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On certainly and zeker

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Abstract

This contribution investigates the meanings and uses of the English and Dutch adverbs certainly and zeker. In the range of adverbial expressions of epistemic modality, the ‘strong’ adverbs (expressing ‘certainty’) clearly tend to be used in a much more ‘flexible’ way than the (relatively) weaker ones, and this contribution is an attempt to get a better view of what this flexibility actually involves, on the basis of a careful analysis of corpus data. The comparative approach allows us to distinguish between features which are whims of a single language, and hence have little meaning beyond the grammar of that language, and features which reflect more profound issues in the analysis of the meanings at stake, and which therefore may reflect fundamental conceptual issues.

Abstract

This contribution investigates the meanings and uses of the English and Dutch adverbs certainly and zeker. In the range of adverbial expressions of epistemic modality, the ‘strong’ adverbs (expressing ‘certainty’) clearly tend to be used in a much more ‘flexible’ way than the (relatively) weaker ones, and this contribution is an attempt to get a better view of what this flexibility actually involves, on the basis of a careful analysis of corpus data. The comparative approach allows us to distinguish between features which are whims of a single language, and hence have little meaning beyond the grammar of that language, and features which reflect more profound issues in the analysis of the meanings at stake, and which therefore may reflect fundamental conceptual issues.

Chapters in this book

  1. Prelim pages i
  2. Table of contents v
  3. Introduction 1
  4. Part I. Corpus-based studies
  5. No doubt and related expressions 9
  6. On certainly and zeker 35
  7. Prenominal possessives in English 59
  8. Ditransitive clauses in English with special reference to Lancashire dialect 83
  9. ‘It was you that told me that, wasn’t it?’ It -clefts revisited in discourse 103
  10. Another take on the notion Subject 141
  11. The modal auxiliaries of English, π-operators in Functional Grammar and “grounding” 159
  12. The king is on huntunge 175
  13. Part II. The architecture of functional models
  14. Mental context and the expression of terms within the English clause 193
  15. Adverbial conjunctions in Functional Discourse Grammar 209
  16. Tree tigers and tree elephants 227
  17. English constructions from a Dutch perspective 257
  18. Notes towards an incremental implementation of the Role and Reference Grammar semantics-to-syntax linking algorithm for English 275
  19. Grammar, flow and procedural knowledge 309
  20. The non-linearity of speech production 337
  21. A speaker/hearer-based grammar 353
  22. Index 389
Structural-Functional Studies in English Grammar
This chapter is in the book Structural-Functional Studies in English Grammar
https://doi.org/10.1075/slcs.83.04byl

Chapters in this book

  1. Prelim pages i
  2. Table of contents v
  3. Introduction 1
  4. Part I. Corpus-based studies
  5. No doubt and related expressions 9
  6. On certainly and zeker 35
  7. Prenominal possessives in English 59
  8. Ditransitive clauses in English with special reference to Lancashire dialect 83
  9. ‘It was you that told me that, wasn’t it?’ It -clefts revisited in discourse 103
  10. Another take on the notion Subject 141
  11. The modal auxiliaries of English, π-operators in Functional Grammar and “grounding” 159
  12. The king is on huntunge 175
  13. Part II. The architecture of functional models
  14. Mental context and the expression of terms within the English clause 193
  15. Adverbial conjunctions in Functional Discourse Grammar 209
  16. Tree tigers and tree elephants 227
  17. English constructions from a Dutch perspective 257
  18. Notes towards an incremental implementation of the Role and Reference Grammar semantics-to-syntax linking algorithm for English 275
  19. Grammar, flow and procedural knowledge 309
  20. The non-linearity of speech production 337
  21. A speaker/hearer-based grammar 353
  22. Index 389
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