Evidentials, genre and epistemic vigilance
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Christoph Unger
Abstract
In many languages with a grammaticalised evidential system, there are conventional associations between certain genres and evidentials so that evidentials may be used as genre indicators. Aikhenvald (2004) shows that that cross-linguistically there is a particularly strong connection between reported evidentials (as opposed to indicators of other evidentiality types) and the traditional narrative genre (as opposed to other genres). I argue that this connection between reported evidentials and the traditional narrative genre can be explained on the basis that true reported evidentials on the one hand, and traditional narratives on the other, activate procedures dedicated to epistemic vigilance and argumentation in ways that other evidentials and other genres do not.
Abstract
In many languages with a grammaticalised evidential system, there are conventional associations between certain genres and evidentials so that evidentials may be used as genre indicators. Aikhenvald (2004) shows that that cross-linguistically there is a particularly strong connection between reported evidentials (as opposed to indicators of other evidentiality types) and the traditional narrative genre (as opposed to other genres). I argue that this connection between reported evidentials and the traditional narrative genre can be explained on the basis that true reported evidentials on the one hand, and traditional narratives on the other, activate procedures dedicated to epistemic vigilance and argumentation in ways that other evidentials and other genres do not.
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
-
Introduction
- Three decades of relevance theory 1
-
Part I: Issues on procedural meaning and procedural analyses
- The speaker’s derivational intention 33
- Cracking the chestnut 59
- Reference assignment in pronominal argument languages 81
- Conceptual and procedural information for verb tense disambiguation 103
-
Part II: Discourse issues
- Relevance theory and contextual sources-centred analysis of irony 147
- Distinguishing rhetorical from ironical questions 173
-
Part III: Interpretive processes
- Relevance theory, epistemic vigilance and pragmatic competence 193
- Evidentials, genre and epistemic vigilance 239
-
Part IV: Rhetorical and perlocutionary effects of communication
- Rhetoric and cognition 261
- Perlocutionary effects and relevance theory 287
-
Conclusion
- Some directions for future research in relevance-theoretic pragmatics 307
- Contributors 321
- Index 325
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
-
Introduction
- Three decades of relevance theory 1
-
Part I: Issues on procedural meaning and procedural analyses
- The speaker’s derivational intention 33
- Cracking the chestnut 59
- Reference assignment in pronominal argument languages 81
- Conceptual and procedural information for verb tense disambiguation 103
-
Part II: Discourse issues
- Relevance theory and contextual sources-centred analysis of irony 147
- Distinguishing rhetorical from ironical questions 173
-
Part III: Interpretive processes
- Relevance theory, epistemic vigilance and pragmatic competence 193
- Evidentials, genre and epistemic vigilance 239
-
Part IV: Rhetorical and perlocutionary effects of communication
- Rhetoric and cognition 261
- Perlocutionary effects and relevance theory 287
-
Conclusion
- Some directions for future research in relevance-theoretic pragmatics 307
- Contributors 321
- Index 325
