Evidentiality, modality, focus and other puzzles
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Leila Behrens
Abstract
Metadiscourse is a fundamental property of human communication in a way similar to speech acts. From a cross-linguistic study of metadiscourse, we can learn ‘how humans bridge the divide between self and others’ in communication. This chapter concentrates on those pragmatic aspects of metadiscourse which are associated, in some languages, with markers of evidentiality, epistemic modality, and focus (information structure). With respect to typological comparison, I advocate a domain-centered, onomasiologically-oriented approach. I argue that we have to distinguish between a subjective, speaker-related dimension of metadiscourse and an intersubjective, interactionally-oriented one in order to solve some longstanding puzzles in this domain. Data from Quechua, Tibetan, Hungarian, Albanian, and some other languages is used to support the presented claims. Keywords: Albanian; epistemic modality; evidentiality; focus; Hungarian; information structure; metadiscourse; mirative; Quechua; Tibetan
Abstract
Metadiscourse is a fundamental property of human communication in a way similar to speech acts. From a cross-linguistic study of metadiscourse, we can learn ‘how humans bridge the divide between self and others’ in communication. This chapter concentrates on those pragmatic aspects of metadiscourse which are associated, in some languages, with markers of evidentiality, epistemic modality, and focus (information structure). With respect to typological comparison, I advocate a domain-centered, onomasiologically-oriented approach. I argue that we have to distinguish between a subjective, speaker-related dimension of metadiscourse and an intersubjective, interactionally-oriented one in order to solve some longstanding puzzles in this domain. Data from Quechua, Tibetan, Hungarian, Albanian, and some other languages is used to support the presented claims. Keywords: Albanian; epistemic modality; evidentiality; focus; Hungarian; information structure; metadiscourse; mirative; Quechua; Tibetan
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents vii
- List of contributors ix
- Preface xi
- Practical theories and empirical practice – facets of a complex interaction 1
-
Part I. Empirical practice
- The embodiment of linguistic meaning 35
- Infants’ encoding of social interaction as a conceptual foundation for the acquisition of argument structure 55
- Referring to colour and taste in Kilivila 71
- Yucatec demonstratives in interaction 99
- Many languages, one knowledge base 129
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Part II. Practical theories
- Nen assentives and the phenomenon of dialogic parallelisms 159
- Evidentiality, modality, focus and other puzzles 185
- Does Searle’s challenge affect chances for approximating assertion and quotative modal wollen ? 245
- The pragmatics of argumentation 257
- Implicature of complex sentences in error models 273
- The semantics of functional spaces 307
- Language index 325
- Name index 327
- Subject index 333
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents vii
- List of contributors ix
- Preface xi
- Practical theories and empirical practice – facets of a complex interaction 1
-
Part I. Empirical practice
- The embodiment of linguistic meaning 35
- Infants’ encoding of social interaction as a conceptual foundation for the acquisition of argument structure 55
- Referring to colour and taste in Kilivila 71
- Yucatec demonstratives in interaction 99
- Many languages, one knowledge base 129
-
Part II. Practical theories
- Nen assentives and the phenomenon of dialogic parallelisms 159
- Evidentiality, modality, focus and other puzzles 185
- Does Searle’s challenge affect chances for approximating assertion and quotative modal wollen ? 245
- The pragmatics of argumentation 257
- Implicature of complex sentences in error models 273
- The semantics of functional spaces 307
- Language index 325
- Name index 327
- Subject index 333
