Discursive functions of evidentials and epistemic modals
-
Etsuko Oishi
Abstract
The present paper analyzes evidentials and epistemic modals in terms of their contribution to the illocutionary act. In indicating how the speaker acquires knowledge about a thing, event, or situation in the world (by evidentials), or what epistemic attitude s/he has towards a thought (by epistemic modals), the speaker performs a particular expositive illocutionary act: the act of describing the world, showing a view, expressing knowledge or belief, and developing an argument. In performing the act, the speaker invites the hearer to share the knowledge about the thing, event, or situation, or the epistemic attitude toward the thought. Austin’s speech act theory is revisited and developed to put forward the idea that expositives bring about effects on the on-going discourse, and that evidentials and epistemic modals play discursive functions by indicating those acts.
Abstract
The present paper analyzes evidentials and epistemic modals in terms of their contribution to the illocutionary act. In indicating how the speaker acquires knowledge about a thing, event, or situation in the world (by evidentials), or what epistemic attitude s/he has towards a thought (by epistemic modals), the speaker performs a particular expositive illocutionary act: the act of describing the world, showing a view, expressing knowledge or belief, and developing an argument. In performing the act, the speaker invites the hearer to share the knowledge about the thing, event, or situation, or the epistemic attitude toward the thought. Austin’s speech act theory is revisited and developed to put forward the idea that expositives bring about effects on the on-going discourse, and that evidentials and epistemic modals play discursive functions by indicating those acts.
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
