined utterance remains authored by someone else. The historical account can therefore support questions about perspective, attribution and responsibility: what makes the voice recognisable, and which assumptions have supplied its supposed character? The source documents early English reception of the Latin label but not its first borrowing or every subsequent narratological use.
How conceptual history changes the analysis
Examine each voice’s role and who determines its responses. A staged dialogue may clarify objections without proving that a real opponent would answer that way. The distance between represented speech and the actual opposing position provides the counter-test.
References for the historical section
- Henry Peacham, The Garden of Eloquence (1593), Perseus transcription · Schemates Rhetorical: Sermocinatio, including use and caution where present
The relevant transcription was read; it has not been collated against a 1593 page image. This dates a documented witness, not the first coinage. Historical moral, social and religious judgements are attributed to Peacham, not adopted as current knowledge.