Uncertainty in polar questions and certainty in answers?
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Judit Kleiber
Abstract
The paper demonstrates that, in opposition to accepted wisdom, questions often exhibit various degrees of certainty, while answers express different types of uncertainty. The analysis of polar questions and answers draws heavily on the representation of mental states and applies a formal interpretation system (ℛeALIS) capable of handling cognitive notions. Although the paper investigates Hungarian data, the method it applies can be adopted in the examination of similar usages in other languages. The aim of the paper is twofold: on the one hand, it aims at drawing attention to the importance of taking mental states into account in the semantic-pragmatic analysis of polar questioning; on the other hand, it introduces a formal interpretation system suitable for handling pragmatic phenomena.
Abstract
The paper demonstrates that, in opposition to accepted wisdom, questions often exhibit various degrees of certainty, while answers express different types of uncertainty. The analysis of polar questions and answers draws heavily on the representation of mental states and applies a formal interpretation system (ℛeALIS) capable of handling cognitive notions. Although the paper investigates Hungarian data, the method it applies can be adopted in the examination of similar usages in other languages. The aim of the paper is twofold: on the one hand, it aims at drawing attention to the importance of taking mental states into account in the semantic-pragmatic analysis of polar questioning; on the other hand, it introduces a formal interpretation system suitable for handling pragmatic phenomena.
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents vii
- Preface ix
- Introduction 1
-
Certainty
- Certainty 29
- Modes of modality in an Un-Cartesian framework 47
-
(Un)Certainty as attitudinality
- Counter-argumentation and modality 65
- Explanation as a certainty marker in persuasive dialogue 83
- How to deal with attitude strength in debating situations. A survey on forewarning, argument strength, repetition, and source credibility as mediators of uncertainty 97
- The role of subjective certainty in the epistemology of testimony 121
- Uncertainty in polar questions and certainty in answers? 135
- Lying as a scalar phenomenon 153
- Persuasion pragmatic strategies in L1/L2 Italian argument-ative speech 175
-
Dialogical exchange and speech acts
- What do I know as yet? 185
- On polar questions, negation, and the syntactic encoding of epistemicity 199
- Epistemic uncertainty and the syntax of speech acts 217
- Discursive functions of evidentials and epistemic modals 239
-
Onomasiology
- Vagueness, unspecificity, and approximation. Cognitive and lexical aspects in English, Swedish, and Italian 265
- Latin commitment-markers 285
- Italian come se “as if” 297
-
Applications in exegesis and religious discourse
- The communication of certainty/uncertainty within a Gospel passage (John 9:1-41) 327
- Rhetorics of (un)certainty in religious discourse 343
- Subject index 363
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents vii
- Preface ix
- Introduction 1
-
Certainty
- Certainty 29
- Modes of modality in an Un-Cartesian framework 47
-
(Un)Certainty as attitudinality
- Counter-argumentation and modality 65
- Explanation as a certainty marker in persuasive dialogue 83
- How to deal with attitude strength in debating situations. A survey on forewarning, argument strength, repetition, and source credibility as mediators of uncertainty 97
- The role of subjective certainty in the epistemology of testimony 121
- Uncertainty in polar questions and certainty in answers? 135
- Lying as a scalar phenomenon 153
- Persuasion pragmatic strategies in L1/L2 Italian argument-ative speech 175
-
Dialogical exchange and speech acts
- What do I know as yet? 185
- On polar questions, negation, and the syntactic encoding of epistemicity 199
- Epistemic uncertainty and the syntax of speech acts 217
- Discursive functions of evidentials and epistemic modals 239
-
Onomasiology
- Vagueness, unspecificity, and approximation. Cognitive and lexical aspects in English, Swedish, and Italian 265
- Latin commitment-markers 285
- Italian come se “as if” 297
-
Applications in exegesis and religious discourse
- The communication of certainty/uncertainty within a Gospel passage (John 9:1-41) 327
- Rhetorics of (un)certainty in religious discourse 343
- Subject index 363
