Epistemic evaluation in factual contexts in English
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Agnès Celle
Abstract
This article accounts for the use of should and would in factual contexts where there is no doubt as to the actualisation of the modalised proposition. The focus is on two types of construction - why-questions in which should or would is used, and content clauses introduced by predicative lexemes expressing surprise or evaluation as in It’s surprising that he should have been so late. It is argued that modals used in these positions combine layers of modality. In why-questions, epistemic modality is part of an evaluative judgement that requests either the cause of a surprising state of affairs (with would) or the justification of an event or a speech act (with should). In content clauses, epistemic evaluation comes under the scope of an evaluative superordinate expression. Whether the content clause is evaluated as concordant with the speaker’s expectations or not, the use of should and would signals that the speaker does not commit himself / herself to the truth of that proposition. This may be for pragmatic reasons in cases where hearer-new information prompts the speaker to anticipate the hearer’s surprise.
Abstract
This article accounts for the use of should and would in factual contexts where there is no doubt as to the actualisation of the modalised proposition. The focus is on two types of construction - why-questions in which should or would is used, and content clauses introduced by predicative lexemes expressing surprise or evaluation as in It’s surprising that he should have been so late. It is argued that modals used in these positions combine layers of modality. In why-questions, epistemic modality is part of an evaluative judgement that requests either the cause of a surprising state of affairs (with would) or the justification of an event or a speech act (with should). In content clauses, epistemic evaluation comes under the scope of an evaluative superordinate expression. Whether the content clause is evaluated as concordant with the speaker’s expectations or not, the use of should and would signals that the speaker does not commit himself / herself to the truth of that proposition. This may be for pragmatic reasons in cases where hearer-new information prompts the speaker to anticipate the hearer’s surprise.
Chapters in this book
- Frontmatter i
- Contents v
- Editorial Preface vii
- List of Contributors ix
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Part I: Germanic languages
- Epistemic modality, Danish modal verbs and the tripartition of utterances 3
- Epistemic evaluation in factual contexts in English 22
- SHOULD in Conditional Clauses: When Epistemicity Meets Appreciative Modality 52
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Part II: Romance languages
- Epistemic modality and evidentiality in Romance: the Reportive Conditional 69
- Epistemic modality and perfect morphology in Spanish and French 103
- Anchoring evidential, epistemic and beyond in discourse: alào, vantér and vér in Noirmoutier island (Poitevin-Saintongeais) 131
- A prosody account of (inter)subjective modal adverbs in Spanish 153
- French expressions of personal opinion: je crois / pense / trouve / estime / considère que p 179
- Mirative extensions in Romance: evidential or epistemic? 196
- The Italian epistemic future and Russian epistemic markers as linguistic manifestations of conjectural conclusion: a comparative analysis 217
- Epistemic modality, evidentiality, quotativity and echoic use 242
- Evidentiality, epistemic modality and negation in Lithuanian: revisited 259
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Part IV: Non Indo-European languages
- Two kinds of epistemic modality in Hungarian 281
- Epistemic modalities in spoken Tibetan 296
- Intersubjectification revisited: a cross-categorical perspective 319
- Inference crisscross: Disentangling evidence, stance and (inter)subjectivity in Yucatec Maya 346
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Part V: Theoretical perspectives
- Epistemic modality and evidentiality from an enunciative perspective 383
- About Contributors 403
- Author Index 409
- Subject Index 414
- Language Index 421
Chapters in this book
- Frontmatter i
- Contents v
- Editorial Preface vii
- List of Contributors ix
-
Part I: Germanic languages
- Epistemic modality, Danish modal verbs and the tripartition of utterances 3
- Epistemic evaluation in factual contexts in English 22
- SHOULD in Conditional Clauses: When Epistemicity Meets Appreciative Modality 52
-
Part II: Romance languages
- Epistemic modality and evidentiality in Romance: the Reportive Conditional 69
- Epistemic modality and perfect morphology in Spanish and French 103
- Anchoring evidential, epistemic and beyond in discourse: alào, vantér and vér in Noirmoutier island (Poitevin-Saintongeais) 131
- A prosody account of (inter)subjective modal adverbs in Spanish 153
- French expressions of personal opinion: je crois / pense / trouve / estime / considère que p 179
- Mirative extensions in Romance: evidential or epistemic? 196
- The Italian epistemic future and Russian epistemic markers as linguistic manifestations of conjectural conclusion: a comparative analysis 217
- Epistemic modality, evidentiality, quotativity and echoic use 242
- Evidentiality, epistemic modality and negation in Lithuanian: revisited 259
-
Part IV: Non Indo-European languages
- Two kinds of epistemic modality in Hungarian 281
- Epistemic modalities in spoken Tibetan 296
- Intersubjectification revisited: a cross-categorical perspective 319
- Inference crisscross: Disentangling evidence, stance and (inter)subjectivity in Yucatec Maya 346
-
Part V: Theoretical perspectives
- Epistemic modality and evidentiality from an enunciative perspective 383
- About Contributors 403
- Author Index 409
- Subject Index 414
- Language Index 421
